How to prepare for an interview with menopausal brain fog

[Jennywren8]

Help needed for an interview for a senior professional role next week which I think I have the skills to secure…. However recently I often lose my chain of thought or have a blank moment due to menopausal brain fog. Any guidance or bright ideas gratefully received! Thanks in advance

Take notes in with you and refer to them. As an interviewer, I wouldn’t have a problem with this. I’m looking for you to demonstrate your experience, skills and knowledge and not your memory, (unless having a shit hot memory is part of the essential criteria). Good luck.

Ask chat gbt for ten questions an interviewer might ask for this role. Then ask it how a candidate could demonstrate their expertise via their responses.

Cut and paste it into a document and have it in front of you, if interview is not in person. For in person you could insert comments in your personal version of your cv, with pointers. It ll at least give you some helps to trigger a response.

I carried out interviews last week for a senior post. We interviewed 10
candidates. 9 brought in notes of some kind so definitely take in notes or scenarios or keywords that will help you. Good luck!

Thanks, this is really helpful input. Any other wisdom gratefully appreciated- have my DSs bday this weekend and family visiting so will have to be efficient with my time to prepare

Search online for interview prep tutorials. There are many. Identify where you have demonstrated expertise in challenging scenarios. How you have guided the project and brought it to conclusion while managing time, communication and other competing tasks.

Demonstrate expertise, identifying where extra research might help, applying new skills.

Be aware of what is currently relevant in your field, new regulations, impact of AI etc.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask them to repeat any questions if you need it. If you need a min to formulate an answer, say, ‘ I’m just going to think about that for a moment before answering’. And any trickier questions, it’s okay to say, ‘I’d like to come back to that one at the end please’, and then you can think further about this in between other questions. Also, if you don’t feel you got to tell them about a particular skill or knowledge, just say/mention it succinctly at the end and just say you’d like them to know this about you and it didn’t come up in your answers.

Practice the interview in your head before going. Remember your experiences. Give answers based on personal and professional experiences.

Have started prep this weekend for interview next week and my menopausal brain cannot retain any information, help!!! Been on it since 10am this morning

What information are you trying to retain?

I would say work on understanding the JD, then 3 situational examples you can use for various questions and think through what your positive attributes are.

Dont over prepare as you’ll feel stressed. Just know you have the experience and do your best. You’ll either get it or you won’t and often it doesn’t come down to what you’ve memorised. Often it’s a case of how you come across and whether your face and experience fits.