To ask you if interview coaching is a thing?

[Allmyarseandpeggymartin]

DH just can’t catch a break at the moment he’s working for a university in project management but has done PR/Comms in the past.
He’s been on fixed term contracts for 3 years and has had no luck in the last 6 months. He gets the interviews but doesn’t get the job.

So is interview coaching a thing? Has anyone had it?

He’s defo not senior leadership level. Looking for a middle management/individual contributor type role. 25k to 40k.

@northerngirl2012 Thanks for this - any different qualifications to what has already been mentioned?

No, one level 5 one of us level 7, but more importantly is how you get on with them & how they’re going to help. Ask them to be direct in their feedback. Try & get a recommendation through the university careers service.

Obvious things.

Not framing answers to make it simple/clear to interviewers that you are answering well. The easier you can make it for the panel to tick the boxes the better.

Negativity - comes across way stronger than people think.

Poor body language.

Lack of detailed preparation. There are generic questions that are nearly always asked. Prepare and practice responses to these types of questions. A lot of people don’t do this.

Research the company and tailor your responses with their culture/ethos/product in mind. People don’t do this.

An external person can see far clearer than the interviewee.

I used one after doing terrible in last few interviews and confidence being shot. Well worth the money.

Found them on google - interview coaching via phone and email as they were south England based and I'm not. Didn't make a difference in fact made things more organised and directed. Chose them because they had great reviews from execs. I'm a lawyer and they didn'tspecialise in law but it didn't make a difference.

£300 package plus £75 an hour after that. Helped me plan for the interview in the time I had - was strategic about it. Then the practice. Also had a few chats with them about my fears and concerns - getting a question I didn't know the answer to. Helped me prepare for that situation. I also had to do a presentation and they reviewed my PowerPoint presentation. I got the job. Best investment I ever made. If I had the money I would ask them to mentor me.

£25-£40 is a huge range, from recent graduate admin, to mid manager with a large team. Which is it? Is he aiming too low? Does he know what competency interviewing is? What STAR is? Does he look at essential skills / experience and imagine the questions he'd be asked to ascertain he has those requirements? And write down ideal answers and practice saying them out loud. Record himself and listen back.

My coaching was from a colleague who knew what I was capable of, and who interviewed me for a role I didn’t get.
Although I was using the STAR technique, I was focusing on the team and not my individual contributions. I also wasn’t detailing out the full ‘journey’ of each situation so when asked about how I had got our CEO of a very large company (40,000 employees) to engage with me and volunteer his time on my project I simply said ‘I just asked him’ which was a terrible answer! The feedback was brutal, but my colleague warned me it would be.
I needed permission to be selfish, to talk about myself and my achievements.
After my last interview I asked for feedback and it was fairly in depth but importantly I was told that all the things I worked on were there, I took ownership of situations and detailed out all the steps properly.
I was successful in getting the job (again) and I have basically doubled my salary in the last 4 years by working really hard, getting some great experience (much of it unpaid) and smashing the interview. I always did great in post so I didn’t have to worry about that.
HTH