When I speak to candidates about preparing for interviews with search committees, their questions often focus on how to prepare responses to the committee’s interview questions. These are important and relevant considerations. Your interview responses should be clear and focused, including specific examples from your relevant experience. At the same time, the interview process is more than your responses. From your first engagement to your last, how you show up matters.
Successful candidates show and tell instead of relying on telling alone. The lifecycle of a candidate’s relationship with a search committee starts with a resume and ends either with an offer or a denial. In either case, it’s key to prioritize showing and telling across all stages of the interview process, especially as more search committees shift to a competency-based approach of assessing candidates.
Phase 1: Submitting a Resume
Your resume is the first thing that a search committee sees when considering your candidacy. It’s important that your resume highlights relevant roles and experiences to show where you have done the work. When you’re building your resume, make sure to embed statistics, data, and other relevant specifics into it. Think about what you might be able to include that shows impact and growth. This will look different depending on the role, but examples include sharing increases in fundraising over your tenure, increase in program participation, or growth of engagement on online platforms. Your resume is the beginning of your opportunity to tell the story of your career and candidacy.
Phase 2: The Interview
Your interview is the committee’s first opportunity to learn how you will show up to your job, so think of your interview as a way to show the committee what you’re like as a colleague. Here are some elements to consider before entering your interview.
- Be relational – A large part of most roles, especially leadership roles, is working on teams and in collaboration. Engage during your interview the way you would in a team meeting. Get to know your interviewer: ask them questions and build rapport. This allows interviewers to see how you might fit into the existing dynamics of an organization. Gauging culture fit is important for both the search committee and for you, helping you to understand whether you can see yourself working at this organization.
- Be confident – When talking about your experience, you have the upper hand. The search committee has only seen your resume, which skims the surface of your experience. Keep your resume on hand and refer to it when determining examples in response to the committee’s questions. Dive deeper into the statistics you decided to include. How did you achieve growth, who did you engage, and why did you choose those partners? In an interview, you are the expert on your work.
- Be transparent – It’s okay to pause and think during an interview. If an example doesn’t come to mind immediately, or if the interviewer asks a question that you didn’t prepare for, ask for a moment to reflect on your experience. If the role includes a growth area for you, share why you’re interested in growing that skillset. Share transferable skills that you’ve developed and be specific about how you would apply them to your area of growth.
- Be curious – Come to the interview prepared with questions about the role and the organization. After interviews, candidates often share with me that they learned more about an opportunity through my interview questions. In the same way, view your time at the end of an interview as a chance to share more about yourself and your approach to the opportunity as well as to ask any relevant questions. This is also the only part of the interview where you lead the conversation, so use it as an opportunity to demonstrate how you facilitate and to learn needed information about the organization to assess if it aligns with your goals. Remember that interviews are mutual; the search committee is interviewing you, but you are also interviewing them.
Phase 3: The Thank You Note
Your interview process doesn’t end when you leave your interview. The thank you note is another opportunity to highlight the parts of the role that are most exciting to you, your applicable skills, and the areas of learning you are excited to undertake. It’s also a great opportunity to mention something that stood out to you from the interview itself. Did a committee member answer a question in a way that excited you? Did you learn something interesting about the organization? Mentioning something specific allows the committee to learn more about your interests and priorities.
Your interview is important, but the opportunity to distinguish yourself as a candidate stretches beyond your responses to interview questions. Before entering your next interview process, find ways to both show and tell what makes you a unique candidate across all phases of the process.
