Career changers beware: This inteRview qUestion is a Tricky one to answer!
In my coaching practice, I sometimes work with career-changers or non-traditional students who have already achieved some measure of experience in a field different from where they are hoping to transition. Being a career-changer myself, I was eager for almost any opportunity to pivot into the field of recruiting after over 15 years working in career services…but there was one interview question that was tripping me up and I didn’t even know it: “What do you hope to gain from this experience?”
It's not that I wasn’t clearly enthusiastic about the chance to leverage all my career center leadership knowledge to the talent acquisition side of college recruitment. I was prepared to discuss all sorts of ways my perspective would be an immediate valuable contribution to a potential new team. Plus, I was leaving my previous employer after working my way up to a fairly high level as a Senior Director, so I just knew I was ready to apply the management background I had developed over several years. But I couldn’t understand why I never seemed to progress past the initial 1st interview, even when I applied for more entry level positions where I was obviously over-qualified! Sound frustratingly familiar??
It's been some time now since I successfully transitioned, and have been working with career-changers both as a recruiter and through my coaching practice, so let me share with you how I feel it is best to answer this question. First, you do need to be clear about what you are hoping to gain professionally so you can articulate the value in clear, simple and tangible terms: for example—"I will gain a better understanding of how the recruiting cycle works” or “I will further develop the accounting skills based knowledge from my recent studies” or whatever it is. Secondly, and this is most importantly what job-seekers often miss: You must also be able to articulate an answer that aligns with something that the employer can actually provide you and rings true for the level of work the hiring manager is expecting you to accomplish.
Sometimes career-changers are so excited to come to an interview, that they begin expressing a desire to accomplish very lofty goals, or to quickly move up into higher ranks of the company before they have even really proven their ability to fill the current opening first. Or sometimes they come to the interview expressing a myriad of reasons why they are “over-qualified” for the job, eager to demonstrate their expertise in one skill area or another. Unfortunately, this over-confident display of seniority backfires by turning off a hiring manager who worries that said candidate will not be “coachable” enough to learn anything new. For example, I’ve seen it happen with Veteran applicants who have earned multiple military decorations, special security clearances and yet remarkably, often get overlooked for even some of the more junior business operations roles.
Think critically about what you will realistically learn from the job which you are interviewing. Say what your potential new manager might be able to teach you and prepare thoughtful answers from that perspective which communicate a genuine desire to be trained and developed. Keep in mind that your potential employer is wondering about whether you will ultimately be satisfied with the job, if they offer it to you. Or will you quickly become bored and unhappy with your work assignments after just a few months in your position? Counter-intuitively, they want to hire you knowing that you will still have some professional growth to experience in your new role and they want to be the organization to provide that for you hopefully for many years to come.
If you’re preparing for an upcoming interview and need help conveying what you hope to gain from the opening, reach out to us at CareerWize Solutions for a consultation. We have helped many job-seekers and can certainly help you more strategically express to your next employer why you’re the perfect match for their needs!
