Understated, Overstated or Unrelated?

We work with many outstandingly successful and gifted people to help them plan and execute their next career move and in particular to present themselves as an outstanding candidate at interview. 

Typically all the individuals we coach have strong stories to tell at interview. They invariably have a timeline of rich experiences and significant achievements, illustrating many different professional, technical and leadership skills.  

Yet when it comes to encapsulating and presenting this rich tapestry of attributes at interview we often find that even the most successful people struggle to be clear and focused about telling their career stories in a compelling, impactful and relevant way. This becomes very apparent to us when under video playback conditions we role-play an upcoming job interview with a candidate. 

The three most common states we observe in individuals in how well or otherwise they convey their career stories are: 

1. Understated - probably the most common habit, where individuals simply do not boldly and confidently make the most of their rich experiences, skills and learning to demonstrate why they are the most capable candidate for the advertised role. They assume it is up to the interviewer to find out more about them, rather than taking control and turning each question asked into an opportunity to actively and proudly demonstrate their distinctive capabilities and how they are a strong fit for the competencies required in the role. If you are not asserting yourself like this, you can be sure other candidates for the same role will be definitely doing so. 

2. Overstated - quite often we meet individuals who have had such a rich and varied career to date, that they almost have too much to put across at interview. In this case individuals will often be very unfocused in telling their stories, jumping from example to example in response to questions and generally using too many words and making it very difficult for the interviewer to connect the individuals capabilities to the very specific competencies of the advertised role.

3. Unrelated - individuals tell good stories but they tell the wrong stories in the wrong way. The interviewer (certainly if they have been well trained in interview techniques) will be looking for very precise information and examples on the degree to which your competencies match those of the vacant job. Failure to prepare well and practice before interview is often the root cause of this difficulty. Careful research and analysis of job documentation will give you most of the information you need on what competencies are most required in the job. The skill is then to select and focus on your most powerful recent experiences and achievements that very precisely show how you have the required combination of competencies for the role

Over many years of coaching candidates, Brosna Consulting has developed a full range of easily learnable proprietary techniques to help individuals overcome each of theses states. These techniques all start with the need to focus on what is most important to convey to an interviewer and then cover simple but effective ways of quickly encapsulating and articulating an individuals most relevant experiences so they match closely and clearly the requirements of the vacant job. 

And we know that these techniques work; not just because individual clients tell us they do but because we have a very high strike rate in coaching individuals to stand out at interviews and ultimately secure their targeted new role.

If you would value a confidential dialogue to learn more about how we can help you with your career transition and interview preparation, then please in the first instance send an email to tim@brosna-consulting.com.