Forget that I ever existed

ushjr

Forget that I ever existed

josephine82

I would suggest looking at potential roles that you want to apply for and looking at the job spec to identify what they are looking for in terms of skills/experience, and start working through examples you could give in interview to outline how you fit the criteria. Often working through a number of examples (without the pressure of the interview) can give you the confidence to know you could answer well in an interview situation. 

I’ve done a lot of recruiting over the years and it’s always the people who practice and refine their applications/ interview skills who shine as the best at interview. 

Think about it as how you would sell yourself and your skills and experience to a new employer. I’m sure you’ve got lots to offer, it’s just working out how to highlight it. In terms of not having a specific job role, I would see that as a positive, you would come across as flexible and adaptable. 

Good luck! 

billy2shots

Please don't take this personally as it's meant to be constructive. 

I would stick to facts. Job titles, qualifications and experience etc. I wouldn't go into fine detail like you do above. Someone who doesn't have full insider knowledge of the ins and outs (me and future employers) could interpret the above as someine that doesn't fit or isn't a team player who gets shifted from department to department and nobody wants to give him/her a permanent home. 

I'm sure it's nothing like that but an employee has their version but a future employer will look at it with an employers hat on and try and work out what might have unfolded. 

Sandtree

There are always multiple ways of looking at things... you say you nor your managers ever really knew what you were supposed to be doing but you received two promotions whilst you were there (if I followed correctly)... this therefore becomes in interview that you are able to work independently with minimal direction/handholding. You have successfully dealt with ambiguity and the value you added was recognised and resulted received two promotions (pay rises are irrelevant/assumed).

It is certainly worth sitting down with pen & paper/ keyboard & wordprocessor to come up with a long list of questions (google can help) and work out stock answers to them. There will be some generic ones like describe your career history (based on the above you need to be careful with this!) but also a lot of "give an example of when...".  Remember to include both positive and negative question... "give an example of when something has gone wrong at work" and look to create an answer on the basis of describing the situation, how you fit into it, what actions you took and what the outcome was.

Clearly you don't want to be simply making things up but ultimately no external interviewer is really going to check if you sat down with Bob and worked through their issues with them or if you called him a !!!!!! and stormed out the room. The obvious thing is you want stories to have a happy ending where you contributed to that and negatives really shouldn't be that negative... one of your 3 weaknesses shouldn't be alcoholism or kleptomania even if you do shoplift a bottle of vodka most days.

Dox

ushjr said:

I've been told by recruiters that my CV is very impressive, but when it comes to interviews I really struggle with examples.

Someone told me I should use the fact I managed to carve out a job there under those circumstances to my advantage, but how do I do that?

I can see why you've put so much detail into your post, but much of it isn't relevant to a potential employer. The last thing they are likely to be looking for is an employee who stuck around although they didn't feel they fitted in, didn't really know what they were supposed to be doing and management didn't know either.

Happily that's fertile ground for a cv with a little rewording and a few changes of emphasis! Brevity always goes down well, so why not shorten it to a brief summary along the lines of 'took a job with ABC as [job title] and was rapidly promoted. I worked in various divisions of the company, acting as a troubleshooter, particularly where knowledge of [whatever it is you did that you describe as one-dimensional] was required'.

If you struggle with examples, think about what you've been asked in interviews, or what you might be asked, and consider how best you might respond if the questions come up in future interviews. 

Sandtree

ushjr said:
That's right. An example I have is when I saved the company more than my salary by doing something they outsourced, but then it turned out nobody used it properly anyway and they cancelled my presentation of it because they decided presenting about the annual jolly management went on was more important. It took them a long time to terminate the contract with the outsourcing company too. But I could say it did get used and they terminated the contract straight away because if anything that sounds more believable than what really did happen.

Dox said:

ushjr said:

I've been told by recruiters that my CV is very impressive, but when it comes to interviews I really struggle with examples.

Someone told me I should use the fact I managed to carve out a job there under those circumstances to my advantage, but how do I do that?

I can see why you've put so much detail into your post, but much of it isn't relevant to a potential employer. The last thing they are likely to be looking for is an employee who stuck around although they didn't feel they fitted in, didn't really know what they were supposed to be doing and management didn't know either.

Happily that's fertile ground for a cv with a little rewording and a few changes of emphasis! Brevity always goes down well, so why not shorten it to a brief summary along the lines of 'took a job with ABC as [job title] and was rapidly promoted. I worked in various divisions of the company, acting as a troubleshooter, particularly where knowledge of [whatever it is you did that you describe as one-dimensional] was required'.

If you struggle with examples, think about what you've been asked in interviews, or what you might be asked, and consider how best you might respond if the questions come up in future interviews. 

I do try and put a positive spin on my experience but I have that constant fear of exposing the reality of it. 

We are getting fairly into specifics which gets hard to do when not knowing backgrounds etc but...

I personally would never lie in an interview, like saying they saw your presentation and immediately cancelled the contract... for a start there are potentially many contractual considerations before you can terminate which you may or may not have been privy to depending on what exactly your role was. I have more comfort in leaving a certain level of vagueness in answers and letting others fill in the blanks... do depending on the exact circumstances it may be ok to say that you illustrated that there was a more cost effective way of doing something and that was part of the ultimate decision making process to terminate the outsourcing arrangement and get the savings you'd highlighted.

Ultimately, based on the feedback you've had on your CV, you are capable of spinning your experience into a good story on paper and so just need to get better at doing the same verbally. As already recommended, a good way to do this is by practising on paper first.

Marcon

ushjr said:

I do try and put a positive spin on my experience but I have that constant fear of exposing the reality of it. 

Then practice, practice, practice before you get to the interview.

josephine82

ushjr said:

Sandtree said:

ushjr said:
That's right. An example I have is when I saved the company more than my salary by doing something they outsourced, but then it turned out nobody used it properly anyway and they cancelled my presentation of it because they decided presenting about the annual jolly management went on was more important. It took them a long time to terminate the contract with the outsourcing company too. But I could say it did get used and they terminated the contract straight away because if anything that sounds more believable than what really did happen.

Dox said:

ushjr said:

I've been told by recruiters that my CV is very impressive, but when it comes to interviews I really struggle with examples.

Someone told me I should use the fact I managed to carve out a job there under those circumstances to my advantage, but how do I do that?

I can see why you've put so much detail into your post, but much of it isn't relevant to a potential employer. The last thing they are likely to be looking for is an employee who stuck around although they didn't feel they fitted in, didn't really know what they were supposed to be doing and management didn't know either.

Happily that's fertile ground for a cv with a little rewording and a few changes of emphasis! Brevity always goes down well, so why not shorten it to a brief summary along the lines of 'took a job with ABC as [job title] and was rapidly promoted. I worked in various divisions of the company, acting as a troubleshooter, particularly where knowledge of [whatever it is you did that you describe as one-dimensional] was required'.

If you struggle with examples, think about what you've been asked in interviews, or what you might be asked, and consider how best you might respond if the questions come up in future interviews. 

I do try and put a positive spin on my experience but I have that constant fear of exposing the reality of it. 

We are getting fairly into specifics which gets hard to do when not knowing backgrounds etc but...

I personally would never lie in an interview, like saying they saw your presentation and immediately cancelled the contract... for a start there are potentially many contractual considerations before you can terminate which you may or may not have been privy to depending on what exactly your role was. I have more comfort in leaving a certain level of vagueness in answers and letting others fill in the blanks... do depending on the exact circumstances it may be ok to say that you illustrated that there was a more cost effective way of doing something and that was part of the ultimate decision making process to terminate the outsourcing arrangement and get the savings you'd highlighted.

Ultimately, based on the feedback you've had on your CV, you are capable of spinning your experience into a good story on paper and so just need to get better at doing the same verbally. As already recommended, a good way to do this is by practising on paper first.

Sorry that was more of a rant at my old company but thank you that sounds a more sensible answer. I found a website called zety.com which had 10 questions that I've practiced on paper like you suggested. I am struggling with the one about a mistake I made and the one about missing a deadline. The sort of mistakes I made such as stay at the job so long are not ones I'd want to bring up at the interview and I can honestly say I've never missed a deadline in my life. How would I answer these?

Marcon said:

ushjr said:

I do try and put a positive spin on my experience but I have that constant fear of exposing the reality of it. 

Then practice, practice, practice before you get to the interview.

The examples?

If you don’t have direct experience to be able to answer the examples then could you work out what you would do in that situation? 

For example; ‘I’ve always managed my work well and never missed a deadline. Much of this is due to my organisation skills, planning ahead and reviewing milestones etc to ensure things get done on time. 

However, if I was presented with a deadline that I couldn’t meet, or I didn’t meet, then I would do a,b or c to ensure I met the deadline as soon as possible.... etc etc etc’ 
I wouldn’t mind if someone was honest and said they didn’t have an example to share with me, if they could outline confidently how they might approach the situation. 

I’ve also welcomed candidates that haven’t had direct examples from work but have done so from volunteering/outside work. For example someone doesn’t have specific team working experience, but they tell me they have experience coordinating and working with a sports team, going into detail about how and what they did to manage it- same skills, just different example.  Don’t do it with all questions but for the odd example it’s fine. 

Does that make sense? It’s all about making use of all your skills and experience to highlight the skills they are looking for in the examples. 

Sandtree

ushjr said:
 I am struggling with the one about a mistake I made and the one about missing a deadline. The sort of mistakes I made such as stay at the job so long are not ones I'd want to bring up at the interview and I can honestly say I've never missed a deadline in my life. How would I answer these?

If you truly think you are perfect in your output and timekeeping then answer it on a theoretical basis... what would you have done?

The example of a "mistake" I use I'd argue if it were really my mistake or someone elses but I knew some data had to be put onto a DVD but no one asked me to do it so I'd made the mistake of assuming someone else was picking it up. 24 hours before the disc was due to be sent to the court I had a call asking me when the disc would be ready and if the other side had signed it off yet; given this was the person that was organising the work allocation there was no point asking her if she was sure she hadn't asked someone else to do it.

My answer then goes on to talk about owning the problem, prioritising, delegating, aligning people and highlighting the urgency and after the delivery was made with about 2 hours to spare then have the drains up of how it had fallen between the cracks and learning to ensure that others are allocated to something you know must happen even if you're not necessarily owning the work allocation.

josephine82

Yes it makes sense, thank you. I always think they're going to figure out what a waste of time my last job was. It's very hard to be positive about a job that's made me feel so useless.

It is hard to sell your skills from a previous job in an interview- especially if the last job made you feel thoroughly useless- I've been there. But, I think you just have to put yourself in the interviewers shoes and identify what the positives are from the role you did (i.e independence, problem solving, managing own workload etc etc) and sell yourself on those. 

moneysavinghero

You could try looking for jobs with smaller employers. They don't tend to have HR departments that come out with the same old questions in every interview. You are more likely to be interviewed by the manager you would be working for and they would be more interested in can you do the job or not, not whether you can invent a story about resolving a conflict with Bob in marketing 5 years ago .