Questions Interviewers Can Ask At Data Processing Job Interviews

Obviously, you have no way of knowing what questions the interviewer will ask, although each interview you experience should provide a basis for building a file of questions. Everyone should come out of an interview - successful or unsuccessful - and analyze what happened during it. Questions should be noted, particularly the tough ones that you had trouble handling, and they should become the basis of a continuing rehearsal for your next interview. It all comes back to the same thing: conducting your job search with the seriousness and organization you'd bring to your job. It isn't necessary to know precisely what will be asked of you during an interview in order to work in those points that you have decided are important to get across.

For example: "What is it about this job that interests you most?" the interviewer asks.

"Well, I was impressed reading about the new marketing areas you're involved with. I have also been reading a great deal about the coming cashless society and the use of electronic mail, and I think being directly involved with the sort of technology that's at the root of it will be very exciting and provide the challenges I'm looking for in my future."



Or the interviewer asks, "What kind of contributions do you think you can make to this company?"

"Obviously, I'd like to feel I was playing a part in the growth and success of the company. I guess I've always enjoyed seeing what computers could accomplish. I remember back in college when a friend of mine, who had a huge record collection, couldn't find certain songs that he was looking for. I set up a program for him and it really worked. I got a lot of pleasure out of that."

Or "Can you motivate people?"

Your answer: "Yes. I've always gotten along well with people with whom I work, and I think that's one of the keys to success. I also think it's important for a data processor to take our technical knowledge and make it easy for others in society to understand. I've done some work with the local community theater, not because I want to be an actor, but because I really feel it's important to be a good communicator, and ..."

George Waterman of our Kansas City franchise recently submitted a candidate to a large company. The field of candidates was extremely competitive; virtually everyone up for the job had an MBA as well as the right kind of experience. The interviewer asked, "Why should I choose you when I have more than ten MBAs with similar qualifications?" The candidate looked the interviewer in the eye and said, "When you hand me an assignment and I hand it back to you, it works. That is why you should hire me. I'll get the job done."

Our Kansas City candidate was hired. Whether he'd run across that question in other interviews and was prepared for it, or had anticipated the possibility of the questions being asked and had rehearsed an answer to it, is conjecture. Either way, he was prepared, and he gave a straightforward answer that the interviewer wanted to hear.

You can see from these examples that being ready ahead of time to handle the tough questions, and utilizing the technique of including points you wish to make while answering an interviewer's questions at the same time, can pay big dividends. You end up controlling the interview rather than being controlled by it.

I don't suggest that anyone go overboard with the technique of working your own statements into the answer to an interviewer's question. You can't ignore a question and say only what you want to say, but you can, by practicing prior to the interview, prepare yourself to answer it smoothly. That's the key to it - practice. Rehearsal. Not taking an interview for granted, but preparing yourself to make optimum use of it.

I referred earlier to the fact that the tenor of an interview will vary, depending upon whether the interviewer is part of the company's DP management, personnel department, or upper management. The variables depend upon the way the company is structured, as well as whether you're an experienced data processor or someone looking for an entry-level job.

For example, one of my studies asked data-processing managers to identify the person responsible in their companies for hiring data-processing personnel. The results:

• Entry-level data processors were hired by DP management 68 percent of the time. The personnel department of these firms was responsible approximately 14 percent of the time.
  
  
• When it came to hiring experienced data processors, DP management accounted for 74 percent while the personnel department made 12 percent of those decisions.
  

Although the study indicated that in most cases the data processing manager does the actual hiring, do not discount the importance of the personnel executives, even though they do the actual hiring in approximately only one out of fourteen instances.

What's important to keep in mind is that each of these sources of interviewers - DP management or personnel management - will be looking for different things from you, which is why you should have knowledge of the person who will be interviewing you so that you can adjust your script accordingly. DP managers will naturally focus more attention on your data processing skills, although never forget that they are also responding to your personality and presentation. If you end up being interviewed by a top manager in the company (which is probably more likely in subsequent interviews, once the data processing department has approved you), the emphasis will be more on your ability to function within the corporation and to relate to its people and goals. This interviewer will take a closer look at you as a well-rounded individual rather than as simply a technically proficient member of the data-processing department. The personnel department of a corporation approaches things from a different point of view. In many companies, the personnel department is depended upon to prescreen applicants for every job, which I sometimes think is the reverse of the way it ought to be. In this case, a department within the company informs the personnel that it needs an employee with certain qualifications to fill an opening. Personnel goes about the business of finding candidates by contacting a specialized data processing recruiter, advertising in the newspaper, and sifting through resumes that have been received in the past. After the initial screening, those who have passed muster from the personnel department's point of view are sent on for interviews with the people for whom they will directly work. Naturally, people in the personnel department usually have little knowledge of the intricacies of such a complex field as data processing and will be the first to tell you that. They will be responding to you in a very general sense, to your overall appearance, demeanor, and background. In each case, it pays you to tailor your script, rehearsal, and performance to fit the needs of the person interviewing you, for the same reason that having different versions of your basic resume makes sense. You can't and shouldn't try to be all things to all people, and the more you can focus your background into a channel that directly reflects the needs of the person judging you, the better your chances of succeeding.