Are you guilty of this in your Interviews and Applications?

"Over 90% of people do this, so you’re not alone if you do it too! It’s an extremely common problem, especially in interviews, and one that can seriously derail your interview and application.

I’m talking about ‘We-ing’! No ‘We-ing’ in your interview or application, please!”

Obviously not ‘weeing’ in the literal sense (although of course that wouldn’t be a good look in an interview either ????)…I mean saying ‘we’ when you need to be saying ‘I’!

We (sorry, I!), see this in so many people, whether it’s in real-world interviews or the mock interviews we run in our Job Application and Interview Skills training courses.

By saying ‘we’, you’re not letting the panel know who actually achieved what you’re talking about, or what was your part in it. That then leads to the panel being confused as they don’t have the evidence to show it was you who achieved what you’re talking about, or someone else.

Consequently, they may not give you the highest score for your answer, and as a result you may not be the one who gets the role…all because you ‘we-ed’ in your interview!

What you need to do in your interview and application is use more ‘I’ language: saying “I did xxxx” is way more powerful than “we did xxxx”.

We (I do mean the collective ‘we’ this time ??) especially tend to default to ‘we’ when we talk about Teamwork. Most of us have had it drummed into us to think of the wider ‘we’ when thinking – and especially talking - about the team. So when we talk about teamwork in our applications and interviews, its hard not to say ‘we’.

However, ‘we’ isn’t going to cut it when you’re telling the panel about teamwork in your application or interview. So, what do we (as in each of us individuals!) do?

Well, it’s all about the specific actions – behaviours - that I do that demonstrate I am the one who’s doing the actions that demonstrate teamwork. But, how do you know what those ‘Teamwork’ actions and behaviours are?

Good question ??

What we recommend in our extremely practical Job Application & Interview Skills training is you have a look at your relevant capability framework and look at the specific capability and behavioural indicators that demonstrate teamwork.

For the NSW Public Sector Capability Framework (NSWPSCF), the specific capability is Work Collaboratively (page 18 of the NSWPSCF)*.

So, as an example, let’s take Work Collaboratively at the Adept level descriptor – red ringed in the picture below.

You can see that under Adept there are several paragraphs that each indicate the day-to-day behaviours that demonstrate someone is Working Collaboratively (Teamwork) at and Adept level.

It’s worth noting that the required behaviours for working Collaboratively also include those at the previous levels as well (i.e. Intermediate and Foundation, but the critical ones you need to demonstrate in your application and interview are the Adept level ones)

SO what you have to talk about are specific examples -? in ‘I’ language - of how you, for example, shared lessons learned across teams and units (ringed in light blue above):

“A good example of demonstrating teamwork is when I, through my own initiative and regular research, found out about an update to legislation which I noticed had only just come out and was critical to the advice I and the team gave to customers and could have caused major problems for the organisation if we didn’t immediately incorporate it into our guidance.

As soon as I discovered the legislative update, I immediately sent out a Teams message to everyone, including my Manager and another team I work with, then followed up with an email to make sure the entire team received the information. I also called one person who was WFH and just back from leave, as she may not have seen the email. The result was we all managed to incorporate the new information in our calls, and team and my manager were extremely grateful. My Manager was especially grateful that I shared the information as she was about to brief our Executive Director regarding a Ministerial and would have given the wrong advice potentially to the Minister”.

Of course, just making it clear you don’t need to put the I in bold ‘I’ like I’ve done, that’s just for effect.

So, hopefully this will be useful to stop you ‘we-ing’ in your future interviews and applications ??

* For the Federal ILS, it’s the ‘Cultivates Productive Working Relationships’ cluster at the level of the role you’re applying for. Whatever your framework, look at the behavioural indicators – what it lists as the behaviours it expects for the equivalent of ‘Teamwork’ at the level of the role you’re applying for. We can incorporate almost any Capability Framework into our Job Application and Interview Skills training – please just ask (e.g. we deliver the program for WA Government and tailor it to the WA Government requirements).

If you’re interested in running our in-house, super-practical Job Application and Interview Skills training for your teams, then click here to get in touch or use the button below.

GET IN TOUCH

Of course, if you want to chat to someone, call us:

?? +61 (0)2 7901 5618 7901

or ?? [email protected]

“Really practical advice and practices. The training was very targeted to my organisation which I found extremely helpful. The trainer showed us how to link it with WA Finance behaviour indicators and finance job ads” Participant, WA Government

ABOUT OUR JOB APPLICATION & INTERVIEW SKILLS TRAINING

An extremely practical and easy to understand 1-day, engaging training course that give people the best possible chance of getting a job in the Public or Private Sectors.

Every course is customised for each particular organisation and is tailored to every group where possible. An Executive version is also available. The program is delivered virtually or face-to-face as required.

“The best CV/interview course I have attended” Participant, Safework NSW

This course has been widely presented to over 7,000 Public Sector participants across country and metropolitan Australia. Specific agencies include NSW Police (sworn and unsworn staff), NSW Dept. of Customer Service; NSW Legal Aid; NSW Dept. of Communities and Justice (FACS Housing and Child Protection, Youth Justice, etc); Reconstruction NSW; NSW Dept. of Premier & Cabinet; Safework NSW; NSW Fire Brigades; Parliament of NSW; Federal Commission for Children and Young People; Federal Dept of Health; Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs; Dept. of Education & Communities; AICIS; WA Finance; QLD Transport & Main Roads; plus many others.

“I usually interview very badly. However, as a result of this course, I have been successful & have been offered a position! This course and the trainer were great, and I feel that if I did not attend this course, I would not have progressed as far as I did in the recruitment process. The trainer was very knowledgeable and thoroughly detailed all subjects as well as providing great examples and having great answers to all questions asked no matter how difficult.” Participant, NSW DCJ.

What does the Course Cover?

·??????? Understanding the Public Sector selection process and what it means for your application

·??????? NSW Government GSE Act compliant - explains and works through the GSE Act recruitment process (we also adapt it to other Governments’ legislation)

·??????? How to effectively apply for almost any role/job under the NSW Capability Framework.

-?? Easily adapted to other State, Local or Federal Governments or other Capability Frameworks

·??????? Writing an Expression of Interest or a limited length application

·??????? Targeted Questions and Covering Letters for NSW (or other) Government (examples provided)

·??????? Highly practical behavioural interview skills to improve interview techniques (Public and Private Sectors), including virtual and face-to-face interviews

·??????? Practical behavioural interview skills, techniques and tools to adeptly answer questions

·??????? Overcoming anxiety and nerves

·??????? How to make a good first (and lasting!) impression including virtual and face-to-face interviews

·??????? Referees – selecting and getting the best from them

·??????? How to prepare a Best Practice CV/résumé that works (Public and Private Sectors)

-?? Includes a MSWord best practice CV/ résumé template for all participants

·??????? All skills are equally applicable to the Private Sector

“Panel members really saw a marked improvement in people’s applications and interviews after doing this program compared to previously, it was excellent” Director, AICIS (Federal Government)

The course is tailored to each organisation’s exact needs and the levels and roles of the participants.

“Southern Cross Coaching & Development delivered the Job Application and Interview Skills course several times to [over 200] of our staff. Feedback from participants from all courses was excellent. The facilitators know their content and provided great examples that people could relate to. I learnt a lot from the course that I will share with my colleagues.” Organisational Development Manager & Participant.

“I have attended other similar courses, but I feel I got much more out of this course. The speaker was highly articulate, made the subject matter interesting and highly relevant.” Participant, NSW Government

For more information on our in-house courses for groups, please contact your friendly team at Southern Cross Coaching & Development:

?? ?+61 (0)2 7901 5618

?? [email protected]

??? www.southerncrosscoaching.com.au