You’re probably taking the course because like me, you’re after career development. I’m not going to dig into why, maybe it’s new challenges, maybe it's success in those challenges, maybe it’s pay, maybe something else. All that matters is you know you need the skills and experience to get the role you want either from a promotion or via interview (or both). This is one key point that most courses don’t focus on, knowing isn’t enough.

Application of the skill in a real world context is a must to have impact with that skill, which lets you have a great example to present to pass an interview.

Signalling to those inside your organisation that you’re on the learning curve and where you’re at on that curve is essential to getting that promotion.

This course is designed to do just that. It points you towards all the skills and knowledge you need to have for the role you want. It brings you along Bloom’s taxonomy to get you to the point of being able to build and evaluate using these skills. It’s exercises are designed to enable you to send the right signals to your colleagues.

This means that you still need to:

• Find the right role for you, that plays to your strengths in an organisation that matches your values and needs.
• Pass the interview, by preparing examples for all the interview questions in this course. I can’t predict what questions they’ll ask you, but by having good answers to everything in this course you’ll be well set with examples to bring out at the right time depending on what they do ask you.

One thing that gets overlooked a lot, is that at the end of the day there is one person who needs to sign off on your promotion or hire. One. Others may have veto rights, but one person is the hiring manager.

That hiring manager needs to get the confidence you’re the right person for the role. If you’re after an internal move, that likely means they need to have a high opinion of you but also, someone needs to sponsor you for that role. This applies to external roles too but at least one person, but ideally more, needs to be banging on the table saying you’re the right call. That person is your sponsor. Hopefully that person is the hiring manager!

So while you’re doing this course, ask yourself, who will be your sponsor? If there isn’t anyone backing you, why not?

Lastly, whatever you choose to do as a result of this course, make it align with your company direction, team’s needs, etc. The last thing you want is to think you’re sending great signals but actually are sending signals that you are completely misaligned. There will be things your team needs that you can take on, that are great for your development. They just might not match the progressive structure of this course to the letter.

Interview questions

• This won’t be one question, but how a panel of interviewers feels about you. You need to sell yourself. I have personally seen someone miss out on a role because another candidate performed as well as them but also built a great rapport with interviewers during the process.

Practice Exercises

• Who will be your sponsor? If there isn’t anyone backing you, why not?

Further reading and recommendations

• Lara Hogan - Resilient Management - https://abookapart.com/products/resilient-management 

Ready to get started on the rest of the course? Click here to enrol now!