Under the spotlight
Why an interview is the best and worst place to explain what Delivery Management is
Je suis un fraud.
Or something to that effect.
I write a regular newsletter on Delivery but spend most of my time in meetings or spreadsheets, rather than working on a day-to-day basis with teams.
Do you even deliver, bro?
As a Director (remember, Americanised Middle-Management) in an organisation, I could just so easily be dragged back into spinning up – and working with – a small discovery team with a new client. As I could be stood in front of a series of PowerPoint slides, trying to sell a billion-dollar company as your next SDLC and Integration Partner.
So, I need to keep my hand in.
One way of doing this is to talk to the Delivery folk in my organisation. That can be as a leader, mentor, coach or nosey so’n’so. I am just interested in what is going on and to see if I can help.
One place I get to see the full rich tapestry of challenges and experiences is in an interview. Which is unfair – as interview conditions aren’t always the best, to see or provide your best.
So here is some guidance from a person who has interviewed a lot of unsuccessful candidates – that could have been brilliant Delivery Managers.
Every project has risks
But not every interview candidate calls them out. Why not?
It is quite bizarre when you ask candidates to talk about the artefacts or tools they use, and quite a lot fail to even mention a RAID, or how they capture risks. How much faith can we put in a candidate who doesn’t appear to be managing the stuff that could end up in us losing people, money or our reputation.
A colleague of mine will discount them on this alone.
Planning to succeed
Being able to plan is essential, but often an interviewer isn’t interested in how you plan – it’s how you show progress.
I interviewed someone who told me they don’t have a plan because they work in Agile. Fair enough, but how do you get a senior stakeholder to share to the CEO/COO the great work and progress you are making. They looked stumped. Why wouldn’t they just look at Jira.
Why not indeed. Next!
Scenarios
They are not designed to catch you out. Most of them are a simple way of saying “tell us how you do your job.”
You don’t need to worry about the project type, the industry or even the issues – you just need to be able to tell us how you would deal with that situation, and to the right level of detail.
I have been on an interview panel where the candidate tried to map out pretty much every day of a 12-month project. You wouldn’t do that in practice – well, unless it was a bolted-down, waterfall experience – but even then, it was far too much noise and not enough detail.
Be careful of the “I think we have everything we need” statement from the scenario. There’s a greater chance that you have completely failed the scenario than passed with flying colours. There’s just no point in asking any more questions if the panel is concerned with how you will adapt in a similar situation.
Are you qualified?
Forget scrolls or gilt-edged certs. What the panel is after, is a clear understanding that you can do the job you are applying for. Which is often difficult, as a lot of people are applying for a role that is a step up from their normal, day-to-day experience.
The answer isn’t to lie on your CV. They key is to prove you can master the level you are at and explain how you will rapidly fill in the gaps.
Always have questions
This is your interview. You are interviewing me/them as much as we are interviewing you.
Even if you feel like you have all the answers you need – there must be one question: “What do you like about working here?”, or “What value do you get from the work you do?” that you can have tucked up your sleeve.
No questions often comes across as a lack of preparation, even if that’s not the case.
Culture Schmulture
I have been invited to a couple of Cultural fit interviews in my time. This can be summed up as PLU – or People Like Us. Will that person fit in? Do we like the cut of their jib?
The reality is that most folk can’t fully explain or express what their culture is, so why are they marking you against this hard to define thing? What most interviewers are trying to understand is if you can string a sentence together long enough to hold a conversation, so that when you join – it’s not an awkward situation to find ourselves in.
Why not ask them how the culture plays out when something goes wrong. You’ll then be able to have a chat about culture, behaviours – or if it is just the view of an individual who has the final word when the fit hits the shan.
Remember. You are in the interview because the company wants to employee you, as long as you tick a couple of necessary boxes. In that you won’t be a liability on day one. If you can get past that hurdle – while explaining how you manage risks – you’ll likely be one of the strongest candidates that panel will see.
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