Nik's picture Submitted by Nik on
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Career Management

I have an interview next week for a position that I believe I'm well qualified for, and I'm really excited about the opportunity.

I'm working on the accomplishments answers (which I've mostly got down from previous interview prep), but I'm getting stuck in one area. There's a significant component of the job (web marketing), which I'm well trained/educated in, and I've had experience supporting web marketing. However, I haven't been the "front line" person on web marketing.

How should I handle questions about those skills? Obviously, I can point to accomplishments of the whole team, and my personal contributions to those ends. But should I admit or reference the fact that I haven't been the manager of these efforts, but see that as the next logical step in my career?

How do you best deal with a hole in your accomplishments like this?

TomW's picture
Training Badge
Submitted by TomW on Saturday June 28th, 2008 4:58 pm

Have you listened to the "Handling The Weakness Interview Question" yet?

It tells you in long detail how to handle it. Basically: Be honest and say what you are doing to fix this weakness.

HMac's picture
Submitted by HMac on Monday June 30th, 2008 7:32 am

Nik-
If I can make one suggestion about your approach: don't assume this is a "weakness" - you risk a defensive sounding approach in your answer.

The approach for the weakness question in the Interviewing Series is excellent, and I've got a couple of answers to the weakness question prepared and rehearsed - and if you don't already, you should too...

But your approach to discussing web marketing isn't necessarily a "weakness" answer. You say you have training, education and hands-on experience supporting web marketing efforts. Develop a few results-oriented answers and examples that start out with something like "I noticed there's a significant component to the job in web marketing. Here are a few examples of my experience..."

Unless the job requires significant experience [i]as a front person [/i]in web marketing (which is the particular area you don't have experience), you will probably do just fine by being prepared with positive examples of accomplishments.

[quote]But should I admit or reference the fact that I haven't been the manager of these efforts, but see that as the next logical step in my career?[/quote]

[u][b]NO.[/b][/u]

This is a mistake I've found myself making in interviews, because I take the job description too literally. I used to start with dumb things like "I don't have experience doing XXX, but here's how my experience doing YYY makes me a good fit for the job..." You know what - that don't hear anything after I've said I don't have a particular qualification they're looking for!

Lastly nik: I think my best inerviews are when I'm focused on [i]what I've done in the past[/i], and not [i]what I could do - possibly -[/i] in the future. So it's never about how their opportunity is the next logical step for me. I'm strongest when I can grab hold of their requirements and by using examples from my past, be able to essentially say:

[b]Been There / Done That / Been Successful.[/b]

Good Luck!

-Hugh

Nik's picture
Submitted by Nik on Thursday July 3rd, 2008 4:17 pm

Thanks for the tip. The position I was looking at in May didn't come through (I ran like he** from it, actually!), but I put your advice into practice for a recent interview and got the call-back before I'd had a chance to close!

I just led with a BLUF-style rundown of applicable initiative and results, and then walked through how I contributed. I also made sure to mention how I was involved in the strategy and ideas behind these efforts, and not just on my direct nuts-and-bolts contributions.