Recruiting interview for business analyst — Here are some tips and tricks for your recruiting interview as a business analyst.
1. BE PREPARED
You should be familiar with the company you are applying for, as well as its industry sector. Before the interview, look up and memorize the information you will need to know: field of activity, news, products, history, competitors, corporate culture, sales, number of employees, etc.
2. CLEARLY EXPLAIN YOUR PROFILE
The interviews provides recruiters with the opportunity to find out more about your professional business analysis qualifications, as well as your personality. Be prepared to describe yourself clearly and consistently, with no hesitation. Analyze yourself beforehand to identify your strengths, weaknesses, motivations, objectives and likes.
You should be prepared to back up each of your skills with a specific experience. It may be helpful to create a table with two columns outlining the required skills and your corresponding experience.1
Example:
| Good technical writing skills | Updated the documentation as per the company’s standards |
| Sense of initiative | Proposed new processes or improvements for existing ones |
| Thoroughness | Observed the standards and procedures defined by the project office |
| Customer-focused | Followed up with users to make sure their needs were satisfied |
3. GIVE CONFIDENT, SPECIFIC ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
Recruiters may ask your four types of questions1:
- Close-ended questions:
“Are you punctual?”
- Behavioural questions (based on past experience):
“How did you coordinate testing and integration within the module? “
- Situation questions:
“How would you go about identifying points of integration with external systems?”
- Questions to check your understanding
How would you define object-oriented modelling?”
Examples of frequently asked questions:
- What are your weaknesses?
- What are your strengths?
- How would you describe yourself?
- Why are you interested in this job?
- What do you know about our company?
- What are your professional objectives?
- Why should I hire you?
- If you were in my shoes, who would you hire?
- How could your experience be of use here?
- How do you see your role as business analyst?
- What qualities do you like in a boss?
- Which job did you like the most/the least? Why?
- How do you react to the unexpected?
- Can you work under pressure?
- What are you most proud of professionally?
- What have you learned from your mistakes?
Justify your past: Has one of your jobs been unrelated to your speciality? Have you had a professional failure? Expect to have to justify these weaknesses.
4. ASK RELEVANT QUESTIONS
Be prepared to ask the recruiters questions. This will show your curiosity and motivation.
Examples:
- Which department do the financial analysts belong to?
- Who will my boss be?
- What types of systems do you use?
- What are the possibilities for advancement?
- Are there opportunities for professional development?
- Why is the position vacant?
Tip: Check out books and Web sites for recruiters for more information about recruiting interview processes.
1 Du CV à l’embauche, Éveline Marcil-Denault, Éditions Quebecor, 2005