A month-long interview prep course with coach Tessa taught the speaker to build habits over time rather than cram. In a real interview, they found themselves pausing to think clearly and showing genuine vulnerability, skills that stuck with them regardless of the job outcome.
I liked that it was not just like a kind of one-stop whistle-stop tour on how to approach interviews. It wasn't just about like reading a big book and then doing a weekend of course or something. And instead it was about like kind of a kind of habit forming over the course of a month or more and, um, and working with a cohort. There's just— it's just a much more dynamic course, I think. You know, your, um, sort of lecture-style sessions, which are all virtual, but then you've also got a lot of peer support, a huge community, um, question banks you can access. Um, and I think the other I think the other massive thing was having feedback. So being able to put your videos out and get feedback from a coach, I think that was really good. And being able to do it over time, so you're not trying to get everything done in a weekend, and instead you can see how you develop over time. I think that was all really, really positive. So that was, yeah, that's what for me made this course more desirable. The main thing that pushed me and kind of got me getting the most out of the course was the urgency of being like, okay, I'm approaching the end now. I need to look at the jobs. These are the ones I want. Now, this is— I can see a tangible thing that I want, and this is how I'm going to go for it. I think the other thing, which actually you had mentioned, Tessa, when you kindly were offering some coaching advice, was don't wait for the job. Just get ready because you know that job is going to come out. And that was a really useful way of me being like, okay, now this is true. I can't be waiting for the job and then working towards it. I need to be prepared for when that dream job comes out. And that really worked out quite well because sometimes you need to put pressure on yourself when you don't see the job itself, but you know that you are ready to get a job. I think I felt like I'd done everything I could, um, genuinely, because I know that I've worked really hard in terms of my CV, and I know that I'm a really good candidate. Um, so from that perspective, I've always felt quite confident. But it— I also knew that I had done the most I could do to bring that out with the questions and had practiced the questions. I mean, you can always do more, right? But it was like I'd done enough to be able to start thinking in a structured way and to draw off those, like, key nuggets of experience that I wanted them to know about. Um, so I think that was, that was really good. And I think genuinely, like, yeah, in, in the interview, I did— yeah, I felt like, yeah, I'm ready, you know, let me go. Yes, the interview was longer than I expected and had more questions than I expected. And actually, they covered a really comprehensive— like, it was a really comprehensive list of questions. Um, so I felt like I was being scrutinized from all angles, which is, I guess, a good thing for them to do. Then there were a few questions which kind of were a little bit oddball, kind of asking things that sounded a bit more philosophical. And then I kind of just took a few seconds. I think using the pause was really important when that kind of hit me. And thinking about how I could draw on things. I did go a little bit sort of off-piste sometimes where I was bringing in an example that I hadn't thought about, but I think I still managed to use that structure to bring it about in a good way. And I think what happened in the interview that hadn't maybe happened in my practice was I genuinely felt like I was authentically bringing myself to the interview. and being able to be vulnerable, and that was something I hadn't really mastered during the course. It was kind of happening towards the end, um, and I think that really came across in the interview, and they really appreciated that. This is so much more important than any exam you've ever done. This is literally the job that you want for the rest of your life. It's not really worth wagering about, oh, I can think I can hack it, I'll be fine, because if you don't get it, that's it, it's gone. I know some people feel funny about, like, commercial courses and things like that, and, you know, but I think that you guys just do such a, like, such a great job and you all work really hard and for me it's like so worth it. So yeah, thank you. I think the other thing is even if you don't get the job, you learn so many skills on this, on how to present yourself, how to communicate, how to organise your thinking, and also sort of reflecting on what you've done and what you've achieved from it is really important. So I think there's so many other things you get from the course that I found, so I would highly recommend it.
