Getting outside of your ‘Comfort Zone’
 
Employers are often updating their hiring criteria.  It’s my job as your interview coach to be on top of these changes so I can help you craft great answers to trending questions from your own experience.

The latest big interview trend for large employers has been asking for evidence of a ‘Growth Mindset’, and as often as not, whatever large employers ask at interviews trickles down to smaller companies over time. You have to be prepared to answer such a theme of question.

What is a ‘Growth Mindset’?

A growth mindset is simply getting outside of your comfort zone and dealing with it by taking practical steps and actions. Sometimes, this may include failing to achieve but still showing courage and resilience to bounce back.

People do sometimes fall into a routine and a feeling of comfort. They sometimes like to ‘coast’ through their career. Becoming comfortable as an expert in their field and not seeking to improve from that position. This is not a ‘Growth Mindset’.
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There could be a fear of failing by pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and growing, once you are in a good job that pays well and doesn’t ask too much from you. But this won’t help you move jobs or companies if the employer asks you to prove how you went out of your comfort zone.

How can I Prove I have a 'Growth Mindset'?

Proving a 'growth mindset' is a conundrum that some of my clients have faced. They often come to me for interview preparation after failing to get a job offer, even though they work at a good company and do a good job there.  They are mystified as to what is going wrong.  I soon find out early in my interview preparation this is the element of distinction which is missing.
 
Also, as another angle on this theme of questioning, employers want to know what you have learnt from failing whilst outside of your comfort zone. Or a time when you received (hopefully) constructive criticism and took it on board and applied yourself by improving your work.

Ask yourself these questions:
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1. Have you done something to grow knowledge in the job, skills and competencies, to improve your work in the last two years?
2. What criticism or constructive feedback have you received, or sought out, and what steps did you take to improve your work?
3. What ‘stretch’ projects have you taken on in the last year which took you out of your comfort zone?

If you cannot answer these questions with examples from the last year, maximum of two years, you will not be able to demonstrate this sought-after skill and competency.

I can help you with two of my interview preparation areas. My Interview Coaching Programmes are all about helping you craft the best answers from your own experiences, ensuring you sell yourself confidently in a way that the interviewers want to hear so you are ready to interview.

If you are planning ahead and not ready to interview at the moment, I can help prepare you for when you are planning a change in your career or a promotion. Often 6 months ahead, helping you identify skills or competencies to improve and act on to ensure the answers in your interviews really sound great. 

You can book in a free pre interview coaching call to discuss your needs.

For as long as I have been involved in recruitment, so far over two decades, the 'Bait and Switch' job offer has been occurring in some job offers. Fortunately, due to the increasing transparency of feedback about this dubious practice on LinkedIn, and other business networks, people are more familiar and even wary of what can be on offer at the end of an exhaustive interview process.

What is the ‘Bait and Switch’?

Simply put a bait and switch is when you apply for one role and interview for it, then get offered a lesser role for less money.

The bait may be a role that is very attractive and seems to be a dream role for anyone in that space.
 
Who is this tactic targeting?

This is not about those with large egos who think they deserve to jump the queue for a role that involves a promotion or two and the employer quickly sees the candidate is nowhere near ready for the promotion they are interviewing for so they offer a more junior role instead.

Also, this devious tactic is wrongfully assigned to a person who wants to leave a much smaller company and get in with the 'big fish', but they don’t have what it takes for an easy ‘hit the ground running’ lateral move. The big company will normally offer a grade below the one being advertised out of fairness, as they know it’s a 'sink or swim' environment and they don’t want someone to sink.

This tactic is about those companies who are penny pinchers. Ones who intentionally advertise an attractive role and salary to entice applicants. But no matter the quality of those applicants they still offer them a lower position and salary without any tangible justification.

The role being advertised probably did not exist.  This is a desperate recruitment hustle technique to get someone on board, who is qualified for the advertised role, but the company cannot afford to offer and pay them the salary or market rate.

Surprisingly, this is not a phenomenon just in penny-pinching companies, I have witnessed many successful companies employing such tactics.

It features heavily in recessions, when candidates may have been unemployed and desperate for a job while interviewing, then even getting demoted seemed like a win. And with the current discussions of recession being talked about again, we will probably see an increase in the tactic.

The Second Bait
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Aside from the attractive job description a second bait may happen at the job offer stage. An offer involving a devious ‘bait and switch’ may go like this, “We like your experience in x and y and can see you fitting in well here, and we have a great project coming up which requires your skillset, and we think you will be great for it. However, we do not think you are ready yet for the project manager role you have been interviewing for, but we do think you would make an excellent project lead. Then, after a year, we can look at a management role for you. What do you think about that?”

I am sure any qualified, experienced, candidate’s heart would sink after the second sentence.  And accepting such an offer, when the company really knows they have the experience for the next level would be a sign of low self-esteem or desperation, which the employer will not reward well in the long run, if the candidate accepts. It is a ‘lose lose’ situation.

The best thing any decently qualified and rightfully experienced candidate can do is to turn the offer down, and express disappointment at being ‘low-balled’. Standing up for themselves will put them up in the company’s estimation. Sometimes a company may re offer the rightful advertised role in the end but only if the candidate fights for it.  But do you want to work for a company like that?

Another Bait and Switch Tactic

Another bait and switch tactic employers sometimes use is attracting applicants for a dream job and then at the end of the interview process offering them the dream job but at a much lower salary level than initially discussed. As a past internal and external recruiter, I have had to pass this news on to a candidate. Dressing up the offer but still lowballing on salary, the most hateful part of my job, fortunately, it did not happen very often.

Mostly, switching on salary happens during a recession or in a company that is penny-pinching. And candidates who accept a lower salary, particularly if it is lower than their current salary will be diminished in the eyes of the employer. The retention rate of the company’s new joiner will often not be good, as they continue their job search for a correctly paid role.  It really is not a good strategy for employers to use. 

Sometimes though, it can be the most impressive companies who use this tactic too.  The ones where there are millions of people trying to join them. These companies know their attraction and they milk it! Lowballing because they can get away with it and new joiners are so happy and reverential that they do not care.

A Final Word
 
In these times of looming recession, cost of living issues, war, supply chain problems… I can predict this tactic may increase, as companies tighten the purse strings.

In my Interview Coaching Programmes, I offer the chance to rehearse the offer stage and how to negotiate the offer if needs be. Providing you with confidence to hold firm and only accept the offer if you are happy. 

I really hope this helps illuminate the ‘bait and switch’, so you can be alert to it if it happens to you, but I really hope it doesn’t.

Have you ever regretted leaving a company? Did you ever find out that the grass was brown instead of green upon starting in a new company? Have you ever looked on in envy as your ex-company moved on and thrived without you?

Sometimes we do make the wrong decision to leave.  Whether born out of frustration at not being promoted, a terrible boss, boredom, or getting tempted by another company offering a solution to one or all of these issues.  And after moving companies we can sometimes find ourselves in an even worse job and company.

When I used to work in HR there was definitely a company 'do not rehire' unwritten policy. I think it was purely a type of begrudging of the employee leaving in the first place and there was a whiff of teaching them a lesson for leaving in the air.  I found it very sad and disappointing.  After all, if someone has left and has gained broader experience, also likely competitor experience, surely that’s worth more to a company? 

Then, about 10 years ago, I noticed a small change in employers’ stance. Especially in technology companies. They almost wanted some staff to leave and gain broader experience and ‘boomerang’ back to them after a few years to a bigger and often better role, where they reaped their experience for their own gains.

As always, other companies followed the trendy tech companies and started to tentatively re-hire. When I used to see an ex-employee application arrive in I would need to quickly check the system for their last few appraisals, to see if they were exemplary, before forwarding their application to a hiring manager. Needless to say, they would verbally check with any ex-manager to see what they ‘really’ thought of them.
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In the last few years, with the market being an employee market again, employers cannot be too choosy. There are not enough strong candidates for jobs.  Sometimes it really is better the devil you know! 

If you are thinking of ‘boomeranging’ back to a former employer and feel worried about it and how you will be received, do talk to former colleagues to find out the lay of the land and whether there is an HR policy (written or unwritten) in place to support ex-employees returning. Be prepared for the vetting of old appraisals. If you didn’t score well in these, this may be something you will need to be prepared to answer in the interview, if you get one.

Be prepared to interview though! You have to appear to be humble and equal to any other candidate.  Outline fully all the new skills you have acquired since you left and how these can help them, the company and you in the role. Impress upon them how you can leverage internal relationships from your old network from your past role. If it has been a few years since you were last in the company, be aware that systems, managerial style, processes, etc may be completely new and your old company may very much be a new company.

The key to returning to a past company is to ensure you are fully prepared for the interview. My Professional Interview Coaching programme is great for Boomerang interviews. The programme will be tailored to your needs, and I will help you to feel confident answering the questions that will come your way as a Boomerang candidate.
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Book in a 20 minute free pre-coaching call to discuss your needs.

In recent years and with the onset of Covid restrictions we have seen a trending surge in multi-stage interviews.

This multi-stage interview process was starting to trend about four years ago with graduate hiring. Large companies began using advancing technologies, such as online testing, gamification and easier and more trouble free video interviewing.  Now, all this has become firmly entrenched in most mid to large size corporate companies, especially as a way to sort through and interview hundreds of applicants, at most levels, quickly and efficiently.

It has suddenly become quite normal for more senior levels of hiring to find yourself part of these multi-stage assessments too. They are no longer being reserved for graduate hiring.  This can be quite the shock if you have not interviewed in the last few years.

The Different Stages

​Multi-stage assessments usually start with an online application submission. This is then screened by the Candidate Management System and it’s AI algorithms to check your application against the roles description.  This is done to present a ranking of candidates to the internal recruiter, or Hiring Manager, who may choose a cut off point to send automated rejections to.  For those fortunate enough to pass the CMS screen, there is often a double check of the top candidates by the recruiter, or Hiring Manager, to ensure only a high standard of applicants get through to the next stage.

The next stages can be in any order but usually either a pre-screen call with a company recruiter, or a video interview with written questions on the screen, to read and answer in a set time with no human interaction.  If you are successful at passing the screening stage, you are on to the next stage.

Often, there are skills tests to do which can be an assortment of verbal, numerical, technology and psychometric tests and case studies completed using online software. Sometimes some gamification role play too, such as sales calls and customer service role plays.

Depending on your level and role you may be asked to put together a presentation on any given topic.  Particularly at Manager or Director level or roles in which you will be expected to present in regularly in the role.  This may be submitted before an actual interview in order to question you on it in later rounds, or make up a more formal part of the interview with a Q&A afterwards.

Those that successfully get through those rounds may make it to a real interview.  However, this can still be conducted by video link, due to some company Covid health procedures.  Depending on the level and the company there may be more than one live ‘in person’ interview and numerous panels of people to meet at interview.  

Sometimes, if they find it hard to choose between two applicants, they may provide more tests to see if it helps them with the decision.  Especially useful at such a time are psychometric tests.

All these stages cost the company a lot of money, and the companies really only want to invest in candidates who they see can are capable of doing the role.  Therefore, it is a good sign if you make it past the screening round, though your competition will be in with a fighting chance too.

Your Preparation
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This all seems like hard work!  And it is.  Today’s candidates need to spend hours on the interview stages but it really ensures the people being interviewed are motivated to work at such a company. 

       Preparation is key to get through these rounds.  Fail to prepare and prepare to fail.

Our interview coaching covers all these stages.  This is why interview coaching cannot be completed in a single session. Sometimes you may need to focus each session on different elements, such as ensuring a winning application, then on the testing, then pre-call or video answers and finally real in person interviews. We split our interview coaching sessions up to ensure all this can be covered at the right time and stage of the interview process.

For more information book a 20 min free pre coaching call.

2020 will be a very memorable year for Covid-19. We are living through a historical moment. But what has taken place is a seismic shift in how we work and a complete overnight change in corporate attitudes towards flexible working and working from home. 

Lifestyle articles, in the media this year, have embraced this cultural shift for all sorts of reasons, finances, health, work life balance and for environmental factors too. Anyone living in the heart of a metropolitan city will remember the ghostly silence of the streets in lockdown. Foxes roaming the eerily quiet roads, the dawn chorus being heard for the first time.  Along with this startling change to a locked down environment came bluer skies, a small drop in air pollution and some time to reflect on what matters in life.

Over the last four years a trending hot topic in large corporates has been 'sustainability' and how to change work practices to limit the environmental footprint of industry.  Some companies have made huge promises to be carbon neutral in just a handful of years. Others less industrious have seen this as a chance to do some ‘greenwashing’, and appear to be joining in, whilst sadly doing very little.

I am seeing this growing trend with my own Interview Coaching clients, some of them, this year, asking me if I knew how they could change companies and find a company that cares about it's environmental impact. I have put this article together to refer to going forward and hopefully expand on in the future.

In a 2017 report, by PwC, they found 65% of people wanted to work for a company with a strong social conscience. Bridget Jackson, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at PwC said, “Being green builds pride, boosting retention of top talent.”Cite  Unfortunately, this has led to many companies ‘greenwashing’ their hiring websites and corporate social media in an effort to attract talent when in reality they really are not really doing much at all.

A person doing great work with companies looking to become more sustainable is Sustainability Expert Consultant Sarah Blake at Earthology.  Sarah says, "Sustainability is described, according to the Cambridge dictionary, as ‘the quality of causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue for a long time’. The important part here is that if we don’t do business in a sustainable way, we won’t be able to continue as resources will run out." 

There is a certifying sustainability assessment process called ‘B-Corp’, which companies can choose to go through, to show how sustainable they are. It is a tough process to get certified.  B-Corp independently measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance.  Helpfully there is a published list of B-Corp companies,  not many on the list are household names unsurprisingly. However, it is a start. And they do have a job board but when I looked there were no job listings for Ireland and only nine jobs listed in the UK. They appear to be currently mostly targeting the USA.  There are only three companies in Ireland that have B Corp certification: Cully and Sully, Danone Dairy and Urban Volt.  In the UK there are 312 certified B Corps and in the USA there are 1293 listed. I think this is a listing to watch and also one to influence your own employer to thinking about joining.

A useful reference for Publicly Listed Companies with over $1 billion in global turnover, who are doing some good work on Sustainability goals, is the Corporate Knights global ranking of most sustainable large companies in 2020.  They independently assess companies according to the following indicators: Percentage Tax Paid, Pension Fund Status, Supplier Sustainability Score (except financial services organizations), Women in Executive Management, Women on Boards, Sustainability Pay Link-Sanctions Deductions, Clean Revenue.

The top 5 PLc's, according to Corporate Knights assessment for Sustainable companies, globally in 2020 were Orsted (Denmark), Chr. Hansen Holding (Denmark), Neste Oyj (Finland), Cisco Systems (USA) and Autodesk (USA). They have a handy excel spreadsheet on their website to show the top 100 PLc companies, which shows the assessed indicator scores.  Accenture was the only company in Ireland to make the top 100 list. And only 5 companies in the UK made the list, with highest on the list, at number 46, being Unilever.

What the Sustainability Expert Thinks

Sarah Blake also says, "Checking the company's website to see if they have committed to Net Zero or made Science-Based Targets (SBT) Commitments.  It's also worth checking to see do they report on GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) or disclose information to the GDP (Global Disclosure Platform). The other important mark to look out for is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), these are 17 goals that companies can work towards on their sustainability journey. These goals encompass more than just the environmental side and take into account the interconnected nature of business and society. They include things like Gender Equality (No.5) No Poverty (No.1) and Affordable and Clean Energy (No.7).


What Next

It is still early days in the search for sustainable employers.  There is much talk and only some action. But the more sustainability is talked about as a Talent Attraction and investment tool the more companies will think hard about how to back up what they are saying with evidence to prove their sustainability.

If you are thinking of moving to a more sustainable company you will have to read between the lines to ensure it is a company that is working towards Sustainability goals. Look at company reports and assess the companies according to Corporate Knights assessment criteria. Pick the most important elements of sustainability for you and work out what the company is doing well in those areas.
 
What You Can Do

If you are looking to move to a Company with a developing Sustainability ethos you will likely need to demonstrate at a job interview why you want to work at their company.  Being aware of the actions they are taking for a more Sustainable future will impress the interviewers.

If you are looking to remain in your current employer but think Sustainability is important you can find out if there is a working committee that is working on ideas to create an environment that is more sustainable and join in with workshops and volunteering. At the very least you will have something to add to your CV (even If applying to internal, roles) and feel good about yourself for doing something that helps make a difference.

How to Get Promoted
 
In uncertain times, employers generally slow down the promotion opportunities and stymie advancement because they cannot afford to promote, back-fill positions, or pay out older Partners and C-Suite people, in times of recession. 

Take the average age of partners in the Big 4 Professional Service firms.  They used to promote people to partner at an average age of 34 before the financial recession of 2007-8.  Now this has moved on a couple of years to 36.  Who knows where this will be after this recession? In the 1990’s average age was 29!  And in the good years Partners would voluntarily retire from the firm at 58 to move on to other prestigious board and advisory roles.  This is becoming rarer, as older Partners stay in place for longer for financial reasons, due to taking a hit on their pension during the last recession, and current Covid-19 one, and the dreaded equity calls/draw reductions.

This is just a snapshot from one industry, but it reflects a lot of industries.  It has become harder to get promoted because the opportunities simply aren't there unless you have the right skills in place to help your company succeed.


What does it take to get Promoted?

Apart from having your relatives run the company, it all comes down to results.

You have to have the right experiences to talk about at interview that will make the interviewers feel comfortable with promoting you, if you don't, you will likely fail to get promoted.

The most sought after skills (among others) are:

• Leadership
• Team Management/Work Management/client management
• Strategy
• Communication
• Self-Awareness
• Autonomy
• Time Management
• Delegation

If you do not have good answers to these competency skills for the interviewers to be impressed by, you will have to get the experience before the interview occurs. This takes strategic pre-planning, sometimes a year or so out from the promotional interviews.  If you are ambitious you will need to plan carefully and ensure you get the right experience to make the impact at the interview.

It does not matter how long you have been doing your current role for, you will still need to get some experience for these skills.  Interviewers do not have crystal balls.  They won’t be assured by you saying you are ready for the promotion. They need you to have what it takes and to have some evidential experiences to enable you to be safely promoted and learn fast.

These experiences do not have to be major.  Even subbing for your manager when they were on leave, taking on additional responsibilities outside of your role, managing a team as a deputy, taking on training without being asked, improving a process, saving the company money, thinking outside the box and coming up with original ideas.


What you can do

If you are approaching a promotion, in the next 12 months’, I can help you get a strategy in place that will enable you to be a contender when the interview arises.  Even if you are looking externally you can use your current role or company to facilitate any work that needs to be done and impress the interviewers.

My Promotion Coaching is best when you have time to plan and follow through to results on the experiences you need to obtain before interview.  The coaching takes place over 5 sessions.  The initial strategy session, two follow up milestones sessions to see how you are executing the strategy. A focused session on interview preparation close to the interview and a mock interview, where all your preparation work will come together in brilliant answers. 

This will be really worth your while, as it has never been harder to get promoted and you need to plan the change. Just think how great you will feel when this pays off for you.

You can book in the Promotion Coaching here. I look forward to working with you on this crucial life changing plan.

If I had a euro for every time someone asked me this question!  The answer is really very simple, but requires a lot of courage.  Most people I know have not got what it takes to get to a Chief role, whether CEO, CFO, COO, CTO etc.  They like the idea of running the show and all the benefits and, presumed, ego rub that come with the position but they are not the right fit. 

You need to assess whether you have what it takes.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you like firefighting relentlessly?
2. Do you love delegating?
3. Can you keep your cool when under fire?
4. Do you like being publicly judged?
5. Can you take risks?
6. Do you like being on your own?
7. Do you like not having a guiding hand?
8. Are you willing to go and lead a smaller company to eventually go large?
9. Are you able to take hard-nosed decisions?
10. Do you like the buck stopping with you?
11. Do you like the idea of always being in the spotlight?

 
 
How did you get on with those questions?  Leading a company takes massive amounts of courage because nothing is plain sailing.  Answering yes, to these assessment questions, is a good indicator your aspirations may not be just dreams.
 
Now, think about your career.  Maybe you are currently at a Director level or Managing Director of a division. That is great because that is where C-Suite are bred. But ask yourself these six questions:

1. What track record do I have of improving my area?
2. What big fires have I been responsible for putting out lately?
3. What have I done with negative feedback?
4. Have I got sufficient cross department experience and knowledge?
5. Have I made some tough calls like making redundancies or leaning a bloated department?
6. Have I taken calculated risks, stood over them and owned them, even when they failed?

 
Having owned an Executive Search Firm for seven years I know that C-Suite is not all about positive high achievements. It is knowing what to do when things go wrong, backfire or even explode in both ways.  Having the theory of what to do is no match for having the experience.
 
If you are still gunning for C-Suite what have you done in the last three years, which can provide impressive answers to my six questions?
 
Yes, you may well have produced excellent results, but at this level expect questions like my six above. Have you got great examples to answer these? This is what makes a great C-Suite person and explains why so many high performers get leapfrogged by their grittier, varied experience, junior reports to the top table.
 
I know at the top level it is hard for people to find C level jobs, if they have only worked in a perceived easy company, or trendy company.Companies, such as Big Tech, Social Media, Big Pharma. These companies are just not attractive hunting grounds for C leaders because the perception is they will have no experience of turning around a business or working with lean budgets and breaking into new markets.

You will need to get way out of your comfort zone to prove your worth to most regular companies.  If you are currently in a 'popular' company,  I know these big budget companies often like to see varied C level experience and sometime take back former senior employees, after they have taken a diversion for a couple of years, to practice their leadership on someone else’s payroll!
 
If you need guidance and an assessment on whether you have what it takes to make it to the C-suite let’s have a call. I will be honest.
 
If you have the experience, and are preparing for upcoming interviews, we have a great Executive Interview Coaching Programme for these interviews.  I can help you develop outstanding answers, which will pitch you perfectly for your chosen C level role in your interviews.
 
If you have the desire but are still lacking in the right rounded experience,  I will be able to provide an actionable plan to get you on the right path using my Promotion Coaching system.
 
Book in a 20 minute call today to discuss your needs.
 
 
 

This is the most contentious of all internal interviews. Most of the time re-interviewing for your own job occurs when a company is going through a particularly tough time and need to shed employees, sometimes without much notice and hardly any more than a statutory redundancy package if you do a poor interview and don’t get your job back.  Also, if they have merged or been acquired with or by, another company, and find themselves with duplicated employees.

This is often traumatic for the employees, particularly if they have been in the role or company for years.  It is even more stressful for those in an older demographic relying on their job to secure their pension. 

My heart always sinks when I hear about this practice, as I know this often signals we are definitely entering another big recession. And the collateral damage as always are job losses and misery.

I understand why employers are pushed into this.  As an ex HR Manager, I understand this is the only way they can safely let employees go.  By safely, I mean it is the only way employers can protect themselves from a bunch of litigation cases for wrongful dismissal.  A re-interview is their way of proving evidence of their decision making on who to keep on, and who to make redundant.

Unfortunately, if you have not interviewed in years and find yourself in this situation you really need to get up to speed fast with interviewing techniques and formats used in 2020.  I have just published a new course on Udemy titled ‘Interview for Success in 2020’.  It is a thorough and comprehensive course, which explains how to interview and compile great answers for a range of interviewing formats, including: Structured, Behavioural Competency, Situational and Technical formats.  And especially for these Covid-19 days, how to interview in a Video Interview.

Sadly, employees that are long standing, and often the highest paid, are more often than not targeted by HR for the re-interviewing shortlist. This is demonstrated by British Airways  who recently announced they are planning to let all their pilot staff go and then they will re-interview them for their jobs.  If you know anything about BA you will know that there is a disparity in benefits between different cohorts of their employees.  Long standing employees have more benefits and higher salaries than the newer employees, hired more recently.  This is BA’s chance to rehire their old employees on equitable terms, with new and less beneficial contract terms.  It is currently being legally challenged.

A large technology company, who is also one of the wealthiest companies on the planet, are also re-interviewing, for what reason I do not know. I will leave that thought hanging.

Sometimes, companies have genuine reasons, and sometimes they see a recession as a great opportunity to restructure their workforce, for all sorts of reasons. 

If you are re-interviewing for your job, do not panic.  But, do get organised.

Treat the interview as if you are interviewing at the company for the first time.  Explain yourself fully and prepare all the answers to likely questions completely.  Do not assume or presume that the company know all about you and your achievements, you have to tell them about them fully. This is what an interview is all about, giving evidence for why you are great at your job. Likewise, with technical questions, answer questions fully, as if you were teaching someone who has no idea how to do the technical aspects of your job.

But, ultimately, this is the right time to get help with your interviews.  A professional interview preparation coach can do wonders for developing your answers, ability to sell yourself and your confidence.  It is vital that you work with someone who has a big track record in Recruiting Internally for companies. They will know exactly what angles to come at in positioning your answers in the best way. 

With my background, as Head of Recruitment at global companies such as Deloitte and KPMG, I can help you to prepare for your re-interview.  I have interviewed thousands for internal positions in my decades in recruitment roles.  And I have coached thousands in the last 12 years of interview coaching, which vitally includes helping my clients secure their jobs through re-interviewing in the last recession.

Do not hesitate to book in for coaching.  The Internal Interview Coaching Programme is best for anyone re-interviewing.  The Internal Programme consists of 2.5 hours of 1:1 interview preparation coaching by video link.  And as a bonus, I will also include my online course ‘Interview for Success in 2020’ for free, to give you a back up resource for all my 1:1 coaching.
 

The job market is certainly changing extremely fast these days.  With the slow release of global lock-down from Covid-19 we are starting to see an emergence of a starkly different world, and it's not necessarily a great time to find a new job. 

When I launched my interview coaching business in 2008, we were entering a financial recession, that went on for a number of years.  Jobs were scarce and people were scared.  I can’t believe how fast the years have gone by and here we are again. Another global recession looming like a juggernaut in the rear-view mirror.

We can all only hope that the bounce back won’t be as long as the last recession.

However, there are glimmers of hope among the grey gathering clouds.  The rise of home working will be transformative for many who hate their daily commute or dislike the noise of a busy office.  Employers who have got a handle on how the technology works for remote working are becoming embracing of this very swift change.  Of course, there will be those stuck in the past, demanding presenteeism in the office, but like those companies slow to change and adapt they will find it hard to attract new talent. 

What does it Mean if you are Looking for a New Job or Promotion?

Things are going to be tough for a while in the job market and you can’t afford to be complacent or unprepared for your interviews because other candidates will be prepared and may get the job. 
This is a hard shock to the system, as we are seeing the balance of power shift fast into the employer’s hands, from what was, at the start of 2020, a strong candidate market.  Now, it is an employer’s market, which means they can be pickier than in the last few years, when they had to search high and low for talent.  Expect to see the balance of power shift in the next six months as more companies rationalise their workforce and implement cost saving measures with redundancies.  Employers, who are looking to hire, will have their pick of candidates and are back in control.  In an employer’s market expect to see:

1. Less jobs available
2. Lower salaries offered
3. Less counter-offers
4. Fewer promotions

 
How you can Help Yourself to get Prepared for Interview

You can avail of all my experience having guided hundreds of clients through the last recession.  You can take my free online course on ‘What to do before Applying for a New Job’ to make sure your application is impactful and give yourself a great chance of getting an interview.

For full interview preparation I recommend booking into one of my interview coaching programmes.  There is a programme that will meet your needs whether you are an Executive, Manager, or a Professional seeking a new job or Promotion or Graduate.

To get in the best shape you can, if you are looking for a new job, take my pre-application course and clean up your Linked In profile, dust your social media down, and get a targeted CV in place.
Then book in your interview coaching with me. 

If you want to speak to me about your interview preparation needs please book in a call.