Best interview tips for strategic council role please?

[Headmassage]

Good afternoon,

I’m posting here for more traction as the work board tends to be quiet. I hope you guys can help.

I have an upcoming interview for a strategic role in the council I currently work for. It’s the first fully focused strategic role I’ve applied for, and I was encouraged to do so by a member of the panel.

Could anyone give any hints/tips to ace a strategic role interview? Perhaps from your experience as an interviewee/interviewer?

I feel I have a great chance of getting it if I ace the interview and I really want the job!

It’a a Customer Strategy Business Partner role if that helps.

Having been part of the interview panel for management roles in my industry: Make sure you back up your answers with an example of where you have showcased that particular skill. If you don’t
have direct experience, inform them how you plan to do it if you got the role.
avoid using cliche answers such as ‘I’ve been told that I work too hard’ when asked about weaknesses. Give them an area where you genuinely want to improve. Essentially, be yourself, be genuine and honest. Don’t be afraid to say ‘let me think about that for a moment’ before you answer to gather your thoughts so you can ensure you prepare the answer correctly. This is much more preferable than someone who rushes an answer.
don’t waffle!
Definitely have some questions prepared for the panel about the role or the department. Even something such as ‘what do you feel is the best thing about working in X department’ is better than someone with no questions.

I wish you all the best and hope you get the job!

Thank you 😊

Have you held a strategic role before or do you have experience?

You need to showcase your ability to think outside your immediate team and consider how you can bring value to the wider organisation.

That may be budgetary - are there initiatives you could implement within the area you work that have cross over with other teams to reduce costs and resource.

It may be innovation - are there new technologies or approaches that could bring efficiencies and further proof elements of what your team will do

Or structure/compliance - are there upcoming changes to your sector/industry that are going to need to be planned for now. How do you keep up to date with these kind of changes, are you signed up to any memberships or authorities that aggregate and communicate these.

I've been asked to do activities where I lay out my 12 month plan in these kind of interviews before. Obviously what you plan will be limited and not particularly accurate because you have a short time and limited information but they want to see how you approach the task. My favourite approach is to break it into

Fix - immediate quick wins, first 3 months
Focus - will take a little longer, may include cross team working or developing existing tools
Grow - longer projects, may need investment and research.

Be aware of the organisation's current strategies and key policies. Make sure you've read the corporate business plan and recent published papers/reports that are relevant to the area. Read the corporate risk register to ensure you're familiar with relevant risks, and read corporate performance reporting so you know how things are currently going and the relevant performance measures. Good luck!

I honestly think you need to say the buzz words ‘I demonstrated my ability to think strategically when I…’ give example of plan that answers that specific question. i.e use the word strategic in the majority of your answers. At my place we contrast strategic roles with operational, so if you’ve got examples of operational management you explain what your strategy was at difficult points for example.