How to Nail Your Interview: Insider Tips & Best Practices from Flux

“Hello, you’re cordially invited to an interview with us” is exactly what you want to hear after you’ve applied for a job you root for. Now it’s time to get ready. Don’t panic. Just think clearly and prepare for the interview with the HR of your next potential employer.

It’s no secret that interviews can be pretty nerve-racking. No matter how many times you’ve gone through it, the thought of being interviewed can still make you feel on edge. Each company has its own practices and method of interviewing. In order to give you the best chance for success, Flux’s HR team has put together a comprehensive guide on what to expect. Flux believes interviews should be productive and fun. Read the guide below to help you prep:

Interview at Flux: what an interview agenda looks like

When you receive an invitation for an interview with Flux HR, you will start a three-stage hiring process.

The first stage is one of the most important — here you meet the HR and most likely someone from the team you will potentially be joining. This is when the personality traits, soft skills, and basic technical skills of the candidate are identified. During this phase the HR tries to understand where and how your professional path might cross with Flux’s. This phase will likely include some CV clarifications and experience cross-checking, but it never extends actual skills-knowledge testing.

Basically, during first-round interviews, the task is to determine whether or not you are a good fit for the company.

Telltale signs:

🔶When a candidate is prepared in advance then they usually have questions for us as well.

🔶When the candidate’s eyes shine then they’re really motivated to join our team in particular, not just any team.

🔶When the candidate is confident, they don’t hesitate to claim it even if they don’t know some answers.

Tips:

🔷Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” — You may still try to arrive at an answer based on logic or similar previous experience, but make sure to clearly mention it.

🔷Remember the questions you didn’t know the answer to. Read/learn about them in case you are invited to proceed to the next stage.

After you’ve successfully made it through the first stage you get a green light to go on to the second — the technical/task stage. This is standard practice for any vacancy. In this phase, a candidate’s professional and technical skills are being tested. Hence, Flux has developed an optimal way of killing two birds with one stone: the potential employee is invited to the Flux office (of course during Covid19 quarantine this was done online). The candidate is given a task and has an opportunity to get a feel for the Flux atmosphere. This is the very first step of integration with the Flux family. The results of the process are multifaceted — the candidate has the opportunity to show their practical and professional skills, as well as show their work ethic and communication skills in the office, as a member of the team.

Telltale signs:

🔶When the candidate takes even small actions to communicate with some of the team members, then we know the probability of fitting in with the team/ office culture is high.

🔶When the candidate asks some questions for clarification, then we see that they are more open in communicating their thoughts and solving problems.

Tips:

🔷Try to be as independent as possible, but make sure you’ve understood the task requirements right.

🔷Focus on the parts that you are good at, to have as much output to show as possible.

🔷For the parts that you won’t be able to finish — be ready to provide a logical answer on how you would do it.

Once you’ve overcome this stage as well, you will be invited to a third and final interview — a team interview. Flux labeled this stage as the lightest, most entertaining, but no less important part. The emphasis here is that hiring decisions are never made one-sidedly. The team is involved in this process, and we value their feedback because they will be the ones working with the person eventually. So the team needs to have an equal opportunity to express their opinion of the candidate.

Before coming to the team interview think about your strengths and weaknesses as a person in general, what is it that you like and don’t about your profession, about your hobbies, since these are the things you are most probably going to talk about there.

These interviews are meant to test the compatibility of the candidate with the team and vice versa — the candidate is given a chance to see whether this is the company, the environment they wish to work at. And what do some Flux candidates say?

Candidate testimonials:

“Most importantly there was a trust and sincere environment, which is of utmost importance.”

“I loved the company and my interaction with the HR department even though I was not destined to work with Flux.”

“At the end of our interview, I couldn’t keep myself from telling that it was one of the best interviews I ever had. The best part was the comfort and friendly atmosphere that was there during the interview. It was a two-sided interesting conversation, not a bunch of cliche questions. I also liked the question about my greatest achievement in my current work. Sometimes you forget to think about that, and that made me dig deeper and understand!”

“The whole hiring process was well managed, still, I personally liked the final stage interview with a larger group of Flux representatives.”

These three successful stages lead to a logical culmination: a possible job offer. Ta-daam, congratulations, indeed!

It’s three (maybe not very easy) stages, but timewise the process starting from the first interview to receiving the job offer takes approximately 10 days. Flux tends to reply to the candidate within the same day and invite them to the next stages within the next three working days.

All right, now that we’ve spoken about the hiring procedure at Flux Technologies, here’s an even broader overlook on what you can expect.

What a candidate should prepare for and expect from an interview!

Wondering how to nail your interview? The key is to be fully prepared — to do your homework: both technical and non-technical. But don’t worry, you’re not alone in this. Go down this final checklist of tips:

• Answer truthfully.

Be honest in your answers. Everyone’s trying to impress. Your best bet is to be as honest and genuine as you can possibly be. Don’t oversell yourself. Remember that if you’re going to be hired, you’ll have to prove everything you said in your interview.

• Be yourself and stand out.

Nothing beats being your true self. It may sound like a piece of lame advice, but being yourself helps you shine uniquely and memorably. In the span of your career, you’ll be given plenty of opportunities to express yourself. Put your best foot forward and show why you’re a great person to work with.

• Look through the basics.

For the technical part of the interview, we try to go deep into your basic technical knowledge but also your analytical and problem-solving skills. So it’s better to go through some tasks/issues you have done recently and revise your theoretical knowledge as well.

• Do some homework.

Take some time to study the position you are applying for, try to understand how close you are and what you could do to meet the requirements mentioned. In case you do not have the necessary experience, don’t be shy: show your willingness to work for a while even for a lower salary or on a part-time basis, just to ensure your spot.

A quick journey through all the hiring stages:

• Your journey at Flux starts from your CV, so make sure it’s up to date, neat, and clear. Well, the esthetic part of it is not of less importance either.
• When you’ve got your invitation to the first interview, prepare a bit: think of the main points: your greatest achievement, your greatest failure, and what you’re looking for with the new position/company.
• Wow, you made it through to the task stage, that means a lot. Now it’s time to get more practical and show us how you use your knowledge in a real situation. You have a whole 8 hours at your disposal, so we hope you nail it.
• Yeezy, you’re only one stage away from an offer. What you need to do at the team interview is simple: be yourself and try to highlight some of your “superpowers” in front of the team. But be careful get be carried away, the team has superpowers as well.

Wrapping up: Understanding HR, the purpose of interviews, doing your best

While we’ve all been on the other side of the table, many of us fundamentally misunderstand the purpose of the interview. A common misunderstanding is that the recruiter or hiring manager is trying to identify the faults you have. This mindset really colors the interview in a negative way that can prevent you from getting hired. An interviewer’s goal is to get the right person for the job; this makes him or her your partner in the hiring process, not your adversary. Candidates often overlook the fact that the process is designed to test compatibility as much as competency.

Keep in mind that rejection is a part of the process. It is not the end. So, work on yourself, improve your skills and knowledge and apply again.

All said, there is an element that stands higher than any of the above-mentioned: go for the job you love. You will spend 9 hours or more a day doing and thinking about it! When you love something it is felt, it shows, and doors open. When you love what you do you work through hardships and become better and stronger in them. When you love what you do it’s inspiring and viral — people around you “catch” the love bug, and then you end up working in a loving team.

In closing, Flux wishes you luck in your future endeavours and we hope to see you at one of our interviews soon.