OTM 4: How to ace your next food industry job interview

Leading up to the interview

Amanda:  Hello. Now, looking for these food safety and quality people working in the food industry obviously, but maybe you're not at that level yet, maybe you're just doing general work in the food industry. So this applies to everybody. So in this episode we get into actually getting the previous episode, we did the-

Peter:  It was finding the employer of choice.

Amanda:  And looking for opportunities and stuff like that.

Peter:  Looking for opportunities, finding the job.

Amanda:  Yep. And so this time we're going to look at, okay, so you've found your dream job or the area that you want to work in and the employer that you want to work for, you've applied for the job and you've been granted an interview.

Peter:  Congratulations.

Amanda:  We’re going to now look at how do you actually go and pitch yourself to be the best candidate during that interview process?

Peter:  Absolutely.

Amanda:  Okay, so we've got maybe four areas we're going to break down this little chat about. Our first one is, understanding self. So Pete, can you talk a bit more about that with your coaching background?

Understanding yourself

Peter:  Absolutely.

Amanda:  Give us your wisdom, Pete. Wisdom Pete.

Peter:  It's a bit early in the morning for that, isn't it? Everyone got a drink in hand? Well done.

Amanda:  It's five o'clock somewhere.

Peter:  What we really mean here is, what do you know about yourself and what are your best qualities and best strengths? So we're talking about things like, what are you work ethics? How do you like to work? Are you a morning person? Are you a night person? Do you work hard? Do you consider yourself as a hard worker? Are you a loyal person to an organisation or are you always looking for the next opportunity? Are you good in teams or do you prefer to work alone? Do you consider yourself trustworthy? Amanda, are you a trustworthy person?

Amanda:  Yes. I think maybe I am.

Peter:  Yeah, not caught with your hand in the till?

Amanda:  No, well no, no, no.

Peter:  Knocking off early on Fridays for drinks with the mates?

Amanda:  I have been known to do that but when you work alone, maybe that's quite sad that you do that.

Peter:  That's called drinking alone people. There we go. Are you a fair weather worker? Do you have trouble getting to work on a rainy or cold day? For you it's-

Amanda:  Definitely not, no.

Peter:  You just walk across from the kitchen to the next room.

Amanda:  Kitchen, that's it. So, not for me personally.

Respecting resources

Peter:  These sorts of things get tested. I've been an employer and the CEO of an organisation and people turn up for interviews or even now they're employed and they're turning up late for work on a consistent basis and there always seems to be some credible, plausible story as to why they're late.

Amanda:  Is that the dog ate my phone?

Peter:  The dog ate my phone, the dog ate my car keys. That's right. Yeah. My kids have a flat tyre, something along those lines. The traffic lights all turned blue today, whatever it might be. That's a Jimmy Hendrix references for those who need to know. So what we're talking about is the ethics around that. Will you get yourself to work on time and are you concerned about employer's time and resources? Here's an example of something I really don't, never liked, it's someone-

Amanda:  This is you as the employer, yeah?

Peter:  Yes. People used to say this to me a lot and it was around spending money in an organisation and people say, "It doesn't matter, it's the company's money." Well, I'm the CEO, so the company is me at the end of the day. You’re spending my money. That really annoys me. These are the ethics. How would you describe yourself?

Amanda:  That money might not be a physical asset, it could be time.

Peter:  It's time. It's time.

Amanda:  Yes, and not showing or showing up late 15 minutes

Peter:  It’s other people's time. It's other people's resources. It's taking something like stationery home from work, things like that. No one's going to notice those things. Right? You take a ream of photocopy paper home at the end of the day.

Amanda:  Because the kids have got a project to do.

Peter:  Yes, the kids have got a project to do.

Amanda:  Or you've run out in your own printer at home.

Peter:  That's exactly right. So this is what we mean by ethics. How would you describe yourself when you turn up to an employer? Believe it or not, these are the little niggly things that employers can lose sleep over… Am I getting another one of these people who thinks it's okay to do those things?

Amanda:  And they'll generally test and see how you fair in those type of attributes by asking their questions, that they ask. So obviously if you turn up late to your interview, you're not off to a good start.

Peter:  No, that's exactly right. And that's probably the very first thing that particularly someone like myself notices is, are you on time? Are you a little bit early? I like people being a little bit early. It doesn't mean turn up a day early and camp out the front with a sleeping bag.

Amanda:  All because you got the dates wrong.

Peter:  Yes, because you got the dates wrong. Exactly right.

Amanda:  "I thought it was today was the interview. Oh, it's tomorrow. I've just got three trains and a bus."

Peter:  That's it, sleep in my car in the car park.

Amanda:  That's it.

Peter:  We’re interested in what your ethics are. So, you as a person, again, remember that your behaviours are often choosing the work that you're looking for. We’re choosing you based on not only knowledge and skills but behaviours and personal attributes as well. They're the very first things we will notice.

Amanda:  This is where you're asking then, before they get into that interview, they need to do a self-assessment and just see where they sit with all of that stuff?

Peter:  Absolutely. We're not asking you to pour your heart out and be incredibly transparent. "Oh, I can't get myself motivated because I'm feeling depressed at the moment and that's because my cat left me and I just can't seem to find my purpose in life and all that." That's not what we're looking for here. We're looking for what makes you a reliable employee. That's what we really mean by work ethics.

Amanda:  Okay. Another thing when we start to look at understanding self is motivation, understanding what motivates you.

What motivates you?

Peter:  Yes, why you're here. There's a big question, why are you here on our doorstep? Why have you chosen us? Why have you applied for this role? Why are you sitting in this interview right now? Is the motivation money? Is the motivation status? I'll give you an example, I have worked on boards where people have only taken a role on the board purely for the status of being a director on that board. But you get them there and they actually don't do anything. And so they're-

Amanda:  They want it for their resume basically?

Peter:  Yes. They're padding their resume and it ends up being dead weight that you're carrying. It’s the same thing if you're an employee, if you're just there because, "Look at me, I've got a job at Google", for instance, well that's great, but what are you doing for Google now that you've got in the door? If you're going to trade off the name, what are you giving back to that organisation? What motivates you and if you're already employed and you're going for the next role up, people want to understand what motivates you to take on the next level of responsibility and authority because that's what it is. You're being promoted based on a responsibility of more people and more resources.

Amanda:  That’s if you were going for that, say you're already working in industry and you want to up skill, sorry, not up skill, you want to move up the ladder.

Peter:  Yes. You're heading upwards. It’s definitely about responsibility. And then the next one is about authority as well. What can you make decisions on that's going to impact those further down the chain or around you? It's that whole 360 approach, what are you managing up, down, and sideways?

Amanda:  What’s the final thing? Well, we're only going to touch on about three, about what we should be looking at when we're just getting ourselves prepared for the whole interview process. This is the stuff that we want to do before we actually get into the interview.

Peter:  Yeah. This is about your future goals now. So where do you see you taking your career? Where do you see your career taking you even? So what is it about you that's going to move you through this organisation and help the organisation meet its goals as well?

Amanda:  Yeah. And that might take us back to what we talked about in episode two, was having a good understanding of what it is that you actually want to do or even if you don't know what you want to do, what you think you could be good at based on your attributes, skill, knowledge levels at that point and time in your life. Being able to have a good understanding, because I can guarantee that you will be asked questions in the interview around those three things. You need to do a bit of preparation before you get to the interview so you can answer those questions quite succinctly.

Peter:  The interviewers and the employers only glean so much from your resume and so they don't know you from the next guy that's walking through the door. So you need to be really quite clear about what is it about you that they can plan against as well. Future goals are very much about how do we plan for this person staying and being loyal and-

Amanda:  There’s a lot of money spent in bringing in a new employee on board and then training them, inducting them, and then to have that person leave after two weeks, that can be highly, highly frustrating for an employer.

Investing in the employee

Peter:  It's not uncommon for an employer to spend upwards of $30,000 to invest in an employee coming into an organisation. And when you're getting into the executive roles, just the recruitment costs alone can be $60,000 plus just to recruit the person, let alone onboarding them and all the other associated paraphernalia that goes with that. It’s an expensive exercise, so you need to know you've got the right person coming in.

Amanda:  In that side of it, you're then obviously going to go through this interview process, sometimes it'll be a short interview, sometimes it will be long, maybe it's a stage process where you have to do, I think we touched on it in the last episode around maybe doing some psychometric testing. They may ask for you to do all of that stuff before you apply or you could actually be quite proactive and have that stuff already done and provide those results because then they can get a little bit more insight. You can actually help your resume in that if you included your psychometric results in your resume to say, "This is what I'm good at. This is the testing I've had done. This is how I believe that how I've tested in the positive areas can help your organisation", and I think that's going to make you a more employable person compared to the person who hasn't done that, who you're up against.

Peter:  Definitely. There’s very clear differences in behaviours and personalities for someone that's going for a sales or communications role versus someone who's going for a scientific or accounting role. The last thing you want is rocking up with a more innovative or less detail focused set of profiles and behaviours when you're going for a role that demands extreme attention to detail.

Amanda:  Yes, and compliance.

Peter:  ... and focus and compliance, because it's just not going to work for you.

Amanda:  Or it's not going to work for the employer.

Peter:  That's it.

Amanda:  We’re now in the interview phase, we've sat down, we've done our introductions, we've made sure we've been early and we've got there. So Pete, how should we go through and conduct ourselves from a, let's say a personal behaviour perspective? Can you give me three things that we should really focus on?

Be organised for your food industry interview

Peter:  Absolutely. Be organised, know what you want to talk about, know what they're likely to ask you and have answers prepared for a lot of those. But also be prepared to respond off the cuff as well. They will always try and throw in a question that's not in a standard interview process because they're trying to see how you can think on your feet or respond. Be organised, have your papers with you, if you need to bring references or resume, any qualifications that you might have to show. Have references or referees ready as well. And-

Amanda:  The employer is going to have a lot that information already because they've done that. I think it's always good idea to have it there as well because they may, especially if you've got a panel who are conducting the food industry interview, you may have three or four people and they might start flicking through that stuff whilst the other person's asking the questions.

Peter:  That's it. And be really mindful of when you're organising yourself of how much time you would likely get for an interview. Don't go in there thinking you're going to get a...

Amanda:  An hour.

Peter:  Yeah, an hour.

Amanda:  Or five minutes.

Peter:  You might have 15 minutes to kill. Maybe that's part of the process when you're accepting an interview. Ask them at the time, how long does the interview last? So you can prepare your time accordingly.

Amanda:  One of the other big things when we're going through this interview process is to be confident.

Peter:  Absolutely.

Confidence

Peter:  Employers are looking for confident people. The last thing we want is someone who's walking through the door saying, "Oh, I'm not really sure I can do this role. What do you think? I'm not sure I can meet the time requirements. Is there some flexibility in that?" The vagaries and being nebulous around your skills in how you're going to apply is not going to wash with an employer.

Amanda:  Yeah. Especially if they've said what the job role is through their job description and they've also said what the expected hours of work is. If they've said, "Okay, it's nine until five, or it may be a salary position where you may find out what the expected, what does salary position hours actually mean? It doesn't mean 20 hours over a 38 hours week or 40 hour week or whatever you believe to be.

Peter:  When can you start? "Oh, I don't know. I'll get back to you."

Amanda:  "I'll get back to you on that one." We want you to be confident during that interview process.

Peter:  Being confident is about answering the first part of this, which is to know yourself. Know what you can and can't do. That also might mean knowing that this food industry interview isn't going to work out for you and/or them. If it isn't right for you, just be honest. Just say, "I don't think this is going to work, but thanks for your time anyway."

Amanda:  I think that's quite valuable because you're saving everybody a lot of time and money.

Peter:  The last thing you want to do is accept a job when you know in yourself that it's not right. Then you have to go through the whole process of, "I've gone through induction, it's not fitting." And then someone calls you in saying that you don't look comfortable or you don't look happy here. You don't want to go through that process. It doesn't bode well.

Amanda:  That's right. And then our third thing is, I know it's a little thing, but being able to project your voice during that interview process, which kind of ties hand in hand with being confident because you may have people who can't hear correctly or I shouldn't say correctly, cannot hear-

Peter:  Clearly.

Amanda:  ...Clearly, because you're either mumbling, you're softly spoken, because that will basically say that you're not displaying confidence.

Peter:  It's about presence. It's about having a presence in the room. Don't be one of the shadows in the corner. People are looking for you to stand out and if there's someone outside waiting to do the interview that has a presence and you don't, then the attention is going to be drawn to that person.

Amanda:  Do you think that's a nervousness though sometimes with people or do we just kind of have to get over that?

Peter:  Look, I think it can be, and there is nothing wrong with calling it out yourself. "I'm feeling a bit nervous. Please let me know if you need me to speak up." That's fine. Everyone's a human, we're not robots going into a room, you can't be perfect. So call some of these things out.

Amanda:  Without drawing too much attention to...

Peter:  Something like "Oh, I'm getting a tingly bladder. Can I do wee now please?" Something like that.

Amanda:  Probably should have thought about that beforehand.

Peter:  Exactly. Things happen, but I think employers recognise that people have human qualities and human capabilities and it doesn't mean you sit there bold, upright, like a soldier in the chair and push through and "I can do everything." Well-

Amanda:  I suppose it comes back to the job you're applying for as well that you're being interviewed for. Are you being interviewed to be a process worker or are you being interviewed to be a manager?

Peter:  Captain America.

Amanda:  Captain America.

Peter:  Absolutely.

Amanda:  It’s kind of going to be...

Peter:  Ultimately presence comes with knowing what's required and adjusting yourself accordingly.

Common interview questions

Amanda:  Okay. So we're in this interview process and one of the first questions, I'm going to go through a couple of common questions that you would get asked during an interview, but the first thing that people tend to want to know is, "Tell us a little bit about yourself, Pete. "So how should we answer this question?”

Peter:  You do not have four hours and 37 minutes to give them a detailed discourse of you, why you exist, what's your favourite colour and purpose in life.

Amanda:  No?

Peter:  No, no, I'm sorry. This is not going to work. You need to tell a story of you in a short, punchy manner.

Amanda:  A bit like an elevator pitch?

?Peter:  Yes. So elevator pitch is obviously if you were standing in an elevator next to someone and they ask, "Who are you and what do you do?" that you've got something quick to share before the elevator doors open at the next floor. That’s part of it. I think you should tell them about what you're passionate about, either interests inside and outside of work, because that speaks to a lot of who you are. That's really important. Definitely tell them about your interests. And that could be interesting work and in career. They might ask you what you do outside of work, are you married, do you have kids, do you have pets? Whatever it is, because that shows a level of commitment and authority and responsibility that might be important for the role. Don’t be afraid to speak up about those things.

The value and mission of the business

Amanda:  Obviously just make sure the interests that you do have out of work align with the social...

Peter:  That's right. Look, I think one of the really-

Amanda:  What do you call it? The mission of the business?

Peter:  The vision and the mission and the culture of the place.

Amanda:  If they talk about trustworthy, obviously you're not robbing banks on the weekend.

Peter:  Some people will have done some research and would have looked at your Facebook profile or your LinkedIn profile. That’s going to tell them some parts of a story. Be careful what you do say on Facebook.

Amanda:  As well as arguments you get in with people on LinkedIn.

Peter:  If you've got a really interesting Facebook profile like Kinko the Clown or something like that, people are going to want to know something about-

Amanda:  Like children's birthday parties on the weekend.

Peter:  That’s something, yeah, dog tamer or whatever it is.

Amanda:  When you finish that job, what did you go on to next?

Peter:  Clown school? Exactly. People are interested in you as a person because they want to know how you're going to gel and fit as part of a bigger team, as part of a bigger entity. It's rare that you're going to be sitting in a corner by yourself doing stuff. So don't be afraid to talk about yourself.

Amanda:  You can probably actually say, if you've had some bizarre background, it's a complete career change. You can say how the skills that you learnt being a mortician now can transfer into-

Peter:  Management.

Motivation

Amanda:  Manager, can then transfer into this current position that you're going for if that's what you're doing. So, instead of then they focus on, "Oh my goodness, they're a mortician." Nothing wrong with morticians. But let's talk about the transferable skills.

Peter:  Yes. I think if you're definitely jumping out of character in terms of, okay, so your last five jobs happened in the last three months, what's that all about? Then there's likely to be some story behind that. Be prepared for those sorts of things. Or you were a mortician, now you're going for a manager in a fast moving consumable goods organisation. You’re making breakfast cereal for instance, why on earth would you leave that to come to this? Something has attracted you to the industry, the role, and the organisation, you have to have that down pat. Be ready for that.

Amanda:  We look at those kind of standard questions. We're just going to touch on a few of the standard questions that you will get asked during an interview. It'd be guaranteed that you'd be asking one of these questions and how you should respond or prepare. Again, it’s all about preparation before you get into the interview that you have what you're going to say to those questions and make it quite short and snappy. You don't want to be dragging it out. The first question is, what actually attracted you to our company?

Peter:  Yes, there’s got to be motive. You're not here just because it was next door to your house, maybe you are, I don't know.

Amanda:  That sounds like a pretty good gig too me.

Peter:  It does, doesn't it? But there's got to be something that says you value that company just as they're valuing you as a potential employee. There’s got to be that value statement there. "I like your company because I read your vision statement and your mission statement and it really means something to me. I like your company because I looked at you on Glassdoor and there's lots of reviews there on the Glassdoor website that says you're an employer of choice. Or I like the fact that you have a social focus or that you've got social responsibility." Whatever it is, make sure there's a decent response that shows that you've invested time in understanding the business and it aligns with your ethics.

Amanda:  Yes, that sounds like a good one. Another one is, especially so if you're coming from another industry or another job, obviously the question they'll ask is why you left your last job.

Peter:  Arsony.

Amanda:  Arsony. Theft.

Peter:  Theft. That's right. Grand theft auto, worked as a car guard.

Amanda:  All that type of stuff. Forgot to show up. No-

Peter:  Didn't know I was employed.

Amanda:  They're things that you wouldn't say.

Peter:  Yeah, probably avoid that.

Amanda:  In the interview you can be honest around this because again, you want to give them a heads up and it may have been purely personal reasons and you can talk about, "Okay, I just wasn't feeling satisfied. I felt like there was no room for growth in that particular business. There was no pathway for me to move on into the business or through the business. I loved the business, but there just wasn't any reason." You can talk about redundancy or maybe your partner or husband or wife or whatever got a transfer to this new area, so you've had to transfer. So you can talk about that type of stuff and obviously be honest about it.

Peter:  Nothing peaks an employer's interest as ruining a resume where you've had a new job every 12 months. People want to know that and for whatever the reason that sits behind it, people are going to want to know the answer. They'll need an explanation. You're telling them nothing or being diffuse about the answer. "Oh, there were reasons behind it. I'd prefer not to go into it." "Okay, thank you. Come again."

Amanda:  Yes, that's right. Now, one of my favourite questions always is, where do you-

Peter:  I'm bracing myself.

Long term goals

Amanda:  Where do you see yourself in 45 year's time Pete?

Peter:  That's my favourite question and my usual response is, none of your business.

Amanda:  Hopefully laying on a beach somewhere.

Peter:  I'm going to get this out here early. I see no value or relevance or interest in this question. I know there's probably papers written on it everywhere as it talks about commitment, it talks about achievement, it talks about paying back the company, it talks about… whatever it is I can't see any value in that. We don't employ people as career workers anymore. It doesn't exist anymore. I think if you've got someone for five years, you're doing really well. I think it's just the nature of the next generations that are coming through and the nature of business that you just don't keep people for that long. If you do, I think that's something to celebrate.

Amanda:  And that'll all come back to company culture and things like that, that you make it as a business. You make it hard for someone to leave, as in they don't want to because you're looking after your staff if that's the case. Forty-five years time, what are you going to be, like 95?

Peter:  Something like that. I'll be drinking tequila and getting lucky hopefully.

Amanda:  That's right. Look at Keith Richards.

Peter:  Exactly, yeah, or Mick Jagger.

Amanda:  Mick Jagger.

Peter:  Fathering his 227th child or something, isn't he?

Amanda:  Oh, that's something to look forward to.

Peter:  How would you ever prepare for this question? My first response would be, "How dare you?" And walk out of the interview. My next response-

Amanda:  Be serious Pete. Okay, so the person gets asked the question, "Where do you see yourself in five year's time?" You can be witty, you can be a smart ass. "Yeah, I'm going to be in your job."

Peter:  Yeah, that's been said to me a few times, so I've had people-

Amanda:  Say that with a smile on your face.

Peter:  Some people have asked that of me as well and well, just so happens that in one case it did turn out that I had their job in less than five years. But look, I think the way you want to answer is that you've developed your skills, you've developed your work experience, and you've developed your ability to problem solve and make decisions on a higher level with more complexity.

Amanda:  You didn't really answer the question for me, Pete.

Peter:  Well, that I see myself having my skills developed.

Amanda:  When I say, "Where do you see yourself in five years time?" You're going to say...

Peter:  I have a much broader set of skills that can be applied into a business to help solve problems and make decisions and can lead teams of others in a more confident manner.

Amanda:  Right. Okay.

Peter:  I don't want to be here. Thank you very much.

Amanda:  Just a caveat there, don't say that last bit.

Peter:  No, don't say that last bit. Or maybe you do, I don't know.

Amanda:  Okay. Another common question is, what are your strengths? Which is always countered then as, what is your weaknesses?

What are your strengths?

Peter:  My next favourite question. I think-

Amanda:  What are your strengths?

Peter:  This is about understanding yourself, right? When you sit down and you talk about your strengths, "I'm a good communicator, I form and develop networks well and readily. I'm excellent at solving problems and I have very good use of logic processes to make decisions."

Amanda:  That’s all very good in food safety and quality because of the nonconformances and root cause analysis and getting to the bottom of problems and solving them and making sure they don't reoccur again. That's a very good strength to have.

Peter:  Things happen every day in the food business, whether you're making food, transporting it, or whatever. The issue is, when things go wrong, can you solve it? Because if you don't solve it, the likelihood that you're going to poison, harm, injure, or kill someone increases. There's a lot more responsibility for you and for anyone working in the food industry to ensure that you can identify problems, solve them, or seek resources, solutions, others to help you solve those problems.

Your weaknesses

Amanda:  That’s the strength thing. You kind of alluded to the fact that when someone asks you what are your weaknesses, it's not a question that... Because who ever says that?

Peter:  Exactly.

Amanda:  And the stock standard answer, you might go back with is, no, I don't have any weaknesses.

Peter:  Cross country water polo.

Amanda:  So yeah-

Peter:  I have a passion for betting on cross country water polo.

Amanda:  If you can actually find something, a weakness that doesn't really relate to the job, you can whack a bit of humour in there if you want to, but you've got to read the situation obviously.

Peter:  I think it's about, they want you to show that you are fallible or that you do make mistakes. I think what you'd say is-

Amanda:  Don't use that one that says, "I don't like to ask for help."

Peter:  "I work alone better. I ate my last employer." Something like that. I think what you'd say here is, my ability to fully understand the requirements of this business at this point in time and how my strengths can best be applied, that would be a weakness. Which means that you have the capacity for learning.

Amanda:  Which is what all employers want. They want to know that you can grow in a position as well. So, another final question then is, common one you get asked is, how are you going to benefit our business or be an asset to our business?

Peter:  This is the payback question and is, we're employing you, so what are you giving us back in return? And I think this is where you research the business and you say, "Well, I think I can help you achieve your goals. I think I can be an asset-"

Amanda:  And talk about what those goals are so it shows that you've actually done a bit of research, stay number one in the snack food market or remain recall free. That could be one of their achievements that they've had.

Peter:  You might be thinking, "Well, okay, so I'm going to be a forklift operator in a warehouse for a food company for instance. Or I'm going to be an internal auditor for a food company doing first and second party supplier audits for an organisation." How are you going to be an asset? "I'm going to help reduce the number of risks that are entering your organisation that we don't have to manufacture out when it reaches our production lines." That's how you'll be an asset.

Amanda:  That's a great response, that one. Write that one down guys.

Peter:  There you go, get that one down. I won't remember it, so don't ask me at the end of this.

Amanda:  Maybe I'll write that one down.

Peter:  That's my weakness, is short term memory loss. It's all that betting on cross country water polo.

Amanda:  It's coming back to bite you now.

Peter:  Every time. Every time. Lack of oxygen.

Amanda:  That wraps up episode four. Thank you again, Pete.

Peter:  Thank you Amanda.

Amanda:  We're on Off The Menu, a series looking at professional development and the career path for food safety quality professionals and workers within the food industry. Now I think next episode we are going to start actually looking at the different levels of workers. So, you're now in the business, that will be our next phase.

Peter:  It's your competency.

Amanda:  Competency. And we're going to start delving into what knowledge you need, what skills you need, what attributes, and then move you up through those levels from coming in. First up, being a novice, to coming out at the other end, being an expert. So, join us next time on Off The Menu where we go into episode five.

Peter:  Thanks for listening.