A friend was preparing for an interview, thinking deeply about the hiring team’s needs and the questions she might be asked. While she could do the job well, there were a few gaps between her experience and some of the stated requirements. “What if they ask about that? Do I just tell them that I don’t have that experience?” What should she do? What should you do?
Always be honest. Always be truthful. Always be authentic. Before you say anything, though, make sure that you’re answering the right question.
This doesn’t mean trying to hide gaps or convince an interviewer that you are something you’re not. You’re simply making sure that you speak to the hiring team’s most important needs. This helps them make a better informed decision based on your true strengths, and it lets them decide what they might be willing to have you learn on the job.
Make sure you’re answering the right question.
Example
“Do you have experience as a manager?” is a common question many people are asked as they grow in their careers. If you haven’t been a manager in the formal org chart, given annual reviews, etc. then the answer, of course, is no.
But the interviewer may have a much broader idea of what the company needs out of a manager. The company may care about certain management skills more than others. Maybe they want to know that you’ve done annual planning and been able to lead a project team. Perhaps they are willing to train you on their annual review process or other skills.
Your job is to show the interviewer your strengths in the important areas and help the interviewer see your ability to develop the rest.
Your approach: CASH
- C – Clarify the different components of the topic you are being asked about
- A – Agree on which components they view as most important, guiding them away from gaps in your experience
- S – Share specific examples of how you’ve driven success in each component
- H – Honestly address your gaps in the context of your strengths and share an example of how you can learn quickly
Here’s how you might do that in the “management experience” example:
| What to do | How to do it | |
|---|---|---|
| Clarify | Clarify the different components of “management” that might matter to them. Be curious. Ground this in the areas of “management” that you feel are your greatest strengths. | “In my experience, when people talk about management, they usually mean things like setting goals, driving team outcomes, coaching people, and then administrative pieces like annual reviews.” |
| Agree | Agree on which components they view as most important, guiding them away from gaps in your experience. | “From my conversations so far, it seems like driving outcomes is most important in this role. Is that right? Which other parts of management are critical to you?” |
| Share | Share specific examples of how you’ve driven success in each component. Stories or story headlines work well here. | “I’ve been driving results with my teams for 5 years in my role as a project manager. A great example of how I moved the team and business forward is the quarter I was asked to lead the program. I led the team to double year over year revenue by building a more integrated process.” Share details of your approach and outcome. Use the classic structure, “accomplished x as measured by y by doing z.” |
| Honestly | Honestly address your gaps in the context of your strengths and share an example of how you can learn quickly. | “While I’ve led teams to deliver, I haven’t been on the administrative side. My experience ramping quickly into other roles should give you confidence that I can quickly ramp into that component of the position. For example…” |
With this done, you’ll have given yourself the best chance. You’ve helped the team see where your skills most directly intersect with their needs. You’ve also framed the areas where you have a gap as less important, and you’ve given the hiring team a reason to believe that you could ramp into those areas.
Because you’ve been curious as you teased out the most important skills, you’ve also learned more about whether you truly are a match for this role.
At this point, if you don’t get the job, it will be because the company really needs a skill that you don’t currently have. That means you can walk away without the negative emotional weight that can come from missing an opportunity. Instead, you’ll have confidence that you addressed as many of their needs as you could.
In many cases, though, once you’ve shown results and speed to learn, you’ll have a great chance of making it to the next round.
Assignment
Clarification is the part that most people need to practice, identifying the components of a broader question or topic.
- Look through job requirements for roles that interest you and select a broad requirement. If you’ve already built a Needs-Experience Map, choose from the first column.
- Brainstorm the different components of that broad requirement. E.g., if the requirement is project management, list all of the key functions within project management that you know are necessary to be successful.
- Put the list of components in order of your greatest strengths.
- Identify a story that demonstrates those strengths.
- Write your response to areas where you have gaps. Remember that your goal is to point back to your areas of strength while explaining how those make you believe that you can deliver value while learning and filling existing gaps.
- Practice this response out loud until it sounds confident.