After taking lot of interviews for the business analyst positions, I found out that candidates often make some simple but dangerous mistakes in the interview round which leads to non-selection. These mistakes are very simple and often candidates does not realize that they are making the mistakes during the interview. From my experience, here are the top 10 basic mistakes -
- Not preparing for 'Tell me about yourself' - I have seen candidates not following any specific structure for this question. This is the first question for 99% of the interview and it paves the way how your next questions will be. Your confidence, preparation, answer for this question defines many things and it gives a high-level understanding of yourself to the interviewer.
- Not sure why candidate want to be a business analyst - I have asked this question to many interviewees and 80% of them are not sure why they want to be a business analyst. What is their motivation to be a business analyst or why they think that they will be a good business analyst or why they choose business analyst as a career- candidates often rumble over rather than a clear and concise answer.
- Not sure about their career goal - What is your plan for upcoming 5 years? Where do you want to see yourself after 5 years? Do you have any specific role or position in your mind in future? What is your career goal? These are some similar questions by which interviewer want to check the candidates mindset and career objective. In the organizations, generally there are business analyst role, senior business analyst role for specific year of experience. But after a certain point of time employees need to move to a different role for further responsibilities. The job positions depends on the company where the employees will work on. But interviewer will get a clarity if candidates have a goal in their mind. Preparation is very crucial for this question.
- Unstructured answer - Before the interview I give clear guidance to candidates to be more specific for the interview questions, not to beat around the bush. STAR format is one of the best framework to answer your question. Try to put examples in your answers. It helps interviewer to understand the scenario better and evaluate you.
- Answers are not timebound - I have seen candidates spend 5-6 min for a simple questions. This has a very negative impact on the interviewer. If your answer can not be concise, that is fine. Otherwise interviewer will have a negative impression on you. Interviewer might think that you are not clear on what to say. It also becomes difficult for interviewer to follow you during this long time unless your answer is interesting. This force interviewer to cut your answer in the middle and proceed.
- Not clarifying the interview question - Clarify questions if you are not sure what is expected. As a business analyst when you will work on assignment, you need to clarify question, remove ambiguity and come up with clear specific solution. If you clarify questions with the interviewer, interviewer gets interested on you. Interviewer understands that you are very specific and know how to deal with ambiguity.
- Directly jumping into the answer - Don't jump into the answer after you listen to the interview question. This is very bad. Take few seconds to gather your thoughts, structure and then speak. If you answer a question fluently without thinking, interviewer might think that you have mugged up the answer. So even if you know the answer, take a pause and then slowly start.
- Not having any question for the interviewer - Prepare some questions for the interviewer at the end of the interview. In most of the interview you will get sometime at the end to ask your question. This is your time to show how prepared you are, your knowledge about the company and the job role, your passion to work for the company etc. So don't loose the opportunity.
For more details about the questions to ask after the interview, you can check out my other article on this -
(25) What questions you can ask at the end of interview to your interviewer? | LinkedIn
9. Not reading the job description - Please read the job description before appearing in an interview. The job description has all the question on what to prepare for the interview. If you have any doubt on the job description, please clarify them with the HR before the interview.
10. Balance between technical and behavioral skillset: A balance is required in both of this skills. You might be excellent in technical knowledge, but in today's world the behavioral aspect like your positive mindset, communication skill, stakeholder engagement, teamwork and other skillset is also evaluated.
So don't make these mistakes in your next business analyst interview.
Happy Learning. Cheers.
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