I had ann interview for promotion this morning, my first proper interview in almost 10 years. I’ve had a few smaller promotions during that time that didn’t involve a formal interview, but this is a big step up in terms of seniority and responsibility.
I put a lot of work into preparation over the last couple of weeks and felt like I was going in as prepared as I could possibly be. I’m just not really sure how it went. I felt like I got better as it went on, but some of my earlier answers were a bit wishy-washy. Since leaving, my head’s been spinning thinking about all the things I wish I’d said, or things I’d prepared to say but didn’t actually get out.
I think I did better on the competency based questions, but even with those there were answers where I wish I’d gone into more detail or given a better example. Part of the problem was that on some of the earlier questions I went into too much detail and they actually told me I’d run into the next question. So after that I started keeping my answers a bit more concise, expecting there to be follow-up questions on some of the bigger areas, which then didn’t really happen.
Overall, it’s just been an exhausting experience and I’m now feeling pretty dispirited. I know I could have performed better, and that’s probably the most frustrating part, sitting here afterwards thinking of all the things I could and should have said.
