If you already work for an organisation and you are applying for an internal position, this post is for you. This is particularly important if you work in a government organisation where merit and equity principles are applied to all roles and where your job interview plays a major part in the decision of who to appoint to a role, and essentially you’re competing on an even footing with external candidates.
As an internal candidate, you are often in the best position to win a role. However, some of the most disappointing interviews I have conducted have been internal people who have applied for internal roles. People in this situation traditionally undersell themselves and the interview panel is often disappointed. The interviewee assumes the panel already knows of their achievements and fails to describe their achievements throughout the interview.
My key pieces of advice here are:
Assume the panel have never met you—and don’t be afraid to talk yourself up. Use the word ‘I’ to describe your personal contributions to key projects. Internal candidates tend to use the word ‘we’ as their manager is often on the panel and the interviewee is afraid to take credit for joint projects. Yet, the interview panel is then confused about what role the candidate played in the project. So, make sure you use the word ‘I’ and describe your personal work.
Another useful trick is to answer the questions by directing them to the people on the panel who do not know your work. Your manager is probably already ‘barracking’ for you—so use the interview as an opportunity to promote yourself to members of the organisation who are not already familiar with you.
As an internal candidate, you are likely in the best position to win a role—keep this in mind and use these tips to secure your new role or promotion.
A common question is ‘what should I wear for a job interview?’ Surprisingly, responses to this question vary.
When I told a colleague that I had heard you should dress for the job you want, not the job you have, she laughed and responded ‘so I should dress in a fireman’s outfit?!’ Point taken.
Jokes aside, my three top tips for what to wear for an interview are:
Dress professionally
How you present in an interview is you putting your best foot forward. You need to have made an effort and to show how important this is to you. When I interview people, I think to myself ‘this is their best effort.’ Your attire at an interview reflects how you will present for work—except you will not put this much effort into your everyday outfits.
I believe in dressing quite formally for an interview, regardless of the level of role or type of position. Other people believe in guessing what might be the acceptable attire in the place of work and dressing similarly. For example, in a design studio, there may be a more relaxed dress code and people sometimes feel comfortable to ‘dress down’.
I suggest that men should always wear suit pants and a formal shirt as a minimum. They don’t need to wear a tie or suit jacket, but their shirt must be a formal shirt. For higher level roles, a suit jacket is essential.
Women can wear a suit, a professional dress, a professional skirt and blouse or crisp shirt. Google ‘what to wear for an interview’ images and you can see the sorts of recommended attire.
Regardless of how formally you are dressed, you should look professional. I suggest wearing toned-down colours—now is not the time to display your fashionable peacock dress. Bright colours, gaping shirts, drycleaning tags, ill-fitting clothes—I have seen it all and it creates a lasting impression—although not the impression you want to create!
So, dress professionally and put your best foot forward.
Ensure your clothes and accessories do not distract the interviewers
A key point about your attire is that you do not want the interviewer or interview panel focused on your outfit. You want them focused on you and what you are saying.
Outlandish outfits will not win you a job. I recall conducting graduate assessment centres around Australia and some of the outfits were totally inappropriate. This was for a very serious government organisation. One girl I recall wore slouchy boots and a short mini skirt and a green t-shirt. That’s all I can remember of her. A manager of mine interviewed a lady who had a different nail polish colour on every nail. This was incredibly distracting.
Make sure you look in the mirror—or better yet ask a family member to have a quick look at you. I have interviewed a young graduate who had the drycleaning tags on the outside of her outfit.
Ensure you look professional with no distractions and keep those interviewers focused on what you have to say.
Be confident
Finally, confidence is key. Wear clothes that fit you well and that are comfortable. You don’t want to be uncomfortable in the interview and thinking about your clothes. If you are distracted, you may look as if you lack confidence.
Once you are dressed and happy with your outfit, do not think about your clothes anymore. Be confident in your outfit and don’t give it another thought!
So, to give yourself the best chance at an interview:
We hope this has been helpful and that your resume is looking fantastic. Leave a comment below to let us know which information you found particularly helpful.
Some people love interviews. Others hate them. Whether you’re a lover or a hater, we can help you prepare to put your best foot forward in an interview situation. From our experience of interviewing hundreds of people for a wide range of positions, nerves can really affect the interview performance of all candidates. Some candidates forget everything they were going to say. Some candidates can’t think past their current position and keep providing the same project examples for every question. Some candidates can’t think of any examples at all.
If you have applied for the position and won an interview, chances are you have the required skills, experience and knowledge. The trick is how to overcome your nerves and communicate them in an interview.
We recommend that you use the template linked here to prepare for your interview.
The template has five sections.
1. Tell us about yourself
Record three brief dot points here with the top three things you want to tell the interviewer about yourself. These are not personal things. These need to be relevant to the role. For example, you’re an experienced project manager of ten years, you’re an experienced manager of teams over ten years, and you’ve applied for this role because you’re really interested in working for this company.
2. Capabilities required for the position
In the left hand column, write the key things that the organisation is looking for—one in each box. In a government job selection process, these will be the key selection criteria. In a private organisation’s selection process, these will be the ‘highly desirable attributes’, ‘capabilities required for the position’ or generally the list of attributes high up in the advertisement. For example, experienced project manager, ability to build relationships internally and externally, business development skills, etc.
In the right hand column, list up to three dot points per criteria. For the project management example, these might include ‘BHP Billiton Conversation Program’, ‘Investigations Capability Project’ and ‘Leadership Conversations Program’.
3. Key projects or examples
In the lower section of the page, write some examples of key projects that you have worked on. If you’re asked for a project that demonstrates your stakeholder management skills, quickly refer to the list and use one of your examples there. For a more entry level position, record some activities that you’re particularly proud of and that demonstrate your suitability for the position. For example, a change you made to a process, a team you led, etc. These can include school or university projects and also experience gained whilst volunteering.
4. Why should we hire you
This question is quite similar to the Tell us about yourself question but may be asked at the end of the interview. This is your last chance to impress the interviewer.
Record here three dot points that you really want to communicate to the interviewer. For example, you’re passionate about this type of work, you’re passionate about the company, and you have the experience they require.
5. Questions
Record here a couple of dot points of questions you might like to ask. Use one or two words if possible. For example, ‘measure success?’, ‘key projects?’ or ‘key responsibilities?’
Print this template and take it with you to the interview. It is good etiquette to check with the interviewer or panel if it is okay to bring your notepad into the interview. I’ve rarely heard of any interviewer refusing.
We guarantee this will improve your interview performance. Even if you don’t need to look at the page during the interview, you will have thought through what skills, experience and knowledge make you suitable for the role and will be drawing on these throughout the interview.
Best of luck!
It’s a big claim, but we are confident that this will be the best interview tip you ever receive. We think this tip is particularly relevant to applying for government jobs where there are usually a standard set of questions for all candidates.
At the end of the interview, the interviewer will ask if you have any questions. This is the time when you can ask questions that haven’t already been covered during the interview. Perhaps you might want to know what your key responsibilities will be, or how your success will be measured in the role.
Regardless of what questions you have, we have the best question for you to ask at every interview.
And the question is…
“Is there anything that I haven’t addressed that you would like me to discuss further?” (or something along those lines that comes naturally to you).
This question is the perfect question because it gives the panel a chance to probe further about any concerns they have.
In my experience, there are a couple of responses from the interviewer.
We have used this question ourselves and have recommended it to many of the people we coach and it is definitely the best interview tip!
Without a doubt, the most talked about interview question is ‘what are your weaknesses’ or something to that effect. I have heard many people sarcastically comment ‘Oh, I’m a perfectionist’ whilst discussing this question. In my view, it is not a question to be taken lightly and it provides a great opportunity to position yourself for the job. It can also be one of the most damaging questions.
I have interviewed new graduates who have not been able to identify a weakness, even with significant prompting. This really makes me question their suitability for a role and their level of self-awareness. Admittedly, we phrased the question as ‘Tell us of a time when someone has given you negative feedback in the workplace and how you implemented some self-improvement as a result.’ This is still a weakness question.
You need to demonstrate your self-awareness by identifying a genuine, honest weakness, and at the same time showing how you have taken actions to make it work in the workplace. This is not the time to talk about a weakness that has no obvious strategy for making it work. This question requires preparation and forethought.
I respond to this question by talking about my struggle to say no (a genuine weakness of mine). I identify this as a weakness and then talk about how my managers generally love it (you can imagine!) and that as a result I have to implement strategies to help me be effective at work. One of the strategies is excellent time management (seriously). Another strategy is directing a question back to my manager when I have too much to do and know I can’t do everything to allow my manager to work out what they don’t want me to focus on.
As another example, a friend of mine is a perfectionist, so she can answer this question honestly by talking about her perfectionism. And then discussing how she has implemented strategies to help her be effective at work. She will talk about things like allocating a set amount of time to a task and concluding the task within the time limit so that she does not agonise over the remaining 1% that may not be perfect to her standards but which is still wonderful by anyone else’s. She could jokingly talk about how many hours she spent researching the company before the interview, including reading the annual report (clearly only to be mentioned if it’s true!) as another example of how it affects her work and how it can be positive.
You might talk about how much of an extravert you are and that you love to engage with people socially but that in the workplace you have learnt to reserve this social interaction for the break times.
You might talk about how naturally introverted you are but that in the workplace, you have to work outside your comfort zone to engage with clients or provide excellent customer service.
Everyone has weaknesses. This question is not asking for your deepest dark secrets. It is a way of finding out how self-aware you are and also providing your potential manager with an insight into how to work with you. Identify a genuine weakness that could affect your work and describe your strategies for overcoming it in the workplace. Prepare for this question. Practice it with a friend. And when they ask you in the interview, you can confidently address it rather than scrambling for the first example that comes to mind—which in my experience is usually something fairly alarming that you probably don’t need to tell the interview panel about!
