An Over Prepared Interview

The key to any successful interview is preparation, applicants must be prepared to recite their relevant skills, qualities and experience, as well as taking time to research the company, arrange reliable transport and prepare a suitable outfit. An applicant that fails to prepare should ultimately prepare to fail.

The interview process can be difficult to prepare for, due to its unpredictable nature. Applicants can assume that standard questions, such as, “Tell me about yourself?” will be asked and thus can prepare accordingly. However, this tactic can often lead applicants to over prepare their interview material, predicating the questions or what direction the conversation will go in.

These overly rehearsed responses can alter the natural flow of dialogue, creating a static, tedious and ultimately forgettable interview, which hinder the applicant’s chances of success.

I experienced this issue in my own interview with Big Telly Theatre, although successful in gaining the job, I realised that my over rehearsed responses made it difficult to display my true personality. In the hopes of developing my learning outcomes, I will reflect upon this interview with the use of Gibbs Reflective Cycle.

Description

Big Telly Theatre is known for its professional ‘theatre productions, site specific, immersive games and participatory community driven projects’ ( big-telly.com ). After performing a site specific performance in my Advanced Theatre module, I became more interested in the style, determined to enhance my skills at a professional level. Over the summer I worked on a project alongside Big Telly stage manager Sinéad Owens, I expressed my admiration for their impressive catalogue of site specific work and highlighted my desire to shadow the company as an intern. After securing an interview, I found that the meeting would be led by project manager Crissy O’Donovan. I decided to search for her LinkedIn page to gain a better understanding of her role and duties within the company, gaining an insight into the industry standard. The interview adopted a conversational style, and was more informal than I had expected, thus my overly rehearsed responses seemed to obstruct the natural flow of conversation. Despite this Chrissy was impressed with my company knowledge and connections, she seemed interested to hear more about my passion for site specific work and offered me an internship with the company.

Feelings

The informal, conversational style of the interview did create a refreshing and enjoyable atmosphere, however, my anxious feelings refused to diminish. As I had over prepared answers to questions I naively assumed would be asked, I began to feel a sense of fear when my predications proved wrong. Rather than reacting in the moment, I continued to think back to my prepared answers, attempting to relate them to the questions asked, this at times led to rambling or delayed responses. This anxiety led to feelings of doubt and made me reconsider my compatibility with the role. Now that I have secured my internship and learned from the experience, I understand these feelings were a result of my anxious attempts to over prepare and not a reflection of my own ability.

Evaluation

After gaining the internship I decided to ask Crissy for feedback, to pinpoint my exact strengths and weaknesses and to improve my methods of preparation. Crissy explained that I had an impressive ability to communicate in a confident and clear manner, despite my internal anxieties at the time. I informed Crissy of my interview preparation of memorising answers to predicted questions, and she agreed that although it was clear that I had conducted extensive research, my answers did feel lengthy and a little rehearsed, which hindered Crissy’s ability to judge my compatibility with the job. Crissy provided useful advice stating, ‘Next time, rather than memorising answers, prepare relevant key words and statements that will lead to interesting conversations, as this will help you to speak in the moment, allowing your true personality to shine’.

“Interviewers want to know your personality and enjoy a conversation with you, not hear answers you’ve memorized”.

(RED ventures, Devaney: 2022)

From this, I realise the importance of being yourself in the moment, as this conveys more information about the type of colleague you are, your personality and how compatible you are with the job description. Despite my moments of rambling, Crissy reaffirmed that my contagious enthusiasm and passion led to a successful interview, now that I am aware of my tendency to over prepare and ramble, I can prefect this flaw to experience more success in the future.

Analysis

It is important to relate any discussion of skills and qualities to the needs of the company. Researching the company can provide an insight into the type of applicants they are searching for, for example, from my research I know that Big Telly has a reputation for experimenting with technology, as a means of creating more immersive theatre. I also found that many of their performances have been broadcasted via online platforms, such as Zoom, and that they have a heavy social media presence. I knew the company would be eager to employ candidates with skills that match their technological criteria, therefore, I used the interview to highlight my relevant skills, within social media, video editing etc., and also made them aware of my determination to build on and prefect these skills to a professional standard.

Conclusion

From this process I have found the importance of effective interview preparation to evoke interesting and memorable discussions. The interviewer wants to know your relevant skills, qualities and experience, however they equally want to learn of your personality and behaviour, this can display your compatibility for the job as effectively as your abilities, therefore it is important that applicants do not hide behind memorised, pre rehearsed material in their interview.

References

“About us”. Big Telly Theatre Company. https://big-telly.com/about-us/  [Accessed on 20 Feb. 2023]

“Chrissy O’Donovan”, LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/crissy-o-donovan-435644171/  [Accessed on 20 Feb. 2023]

Devaney, Erica. (2022).  “Zoom Interview Prep: Advice From a Hiring Manager”. The Best Schools. https://thebestschools.org/careers/career-prep/zoom-interview-prep/  [Accessed on 20 Feb. 2023]

Ellis, R.T. (2015) Interview skills: from both sides of the fence.. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform.

Foss, Jenny. (2020). “Are You Over-Preparing for Your Interview?”. The Muse.https://www.themuse.com/advice/are-you-overpreparing-for-your-interview  [Accessed on 20 Feb. 2023]

Martin, H. (2021). “Gibbs’ Reflective Learning Cycle”. HELEN MARTIN BLOG. https://helendenheld.com/tag/gibbs-reflective-learning-cycle/ . [Accessed 23 Nov. 2022]

O’Donovan, Chrissy. (2022). Big Telly Theatre Company.