The Danish job interview | The How to Live in Denmark Podcast, Denmark's longest-running English...

Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. This is the 4th in our series about looking for A job interview at a Danish company? Congratulations! Danish companies don't like to waste time, so they wouldn't be setting aside time to meet you if they didn't think there was a solid chance they might hire you. Job interviewing in Denmark is a difficult balance because the jentelov makes all forms of bragging or self-promotion distasteful to the Danes. I'm not bragging. I'm just telling you about my qualifications. You've got to convince the person interviewing you that you're skilled and capable without sounding like a used car salesman. What I tell potential hires to do is to prepare for the interview by reviewing their working history and coming up with 3 good stories about projects they've worked on. 2 in which you did well and succeeded, and one that went very badly but where you learned some important professional lessons. By admitting to having made some mistakes in your work life or having been less than perfect on the job, you'll give yourself a lot more credibility with Danish companies, where the default motto is work hard but don't take yourself too seriously. The Danish employer may ask you to take an online personality test before the interview. These popular tests can be your friend because they're designed to highlight personal characteristics that are important on the job. In other words, they counteract the tendency for the hiring manager to just pick somebody she went to school with in Denmark and urge her to look more seriously at you, a strange foreigner who may actually be more qualified. Some companies even measure their best performers' personalities and then look to hire people with similar characteristics. The tests usually take about 30 minutes to finish, and they consist of multiple-choice questions about How you might act in different situations. It can be tempting to try to game these interviews. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if they're hiring a sales rep, they want a people person, or if they're hiring a programmer, they want someone detail-oriented. But if you do cheat, you risk ending up with a job you hate because the position was designed for someone with a different personality. The personality test also helps the company tailor the questions you'll get in your interview. I recently took one myself as part of a consultant job I'm working on. The test results disclosed that I'm very independent and I like being in charge of my own workday, which is correct, and that's why I'm a consultant. But had I been applying for a full-time job at a company, the hiring manager might have asked me how well I'd handle things when I can't make all the decisions. If you happen to chat with another applicant for the same job and find out you've been asked different questions in the interview, The results of your personality tests may be the reason. Danes love punctuality, so do everything you can to be on time for your interview. Danish industrial companies tend to be located on the outskirts of town, and if a bus goes there, it often only goes once every half hour. So for heaven's sakes, plan out your route in advance. Better to be 20 minutes early and kill time in reception than be racing to the door 10 minutes late, sweating and swearing. When you meet the hiring manager, shake his hand or her hand and make direct eye contact. If she introduces you to more people, do the same for every single one of them. Reach out your hand, even if you have to, like, awkwardly reach across the table to do it. Say your name clearly and make eye contact. The Danes see eye contact as a mark of trustworthiness and confidence. The hiring manager will probably offer you some tea or some coffee. If you're at a big company, this will probably be delivered to the interview room on a fancy tray. But in smaller companies, you may be taken to the employee kitchen and told to pour your own hot beverage out of a machine, just like the existing employees do. You can expect some small talk while this is all going on, so if you're not the naturally chatty type, it can be useful to come pre-equipped with some comments about the weather, or the difference between Danish weather and your home country's weather, or similarly non-controversial topics. Once you sit down, your Danish job interviewer may try to warm up the conversation with a few questions about your family or personal life, mostly to get a sense of you as an individual or gauge how committed you are to staying in Denmark. You can stick to really brief generalities here. There's no reason to disclose any information that makes you uncomfortable. And then comes the main part of the interview, where you will be asked about how your qualifications match the job on offer. While you shouldn't be arrogant, you shouldn't have a beggar's mentality either. These people are taking time out of their busy day because they can't run their business without someone like you. One researcher found that foreign applicants were often rejected for jobs because they seemed too submissive in the interview process. The Danish hiring manager didn't think they'd be able to stand up for themselves in the hurly-burly of Danish work teams. One good place to stand up for yourself is questions about your family planning. If you're a woman aged 25 to 45, there's a solid chance the interviewer may also ask whether you intend to have children— or more children— soon. Danish parental leave benefits are very generous, and, and women still take more time off after giving birth than men do. So the employer understandably wants to know if they're hiring someone who will be taking substantial leave in the near future. But that question is illegal. That means it will probably be asked in a roundabout way. So, you're newly married. Is it just the two of you? You know, Denmark's a great place to raise children. So feel free to answer in an equally roundabout way. Oh, my husband and I, we just want to focus on our careers right now, and we really want to do more traveling. It's none of their business whether you plan to have 2 sets of triplets in the next 2 years. The company may also ask you to bring a copy of your straffetest, which is a document from the Danish police showing that you have never been convicted of a crime in Denmark. This is particularly likely if the job will involve dealing with money, confidential information, or children. Don't take this request personally. Every candidate for the job will have to do it, including Danes. And you can order your straffetest online from the Citizen Service. Getting dressed for the interview. Well, the Danes are not formal people, so you really only need a business suit if you're hoping to work at a bank. Foreigners looking for jobs in Denmark tend to be overly formal in both dress and manner, which feeds into the Danish prejudice that non-Danish workers are stiff and robot-like and not individual thinkers. When you're choosing clothes for the interview, you'll probably be fine in a well-made sweater. You know, not some crummy thing with little balls all over it, but, you know, a nice sweater. A shirt and trousers with no wrinkles, and then maybe some dark shoes of a type that you might wear on the job. If you have time and can afford to, buy your interview clothes in Denmark. That'll help create that sense of social fit that Danish companies are so keen on. Another alternative is to look up articles about the company's CEO online and see what he or she wears in a business context, and then come dressed like that. Oh, and skip the cologne, particularly for men. I know that in many cultures fragrance is appropriate in all settings, but in Denmark cologne suggests that you have a romantic encounter planned. There's a lot of disagreement about the extent to which you should follow up after a job interview. Personally, I think a brief email the next day is a nice touch. You know, say tak for sidst and maybe add a couple bullet points about why you're right for the job. You know, show a sincere interest. And this is also a good time to supply any additional information the interviewer might have asked about during your meeting. And then leave it alone. If they're interested, you will hear from them within a couple of weeks and certainly less than a month. And if they do get in touch, you may just be at the beginning of a long hiring process that could include more interviews, more tests, and weird inexplicable delays. This is standard practice. The hiring process when I joined Danske Bank took more than three months, which I later learned because HR thought I was a bad fit for the job and the hiring manager thought I was great. The hiring manager won, and I enjoyed working at Danske Bank for many years. If you do get an offer for a job in Denmark, good for you. Your company will send you a contract to sign. Now keep in mind, if you're a member of a union, you can have the union's legal team review the contract. to make sure it's fair to you. Your employer won't be surprised or offended by this. It's standard practice, and it's a particularly good idea if you're handed a contract that's all in Danish. Your union is also a good place to find out if the salary level you've been offered is fair and appropriate. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. You can buy the How to Live in Denmark book on amazon.com, saxo.com, Google Play, or the Apple Bookstore. Or you can go directly to howtoliveindenmark.com, where you can buy the book and we'll send it anywhere in the world. You can come join our Facebook page at How to Live in Denmark and follow us on Twitter at How to Live in DK. The two is a number. See you next time.