Interviewing for promotion

Re: Interviewing for promotion

• peachy13 member

  

  May 2015

  I'm not sure man vs woman really matters -- instead I would try and reflect on your work over the past 9 years: what have you mastered? What new duties/responsibilities have you taken on since you started? And then probably most importantly: think of things you're not currently doing now but could be doing down the road. Think outside the box and come up with new tasks for yourself and present them to your interviewers to show them your ability to be innovative, improve the company, and challenge yourself with work that a higher-level employee would do.

  
  
  
  

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• thisismynickname2 member

  

  May 2015

  Oh wow. Tough call about bringing up diversity. Honestly, I wouldn't; they know you're a woman. Rather, I think your advantage is knowing exactly who you're up against. What weaknesses does he have that you have comparable strengths? What weaknesses do other managers have that you have comparable strengths? Do you see issues in the way things are run that you have a specific plan for improvement? I think you need to show them what they're missing by not hiring you. This golden boy could be more of the same; you could be a breath of fresh air. 

  
  

  Also, from my perspective, getting promoted isn't about doing your current job perfectly. It's about showing that you already have many of the skills to do the next job. 

  
  

  Good luck! 

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• jacques27 member

  

  May 2015 edited May 2015

  On mobile so will be brief.
  
  1. Honestly, as you've presented it here, your take on bringing diversity sounds like sour grapes. You should be "bringing" more to the management team than your genitalia.
  
  2. The biggest mistake I've seen at my job when people interview for promotions is that people assume the interviewers already know them, their accomplishments, and have seen their personnel file and that is not always true. So they tend to be vague when explaining their accomplishments or even just explaining their assets and contributions because they think it's common knowledge. In my experience at least, it's helpful from that respect to approach it as if you're an external candidate who has had no prior contact with your interviewers.
  
  Edited to fix a you're/your issue that's been bugging me since I posted this morning.
  

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• jacques27 member

  

  May 2015

  Stupid phone not understanding homophones. I can't figure out how to edit on my phone and it is bugging me. Argh!

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  May 2015

  jacques27 said:

  On mobile so will be brief.
  
  1. Honestly, as you've presented it here, your take on bringing diversity sounds like sour grapes. You should be "bringing" more to the management team than you're genitalia.
  
  2. The biggest mistake I've seen at my job when people interview for promotions is that people assume the interviewers already know them, their accomplishments, and have seen their personnel file and that is not always true. So they tend to be vague when explaining their accomplishments or even just explaining their assets and contributions because they think it's common knowledge. In my experience at least, it's helpful from that respect to approach it as if you're an external candidate who has had no prior contact with your interviewers.

  I think #2 is especially great feedback.  I've seen some candidates dial it in if it's for an interview on their own team or with someone they know (or assume it's a courtesy). Come prepared with good responses, as well as questions for them. Bring work samples if applicable.

  
  

  I had an interview with my VP, and brought along a portfolio of some of my work.  While he generally knew I was a high performer and definitely was aware of some of my major accomplishments, he was surprised by some other things he didn't know about me.

  
  

  I wouldn't call out the fact that you'd bring diversity to the management team... this should be obvious to senior management that they're male heavy at the top.  Bottom line though they SHOULD hire the best person for the job, regardless (but of course it doesn't always happen that way with internal politics).

  
  

  If you want to highlight diversity - share your diverse experience and skills that you bring to the table.

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• badbnagdway member

  

  May 2015

  So, I'm going to break from the pack and say maybe yes, do mention that you would add diversity to management. It seems that there must be at least one woman in management. Do you know her well? Do you have any female mentors within the company, or otherwise have mentors that you can trust? Can you have lunch or a meeting with either a female manager or mentor and discuss your strategy for the interview? 

  
  

  Here's the thing - yes, it should be incredibly obvious to the male heavy management that there is something off here. And yes, I do think there is something off. If the attorney workforce is equally divided between men and women and the management is not, that is not likely to be just chance. But does that mean that the men who are in charge are aware of what is probably their own bias? No, it does not. Now, certainly, going into the interview and saying, "hey, you guys are sexist pigs and you need to hire me because I'm a woman" is not a good idea. But that is not what you would do, obviously, and to me one of the major problems many women attorneys have (and this is backed up by studies I have read about) is that they are not great at tooting their own horn. 

  
  

  Diversity in the workplace is a benefit to the workplace. So if you are offering diversity, you are offering a benefit, and that is something worth mentioning, though subtly, either in your cover letter somewhere or in the interview. To me the preference here would be to find a champion who is an insider. If you have a great relationship with one of the existing managers, you need to persuade them to champion you in the meetings. If you have a great relationship with several of them even better. In an ideal world you have someone who would be willing to pipe in during the discussion, "hey, I've noticed we don't have a lot of diversity among our managers. I think melbenso is not only extremely qualified, but would also help us to create a more diverse work environment, which will benefit our organization in the long-term." 

  
  

  I agree with other suggestions in general -- again, toot your own horn a bit. Tell them what you've done and tell them your ideas for being in charge of an office and why you think you'd be great at the job. 

  
  

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• huskypuppy14 member

  

  May 2015

  Has anyone watched the google unconcious bias video? We watched it at work, and our management is trying to be better. All of our C suite is white men. Our VPs are more diverse, but there are still much less women in upper management.

  
  

  
  

  If you think your company would be receptive to it, I'd bring it up.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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• badbnagdway member

  

  May 2015

  huskypuppy14 said:

  Has anyone watched the google unconcious bias video? We watched it at work, and our management is trying to be better. All of our C suite is white men. Our VPs are more diverse, but there are still much less women in upper management.

  
  

  
  

  If you think your company would be receptive to it, I'd bring it up.
  

  
  

  
  

  Yes, this. We did some unconscious bias training and even in the training I noticed some of the white men make outburst statements like "I treat men and women the same so I don't need this training." Ummm. 

  
  

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• emmaaa mod

  

  May 2015

  I agree with the PPs that suggested leaving your gender out of it. They know you are a woman and suggesting you would bring diversity to the management team could lead them to believe that you think you should have the job only because you are a female. Honestly, if I were interviewing someone and they said, "I can bring diversity to the team because I am a woman and you have mostly men in management" I would be a little turned off. 1. Because I would know you're a woman and 2. because I would feel like it was insulting to point out that there were more men and possibly feel accused of being sexist.

  
  

  I think the best thing you can do is to point out what strengths you could bring to the team in a way someone else might not be able to.

  
  

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• huskypuppy14 member

  

  May 2015

  emmaaa said:I agree with the PPs that suggested leaving your gender out of it. They know you are a woman and suggesting you would bring diversity to the management team could lead them to believe that you think you should have the job only because you are a female. Honestly, if I were interviewing someone and they said, "I can bring diversity to the team because I am a woman and you have mostly men in management" I would be a little turned off. 1. Because I would know you're a woman and 2. because I would feel like it was insulting to point out that there were more men and possibly feel accused of being sexist.
  I think the best thing you can do is to point out what strengths you could bring to the team in a way someone else might not be able to.
  
  Again, unconscious bias. Watch it. It's called unconscious for a reason.

  
  

  Obviously they know she's a woman. That's not the point. Only the OP knows if she should bring this up or not. If she thinks the company would be receptive to it, sure. If it's a bunch of stodgy old white guys, I'd be more reluctant, but what does she have to lose. She already thinks they are going to pick the other guy.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  May 2015

  After thinking about it more, I think if you're going to say anything, I'd word it as bringing diverse perspectives to the role vs calling it out more bluntly.
  
  Good luck!

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• melbenso member

  

  May 2015

  Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions!  I had the first of two interviews this morning (second one is this afternoon).  Based on some of the suggestions given here, last week I spent a few lunch hours coming up with a "plan" for the office - things I would like to work on and see changed, needs that I see and how I could meet them, things that work that I would want to continue, what my management strategy would be, etc. and ended up with a 4+ page document of notes for me (although I did print additional copies in case upper management wanted to see it). 
  
  My interview this morning was scheduled for an hour, but ended up taking an hour and a half or so, most of which was spent discussing my ideas and my plan.  I felt that I had good, thoughtful answers to all of the Deputy Director's questions, mostly because I had spent a lot of time thinking about many of them before hand as I was making my notes for my "plan."
  
  The interview went much better than expected.  I did not bring up the lack of women in management, mostly because I really felt like I was being listened to in the interview and I didn't want to derail it.  We did not talk at all about my past accomplishments with the office - they already know that stuff and as was suggested by several people, they wanted to know what I was going to do in the future.
  
  At the end of the interview, the Deputy Director told me he was very impressed with the level of thought that I had put into what I hoped to accomplish as a manager.  I left the interview feeling much more confident about my chances than I did going into it.
  
  One down, one to go this afternoon with the Director of the program.  Keep your fingers crossed for me. 
  

  

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  May 2015

  That's awesome to hear! Definitely sounds like it went well! Fingers crossed for round 2

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• badbnagdway member

  

  May 2015

  Awesome, good luck! Agree that you should continue to use your own best judgment on this. 

  
  

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• thisismynickname2 member

  

  May 2015

  Sounds great! Fingers crossed! 

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