In this second part of the SWOT Project Management Recruitment Ideas, we’re going to look at the project management interview and how you can prepare for the interview using a SWOT analysis. This article follows on from the Project Management Recruitment Ideas – Using a SWOT for Job Specs and you should read that before reading on.
Project Management Interview SWOT Analysis
Following the detailed preperation on the organisation and the job itself, it’s time to turn the focus onto yourself and start to prepare for the application and the interview. Taking a clean piece of paper – with the job specification SWOT analysis in front of you and start to jot down your thoughts about the following;
SWOT Analysis for Interviews
Strengths
Top 5 Hard Skills
Against everything you have learnt about the job, list out what you think are the top five hard skills the interviewer will be interested in talking to you about. Hard skills are those things like project planning, managing stakeholders, managing budgets, commercial / legal skills etc. Just pick out what you really believe that particular job demands – leave out other things that don’t seem so important.
Your USP
Think about what your one unique selling point is – in relation to this job. Try to think beyond past glories and all those times you’ve been successful – and just concentrate on what is the single most important attribute for this particularly post. When you think you understand what that is – think about your USP for a moment. Your USP is something that you should be able to sum up in a sentence or two – can you do that in relation to this post?
Other People’s View
Think for a moment about the colleagues you currently work with and those you have worked with in the past. Now imagine them, just for a moment, talking to the interviewer about your suitability for the post – what do you think they might say? What strengths do you think they might say you would bring to the job?
Top 3 Soft Skills
Back to the job specification SWOT analysis, pick out the top three soft skills that the post demands and compose a short statement about your own soft skills in response. For example; if leadership is required, note down an example of where your strong leadership skills have been evident previously. Take a moment to make a note of a further three strong soft skills that may not have been evident in the job specification – again make a short statement against each.
Opportunities
Utilise Existing Skills
Looking back to the job specification SWOT analysis, the opportunity is how your existing strong skills will make you a good candidate for the job. These are the key skills that make you a sure bet for getting the job and its important that you understand just how important they are and how to prepare to express just how important in the application and the interview. In this part of the SWOT you need to build up your “evidence” to support your key skills.
For each key skill area, lets take the commercial management skill, you need to be clear on your theory, so are you happy that you could deal with a technical project management question in relation to this? You also need to jot down a few examples where your commercial skills have been evident and the best way to do this is the STAR technique. Think about the Situation or Task, then think about the Action you took and the Result. This will give you a well rounded description about how and where you have demonstrated your commercial skills
USP in the Role
In the strengths we identified the USP you have for the role, the opportunity comes from being able to include that USP in the application and interview. Think about how you can develop your USP even further – including the information gathered from the job specification SWOT analysis – in answer to those age old interview questions – why have you applied for the position? Why do you bring to the role? Why should we employ you?
Visualise the Future
Successful candidates are the ones that are able to get the interviewer thinking about them actually performing the role – visualising the role in the future with you in it. It’s a clever but obvious trick and pretty easy to do, all you need to do is think about how your skills and experiences can be conveyed in answers that directly address the organisation’s projects, programmes or PMO that you’re interviewing for. Interview questions which are asked to find out about your experiences can be turned into answers which directly address the organisation’s needs. For example, when asked about your commercial management experience, the answer given can be a brief overview of your skill or experience but the latter part of the answer should directly address the organisation “…. and I noted from the job description that commercial skills are needed specifically for X, Y, or Z which I have direct experience in, should I elaborate?”
What You Bring
Think for a moment about what you are bringing to the table in addition to what the job specification is asking for – this is the opportunity you are bringing to that organisation – the additional skills and experiences that are in effect a bonus for that organisation. Think about everything you have learnt in the job specification SWOT analysis – where the organisation is heading, what its strategic objectives are, how it wants to develop further – and think about how you could figure in future plans. Hiring talent and keeping talent is one of the most important things an organisation can do so knowing that a prospective new employee in an interview is one who has done their homework and knows where the organisation is heading and what role they play in that is very attractive.
Weaknesses
Top 3 Hard Skills
From the job specification, be honest with yourself and identify any hard skills that you know you are weak in. Make a few notes against these weaknesses and we’ll address them later in the Threats part
Improvements
Think about the areas of your current work and career where you have been making inroads to proactively address some of your weaknesses – specifically think about the areas where you have been undertaking training or development – informally or formally. Make a note of courses, seminars, webinars, conferences and on-the-job workthat you have carried out. Again, we will address this further in the Threats part
Limited Access
Looking back to the job specification SWOT, identify areas of the job specification that require skills or experience that you have been unable to undertake previously due to the nature of your roles. These areas would be seen as the truely challenging parts of the role because you have no prior experience at all.
Soft Skills
Identify the soft skills required in the position you’re being interviewed for that you know you would perform weakly on
Threats
Known Competition
It is worth thinking about your potential competition for the role – the other candidates being interviewed for the position. This is particularly useful if the interview you are attending is an internal interview and you know which of your colleagues are also being interviewed. Jotting down a few pros and cons on your competitors can be an empowering and enlightening thing – they may not be as strong as you think they are.
Weakness Impact
Having made a note of your weaknesses, we know these are the potential threats that will stop you being interviewed successfully unless we prepare in advance to counter any objections raised in the interview. We know that not everyone is perfect but it is the way we talk about our weaknesses and what we are prepared to do to overcome them that counts. For each of your highlighted weaknesses think about the actions you are / have done to overcome them. For example, with a hard skill like planning, have you spent time refreshing your studies, sought out a mentor to assist or coach you? With a soft skill like negotiation, have you sought out a peer review, taken a course or other self improvement learning opportunity?
The interview will bring up questions about weakness – not just the obvious question “what are your weaknesses?” but more carefully veiled questions like “what was the biggest challenge you faced?, how did you manage that particularly issue?”. Answers which show that you are aware of your weaknesses and that you are proactively managing them to overcome them are much more preferable to the interviewer.
SWOT analysis when applied to areas of the project management recruitment process allow an individual to really understand the position they are applying for and to make a really detailed plan of how they will present themselves for the position. Too many project management job candidates still rely on a “one copy of a CV and quickly browsing job boards on line with a trigger finger” approach to finding their next opportunity.
My message is plan, prepare and approach with a little care and thought – think about your career aspirations and where you want to go without just applying for any old position that says “project management”. Make making considered applications your approach this year and see your hard work pay off.
