What can the Theatre and the Military teach us about Job Interviews?

What can the theatre and the military teach us about job interviews? In a word: rehearsals. However, rehearsals are not as simple as you might first think. So read on and you will find some very useful ideas to give you the very best possible chance of success in your next job interview.

Step 1. Have a plan. Before we can even start rehearsals, we need some sort of a plan or script. In theatre, they have the play and in the military, the commanders will have created a plan for the operation. For the job interview, you can think through what it is that you have to offer and how you want to articulate that. There will be some key messages that you want to get across. Prepare some specific and detailed examples of the things that you have achieved, which relate to your ‘value promises’. Ensure that they are relevant to your narrative, and have sufficient context in terms of numbers, size, dates and people. Also, as you work on your examples, make sure that they are not long-winded - otherwise you risk losing the interest of the interviewer. Practice your explanations until you have whittled them down and made them concise and natural-sounding. In addition, you can anticipate the questions that may well come up and prepare your responses accordingly. Obvious questions to prepare for include, ‘Why are you interested in this role?’, but also consider any potential ‘trip questions’. Finally, think through the questions that you will have ready for them when, towards the end of the interview, they ask: ‘Do you any questions for us?’

Step 2. Table read. In acting, one of the first steps is to have the whole cast and director sit around a table and simply read through the play/script. In the military, there will be an orders group. This is when everyone involved in the operation will be taken through the plan by the commanders. This will almost always use maps, photographs and models/representations of the ground on which the operation will take place. Both the table read and the orders group are a chance for everyone to understand the scope of what is going to happen and their own role within that. From the Job Interview point of view, we can think about the various phases of an interview and practice saying our examples out loud, refining them as we go so that they come across pithy, compelling, interesting and convincing. We do not want the first time that we say these things to be in the interview itself!

Step 3. The Walk Through. The next step in both theatre and the military is to walk through how things are going to happen in the performance and operation, respectively. The actors will do it on the stage. They will practise moving and standing in the right place at the right time and saying their lines. The military is much the same: troops will walk through the plan in daylight and in slow time, perhaps using a mock-up of the terrain or location. If you are preparing for an interview, the next stage is to make your rehearsal even more realistic by finding someone to work with you, acting as the interviewer. They should ask you the questions that you are expecting (and perhaps some surprise ones if they are well-placed) and you can practice replying in the way you have been practising during your ‘table read’.

N.B Record and Review. If you are preparing for a virtual interview - and maybe even if not - record the walk throughs and watch yourself back to see how you come across. You can then refine how you present yourself.

Step 4. Contingency Planning. The military know that hardly anything goes to plan so they plan for the unexpected and for things going wrong as much as they can. In the same way, it would be useful to try and anticipate the questions that you do not want to be asked and practise answering them as well as you can. As mentioned, ask your ‘practice interviewer’ to ask you surprise questions so that you get used to coping with the unexpected and responding to interview situations that you had not anticipated.

Step 5. The Dress Rehearsal. This is where you pull everything together before the actual interview. In the theatre they will run through the whole performance from beginning to end. Everything will be rehearsed: the lines, the lights, the music, the props, the costumes. The military is very similar and may even include live firing if the space and operational security allow. All the equipment, weapons, ammunition, night sights and transport will be checked and used as if for real.

So, the final stage of interview preparation is to pull everything together that you have been working on: the virtual set up, your presentation, etc. With your plan in mind, your examples should be prepared and rehearsed, with awkward questions anticipated and responses honed. You should now be game ready. If you had not already guessed it, a major part of this is not just to present yourself in the best light, but to also ensure that you feel very confident before you go into the job interview knowing that you have done your best to prepare thoroughly.

If you have any questions about interview prep, do get in touch.