What should you do when you feel over matched for any interview?

Let's say you have an opportunity, even multiple opportunties and they are sort of in your current job role, but not really. You know?!

You are candid with them about your skills with the customary STRETCH.

Where and how can you level the playing field? Obviously a good personality and good verbal communication skills are some of the biggest. But what else? Is there anything else that comes to mind?

I was given the technology they use and I have done some research, but obviously that isn't using the tool/tools. I've done research on the company and plan on doing more. Should you focus on your technical skills? Brush up some things, or channel your focus else where. And there is always the saying if it meant to be then it was meant to be.

So where do you all stand? I can work myself up in these situations. I know the most important thing for me, because I've been burned on it before is know the business. IMO you should know it pretty dang good for an "outsider". That is my number one focus. Then my second has been think of situational questions they may ask, and how I would answer those. This particular field is something I have never done before. This is more business than technical, but has a lot of SQL which I know and Access and Excel. I knows those on an intermediate level. Anyway sorry for the rant, this looks like it belongs in a diary lol.

Thanks for any contributions.

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Comments

jtoast

I've never really been qualified for any position I've ever been hired for...heh.

I feel that one of my strengths is the ability to pick up new skills with minimal training. My experience has been that if you can effectively explain that ability during the interview and then back it up with proven accomplishments from previous employers you have a good shot at the job. This is were knowing how to Bull***t comes in.

When I say BS, I don't mean lie. I mean things like building rapport with the interviewer and making yourself come across as believable, trustworthy, and dependable so that they might just give you the benefit of the doubt. Technical skills are absolutely necessary but if you don't have them for a particular position, soft skills can take you across the finish line.

eMeS

Focus on your ability to achieve results. In other words, get out of the technical specifics and focus on how, irrespective of technology, you achieved results in prior roles.

A person who can achieve results in one area, and can clearly communicate those results and the value they provided, will likely be someone who can accomplish results in another area.

A result is not "5 years of experience with Windows xxxx in an enterprise environment" or "Answered help desk calls and used Remedy", which is most typically the type of thing you see on people's resumes. Results look like the following:

"Led the deployment of Windows xxx in an enterprise environment. Deployed xxx new desktop images across multiple geographically dispersed locations in xxx days, resulting in reduced outages of critical services and significant cost savings."

"Participated in a project to reduce false positive alerts in a network operations center. Eliminated x million false positive alerts per year, which resulted in technicians having more time to focus on real alerts, which ultimately reduced downtime experienced by the business."

"Led the adoption of process x in organization y. Resulted in immediate savings of $$$ in unnecessary vendor costs, and long term savings of $$$ in unnecessary expenses."

If you list results such as these, you must be able to back them up. The next logical question in an interview for any one of these is "Tell me about when you did <resume item x>...." That's exactly the situation you want to be in, because you're putting the interview on your terms. You can easily rehearse and prepare for questions like that.

Most resumes you see are never results focused; They simply tend to provide a laundry list of things with little or no connection to what value was really provided.

Technical things are just that; technical. Anyone can learn a technology and anyone can get any cert; that's why most people's resumes really don't distinguish them from anyone else.

Another thing that you might do is show how whatever they are using relates to something technical that you used previously, and how you achieved prior results with that other item.

MS

Turgon

Demonstrable accomplishments are key. Anyone who works will accumulate experience over time but what have you actually delivered at work? What benefits, what new business, what cost savings and all those other things. One of the things you need to be careful of is elapsed time. The longer you have been in this industry the more footprint you need on those things. Simply holding this position or that position doesn't make your CV any prettier than 10000 other CVs particularly for the top jobs.

Regarding taking on jobs that are a reach for you, thats exactly how you learn and develop into a more accomplished practitioner. Any job I ever moved to required me to 'try'. Just be sure not to pass yourself off as something you most certainly are not. The industry is evil these days in terms of lack of forgiveness, with big money at stake. This is increasingly the case for project managers these days as it has most certainly been for technical people for quite a while.

Netwurk

Turgon wrote: »

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Wow, Turgon sure does write fancy these days.

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Daniel333

There needs to be solid growth room for anyone taking a job. Without it, they would hate life. Be honest, "Hey this sounds really interesting, I would love to get the chance. I think I bring a lot of skill to this so I'll hit the ground running, but there is still some growth room"

JDMurray

N2IT wrote: »

Where and how can you level the playing field? Obviously a good personality and good verbal communication skills are some of the biggest. But what else? Is there anything else that comes to mind?

I hire people to solve problems. I want to hear how they have arrived at solutions to complex problems and how they think they will solve my problems based on their prior experience. I want to hear concrete examples of commitment, decisiveness, and creative solutions when dealing with adversity. I also want hear evidence of strong organizational skills and an understanding risk management and of staying within a budget. TCO, ROI, the need for planning, and the ability to determine what the expectations are and how to exceed them are all things I look for.

Go find a cert for all that!

ltgenspecific

JDMurray wrote: »

Go find a cert for all that!

I've got a job in HR for ya whenever you're ready to change career fields.

I think I'll actually share what you wrote with some folks in my department on Monday. Even HR peeps need to be reminded of what to actually look for in an interview.