Someone used a structured interview-prep program called the Academy to land a competitive subspecialty job. Instead of memorizing answers, they learned frameworks they could adapt to any question, even unexpected ones about failing to meet a trust value. Psychological techniques to reframe nervousness as excitement helped them perform at their best.
I think it was how holistic the package was in terms of the video course, the regular online sessions, and also the structured way to prep. I just felt that that was probably going to be the thing that I would need over time to land me a job, and that the other options would be helpful, you know, but they were very short-term.
Right.
And I don't think would give me the best chance possible. And, you know, after all of those years of training and working in a very competitive subspecialised field, I just wanted to give myself the best chance to perform on the day. Something that I really liked was that I could go on the search function and just search something like safety or governance, and then it comes up with every post under that. So I could watch like 3 or 4 people, other people's answers, and be like, ah, that's a really helpful way to think about how to answer that question. So that was useful. The thing that I went into the Academy with was that worried me because I know from my Grid interview that I had, although I did get a Grid training, the thing that I'd messed up was that I'd prepped my answers so well that I knew exactly what I was going to say for a list of about 10 or 12 questions.
And then when they don't ask you. Yeah.
And so that's what, yeah, that's, that's what really helped me that I, from doing the Academy and those extra bits because I prepped just a base topic, like leadership or team working, that I could then flex it. And I'm sure you're probably going to ask me at some point, but the question that they asked me in my interview that threw me initially was, oh, tell us about a time when you haven't performed to one of our trust values. And I flexed that to use my negative feedback/weakness answer into one of the values. So, yeah, it gave me—
Wow.
The ability to use what I prepped and flex it into different answers.
That's good thinking.
I was super nervous and I really, really wanted it. And I knew that I'd prepped so as much as I could. And I came out of the interview as well thinking like, if I don't get that job, that's fine. But I honestly, I'm not sure what else I can do because I felt like I'd performed to my absolute max in terms of bringing together the things that I'd done in my CV into well-formed answers. And the thing that helped me from the Academy was kind of reframing. And when I was feeling nervous, just kind of reframing it as excitement and coming back to what the— I think it's a psychology professional had said about your stress responses and physiology, that kind of thing. So yeah, some of that was also helpful. I would say that if you want to go into an interview well-prepared And confident to answer any question that can be thrown at you, then the Academy is the best thing that's going to get you there. And although it requires a certain amount of time and resource dedication, it definitely put me in a place where I could bring all of my skills into an interview in the best way possible to get me a job.
Thank you. I'm glad you joined. I'm glad you Worked hard. You totally deserve it. I'm glad you got the job you wanted.
