Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110644 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 255 pages

Synopsis
People going for interviews for jobs today often fail because they are using yesterday's strategies. They haven't realised that the best employers have changed the way interviews are done and it now takes a different strategy to succeed. "Competency-Based Interviews" shows today's candidates a new, more targeted way to prepare for the tough interviews based on the competencies that the most sophisticated employers are looking for. Most sophisticated international employers are using competency-based systems to recruit, interview and select employees. Corporations such as American Express, BP, Coca-Cola, Energizer, Federal Express, IBM, and Pfizer are all looking for specific competencies. Preparing for a competency-based interview will give you the strategy you need to: be selected for the most competitive positions; win the best job at a new organisation; get a great first job; be chosen for that critical promotion in your current organisation; take control of your career path; increase your salary; and get more interesting assignments and more interesting work.

Customer Reviews

Very repetitive and just states the obvious
I have recently graduated from university and was hoping this book would help with forthcoming job interviews. However, I was very disappointed as the author simply seemed to state the obvious and said things that were just common sense e.g. dressing appropriately for interviews, preparing for interviews by finding out about the company beforehand. What made it worse it that she repeated the same points over and over. The whole book could have been written in about 20 pages.

The book is also rather US-orientated, although Kessler does point out etiquette and styles vary in other countries (without mentioning what they were). The examples/case studies the author uses were nearly all in regards to people who had already been working for at least five years or so, thus being irrelevent to my needs.

On the plus side, I have to admit the book is very clearly laid out, with key points summarised throughout the book. It is also written in pretty informal language, so is easy to follow. I read the whole book in less than 3 hours.

If you have never worked before, are doing GCSEs or A-Levels or are returning to work after more than 5 years of unemployment, then it may well be worth reading this book to brush up on the way interviews are done these days. Otherwise, I wouldn't really bother.

Useful but...
Hi,

The company I work for has moved towards competency-based recruitment, and I found that this book gave me a good foundation in the new style of recuritment.

It's not perfect, being very american focused, but if you are working or are applying for a job with a company that recruites using the above system it will help to clarify what recruiters are looking for.

Probably more suited to those applying to large multi-nationals
Hi

As a previous poster mentioned, the author of this book states the obvious such as dressing smartly etc a number of times. The number of actual question / answer examples is limited and most of them are based on scenarios involving interviewing for staff high up in a company who will surely know not to go to an interview in jeans and a t-shirt anyway !!!

If your a graduate or someone working their way up in a large multi-national then this book might be for you. However if your applying for clerical roles in local companies like me i wouldn't recommend it.