My typical clients are entrepreneurs and executives looking to make entrepreneurial moves, but recently I’ve been coaching a few phenomenal women ahead of interviews for jobs and consulting gigs.
I do not consider myself a “career coach” (I certainly don’t know how to help AI scan your resume).
BUT I do have a very high hit rate of getting the jobs and consulting gigs I’ve applied for over the years - mostly all positions I ostensibly had no relevant experience for…
And I did move up in seniority and pay in pretty much every job I had, despite moving between industries every few years.
So with that in mind, here are a few reflections on what I think works in these conversations.
(Please read these bearing in mind that I am a fairly atypical human, comfortable with a lot of ambiguity, calm on my feet in interviews, and in my previous corporate and consulting life I generally presented myself as a strategic, solution-oriented multi-tool. The only thing I’ve ever put in the hours to consider myself a “specialist” at is coaching itself.)
1) I only put myself in the ring for roles and opportunities that I am very interested in and where I think I can add a ton of value.
If you change nothing else after reading this, please stop applying for roles you don’t even want.
This matters for two reasons: I'm never trying to convince anyone of anything I don't think is 100% true.
And I'm not putting myself in a position where I can be rejected by something I didn't want anyway.
I protect my confidence for when I really need it. Building up and protecting your “you’d be lucky to have me” mojo is more important than everything else on this list.
And now you ask, how do you know where you can add a ton of value?
Think of a role you saw recently:
Do you have a bunch of ideas for how this person/this organization can make more impact and stand out at what they do?
Do you understand how to adapt best practice from where you’ve been before to their problems?
Do you get how a company going from this particular period in its growth arc to the next one? Have you helped someone do that before?
Can you imagine what they’re finding exciting/hard and offer some ideas and remedies in your first conversation?
If it’s a “Yes” to even a couple of these questions then you can add a ton of value.
2) I study the brief/job description, but assume that it's at best a rough indication of the actual problem that needs solving.
Most people and organizations are truly terrible at articulating what they really need help with and why. And if they know, some of it is unprintable nuanced stuff about people and teams and how things actually get done.
Also, if you’re a generalist, you don’t want to be so targeted to one specific role in your initial conversation that the hiring person doesn’t realize you’d also be a good fit for a bunch of stuff coming down the pipe in the next few months.
I invite you to instead use the description as a jumping-off point to find out what's really going on - what are the big strategic priorities right now and where are their gaps in delivery? How have they tried to do this before and what worked and what didn’t about those approaches? What is the cultural context you’d be operating in and how does that help or hinder the matter at hand?
3) Instead of talking at length about my strengths (which doesn’t sit naturally with my British self-deprecation and I think often sounds a little formulaic), I put myself in their shoes and talk about why other people have hired me - and why they brought me back.
"People tend me to bring me in in X types of situations."
"In my previous role, I tended to be given the problems that other people couldn't fix - I think that was because of Y."
"I've been told I'm a good sounding board for these sorts of challenges, in fact just last week I was chatting with an old client about Z."
4) I’m clear about what I am not good at and what I don't want to do.
“If you want someone to do A, B or C, I think I can add a lot of value. But if you really need someone with X experience or who will use Y specific approach, I wouldn't be the right fit."
Pro psychological tip 1: By freely admitting what I “lack”, I give extra credibility to the stuff I say I’m good at.
I’ve often stated that I operate best outside typical org structures and suggest that it makes sense to find ways to give me latitude to get things done outside the chains of command. (You can even empathize here that having a lot of mavericks on the team is a pain and impishly suggest that one or two is good for shaking things up a little!)
And when you’re applying for something in an industry you’ve never worked in before, be ready to talk about why this type of problem really benefits from an outside perspective and how you’ll partner with experts for the moments where it matters.
Whatever it is, I’m generally comfortable to admit the thing about me that might be offputting and get explicit on why it’s surprisingly valuable or at least less problematic than they may think in this particular scenario.
Pro psychological tip 2: When talking about anything you lack or have failed at point to a chair or object in the room. Psychologically “locate” these things away from yourself in space. You’ll find everyone in the room pointing to this place for any discussion of negatives and it really helps to depersonalize the experience. (Unfortunately hard to do on zoom.)
5) I explicitly acknowledge when hiring me instead of the specialist/expert is the “riskier” choice.
Smarts and vibe are way more important than experience. Most people hire intuitively and back it up with data after.
I hold that I get brought into organizations (and hired by my coaching clients!) because people want my “anything is possible” energy in their field, because they think I’ll be fun to have around, plus they trust that my brain works fast and will figure out whatever I need to know.
So even for full-time roles, I’ve often offered to start as a consultant to show what I’m capable of if they want to “try before they buy”. I want to lower their risk and make it easier to give me a chance.
6) I talk about a really big "why" for why I admire the people and the organization I want to work with and include the people I'm talking about within that purpose.
When I was preparing my interviews at and with Tory Burch it was clear that they see themselves as much more than “just” a fashion brand: they're empowering women with their clothes and through the TB Foundation, and they're changing what business with impact looks like.
Talking about either of those things would have been nice, but also very obvious. I'm sure pretty much all applicants mention them at interview.
I encourage you to go more personal.
Talk about the biggest why that aligns your goals and the company’s.
At Tory Burch, I said something along the lines of:
“I believe that changing culture is the biggest lever on societal change - it’s how we support women and address the big problems of our generation. I wanted to learn how Tory and the company do that now, and help you all do it better.”
When I said it I saw the interviewers sit straighter and see themselves in a fresh light - they’re culture shapers too.
And, like everything I ever say at an interview, it’s something that's really, deeply true. It IS a culture-changing company, and changing culture is STILL my mission 5 years later.
7) I never lie about what I have/haven’t done, but I do trust myself to learn anything fast and figure anything out.
I hadn’t had a job that included writing speeches in over a decade when I applied to be Tory Burch’s Senior Director of Brand Comms (a job that is maybe 30% preparing talking points and speeches).
In conversations I pointed to my relevant experience and didn’t explicitly mention it was at the very start of my career - though it would have been obvious to anyone looking at my resume.
But you can bet that I studied HARD before I started there.
Between accepting the job and starting I went deep into Harvard’s (free!) online courses on rhetoric, public speaking and speechwriting which made a big difference to the quality of my output on day one.
Bonus post-interview tip:
These discussions really are two-way, especially at a senior level.
If the dynamic isn’t there, or something feels off you, listen. Paying attention to what doesn’t feel good is as useful as what does.
I suggest my clients keep a log of their initial feelings as they walk out of interviews.
Are you more energized than you were walking in?
Did you feel seen and taken seriously?
Are you genuinely fired up about solving this problem?
It’s so easy to talk ourselves into some version of “it didn’t feel great but it's a good opportunity in a tough market so I should pursue it”... and most of the time we have way more options than we think and don’t need to settle for anything less than interesting work with energizing people solving something you care about.
In short, be you. Own what makes you a great fit. Be honest if you’re not the obvious choice and be clear on why you back yourself to do it anyway.
Spend less time thinking about what you want to say about you, and more on who they are, what they care about and what you would enjoy solving for them.
Lastly, get yourself a go-to vibe-raising ritual to prepare you before these conversations: a playlist, a list of your greatest achievements, a call with a friend to remind you who the f*** you are and why they’d be lucky to have you.
Work can, and should, be a joy and a pleasure - embody that and you’ll stand out.