How to Counter Question a Panel of Interviewers

Kingston Human Capital

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Gerard Kerr, GM of Executive Search & Selection shares tips on how to take control of the interview process and impress your panel of interviewers.

Transcript

 

Today I want to share some insight that I've gained from sitting on hundreds of panels across a broad range of organisations and industries. And one of these is that, panel members and the people interviewing you need to be able to build rapport with you during interview processes. It's actually one of the things that give us an edge. But how do we build rapport during interviews?

 

We tend to follow a very stock standard process and that process is led by those people interviewing us. There's a little tip here I'd love to share that actually gives you a bit of an edge. Gives you an opportunity to try to change the equation.

 

Now as humans we build rapport through conversation. Once again, that's hard in an interview because we tend to follow that sort of process where we come in, they ask how our day was and they jump into the questions you answer. Question, answer, question, answer. So here's what I'd like to introduce. Something called counter questioning.

 

The client asks you a question, of course, you answer it, and then you come back with a really significant and insightful question about that. So for example, they ask you, Bob, could you please share a time in which you had to engage with a difficult staff member to drive change across an organisation.

 

Of course, you'll respond to that but in the end, you can come back with. Look that was a great question, I really appreciate it. Now in that, you actually mention change within an organisation. What sort of change are you expecting this role to have to lead? What sort of changes do you think that I'm going to have to, if I'm successful, drive across your particular team?

 

You know when you really hit this on the spot because the panel members turn to each other and go, that's really a good question. And they start a conversation with each other and you. And so you change the equation from a question, answer, question, answer to question, answer, conversation.

 

And once again, we build rapport through conversation. So this is just one of the tips that I'd like to share.

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