Work

[stumobir]

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.

[SuperBacon]

It's up to you, but you can always send a follow up email to the hiring manager thanking them for their time and asking if there is anything from the interview they'd like clarifying or going over? I've done that a few times. 

It's infuriating leaving an interview and thinking "should've said this, should've mentioned that" and I did that very recently, but it's done mate. You did your best and prepared as well as you could. Fingers crossed brother!

[westlondonmist]

I had a mock interview today to help get people to promote within. They gave me 3 questions in advance, and all 3 I'd been asked before so obviously they get asked at pretty much all interviews for the next level. They actually seemed surprised at how good my answers were. The one that went best was about projects I'd managed, previously I'd said the main project I'd worked on, but was only second in command of this £15m capital project (yeah only second), so got heavily disected. This time I just talked about a smaller one where I'd increased income for the council, they basically said the perfect answer in a council is giving an example of increasing income while not making it less accessible. Just for context it was replacing coin slots with card readers in public bogs and then increasing the price. 

 

Shame it wasn't real. 

[SuperBacon]

22 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

Just for context it was replacing coin slots with card readers in public bogs and then increasing the price. 

Blimey, just how much are johnnies in bogs these days?

[westlondonmist]

3 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Blimey, just how much are johnnies in bogs these days?

Depends, cheese and onion, union jack tickler's come at a premium.