Advice for #Interviewing

It’s the beginning of 2023, and unfortunately the pace and scope of layoffs shows no signs of slowing down.

The positive news is that companies are continuing to hire. It may be a steeper hill than in times prior. However, with the right approach you can take action to present yourself as the best candidate and get that job offer. (Reality check – even when you are sincerely the best candidate you may not get the offer for a myriad of reasons – this is where persistence and grit come into play.)

My work with a client is an example of this. Let me start at the end – despite having excellent presentation/interviewing skills and being the finalist for some competitive roles – she still got passed over a few times. One company went so far as to say it was just the smallest of margins the other candidate was selected, and some members of the hiring team had her as the number one candidate. While disappointed, she nevertheless knew the only path forward was to keep going and not let up in her interview practice, company research, and continuing to apply for roles.

Having positive experiences with career coaches before, she reached out for help finding her next role. She knew what she was looking for, an executive level role, and knew in most cases finding this level of job takes even more time (with even more fierce competition), so she had to present nothing less than her A game with every opportunity.

After our discovery call, we narrowed down what we needed to focus on: dissecting a given job description and planning our interview rehearsals around this document and other needs she found out in her related interviews with the company.

• We worked on pairing her work experience with specific needs and how she was highly qualified to make a huge impact and ‘solve all of their issues’ as outlined in the JD.
• We conducted mock interviews; I would give her feedback – a big opportunity was to make her answers more succinct – and make sure she was using the STAR approach as much as possible.
• We would then have another round of rehearsals, where we did any final fine-tuning before the actual company interview.

What also helped her was:

• She researched each company she made past the first or second call until she knew them inside and out.
• She is confident in her skills and her value – she has proven herself time and again, and has worked under extreme pressure – so she knows what she is capable of.
• Very open to feedback – she knows in this day in age nearly every role, no matter the level, requires an exhausting amount of work to get to the final rounds (let alone even start the process), so she was willing to do what needed to be done to make the most of every interaction she had with a potential employer.
• She also experienced exactly the same as many job-seekers do: tons of rejection emails, or rejections after an initial screening call, no reply at all from many companies, and companies who were very slow to reply back with any updates and information.

As a reminder, this is even with a resume that was getting a decent response rate and a professional who always presented herself well. So no matter how good a person may be, do not lose hope with the less-than-positive aspects of job searching – it is not about you!

The hard work, dedication, and commitment – in particular mock interviewing – paid off. The candidate accepted a job with a base salary of nearly $190K, and another job offer even came her way thereafter. (Side note: This is why how fast a company works at extending an offer is so important – you can lose your top candidate to another company if you have a process that takes many months.)

As a job-seeker who knows she can put her best foot forward with even more impact with the help of a coach, if you also feel you can benefit from a customized plan and feedback, reach out for a complimentary discovery call to see if such a partnership can help accelerate your job search.