Part 2: Interviews, Etiquette, and Ethics
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
- Recall ethical behavior in the workplace. (LO3)
- Analyze how to achieve professional growth in industry. (LO4)
- Reflect on feedback provided by supervisor. (LO5)
Informational Interviews
Informational interviews have one main purpose: to provide you information. It is a valuable opportunity to meet with someone in a relevant field and ask questions you may not be able to ask otherwise. Informational interviews can provide information about their experiences entering the field and provide insight on thriving in that field. Informational interviews should be taken seriously, so prepare to the best of your ability, with questions ready to ask. Informational interviews can prepare you for opportunities in the future when searching for a position. Please view the following three TED talks that discuss strategies that can help you interview better for a position.
Question Preparation
Initially, it may seem overwhelming to prepare for an interview where you do not know the questions. But the reality is that many, if not all questions, asked in an interview are very similar regardless of industry. These questions are the ones you can prepare for and the ones where you can really market yourself as a valuable employee that the organization should hire.
In any interview, especially for very specialized positions, there may be industry-specific questions that you would need to answer. One trick for preparing yourself is to break down the job description, listed in the job advertisement.
- Write or type all of the components out.
- Then, start connecting each piece with your prior experiences; draw connections as often as possible.
- Once you have parsed out the job description, you can start hypothesizing what questions they might ask and how you would answer.
For the basic, most common questions you would be asked, please review the dialog cards below and prepare answers that would be succinct and meaningful in an interview. There are suggestions for each of the questions on how to respond. To use the dialog cards provided, read the question, then select the “turn” button. Read the information relevant to that question. Then, select the right-pointing arrow, below the dialog cards to move on to the next card. There are seven questions and corresponding information.
First Impressions
When an employer first sees your resume, cover letter, and references they have begun to form an impression of you. When they meet you in an interview, whether in person or virtually, you have the opportunity to provide the best first impression possible. In this section, first impressions will be discussed, including strategies for great initial connection with an employer. Select each of the hot spots below to learn more. Then decide whether you want to be this person or that person.
Types of Interviews:
Generally, there are three types of interviews that you could encounter in your job search process: face-to-face, phone, and virtual (examples: Zoom, Teams, Skype). Each of these types of interviews require different preparation and potentially different skills in order to be successful. If you have questions about how or where the interview will take place, ask the person who has contacted you regarding an interview. Some questions that may be relevant to ask are:
- Are there specific instructions for finding your office or building?
- Are there parking fees or a recommended place to park?
- How many people will be present in the interview?
- If I have other questions, prior to the interview, who is the best person to contact?
Read more about the qualities of the different types of interviews below, familiarizing yourself with the quirks of each.
Ethics
Ethics is defined by the moral principles that regulate someone’s behavior or how an activity is completed, like an interview. Most, if not all, business-related decisions require some form of ethical judgment. Every person that is interviewed should be treated fairly by the interviewer (or interviewers) and the position correctly advertised. Review the following information, provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which shares a the full details of the laws that protect you against employment discrimination.
Illegal Interview Questions
It is important to understand that even though you are interviewing for a position, there are questions that employers are not allowed to ask. The Fair Inquiry Guidelines were established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These guidelines were meant to protect those that are interviewing from discriminatory practices. Please read more about legal and illegal interview questions in this article by the Bridgespan Group.
Additional Learning Materials:
Read:
- How Ethical Leadership Shapes Employees’ Readiness to Change: The Mediating Role of an Organizational Culture of Effectiveness (LO3)
- Can Ethical Leadership Improve Employee’s Well-Being at Work? Another Side of Ethical Leadership Based on Organizational Citizenship Anxiety (LO3)
- Impact of Academic Integrity on Workplace Ethical Behaviour (LO3)
- The Experience of Personal Growth in Different Career Stages (LO4)
- Positive and Negative Supervisor Development Feedback, Team Harmonious Innovation Passion and Team Creativity (LO5)
Watch:
- Three Qualities Needed to Continually Advance Your Career (9:24) (LO4)
- The Secret to Giving Great Feedback (5:02) (LO5)
- Run, hide, or say thank you: When Faced with Feedback, what do you do? (LO5) (11:00)
Listen:
- Creating Ethical Workplaces (20:47) (LO3)
References for Remixed Materials:
BC Cook Articulation Committee (n.d.) Working in the food service industry. Pressbooks. https://opentextbc.ca/workinginfoodserviceindustry/chapter/setting-goals/
Bearman, A. (2022). Graduate Internship. Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.palni.org/graduateinternship/
Cuddy, A. (2012, October 1). Your body language may shape who you are [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc
Gunderson, J. (2017, February 8). Looking for a job? 6 questions to ask your recruiter. https://opensource.com/article/17/1/six-questions-recruiter-job-seeker
King, S. (n.d.). Legal and illegal interview questions. https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/library/hiring/nonprofit-hiring-toolkit/conducting-successful-interviews/legal-and-illegal-interview-questions
Levitin, D. (2015, November 23). How to stay calm when you know you’ll be stressed [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc
Treasure, J (2014, June 27). How to speak so that people want to listen [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIho2S0ZahI&t=17s
US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2022). Employees and job applicants. https://www.eeoc.gov/employees-job-applicants
Work It Daily (2018, April 17). What to do when you’re asked an illegal interview question [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOCnF-49hqQ
