How to interview while overemployed

So this post is directly for the person who asked about interviewing tips for overemployment – Michael I think it was, hello and thanks for asking. Anyone else interested in this too, please listen on.

I’ll go into a bit of detail on how I did it, and I hope that you can hit the ground running with this.

Where I found the time

I either interviewed during my lunch break(s), had a conveniently placed doctor’s appointment, or I lost internet connection (wink wink, nudge nudge) for the time I was interviewing.  If they give you the option to choose the time, I would suggest go for earliest in the morning – the first thing you do.  You are freshest then and can use the evening before to practice your presentation and read up on anything beforehand.  It also means that tasks for your other role(s) aren’t in your mind.  If you happen to have it set for you, use the two excuses from above. I think I’ve said this elsewhere, but excuses are your absolute friend.

The Interview

This is where some luck, preparation and some convincing acting comes into play.

1. Only use your personal laptop or desktop for any interview ever.  You do not want your other jobs’ notifications/emails popping up on your screen when you are interviewing.
2. If you’re interviewing remotely, use a prompt screen/script if you’re presenting.  I do but I write in the way that I would speak.  The best way to do this is to act out your presentation and write down exactly how you said it.
3. Emote – use your hands to express what you’re saying during your interview/presentation.
4. Minimise your interview panel screen – this helps me hugely because it means I’m not looking at them and it also means I can have my prompt up, but make it look like I’m looking at my camera.
5. When sharing your presentation – I have to stress this – only share your document, not your screen.  There is always an option to share only the document you want to show the pages of, and not the entire second screen panel.
6. Always use a second screen panel (use a monitor from one of your other jobs if needed) – have everything you need open, just be strategic and cautious in how you present.
7. Switch off your camera for the presentation bit – they can’t see you when you’re sharing your screen anyway (because it’s so small), so you can use card prompts if that’s more to your liking.
8. Act keen – be optimistic and act like you really want the role.  It might not be, but a little acting can go a very long way.  Smile, nod, ask follow up questions at the end.
9. Sound natural – add a few “erms” and “ooh that’s a really good question” to make it look like you’re thinking on the spot.  Act spontaneous and pretend that the question threw you off guard (but 100% have the answer practiced).
10. Know that they are just as nervous as you! I learned this when I was on the other side of the interview panel – the entire panel joked about how they felt nervous about interviewing candidates. It was a revelation to me, and it helped me feel less nervous going into interviews in the future.
11. Have your “tell us about yourself” answer versed and memorized.  Start from graduation and go all the way to present day – by present day I mean up to the job you are happy to display as public. Assume they haven’t seen your CV (because often times they haven’t) and give them a play by play.
12. Always have follow up questions.  Ask things like, what does progression in {company name} look like? How do you envisage my training contributing to my promotion? Do you support CPD, what does it entail at {company name}? etc

Questions to find out if the job is overemployment friendly

These are a few of the questions that can be a way of finding out if the job you’re looking at can be part of your overemployed journey:

• What is the company culture like?
• How many hours a week do you expect this role to spend towards meetings?
• How would you describe the company’s attitude towards asynchronous work?
• How are disruptions managed at the company?
• How big is the team?
• For me to provide my absolute best for this role, I would require focus time. Is focus time encouraged in the company?

These are by no means exhaustive, but should give you an idea of the theme that might be useful to ask about.  Other than that I think the very obvious one is to act like this job and company is the only job you want, but also let them know you are looking at other options and have other offers on the card.  This can often pressurize them into coming back to you with an answer sooner.

Hope this helped out a little bit.  I’ll see you at the next post, yeah?

Love & Laissez-faire! x