I want to change my job — Do I really need interview coaching?
If it has been a long time since you brushed up your LinkedIn/CV (>1 year) then booking a profile review to have an experienced eye provide feedback and assistance in getting it into form is my top recommendation.
Let me provide some context. In addition to my daytime responsibilities as a Senior Technical Program Manager who has worked full time at most of the top tier FAANG companies (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, etc…), and my pursuits writing/recording/publishing original music, building guitars, etc… I am also a freelance career and interview coach/mentor. I have coached some 200+ interview candidates over the past year — people in all different stages of their careers. Sr VPs & Directors all the way across to fresh college graduates and college students looking for internships. Every single one of them benefitted from talking with someone who has been across the table/video screen as an experienced interviewer — understanding all the nuances of how an interviewer/hiring manager reads your LinkedIn/CV; the importance of consistency between your resume and your online profile; demeanor and organization of your answers to even the simplest of questions; importance of intellectual humility; and properly set expectations — the CEO or CTO of a small to mid sized tech firm who is looking to come into Google as a CTO or Sr VP might very well be deluding themselves and experience a failure to secure that coveted position. Similarly, underselling yourself will only lead to dissatisfaction with the role you easily land.
The types and seniority of the roles you’re going to be attracting relies very much on how you present yourself to hiring managers and recruiters — your profile only has about 1–2 minutes to make an impression before they decide to dig into your details or move on to the next one. Revising and formatting your LinkedIn/CV (and making sure they match!!) increases your chances of keeping their eyes on your profile, and therefore getting that first contact from them.
Recruiter calls used to be a simple rubber stamp — “does the candidate breathe and do they sound coherent?” has been replaced with “can they answer a few questions pertinent to the role I am actively recruiting for?” A fair number of recruiters still don’t have the depth of knowledge specific to the role, but will refer to a sheet of questions and answers the hiring manager gave them and compare your response with those. Bottom line though is: do you feel confident that you can answer simple role related knowledge such that the recruiter will pass your profile on to the hiring manager? In most circumstances you should, but getting time to brush up on how to respond and knock the cobwebs off of your interview skills is certainly a positive step.
The Hiring Manager/Phone Screen is really your first round. For those who haven’t interviewed externally in a long time, this will be your first encounter with the STAR format for interviewing. A good coach will review what makes up a good STAR story, how to prepare your stories and then mock interview using those stories with feedback helping you to deliver with confidence. These phone screens are the gateway into your chance to get your foot in the door — these coaching sessions build the basic skill set you’ll need for the virtual or in person on site interviews that will really test your abilities to present yourself in a positive light. 1–2 60 min sessions will get the candidate prepped up sufficiently for this stage.
Virtual/On Site interview loop — welcome to The Show! Now you get to show how your experience and skill set also come with a corporate cultural fit to make *you* the candidate who will win an offer you’ll be happy with. Your resume and the phone screen proved that you have the knowledge and background to do the job, this is where you also need to show you have the right work ethic, collaborative nature and attitude to succeed while fitting in culturally with the team(s) you’re interviewing with. The coach will keep you disciplined and calm — the calmer and more collected you are in your responses, the more senior and experienced therefore the more desirable a hire you are. My clients usually book 3–4 60 min sessions to prepare for this and many have returned providing feedback on how helpful and important our time together was to their eventual success.
Follow up sessions for negotiating and/or team placement is usually dependent on the company the client is interviewing with, and how confident the client is in this stage. The pressure really is reduced once you get to this point, but knowing what details are negotiating points and what are not is good preparation for the client. Clients have lost the offer through countering unrealistically, so this is important to have that knowledge and set your expectations realistically. I have consulted with a number of clients — usually 1–2 30 min sessions to review the offer and help formulate a counter that will either get an immediate agreement or one that will have your recruiter return in a day or two giving you an offer that will be acceptable to you. Setting your expectations realistically for the role, ladder level and compensation especially keeping those tangibles such as remote vs in person vs relocation in mind. I personally didn’t fully appreciate the expense of living in the Bay Area when I accepted my job with Google to relocate from Seattle — that *will absolutely* affect your performance if you’re not able to achieve a wage that will allow you to live productively.
In closing — most of my clients have responded directly to me providing feedback that explicitly called out the value of our sessions together. Most of you have the skill set to do and excel at the jobs you’re targeting, but tightening up your presentation to make the most of your opportunity to interview for that dream job - preparing for it emotionally, mentally and yes physically. You can always tell how well you did by how tired you are after the interviews — if you’re refreshed and ready to meet another interviewer or two, then you did well. If you’re exhausted — well, it’s far less certain how you did. The more calm, cool and collected client will always feel they did well, and are more often rewarded with the job offer they’re hoping for. Do the preparation and improve your chances of getting that opportunity to join the company very few people have — it’s that crown jewel in your resume that will open doors for you down the line when you’re ready to change things up again.