The Empowered Job Seeker Series, v.17 - How Jen came to Understand the Value of Formal Interview Preparation

When most people go into a job interview their biggest problem is to remember and articulate everything that they have done and accomplished in the past.  Unless a candidate has prepared for this, the pressure of an interview can often make their answers awkward and disjointed.  The reason for this is easy to understand as the candidate must answer unanticipated questions on the spot.

When Jen joined our program and found herself at the interview stage, her CMS Program Coach found it a little difficult to convince Jen to formally prepare for these types of technical questions.  Jen was a Mechanical Engineer with a background in the automotive sector.  She was smart, confident, successful, and well respected in her field and felt she could easily answer any technical question an interviewer may have.

However, Jen underestimated the nerves she felt when she arrived at her first interview.  She felt overwhelmed by the vastness of the office building she entered and the very formal and business-like demeanour she found with all those who shuffled through the reception area.  This was an environment that she had not become accustomed to over the course of her career.  And all of a sudden she felt quite out of her depth, and as she reported to her Program Coach, felt her mind go blank.

Unfortunately for Jen, these feelings of insecurity overtook her during the actual interview, and she found herself waffling when trying to answer some of the very technical questions specific to the job opportunity.  She felt confusion as she tried to recall events and situations from the past that would be most valuable to the interviewer, leaving unfortunate and uncomfortable pauses and lack of detail in her responses.

The lack of a smooth, detailed response to technical questions can leave a question of credibility with the interviewer about that particular candidate.  And in highly competitive battles for jobs like the one Jen was after, one cannot afford to leave their credibility on the table.

Needless to say, Jen came back from that first interview feeling quite rattled and quickly understood the importance of formally preparing for technical interview questions. Making sure that the job search candidates at CMS are fluent and confident in their delivery of their answer to technical questions is essential to their success.  Our Program Coaches work with them through a variety of written exercises to help them to recall and articulate their major strengths and career highlights so that answering technical interview questions is easy and natural.