Practising with a real interviewer helped secure a promotion

I recently had a client who had asked me to help them get ready to interview for a promotion in the public sector. To their credit they had done a huge amount of preparation for our session. Prior to the training I had sent them a worksheet with typically asked competency questions and had asked them to think about how they would use their experience to answer them. They had looked at the public sector competency model and thought that their experience matched what the interviewer would be looking for. They had strong scenarios. So far, so good. But they also couldn’t resist asking ChatGPT to take their scenarios and generate ‘great’ answers to our questions.

Once we started the session it didn’t take me long to figure out the source of the answers. It was obvious to me that these “right” answers were never going to work with his interviewers – they didn’t adequately reflect the experience and skills I knew this person had. I needed to intervene so I asked them straight out: “How quickly did ChatGPT generate these answers and did you have to do much prompting?”

They smiled and asked if it was that obvious. It was. So we started again.

He put the AI-generated material aside and I encouraged him to give me the answers in his own words – not some AI-generated elaborate “interview speak” that is impossible to remember in an interview. The first two were a little challenging but he soon got into the flow of the answers and his confidence in what he was saying soared.

He was able to road-test his answers in a realistic interview environment where throughout the session I consistently flipped my role between being his interviewer and his interview coach. I listened to his answers and told him how each one would land with his interviewer, what was good about it, how they were likely to score it and what needed to change. He realised that he had been consistently underselling his past experience, which, when we examined it, was because he never felt comfortable saying how good he was at his job.

I didn’t just evaluate what he said; I also looked at how he said it – from his body language to tone of voice – everything matters in making a strong impact on the interviewer.

He finished the session knowing his answers were good and ready to tackle his interview with confidence. He got the promotion.

Ready to land your next job? Book your personalized Interview Preparation Session with us today and take control of your career. Our tailored coaching will give you the tools, confidence, and insights to ace your next interview.

Image Credit: Photo by Freepik