Today’s job adverts can attract hundreds of applications. How do you formulate a CV so that it stands out from all the rest? The answer is simple – make sure your CV addresses three key questions concisely.
Continue reading 3 essential CV questions to answer in 2025
Changes to your career can sometimes be disruptive. Perhaps you have been made redundant recently, leaving you unsettled and unsure what to do next. In this podcast, we are joined by Sylvia Kelly, Senior Career Transition Consultant Coach at Hays Career Transition Services, who offers her expert insight into managing these challenges successfully.
1. Career change and transition can cover an array of topics. Please could you clarify for our listeners what we mean by “career change” and “career transition”?
Career change is usually when an individual is considering changing career pathways, sectors or industries and completely changing their career direction. Career transition is the process of that change, and all the different stages involved in that, and how to manage that change successfully.
2. And what are the most common types of career change that can cause the most stress and upheaval?
There are a few different types. I think the most common one is redundancy and my job involves career coaching people who have been made redundant. So, someone who has been in a role for twenty, thirty years and suddenly, they’re being advised that they are being made redundant, that is quite confronting, quite stressful and can have lots of different impacts on that individual.
Also, if someone has found out they have an illness, that’s very confronting and they may need to re-look at their job, their career pathway, and how they are going to manage everything.
If someone has been unfortunately let go from their position, that’s also quite confronting and if someone, moves to a different country, they may need to start over and look for a job, or even if they have moved to a country and they have a job offer, just that whole transitional piece, they might find that quite challenging and confronting as well.
3. When you are unexpectedly made redundant, what emotions are you likely to feel? And how can these be managed over those initial few days?
So naturally, that can be quite a confronting and stressful situation and you will go through several different emotions. It’s only natural for a human to feel several different emotions and the Kubler-Ross Change Curve outlines those emotions quite clearly and effectively. You can experience these in the first few days, weeks or months after being made redundant.
Stage one is usually shock and denial, Stage two is anger and depression and stage three is integration and acceptance. That may look different for different individuals, but they are the range of emotions that most people will feel, in those first few days, because when someone’s made redundant, it is like a grieving process it’s a loss.
It can be a loss of identity, so it’s quite natural to feel those emotions, and it’s about understanding those emotions, working with a coach, and/or a counsellor, and getting the support to manage those emotions and then accepting what’s happening and move forward.
Work is such a big part of our lives, that obviously, it is understandable to feel like that when you go through that process, you find out that you’re about to lose that from your life.
4. And I suppose some people might have to work a certain period after finding out that they’re being made redundant.
If they must stay in that role for few extra weeks or even months, how would you recommend that they manage their stress during that period and how can they remain motivated?
That’s a great question. It is really important that the individual seeks out support, because you need support during this transition. Firstly, you can speak to your employer and ask, “Is there coaching support?”.
Most organisations are very good at giving someone the option of having coaching, that could be one-to-one coaching, or it could be the opportunity to attend job searching workshops. So, clarify with the employer, “Is there coaching available?”, which is usually paid for by the organisation as there may be counselling support available.
Most organisations have an Employee Assistance Program, so if you’re finding the change in transition particularly challenging, you can also speak to a counsellor. A coach can work with you on managing stress as well.
It’s important to have a plan in place and take a holistic approach, so the coaching and the counselling, speaking to your manager, speaking to friends and family -it’s really important to tell people how you’re feeling.
There’s some practical things that you can do such as exercising, maintaining a good diet and having a plan, so working with your coach, having a job search plan, being proactive, taking action, putting things into place, applying for jobs, going for interviews and also just choosing to have a certain mindset is really important. This is quite challenging, but there’s a lot of exciting research around neuroscience and neuroplasticity now, where you can retrain your brain to create more positive thought patterns. So, you can choose how you’re going to react to a stressful situation. It’s not easy, but you can rewire your brain and create more positive thought patterns.
We all naturally default to stress when we’re confronted by something like redundancy. But, we can work with a coach or a counsellor, and we can be mindful of our negative thoughts that we’re reacting emotionally, understanding our triggers. But then we can decide, “Okay, I can choose to look at this as a stressful event, or actually this might provide me with an opportunity to retrain and pursue that job or career that I’ve always wanted to.”
So, there’s lots of proactive strategies and things that you can do, so you can feel empowered during a very difficult time and take control over the situation rather than the situation controlling you.
Thank you. That’s extremely helpful, and a really positive way of dealing with it, and even improving yourself on the way.
5. You mentioned there about seeking advice from your employer. Are there any other support networks, perhaps outside the workplace, which could help? I know you mentioned counselling as well. But are there any other support networks?
You can always tap into your local community services, so there might be a job search network. Most local services will provide government support around free career advice, and so you can make an appointment to see a career adviser to get free advice on job searching and tap into different job search networking groups.
The other thing I would recommend is to tap into your professional association and your network. Speak to your peers and colleagues that you’ve worked with before because probably someone else has gone through a similar experience in the past.
You can seek out mentors and colleagues and different people which is also really good networking as well in terms of letting people know that you’re looking for your next opportunity. So, there is a range of different things that you can tap into.
6. Obviously, being made redundant is nothing to feel ashamed of. But when applying for a new role, some people might worry about how to address their redundancy that they have experienced, whether that be on their CV or whether it be at the interview stage.
What is the best way of dealing with that?
That’s a great question and is one that I get asked every day when I’m coaching my clients.
The best way is to frame it in a positive light. In most cases, it is the companies that’s making redundancies right across the organisation and it’s not the individual that’s been singled out and being made redundant. It’s due to financial reasons, or restructure, it could be the economy, it could be a range of different factors impacting the financial status of that company.
So, the best way to frame it, even though it feels like such a personal thing when it happens to you individually, is that it is decisions that are being made at a very strategic, high levels that are about things like saving money or making changes internally.
The best way to frame it is that the organisation is making those changes. It’s not about saying “I’ve been made redundant”, it’s about saying, “The organisation has made these changes” and then you can focus in on the positive things that you’ve done at that organisation.
7. Now, some of our listeners might even manage teams and they might have to support their employees through times of redundancy as well.
What would your advice be to our listeners and how can they help support their employees?
Firstly, I would say that managers need the support themselves by seeking out coaching support.
At Hays Career Transition Services, we provide coaching to managers, senior managers and above. One of our coaches will work with them individually, because they need that support, as it is also happening to them.
So, once they’re getting support and coaching, then they can be guided our by coaches in terms of, “Okay, how can you support your teams effectively?”. I think, one of the key things is open and transparent communication.
I also think the managers do need to also speak to their managers about, “How are we going to communicate this change? What’s our strategy? What’s our approach?”.
In my experience, I come across the good and bad approaches and the examples of how companies deal with redundancy and managing change. And one of the key things is that people want to be kept informed. They want open and transparent communication at all the different stages. They need to know what’s happening and when it’s happening, especially if it’s a long drawn out process. I think, just being upfront and transparent with employees. Not knowing, or miscommunication can have such a negative impact on morale and productivity and so on, so I think that’s really, really important.
Also, as part of what we do at Hays Career Transition Services, we deliver workshops on how to manage change and transition effectively, and we do that for managers and employees. This supports managers in implementing that change effectively with their employees.
So, there’s the management level and then also giving that support at the employee level.
8. Finally, we have this question that we ask all our guests. If you could give one piece of careers advice to our listeners, what would that be?
One of the key things is to embrace change and invest in yourself. So be prepared to continue investing in yourself, whether that’s a course or training, developing your skills, and maintaining your contacts.
Fantastic, lifelong learning, that’s great. Thank you so much for your time. It has been really interesting, and I’m sure our listeners will find it really helpful as well to help them through the potential redundancies. Thank you very much.
Did you find this advice useful? You may enjoy some of the related content below:
- Flourish in times of career change and transition
- Middle managers – Are you neglecting your career progression
- Podcast 6: How can you create a more mentally healthy workplace?
- Podcast 15: How to be more open about your mental health at work?
- Rethinking your response to redundancy
- The multi-stage career journey – Are employers ready?
We’re all familiar with the pang of excitement we get when switching our ‘Out of Office’ on – it’s often the final thing we do at work before that long-awaited holiday. But that excitement is often over-shadowed by a sinking feeling – what will be waiting for us when we return?
Continue reading Already dreading going back to work after your holiday?
Being great at giving and receiving feedback speeds your development, accelerates the development of the people you interact with, and builds trust in all those relationships, making you more influential with others (whether those others are across the C-suite or around the dinner table). And the first step to improving your feedback practice is to work on receiving it well, which you can read more on here.
Giving and receiving feedback can feel uncomfortable, and unfortunately, it’s something people often try to avoid. But feedback is a big deal. Getting better at it will:
- Provide you with an accurate picture of your real-life strengths and weaknesses, so you can better leverage those strengths and improve those development areas;
- Give other people the opportunity to leverage their strengths and improve their development areas;
- Reduce miscommunication and enable more honest, forthright conversations, both of which build relationship quality and trust.
Getting better at giving and receiving feedback will speed your development, accelerate the development of the people you interact with, and build trust in all your relationships (from the C-suite to around the dinner table), making you more influential.
Feedback is not a performance review
Let’s be clear, the feedback we’re talking about here is the informal sharing that happens daily. What this blog isn’t about is the periodic, organisational performance review. An annual performance review must never be a substitute for these daily, informal feedback interactions.
The two have separate functions – a performance review exists to satisfy an organisational system need, whilst daily feedback supports ongoing individual development (including yours). Nothing should ever be raised in an organisational performance review that hasn’t been discussed, ideally multiple times, in daily, informal feedback conversations. There should never be any surprises in a formal performance review.
Giving and receiving feedback
It’s also important to remember there are two separate elements to an effective feedback process: giving it well and receiving it well. Occasionally, a few of our client executives thought that meant “Exactly. I give you feedback and you receive my feedback…”. That’s not what we mean! To be clear, these blogs are absolutely about improving your ability to give feedback well but, at least as importantly, they’re also about improving your ability to hear other people’s feedback well.
This is vitally important because, possibly somewhat counter-intuitively, the single biggest thing you can do to have your feedback be more influential, is to consistently listen to the feedback you are given.
Mastering feedback starts with listening well. If you’re looking for advice on giving feedback, read our blog here.
Active listening
But not all listening is created equal. Active listening is the purest and most influential form of listening. Done correctly, active listening:
- Requires you to pay attention, to focus on what you’re hearing, preventing you from tuning out and thinking about your response;
- Provides a sense check for the speaker – they get to confirm that what they’re saying is what they’re meaning to say;
- Closes the loop, by having the speaker understand what you’ve taken away from their communication.
Active listening provides the added benefit of demonstrating your commitment to your shared relationship, because your action of focusing totally on their communication clearly indicates the importance you attach to what they have to say.
So, what is active listening? It’s demonstrating that you’re hearing, without judgement, what you’re being told.
How do you do it? You summarise the key message(s) you’ve heard and reflect it or them back to the speaker as concisely as possible, along with any emotional intensity if present.
Let’s break that down:
- Identify the key concepts heard – what was their most important message?
- Identify any emotion present – do they have any feelings about this message? If so, what are they?
- Summarise as concisely as possible – what’s the fewest words you can use to summarise that most important message and that emotion, if present?
- Reflect back to the speaker – share your concise content (and emotion) summary with the speaker
Receiving feedback
Not surprisingly, active listening is the key component of receiving feedback well.
Here’s a five-step model for receiving feedback:
1. Active Listening (micro)
As soon as you clue in that you’re about to receive some feedback, the key step to be effective in the interaction is to commit to active listening. This has two vital benefits:
- Immersing yourself in practicing this important skill engages your analytical brain to need to deconstruct their communication, creating a distance from your emotional brain that may otherwise want to jump in and defend itself;
- You’re so busy engaging with what you’re hearing (“What’s the key message I’m hearing? Is there any emotion here? How am I going to summarise this?”) you don’t have time to think about a (possibly ill-judged) response.
Micro-active listening is taking each individual piece of what they say and summarising it. After your first summary, they may well add to, correct or clarify their communication. You then summarise that next communication, and the next and the next until they finish.
2. Active Listening (macro)
Once they’ve finished, the second step is active listening again, but this time providing your summary of the entirety of the interaction. What’s your summary of the totality of their message and any emotion?
3. Thank/recognise the giver
It is vitally important that you then thank the giver for the feedback that they have shared, irrespective of the content of the feedback or whether you agree with it or not.
It’s by building your reputation as someone genuinely interested in hearing feedback that you create an environment where you continue to be given the constructive feedback vital for your future development. If you do not thank them, they are unlikely to try again, which will cut off your access to this invaluable information.
If the feedback was clear, specific and understandable, thanking them is the end of the process. If the feedback giver shared something you believe to be incorrect or do not agree with, now is not the time to point that out. Do that in a later interaction or, much better yet, show them they are mistaken by your subsequent actions, don’t tell them.
4. Ask to probe
It is also possible, however, that the feedback you received was less than totally clear or specific and, as a result, you are unclear what they think you should do to be more effective in the future. If this is the case, after you have genuinely thanked the person for their feedback, you can ask, “Would you be okay if I asked you a question or two about your feedback?”
If you get the answer “No” to this question, this is very clear feedback that you have not done steps 1-3 as effectively as you need to, in which case, loop back to step 1 and start again.
5. Probe to understand
Once they say, “Yes”, you can then ask whatever questions you need to turn their lower quality feedback into high quality feedback. Potential questions might include some or all of: “When you said I was not being supportive of you, what, specifically, did I do, or not do, that caused you to feel that?” “When was that?” “What would you prefer I do in that situation?”
Developing a receiving feedback mindset
It’s one thing to have an understanding of best practice receiving feedback, it’s quite another to pluck up the courage to actually engage in these behaviours in real life. So, this section is all about getting you to actually take your courage in your hands and reap the enormous benefits of developing yourself faster, developing others faster, and building stronger relationships.
Let’s be clear, accessing a broad range of others’ perspectives is the only effective way to understand our true strengths and development areas in the real world, instead of our more-often-than-not mistaken beliefs about how we think we are experienced by others. We understand that this is uncomfortable territory for most people, especially bosses. So here are three realities to encourage you to embrace the practice of feedback from others.
1. All feedback is perception
Any individual piece of feedback says more about the giver than the receiver. We are all prey to the filters and biases that exist in our minds. As a result, any single piece of feedback you receive is clouded more by the giver’s filters than by what you actually did. All feedback is perception.
Hopefully, this will help you hear feedback, however critical, as ‘this person’s perception of a specific behaviour’. Developing this perspective allows you to stay in that judgement-free mindset when you hear something that you believe is unfair or inaccurate. It is all just perception.
Because one piece of feedback is more indicative of the giver’s filters than your behaviour, it is vitally important that you solicit feedback from multiple, varied sources. With feedback from multiple sources, you can then triangulate to evaluate what are the common themes that you are hearing from multiple perspectives that may warrant action.
2. People think what they think already
In our workshops, Mike will ask, “Think of an impression you have of me”. After a few seconds comes the follow up, “Now think of a positive impression you have of me”. The laughter, or absence of it, can be a useful feedback data point about how the workshop’s progressing! Then comes the important question, “Irrespective of the thought you had, was it me asking the question that prompted you to come up with that impression for the first time, or was that impression already there and asking the question merely brought it back to the top of your mind?” We get everyone to choose which category they are in and then ask for a show of hands.
Routinely, more than 90% of participants say they had their impression already. Avoiding feedback does not mean that perceptions are not there; it just means that you don’t get to hear what people think of you. People have their opinions about you already, soliciting their feedback merely gives you the chance to hear what they think, so you can choose whether you want to do something about it or not. Your job in receiving feedback is to hear and accept that the other person has a particular opinion. Accepting that they have an opinion is quite different from agreeing with that opinion. Your job is to hear and accept their opinion, without judgement. You don’t have to agree with them.
3. You don’t always have to act on feedback
An additional misunderstanding about feedback is that if you listen to it, you are required to act on it. This is not true, especially since any single piece of feedback says more about the giver than the receiver. What is most important to people is being heard, not what you choose to do subsequently. You build your relationship with someone when they feel heard, which is achieved by you listening, without judgement. What actions you take as a result is up to you. We would recommend, however, that you reinforce the value you place on their feedback by circling back around and letting them know what you ultimately did or did not do (and why). What is most important, though, is the hearing, not your subsequent actions.
Asking for feedback
But how can you get better at receiving feedback when you work somewhere where the culture of sharing is ‘not how we do things around here’? You ask for it. Some ways of asking, however, are better than others. The best way to start the process is to ask a direct, but bounded question.
If you are asking for development feedback specifically, we would recommend, “What’s one thing you would like to see me do more of, less of, or differently?” If you are looking for both, try, “What is one thing I do that works well, and what is one thing you would like to see me do more of, less of, or differently?” If you get a mumble, or an “everything’s okay” response, follow up with, “I get that. And so that I can keep getting better, what’s one thing I could do more of, less of, or differently?” Of critical importance, clearly, is that you absolutely follow the best practice receiving feedback process when they then share their observation.
Once you’ve created the habit, you can then start asking for two or three or four items of feedback.
As we said in the intro, giving and receiving feedback has huge benefits, both for yourself and for those around you.
Want to get better at giving and working on feedback? Read the other blogs in our series:
Big banks these days are anything but traditional. In this blog, we reveal how the biggest names in finance are pioneering a workplace revolution…
Over the last few years, a quiet revolution has been stirring in workplaces around the world. And it has been led by an unlikely champion of modern work life: big banks.
Flexible working hours, remote working and job-sharing schemes may seem to come as standard in most workplaces today. But these once-radical concepts have been championed by financial institutions for years. And with good reason.
According to multiple independent reports, younger workers crave freedom over high salaries. Earlier this month, a survey by accountancy firm AAT found that workers in all sectors who were offered flexible working hours were more productive and took less leave than those who stuck with regular office hours. The same study discovered that three quarters of those workers would be reluctant to leave their existing job if their next employer didn’t offer the same level of flexibility.
Big banks led the way in flexible working
As major employers, big banks tend to be trendsetters when it comes to office life. In fact, several of the big 4 have been trailblazers in this area.
For some of us, the evidence has been mounting for years. I know of several people who have relocated out of Australian cities to regional locations, such as the Sunshine Coast, where they can continue to do their job from home. Although they might need to pop into a local office from time to time, they don’t actually need to sit at a desk in head office anymore.
But flexi-working does not begin and end with remote working. Across the world, big banks are offering a range of innovative benefits to help their employees achieve their ideal work/life balance.
In the UK, Lloyds has made “a healthy lifestyle balance” a key part of its pitch to future employees. For the past few years, it has been offering benefits and rewards, including flexible work options, such as working from home, job-sharing or undertaking reduced hours. As a result, the bank has been listed as a top 10 employer for working families and a Times Top 50 employer for women.
Employees of the Bank of America are entitled to claim a generous package of insurance options, as well as free medical screenings and free counselling. To support young families, the bank also offers every employee up to 40 days of back-up child and adult care when regular arrangements aren’t available. Furthermore, all new fathers are entitled to 16 weeks of paternal leave, on full pay.
And at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, employees can make use of purchased annual leave, career breaks, carers leave, study leave, community service leave, compassionate and unpaid leave, as well as job sharing and flexi-hours.
Global banking group HSBC has been banging the drum for flexible working environments for more than a decade. In a research paper published last year, the bank noted that 81 per cent of employees said that remote working would encourage them to increase their productivity levels. However, the report concluded that “despite the emphasis placed on flexible working by employees, just 30 per cent of businesses offer it.”
Employers only need to look to the big banks for proof that the modern office is on the cusp of a permanent change. While the average annual staff turnover rate for UK businesses is 15 per cent, it is just 9.5 per cent in the financial sector. The banking industry is at the vanguard of this change but the desire for flexible working options is global – a recent survey by Mercer indicates that employees from 44 countries, and within 21 industries, identified permanent flexibility as one of the most significant factors in what people now look for in a job.
What does the future hold for the workplace?
The traditional ‘9 to 5’ model is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, to the benefit of both employees and employers everywhere. And, if you want to predict the big workplace trends of the future, you need look no further than the financial sector.
In Australia, banking giant Westpac has pioneered ‘lifestyle leave’ and community day leave, with each employee entitled to take one day off per year for their own wellbeing, and another day to give back to the community. The firm also offers wellbeing support so that employees can make the most of these benefits.
Big banks are clearly not resting on their laurels when it comes to reinventing the modern office. And for existing and future employees, this can only be good news.
Found this blog useful? Here are some other Viewpoint blogs that you might find interesting:
Interviewing with one person is daunting enough, but the prospect of facing a panel of multiple interviewers can feel even more intimidating. And, if you’re currently preparing for this kind of panel interview, I’m sure visions of sitting in front of several stony faces, being bombarded with quick-fire questions in rapid succession may well be flashing through your mind.
So, in this blog, my aim is to settle your nerves and provide you with some actionable advice which you can use as part of your interview preparation. But first off, let me clarify why exactly you have been asked to attend a panel interview:
Why do employers conduct panel interviews?
One of the main reasons panel interviews are conducted is so that a balanced and considered approach is taken to hiring decisions. It’s an unavoidable fact that each interviewer will have opinions and have had experiences which mean that they are inclined to gravitate towards when considering a potential candidate. This often subconscious preference is referred to as bias and it can be conscious or unconscious. And each one of us have them. Therefore, by involving a diverse range of multiple interviewers the possible play out and impact of these biases is mitigated and the evaluation and selection process becomes more balanced and less biased.
Panel interviews are often introduced as a key assessment stage before a final hiring decision is made. Often, the candidate is only facing one or two potential other contenders at this stage, therefore including more stakeholders and getting a range of opinions during this final stage increases the likelihood that a person is considered on all their merits and the right person is offered the job.
Another reason why panel interviews are often used by employers is to assess how the candidate responds and deals with some additional pressure that this format inevitably introduces into the assessment and selection process. Are they able to stay calm and focused, whilst sharing their expertise and building rapport, or do they succumb to their nerves and put in a less than average interview performance?
How should you prepare for your panel interview?
Researching the company and its products/services online, following their social media accounts, reading recent press coverage, reviewing their Glassdoor profile, preparing answers and swotting up on your CV/resume – these are all great ways to prepare for any interview. But when it comes to a panel interview, you should take your interview preparation to the next level – after all, more interviewers means more research.
So, prior to your interview, ask your recruiter to confirm the name and job title of each interviewer that will be sitting on the panel. Once you have this information, research each one, both on LinkedIn and via a Google search. Try to find out what each of their roles are, what their career path has looked like, as well as any recent successful projects or awards or accolades. Putting in the time to do this detailed pre-interview research will:
- Take away some of the fear of the unknown and help you feel more mentally confident and prepared prior to the interview;
- Help you understand the unique priorities and agenda of each interviewer, as well as the role they play in the business/team, allowing you to predict and pre-empt interview questions each may be likely to ask you;
- By conducting thorough research online, you’ll likely be able to find blogs they’ve written, quotes they’ve provided to the press or videos they’ve appeared in. This information will help you further understand their specific communication styles ahead of time – this will increase the likelihood that you are able to connect and build rapport with each interviewer. This brings me on to my next point.
Another great way to prepare for a panel interview is to ask family and friends to rehearse with you. Multiple people asking you multiple questions in quick succession and about a variety of topics is a great way to prepare. Think of your job interview as a performance, as Cathy Salit, CEO of Performance of a Lifetime puts it in this Harvard Business Review article, “In the job interview, you are literally auditioning for a new role. Developing your skills as a performer will help you not only to land the job, it will also help you grow and gain a new skill that is critical in the 21st century workplace — navigating constant change that requires flexibility and new performances all the time.”
How to build rapport during a panel interview:
- The introductions: When you walk into the interview room, and as you start to introduce yourself, greet the interview panel with a smile. A firm handshake along with eye contact displays confidence and good manners, which both have a powerful part to play when making a strong first impression. Also, during these initial introductions, try your best to memorise each interviewer’s name – one way to do this could be to sketch an image of the table on your notepad, writing down the interviewer’s name in the relevant seating position. This will help you in feeling confident to address each interviewer by name throughout the conversation, and as and when questions are asked.
- Be mindful of your body language: As Charalambos Vlachoutsicos says in his Harvard Business Review article, ‘…how we say what we say to people is at least as important as what we say to them.” So, avoid fidgeting, maintain eye contact, sit up straight and don’t interrupt. Not only will your body language have an impact on how you are perceived by the interviewers, but it will also impact your own frame of mind. Research from Princeton University has found that by proactively altering your body language you can actually change your frame of mind. If you’re hunched over and fidgeting then you’re only going to heighten your anxiety, if you’re sat straight with your chin up then you’ll exacerbate your feelings of confidence.
- Pay equal attention to each interviewer: Be sure to make eye contact and engage with each interviewer in the room. Don’t be tempted to direct most of your attention towards the interviewer you may have met previous interview rounds. As AJ Harbinger, author of the ‘Art of Charm’ states in his Business Insider article, “Eye contact is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to make a person feel recognized, understood and validated.”
- Ask each interviewer a question: When the time comes for you to be the one asking the questions, ask each interviewer questions based on their respective roles, priorities and passions. Again, this will show that you have done research into each person’s area of expertise and will impress the panel, enabling you to deepen your connection with each interviewer. For some question inspiration, read our blog, ‘15 questions to ask your interviewer’.
Keep calm and remain focused
Whilst a certain amount of stress can be a positive thing, for many, any interview experience, no matter what the format, can feel overwhelmingly stressful. And it’s not surprising that they are, as Anna Ranieri, executive coach and career counsellor writes: “The problem is that job interviews are an unusual kind of conversation: one that we have only so often, where there’s a huge imbalance of power, and that requires the type of confident recitation of our strengths that wouldn’t fly in other social interactions.” However, stress levels some experience during a panel interview may well be elevated. But, with proper preparation and the right mindset, they don’t need to be.
As there’s more people involved, more voices in the room and more agendas to meet, panel interviews may not be as finely tuned or perhaps run as smoothly as a one-on-one interview. Interviewers may talk across each other or add to one another’s questions. If this happens, take a breather and wait until everyone has finished talking, then provide your answer.
There is nothing wrong with politely asking for clarification on the original question if needed, you could even try repeating the question back to the interviewer to limit any confusion and demonstrate that you are listening attentively. Also, don’t feel as though you need to answer the question right away, take some time think it through in your head, whilst applying the STAR technique.
Some of the interviewers may even ask the same question or similar question as another interviewer. If this is the case, give the same response, but phrase it differently. If a question relates to a former query, cross-reference the previous one while providing your answer. And, once you’ve provided your answer, it is also a good idea to ask the panel if they’d like you to give any further information.
What to do after your panel interview
- Send a follow up note: After any interview, it’s always good practice to send a follow up, thank you email (this is usually done via your recruiter). In this note, be sure to thank each interviewer for their time, reiterating that you enjoyed meeting them, and outlining your genuine interest both in the role and the company. The sooner you send this email the better, as, by doing so, you will show that you are enthusiastic, and therefore will stay at the forefront of the interviewers’ minds when the time comes to make the final hiring decision.
- Take a step back and assess fit: Panel interviews are also a great opportunity for you, as the candidate, to really build a picture of the company and its people. Make a conscious effort to analyse the relationships and team dynamics at play during the interview, as this will provide you with unique insight into the culture of the company. Although no doubt, you’ll be feeling drained after the interview, take some time to reflect and honestly ask yourself a few questions – were you really sold on the job? Is this really the right company for you? Can you see yourself working with the people who interviewed you?
I hope the above advice has helped relieve some of the natural anxiety you may be feeling as the prospect of attending a panel interview looms closer. To really ensure it is a success, make sure you don’t cut corners when preparing, work hard to connect and build rapport with each person you meet, and remember, this panel interview is a unique opportunity for you, as a highly skilled and sought-after candidate to make some important assessments of your own.
Job interview coming up? These blogs will help you ensure it’s a success:
