Congratulations ! You have been selected for the second interview and soon you will be invited for a second chance to showcase yourself. You will convince new people of the company that you deserve this job. You might wonder what kind of second interview questions you can ask? or what second interview tips you can follow?
You have already done a big part, now you need to prepare for the next step. Which means you will have to think about second interview questions and also do a second interview preparation.
When you have been invited for the first round you have :
- Done your homework greatly,
- Checked the name of the company,
- Reviewed the job interview description,
- Gotten yourself a great story to put forward your experience
- Demonstrated that you have great soft skills.
In this post, we would like to move on with second interview tips you can follow.
What else can you do ?
The main difference between the first and the second interview is the focus or the goal:
During the first interview the main goal for the interviewer is to narrow down the list of potential candidates and list the ones who:
- Might fit within the team
- Has started to feel connected to the hiring manager, job interviewer
- Complete the set of soft skills* & hard skills required for the job
*soft skills are all the skills who help you getting the job done such as listening, critical thinking, patience, communication etc.
Hard skills are all the skills acquired through your education or experience like accounting, marketing, programming, using the microsoft pack office etc.
The second interview is a little bit more difficult when it comes to stand out from other candidates because you are in competition with people who have a similar profile and could be « the candidate ».
So when the first interview is all about scratching the surface of your personality and your experience. The second interview for a job will be focusing on validating what you have said and understand who will be the one standing out from the other.
Your mission is now to stand out from the other candidates and we will tell you now how can you do so. If properly done, those techniques will make a difference.
1) Ask who you will be meeting during the second interview
This will help you in 2 ways, 1) it will help you choose the words and the type of information you provide during the job interview. If you meet an individual contributor for example the communication specialist, you will try to use specific words that will talk to him or her. On the contrary if you met the Regional Manager, you will try to talk about strategy, objective, goal etc. The entire interview may take a different look based on whom you are meeting.
The second interview preparation is to consolidate and put together a presentation and thus, regardless of the position you apply to.
The presentation will help the job interviewer to get all the information necessary in 1 place, get him to remember why you are the best candidate for this job and also enable him or her to come back to your information because all is available and ready.
How will you structure your presentation ?
Limit your presentation to 4-5 slides with the following second interview questions:
- Who are you?
Summarize your CV with the main facts, you can display pictures of yourself with family, friends or practicing your hobbies. This will help the job interviewer to get to know you and connect with you.
- Why are you the best candidate?
Take away several elements from the job description and make sure you linked them to your skills or experience and give concrete examples.
- What will you be doing during the first 30, 60, 90 days in the job?
This part helps the job interviewer to understand how you are making sure that you are successful. 30 days describe how you will be connecting with your colleagues, your stakeholders and the company in general.
60 days show which actions you will endorse first and how you will start to make things happen.
90 days should be showing a sense of routine and integration into your day to day work and the company. You can develop this slide by showing an action plan either detailed or semi-detailed.
- How will you be overcoming challenges?
The last part of your presentation should be showing which challenges you foresee, how will you be working to overcome those challenges.
The last technic is:
- Be prepared to answer strategic questions :
Based on the person that will interview you, especially if managers, they will expect you to have a minimum of understanding about their market, the economic challenges, the financial aspects etc.
Based on the position you apply to, think of second interview questions like :
- What do you think the company should be focusing on in the next 5 to 10 years ?
- How would you respond to the current market demand change ?
- What are the current challenges with the present economic situation ?
- How would you make our company greener ?
This is important because the job interviewer needs to feel that you understand their position and the type of challenges they face.
Following those 3 steps will make a difference and show the interviewer you are determined to get this job position.
Let’s summarize, for your second interview, you need to be prepared on those 3 aspects:
- Knowing who the interviewer will be, and adapt to it.
- Preparing a presentation about the what, why, what and how.
- Thinking of your answers, in case strategic questions are being asked to you.
Even if you have been tested already on those, never forget to review for the second interview the traditional steps you would take for your first round like:
- Check out the company past, present and future key information available online.
- Highlight the relevant information from your experience and education that will be useful for the job you apply to.
- Ensure you demonstrate your soft and hard skills, needed for the position.
- Think of your future day to day manager’s challenges
- Prepare a relevant list of questions that will help you for the second interview.
You need to be minded, that the second interview may be slightly more strategic than the first one. Especially, if people in the job interview are in higher positions in the hierarchy but you may also be interviewed by people who simply want to rehear the same information as the first one.
Between the first and the second interview, some weeks may pass by, make sure you are prepared as if you would go again for the first round and add up the additional 3 steps to be prepared for your second interview.
Never forget that a part of your success in the job interview process also lies in your preparation and the other part lies on how much you believe you deserve this job and how strongly you want it.
Another second interview tip for you: if you want to prepare with us, reach out to thecoachforfree.com, we help you go through those steps and we coach you. Our price is fixed: 39 euros for one hour.
