How to Get Ready for an Interview for a Promotion
If you do well in a promotion interview, you may be able to get a pay raise, take on a leadership role, and move up in your current company. Even though this kind of meeting might seem like a normal job interview with a new company, it usually requires special preparation. In this article, we talk about how to prepare for a promotion interview so that you can move forward in your career.
What is an interview to get a promotion?
A promotion meeting is also known as an internal interview. It happens when you are an internal candidate for a higher position or a different position within your company. Many companies prefer to hire people from within because they already know the mission, expectations, goals, and processes of the company. In the same way, your organization should already know what your skills and strengths are. Because of what the candidate already knows, internal job interviews often have higher standards for candidates and can lead to more difficult conversations. You can get ready for an internal interview by thinking about how to show off your skills and practicing answers to common questions.
How to get ready for a job interview
Here are five very important tips to help you get ready for a promotion interview:
1. Speak with your boss.
Find a time to talk to your boss about your application before you start the internal interview process. Having a private conversation with your manager makes sure that they hear about your goals from you, not the hiring committee. By starting this conversation, you can also find out what your boss thinks of what you’ve done for the department, which will help you in the interview. They might also be able to give you more tips and background information to help you do well.
2. Find out more about the job
Do research on every part of the job to get ready for your interview. The job description can be read by anyone, but as an internal candidate, you have access to more information. You can ask the human resources department about how the department is set up or talk to the hiring committee about what is expected of you in the role. Before you go to the interview, you might want to ask the person leaving the role about their responsibilities, challenges, and successes so you can get a better idea of what will be expected of you in the role.
3. Write down your skills.
To show that you are the best person for the job, you should talk about your skills and experience. Try to make your list of skills fit the job description, and use examples and data from your current job to back up what you say. It is a good idea to introduce yourself as if you were an unknown candidate from the outside. This will help your interviewers see why they should hire you and show that you are serious about the opportunity.
4. Think about how you’ve gotten better.
As an internal candidate, you should be ready to talk about mistakes you’ve made or problems you’ve run into at your current job. Taking responsibility and having a strong sense of accountability are both good things. Then, you can talk about what you learned from the experience and how it helped you get better at your current job.
5. Find out how other people see you.
Before your interview, you should find out how people at work feel about you. You can start by asking coworkers and managers in your department and throughout the company what they think of your skills. Make a list of any relevant strengths they mention and talk about them when you talk about your skills and contributions. Think about any flaws that come up and how you can talk about them in the interview. For example, if your manager has doubts about your ability to lead or if a coworker has doubts about your communication skills, be ready to give examples that show how well you do these things.
Promotion interview question examples
During a promotion interview, you can expect to be asked some general questions as well as questions about the job and your experience. Use the STAR method to answer behavioral interview questions. In your answers, describe the situation, the task, what you did, and what happened as a result. Use the following examples of top internal interview questions to help you come up with good answers:
Why do you want to switch departments or roles?
Whether you are applying for a move to another department or a higher position on your current team, you should be ready to explain why you want the promotion. Instead of talking about how unhappy you are with your current job, try to focus your answer on what you plan to bring to the table and how it will help the company. You should also explain how the job you’re applying for fits with your professional goals and the path you want to take in your career.
Example: “After working in my current job for three years, I’ve learned a lot about how to be successful in the field. In this new role, my leadership skills would help me lead our team well, and I could do even more to help the company reach its goals for getting new clients. It’s also a personal goal of mine to help and guide other people. This job is perfect for me because it includes management duties.”
What sets you apart from the other candidates?
If your interviewers ask you what makes you different from other candidates, you can use this time to talk about your achievements and goals for the new job. Because your interviewers might not know the details of what you’ve done, you should act as if they don’t know and use numbers and data to show what you’ve done. Talk about your unique set of skills and why they are good for the new job.
Example: “In my current job, my ideas have sped up the work of the department and made it more profitable by 5%. My experience with managing projects and my strong problem-solving skills would allow me to continue to make valuable contributions in a senior position.”
What would you do in this job for the first 30 days?
Your interviewers may ask you what you plan to do in your first month on the job to make sure you understand the job and are ready for it. Think about talking about the goals you would set, the ways you would work as a team, and how you would measure success.
Example: “In my first 30 days, I would talk to my boss about my short-term and long-term goals and use these goals to make a plan for my team. I would also look at the team’s current workflows and suggest ways to make them run more smoothly.”
