NVR - Career Opportunities

INTERVIEW TIPS FOR COLLEGE JOB CANDIDATES

When you meet with us, you will be interviewed by a method we call Behavioral Interviewing. Quite simply, this is a method that most accurately predicts your future performance by understanding your past performance in similar situations. To adequately analyze your ability to perform well at NVR, your interviewers will ask you questions about how you have dealt with situations and challenges in the past. Here are a few interview tips you may find useful:

We can't emphasize enough how solid preparation is essential to a successful interview. Here's how you can prepare for your interview:

Find out what skills and attributes are important to the company. Attend NVR-sponsored events on your campus, talk to our current employees, read our literature, and explore our Web site. Once you have determined the key skills and attributes you will need, you will be able to tailor your answers to focus on your success in those same skills.
Think of three or four specific examples you can use to illustrate your answers to the interview questions. And think of situations when you succeeded and didn't succeed, as your interviewer is almost certain to ask you to give examples of both instances. It is okay to discuss mistakes that you have made in the past as long as you can illustrate what you have learned from them. These examples should be from past internships, classes, activities, and other work experiences, and you should be prepared to provide significant detail.
Be comfortable with your resume! Interviewers will often ask you to provide additional information pertaining to an activity or accomplishment that you have listed on your resume.

The best way to answer a behavioral interview question?
Make sure your answers are specific and detailed. This is important. Try framing your answers in a three-step process:

Define the situation
Explain the action that you took
Provide the outcome

Listen carefully to the question and if necessary, ask for clarification. Be sure to answer the question completely - providing names, time frames, and excerpts of conversations that are applicable.

Remember that the interviewer has been trained to probe for additional information. This is why it is important to use examples that have components of the three-step process described above, and to feel comfortable with the examples that you have chosen.

"My senior year of high school I worked at a car repair store that was part of a national chain. One morning while I was at the counter by myself, a very angry customer came in and demanded that I give her a refund on a brake service that she'd had done at another store in another state. Even though I was caught off guard by her rudeness, I offered to check the computer to research what had been done to her car. I found out that she had had new brakes put on three separate times at one of our stores in New Jersey in the past year. I began to sympathize with the customer - of course she was angry! The only problem was that my manager wasn't at work yet and I was not authorized to give refunds without his permission.

I let the customer know that I understood that she was angry, that I would be happy to give her a refund but had to get my manager's permission before doing so. I wrote down her name and phone number and let her know that I would speak with my manager as soon as he arrived that day and would call her as soon as I talked to him about her situation. I also gave her my name and the store phone number just in case she had any questions before I was able to call her back. She was very appreciative that I took the time to give her all of that information and thanked me for being so understanding.

As it turned out, after I explained her situation to my manager that afternoon, I was able to extend a full refund on her credit card and call her with the news that same day."

And that's it! We look forward to meeting you! Good luck!

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