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Interview preparation… a slightly different take on it.
12th April 2023
11 years I’ve been doing this. Wow! Early on, I had some training on preparing candidates for interviews. I tweaked it to my style, found a way I thought landed the message succinctly and impactfully and have been using this method of interview preparation ever since.
BUT I’ve changed it.
11 years and I’ve started changing it.
So why?
Well, competency questions are for me ‘all about demonstrating, not just what you’ve done, but how you’ve done it’.
Get the format right and you’re competence and experience will SING! ????
Get it wrong and you’ll leave questions over what YOU’VE owned, how you communicate or the result etc. etc.
BUT
In our interview preparation, we spend time reading the competencies, researching the business and trying to come up with something for each.
STOP!!
Rather than do this, go through your CV/career and work through the moments you’re proud of or learnt from.
This is the stuff you take home to your partner, your friend, your parents, your furry friend or the randomer at the bar.
The stuff you celebrate or whinge about.
Start with 6-8 of these things.
Then, break down the scenario from start to finish.
Once you’ve done this for all 6-8 examples, take it back to the spec/brief and match them to the competency.
Each example might cover 2 or 3 of the competencies you’ll likely need to demonstrate.
This way, you’ve got less to remember, you’ll know the story better (because it’s what’s stuck with you and what’s mattered to you) and each example will be more authentic.
Great! Now you’ve demonstrated your competence, as well as what you’ve been truly passionate about.
So STOP trying to make the square peg fit the round hole and START looking at your tool box.
Interview preparation, just a little bit different.
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