Reading the title, one expects to find a book on preparing for job interviews. Can you tell us more about it?
Yes, that’s right. This book is designed to help people succeed in job interviews, whether they’re applying to a private company or a public organisation. To get a job, you need to convince the recruiter that you have the ideal profile for the post. That’s what this book is about.
What do you mean by the ideal profile?
Job applicants are not only required to have knowledge and expertise in a particular field, they must also demonstrate the right behavioural qualities: they need to show that they’re ready to enter fully into the company’s or organisation’s dynamics.
What makes this book – How to succeed in a job interview – different from other books already on the market?
Often, applicants don’t know what to expect when they’re called for a job interview. They don’t know what types of questions they’ll be asked or on what skills they’ll be assessed. This book addresses these issues. It provides a method and advice for dealing with all types of situations. Behavioural skills are at the heart of job interviews. This book is perhaps the only one to establish a typology of behavioural skills applicable to all fields. These skills are expressed not only in the questions applicants are asked – for example: describe how you handled a conflict situation in your team – but also in the way the applicant responds to the recruiter’s questions. The applicant’s attitude, the way he or she speaks and the emotions they reveal are all scrutinised. If I say that I’m a good listener at work, I must also show this when I’m in front of the recruiter. So, the aim of this book is also to relate the behavioural skills associated with experiences at work to the attitude applicants need to adopt in interviews.
Is there such a thing as a ‘standard’ job interview?
In fact, there are different types of interviews: the STAR interview, based on work situations one has actually encountered; case studies; oral presentations, motivational interviews; and role play. What they have in common is that they are all designed to assess behavioural skills. However, the way they approach this differs. Which is why this book provides a detailed methodology for each type of interview, with concrete examples.
ORSEU Competitions specialises in preparing applicants to sit tests for European and Belgian civil service competitions. Is that right?
Yes, that’s correct.
So is this book aimed exclusively at applicants preparing for recruitment tests for European civil service competitions or staff recruitment exams for the Belgian civil service?
No, it’s a generic book. The interview methods used for the Belgian and European civil services are very similar to those used elsewhere, especially in large private companies. I’m thinking in particular of STAR interviews and case studies.
Is this book complementary to those already published by ORSEU Competitions? Yes, job interviews are really situational judgement tests conducted orally. In this sense, it is the ideal complement to the situational judgement test book published by ORSEU Competitions in 2013. Using this new book, readers will be able to perfect their mastery of behavioural skills.
Interview with Emmanuel Hetru - July 2023
How to succeed in a job interview is available both in English and in French.