How I Got Succeeded in Multiple Interviews
A guide to shine during and after an online interview
I worked in a startup for a year, and due to an extremely high-stress level, I decided to quit my job a few months ago. As a migrant, I was at risk of losing my residency permit, work permit, and stable income for an unknown period, after all, the Covid19 crisis made it even more challenging to find a job.
I wanted to work as a technology product manager. Product management is my favourite role because as a product manager, I lead the product development process all the way from just being an idea to being a fully developed product made ready for the market. I found it exciting to see how a product/solution evolves and succeeds after launch. But let me tell you product management is more than what I just explained!
Research The Job Title
The job title sounds great, isn’t it? But you need to fully understand a job title before applying for a job. I seriously mean 100%! Though I have a product management background, while searching I found a new perspective towards product management that I never knew.
As a product manager, you mainly focus on three main scopes:
- Technology: Your technical knowledge as a product manager and working closely with hardware/software developers and engineers play an essential role in developing a successful product/solution.
- Customer: Depends on the company size, you need to be ready facing the customers’ questions, requests and complains; or the customer support agents might be the link between you and the customers. In either way, You need to make sure you understand your customers’ concerns and be a proactive communicator. If you need more help, you should reach out the technology/R&D team for support.
- Business: You have to be obsessed with maximising the products’ value, meeting the business goals and guide the product marketing and sales teams. If needed, hold training sessions and workshops.
Mentioning a product manager’s core responsibilities, it is essential to know as a product manager you need to have practical communication skills, including verbal, non-verbal and visual. But Frankly speaking, which role in technology doesn’t require the mentioned skills? You might not need to be a professional speaker, but you need to present your work result and convince your audience if needed!
Your skills will be scrutinised during the interview session that might be only 30min. If we split the interview time between you and the interviewer, you have just 15 minutes to shine! Here comes the next important part; the introduction!
Introduction Presentation
Due to Covid19 crisis, nowadays, most interviews are online. Usually, the interviewer keeps your resume open and tries to keep her/his attention to the conversation, webcam and your resume. To make the interviewer’s life easy and prove your communication skills nothings is better than a structured presentation.
To kill two birds with one stone when the interviewer asks you to introduce yourself, you can share your screen and take him through your 5/6 page presentation!
Before the interview, rehearse your presentation multiple times until you feel confident to speak for approximately 10 minutes without an interruption.
Now it’s time to share!
Page1 — Present your name and the job title you applied.
Page 2 — Summarise your education background; I recommend adding a relevant photo on this page(Speaking time 1 minute).
Page 3 — Focus on your most recent job experience’s achievements. Include a couple of photos of your interactions with your colleagues(Speaking time 2 minutes).
Page 4 — You can also explain your position and achievements in one more role(Speaking time 2 minutes).
Page 5 — On this page summarise your older job experiences; you do not need to explain the details and the achievements unless they ask you; otherwise, the presentation will become long and tedious(Speaking time 2 minutes).
Keep the timeline in your presentation. It’s good to mention only the main highlight of each role and what you like about the position and the company, or you can explain what kept you motivated.
Page 6 — The last page should be your primary interest. Here you can be creative and fun! (Speaking time 1 minute)
When you are done, stop sharing your screen, enable the webcam again, make eye contact and ask the interviewer if she/he has more questions.
Interview Followup
This is a simple yet effective way to shine! After the interview, it is essential to send a personalised thank you email to the interviewer. People would always remember who was a proactive person in a crowd! I usually send a thank you email after 24 hours with the presentation attached in pdf format!
Due to Covid19 finding a new job seems more difficult than any other time. I applied for more than 400 jobs, about 30 interviews and tens of online tests. I got final positive feedback from 3 companies; however, only one would support my visa sponsorship! But finally, I signed!
If you are struggling to find a new job, the only ways to succeed are
- Stay positive
- Research your topic
- Prepare an interview presentation
- Send a thank you message to the interviewer
- Keep applying
I wish you a successful job hunt!
