Post-Interview Shadowing Guides

Reflect on top candidates’ delivery and compare to your own approach.

Understanding the scoring criteria and the level of detail required to demonstrate abilities and competencies at interview, will give you the confidence to dissect candidate’s responses and apply to your own interview practice. With the successful candidate in mind, answer these questions:

• What made them stand out from the others?
• How did they successfully demonstrate the evidence within their examples?
• Were the examples well executed but perhaps better suited to a more junior role?

Evaluating candidate’s performance

Whilst you will not formally give any feedback to the candidates, it is a very useful exercise for you to write down a few notes on your own evaluation of candidates’ performance and see how those compare to the panel’s. Do any of these observations resonate with your own interview skill set?

Your response to the above questions will undoubtedly offer you specific pointers to improve your interview skills (i.e. effective communication, choosing relevant examples, polishing tone, and conveying expertise, etc). However, it is also valuable to critically evaluate the skills and experience that you are yet to acquire.

Leadership is defined by your actions, not by your position. A leader sees how things can be improved and inspires and motivates people to move toward that vision.

Who is a leader?

When applying for more senior roles, you may feel intimidated when comparing your experience to that of others. Especially if you traditionally view a leader as someone who manages other people. The University encourages all colleagues to adopt the behaviour charter and "strive to continuously improve our work while aiming to deliver the best way that we can." This aligns with the broader definition of leadership: 

Anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.

Prepare interview answers from the perspective of applying for the role yourself. This will nudge you to think of your current skillset and experience in a more aspirational light, thus highlighting any aspects you are yet to develop.

Reviewing your skill set

Whilst it might be intimidating to compare your experience to that of more senior candidates, remember your motivations of engaging in this process and challenge your traditional leadership concepts. Oftentimes, we identify leaders as those that manager others and may disregard existing leadership qualities that we have at our disposal, for instance, the ability to identify and pre-empt risks, or the drive to improve processes so that the whole team works more efficiently.

Once you have reviewed your answers, read them critically whilst thinking about the following questions:

• Do I highlight the benefit I brought to a particular situation? Or do I appear as a contributor?
• Is this example relevant to the level of seniority I would like to apply for?
• Is the example self-explanatory? If someone listening or reading that example alone without any context, would they understand it? 
• How do I demonstrate self-reflection on a particular answer, how does that give confidence to an interviewer?

If you are unsure, don’t be afraid to ask for help by engaging in the following:

1. Self-Development

It helps to know exactly the type of skills you need for your next position as this will make your next steps more effective. When looking at positions you are interested in, look closely at the essential criteria and the skills that it requires. How does your skill set compare? Are you able to engage in stretching assignments or projects at work that will give you tangible experience in this skill set? Does any of your network have opportunities for growth? Could you volunteer to gain a transferable experience?

2. Discuss with your manager

Discuss with your manager the transferable skills that are beneficial for your career/current position and discuss creatively the stretching tasks that you could engage in.

Some colleagues might feel uncomfortable discussing with their manager how to acquire skills for their next position. Ensure your work, projects and outputs demonstrate your commitment to your current role as this will instill confidence in your manager to trust you with stretching assignments or connecting you with the colleagues that might be able to help you. In addition you may want to discuss the 360 Degree Feedback Development tool, with your line Manager.

3. Gaining experience

Sometimes we might get hyper-focused on getting a ‘like for like’ stretching experience. Think about any similarities between your existing role first and the desirable criteria of your next role. Is there scope for you to gain these skills in your existing team or will you have to look beyond your team?

4. Learning transferable skills

Career paths are rarely linear. Try to think strategically and consider both your commitments in and outwith your current role and looks for the skills and experience rather than the actual tasks – this will help you find transferable knowledge.

Leverage new contacts for advice and establish a network to enhance your personal brand.

An informal group of advisors: Learning specific skills from your growing network

As you continue developing your skill set in preparation for your next role. You will become more self-reflective and assertive in finding and addressing the specific skills that you are yet to acquire. Our suggestion is to build an informal group of career advisors. These friends or friendly colleagues may help you develop diverse angles of your personal brand by bringing a specific expertise to the table. 

You may ask one of the interview panelists to let you shadow a project or collaborate. Perhaps you already know someone who has a persuasive communication style you wish to learn. It is imperative that you also identify someone that can serve as a critical friend. Your personal branding and development deserve attention, and you are the best person to manage this magnificent project.

Click here to read more about this concept on the Harvard Business Review.