Hey Reader,
Before we get stuck into today's topic, let's give you an invite to a free event. I'm hosting a webinar on how to review your comms channels with my pals at Workvivo on 1st April.
This event is for you if you want to:
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Okay let's get into today's topic. Here's a question that I received from an internal comms professional in London:
Hi Joanna, I am in the process of looking for a new job and it is so nerve wracking. I haven't done an interview in years and I'm drawing a blank in how to prepare for an interview or what research or do or even where to start. Help!"
Okay I know that LOTS of people in my network are job hunting (or considering it) right now so this is a great topic to unpack. Interviews are bloody hard and frankly terrifying, even for professional communicators like us who in theory should excel at communicating our value and showcasing our expertise.
I don't know about you, but I always found I was better at communicating about OTHER people rather than about myself. I used to find it very hard to talk about my achievements for fear I sounded like I was boasting or arrogant.
But over the years I've improved my interview game a lot and today I'll teach you some of the things that have helped me land some great jobs and do some interviews I was really happy with. Let's get super focused here and go into some depth about how to prepare for an interview.
[If you want a follow up about actually doing the interview itself then reply and let me know.]
Okay, prep time. Prep is super key for a great interview. If I'm interviewing for a job I really really want, then I'm going to approach it like a full-blown important exam. I'm going to invest TONS of time and energy into preparing so that when I walk into that interview I feel ready, I feel confident and I know I've done all I can in advance. I typically start this process at least a week before the interview so that I've got time to noodle it all around in my head and give myself time to feel fully prepared and not rushed.
Here's what that prep time looks like for me:
Find the keywords
Okay I'm going to start with the job spec. I'm going to read it super carefully to understand what the role is all about and what the hiring manager is really looking for. You want to look for keywords that tell you what the hiring manager needs in terms of skills, experience, expertise. So for example you might highlight keywords like:
- Channel management
- Leadership coaching
- Creative content creation
- Event management
Circle all the keywords you can find and think about how they relate to you and your experience. Which of these are you really strong in? How can you align your past experiences with these keywords to demonstrate that you are the perfect fit for the role?
And have a look to see which keywords are repeated. I saw a job spec once that said multiple times they needed someone who would coach line managers, so this told me very clearly that this was something they were prioritising and it should be something I talk about in the interview in terms of my own experience.
Based on the words you find, start to prepare some stories you can tell about your achievements and expertise. You want them to sit there thinking "Jaysus this person can do EXACTLY what we need in this job. We must hire them immediately!!"
Know your audience
The next thing I'm going to do to prepare is to find out as much as I can about who is interviewing me. I think most companies these days will tell you who is going to interview you, whether that's a 1-to-1 call with a hiring manager or an interview in front of a panel. So once I have the names of whoever I need to impress, I'm putting those names into Google and LinkedIn to find out as much as I can about them.
- How long have they been in the company?
- What do they care about? Can I find this out from their LinkedIn posts?
- Are they likely to respond to formal or more informal communication? Again I might get a sense of this from their LinkedIn posts or comments.
- What nuggets can I find out from them in press releases, blogs, news articles etc?
Maybe this sounds creepy when I type it all out like that haha. But hey it's comms 101 isn't it, you need to know your audience so that you can tailor your communication to them.
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Ok now you've done your prep work on the key words, you've started to understand your audience, the next thing I'd do is dive into the organisation.
Research the company
At this stage I'd be looking beyond the job spec and doing some digging into the company itself. I'd look at the website, their social channels, their press releases. I'd put the company name into Google News and see what comes up. I'd be trying to get my head around things like:
- What's happening in the company right now?
- Are they going through any major changes or milestones?
- How many employees do they have?
- How many locations are they based in?
- Are their workers based mostly at desks or elsewhere?
I'd also be looking on their website for the page about their vision, mission and values. I'd look closely at their values and see if they align with mine, and I'd be thinking about how I could talk about one of their core values in the interview to demonstrate this alignment. For example, if one of their values is "creativity" or "innovation" then I'd be preparing a story about a time I behaved in a way that was creative or innovative.
As I'm doing all of this company research, I'd be creating a one page doc with interesting tidbits and insights that I can refer to in the interview. This will show that I've done my homework, I'm prepared and I'm genuinely really interested in joining the company.
Gather employee insights
Now another thing I'd do when preparing for an internal comms job is that I'd be really digging around to see what I can find out from current employees. Now I don't mean actually contacting employees directly, but rather I'd be using the absolute goldmine that is Glassdoor for insights.
Because Glassdoor can often tell you a lot about the communication challenges the company is facing, and might give some context to the keywords you found in the job spec. For example:
- You see a bunch of comments from employees complaining that leaders never tell them anything or that leaders can't be trusted
- Maybe you see a few reviews that say the pay is fine but the culture is toxic
- Or you might see the opposite, you might find comments that tell you that communication is really good and leaders are well liked
All of this is absolute gold, because it gives you a way to more deeply understand the context of the job you're going for and to have richer conversations in the interview about how you can help them with their problem of X, Y and Z. You can also use this info to ask the interviews insights-based questions, for example โI noticed employees on Glassdoor talking about a leadership roadshow that happens each year. Could you tell me more about this?โ
Ok. Phew! That was a lot. Let me finish with one caveat here. If you are interviewing for a bunch of roles it's unlikely you'd have time to do into this kind of in-depth preparation for every single one. My advice is this: do this super in-depth approach for the job you REALLY want. Like if you're interviewing for your absolute dream job, then give it top priority and tons of prep time. If it's a more mediocre role and you're not that bothered about it, then do less prep.
Do you want any other tips on job hunting, interviewing, writing a CV etc? I got pretty good at this stuff over many years of job hopping so I'm happy to help in any way I can! [Yes, proud job-hopper here.] Hit reply and let me know what else you need.
Thanks for reading and stay curious,
Joanna