The cultural fit within an organisation has become a considerable factor when it comes to the hiring process for a role. The future of a company is shaped by the employees hired today. While you can teach skills, you cannot easily mold a person’s culture or personality to fit that of the organisation. A cultural fit within the IT Sector has become an integral part of the interview process and a decision making factor when it comes to the hiring process.
The process of interview has now migrated to where the first two rounds of interviews are normally technical skill assessments and the final round is a culture fit interview with the Managing Director/Senior Director. When we asked a top level executive did anyone without the organisation’s cultural fit get passed the last round of interview, the answer was “no, not any more”.
IT positions are becoming more stakeholders facing with a lot more interaction required with other teams within the organisation. To ensure staff retention it’s important everyone has the same cultural fit for an organisation.
If you think your CV will say it all, your wrong.
WHAT CAN IT PROFESSIONALS DO WHERE THE SOFT SKILLS PART OF THE INTERVIEW IS NOT SOMETHING THEY HAD TO WORRY ABOUT IN THE PAST?
Prepare Prepare Prepare:
One of the first questions everyone gets asked, and much dread is “tell me about yourself”. This question is created so the interviewer can get an overview of your career to present, and an idea of your personality and passion for the profession. The key is to know your CV and be able to give a brief overview aiming for about 3-5 Minutes. Going for an interview is a job in itself so take the time to prepare for it, understand in-depth your skill base, look for examples where you have gone above and beyond your role, take into account your outside interests, such as if you like to code at home, make sure you bring your extra-curricular activities into the interview.
Make sure to do a thorough investigation on the company and the interviewer’s not just glance over the company web site and interview questions the night before. You might know your technical skills off by heart but if you get a competency question on team work you might not be able to give examples as easily. Practice your answers out loud; rehearse them so that there is a good rhythm to them. Remember if you want to secure that role and advance your career the effort you put into it will pay off at interview. You might think this is silly but IT WORKS!
Culture and Fit
“We can teach someone to do a job. We can’t teach someone to love the way we operate,” Lauren Kolbe, founder of KolbeCo,
It is much more of value added function within organisations, and because of this your role in IT is much more integrated into the workings of the wider organisation. Having the ability to understand the commercial impact of your role in the company is very important. The teams you will have interactions with are more varied than ever before so you need to work on your communication around your key attributes.
For most organisations the key attributes they look for in an interview is a team player, passionate and adaptability. Organisations now have sections on their website dedicated to what their culture is. Ensure you review it and have examples to show you are a fit for each of their cultural values
The questions will always be competency based, for example “tell me about a time you had to deal with someone difficult” or “where have you worked well in a team”. In the fast moving pace of IT adaptability is imperative, so again it is about showing where you have been adaptable in the past.
If you are working in the area of development, passion will be important as organisations will want to see that you live and breathe IT inside and outside of work. To cover off these areas the steps are simple, think of the example and ensure you cover what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was.
Make sure you are looking your best:
Make sure you are looking your best: Your first impression counts and you never get a chance to make a second impression. While the dress code in many Tech Organisations now have a casual dress code, not all organisations in the industry follow the same code of dress, many of them remain corporate. Ensure you do your research on the company and if in doubt ask your Recruitment Consultant or Internal Recruitment/ HR contact what is expected.
If it is a casual environment avoid things like statement t-shirts etc. Ensure everything is clean and ironed. It’s best to stick to a nice plain coloured shirt with trousers and shoes. If the dress code is corporate then wearing a full suit is essential. Make sure to read our tips for dressing appropriately for a successful interview.
It is also essential to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of ‘’relaxed culture, relaxed interview’’, you are there to show how good you are at your role and don’t take the casual approach. You are still interviewing for a new role so you need to make a good strong impression irrespective of the tone of the meeting.
The key to a good interview is when you walk away from the interview confident, and feel you communicated yourself to the best of your ability. You showed your perspective buyer that you are the kind of person they would really want have on their team.
A few deep breaths before you go in, and believe and visualise yourself in the position!
In case you need some more information how you can land your upcoming job interview give us a call or send us an e-mail via this link to get in touch!
