Interview Question: Can You Give Me an Example of When You Have Had to Demonstrate Business Acumen?

"Can you give me an instance of when you have had to demonstrate business acumen?"

This is a really frequent interview query liked by several employers. In the legal career this is asked in practically each and every single interview for solicitors, paralegals and partners.

HR managers and other recruitment specialists in a entire variety of diverse sorts of interview often ask about business acumen, no matter if these are legal job interviews, accountancy interviews, interviews for managers at a entire load of distinctive levels.

From time to time employers attempt to throw a spanner in the performs and ask you what the distinction is involving industrial awareness and business acumen (there is not one particular!).

Extremely numerous people today who have been in business for some years have no trouble at all answering this query for the reason that they have an understanding as to what a industrial organisation is hunting for, but students and new entrants to the job market place struggle with the entire notion as properly as pretty a couple of non-experts who are advising on careers.

The entire explanation for employers asking this query is to make certain that the individual they are interviewing really understands the idea of operating for your every day bread.

This indicates understanding that if you are becoming paid a salary and the organisation you are operating for is dependent on creating a profit in order to spend you that salary then you have to contribute to creating the profit. If you do not understand this when you are not going to be significantly use to any employer.

It is a prevalent fallacy involving graduates that they are joining an organisation in order to additional their personal Profession and to obtain excellent expertise for themselves. It is routinely reflected in covering letters and emails and also in CVs. This is entirely the incorrect attitude to take to job hunting. You have to contemplate each and every single job from the viewpoint of the employer. If you do not do this then probabilities are you will be rejected.

So when you are asked a query about business acumen feel what it is you are becoming asked to understand. If you are speaking to a partner of a pretty senior organisation, he is expecting you to understand that firms are there to make a profit. Business acumen is demonstrated by understanding that the employer does this in confident approaches by means of advertising and marketing, business improvement, promoting to current consumers, performing a job well to acquire repeat business and proficiently tendering for business as effectively.

If you are interviewing with a smaller sized firm then none of the above is specifically relevant. They are extra interested in your personal potential at promoting, business improvement, making your personal customers, generating confident that your billing levels are higher in order to make sure a fantastic level of profitability and to understand that you are there to make your employer funds so that he or she in return can spend you.

If you can demonstrate this really swiftly by way of describing a scenario when you have had to show business acumen, you will have answered this query effectively. This merely wants to be one thing along the lines of advertising and marketing, business improvement, escalating earnings for a enterprise or organisation, or getting involved in sales.

Preferably, this requires to be in a perform atmosphere so if you are a student attempt to keep away from going back to your young business enterprise schemes at college and concentrate on any part-time operate you have accomplished exactly where you have identified a way of enhancing profitability for that specific business enterprise.

If you are a qualified in a business then attempt to concentrate on your most current part and give a demonstration of when you have either enhanced profitability, improved sales, generated much more function, being the client, boosted your billing levels or a thing related.

Maintain it quick and sweet and straight to the point and you should really have no trouble at all with answering this query.

Jonathan Fagan is a Solicitor, Profession Coach and Recruitment Consultant at Ten % Legal Recruitment, http://www.ten-%.co.uk. He coaches solicitors, barristers and law students and delivers a help service for legal careers. Jonathan writes on legal recruitment challenges and lectures every single year to postgraduates on preparing CVs and interview coaching.

Jonathan is also the author of the Guide to Writing a Legal CV, Interview Answers for Lawyers, Legal CV Writing Pack, the Legal Interview Pack and the Total Interview Guide for Lawyers, accessible at our on the internet shop at http://www.ten-%.co.uk/careersshop. You can get in touch with Jonathan at cv@ten-%.co.uk