This week – like last week – has been very much about recruitment for our new team. Advertise, gawp at number of people applying, shortlist, interview, appoint. Straightforward, yes? Yes! We’re lovely people with a track record of building a team of people who bring new talents and perspective to our rapidly growing team. We like meeting people and we’re very relaxed in our interviews – one person said this week that they’d never been offered a cuppa in an interview before. Why not? We’re not trying to scare people. You don’t get the best out of people if they’re a bag of nerves, and the likelihood of you ever having to perform in the same way again when you’ve got the job is slim. I had a line manager in a previous role who was an absolute teddy bear, but looked so serious in interviews that everyone was scared of him. He made serious notes, never smiled, and kept the chat to a minimum. Eventually we got him to smile, which made interviews a lot less stressful all round.

I find that being human and smily is a good way to get the best out of people. The role we’ve been interviewing for this week is an early career position, so the interviewees have all been young and most don’t have a huge amount of interview experience. It’s been lovely chatting to them, watching them relax when they realised we actually want to hear about their experiences, letting some of their personality come through – these are the moments when we know whether or not we can work with them and whether they’ll be good in the welcome team. Sure, we’ve had to prompt them at times to answer the whole question – but I have lots of interview experience and these days I write the question down and blame the brain frog. We send about half our questions in advance so they have time to prepare answers, and encourage them to use their notes to answer. For some roles we send all the questions in advance – there are so many people in the arts, culure and heritage sector who have some form of neurodivergence and they really appreciate this. If one candidate asks for the questions in advance then everyone gets them, so everyone has the same opportunity.

Many of our candidates also attend our online or in-person info events, where they can meet some of team – including their potential line manager – and ask any questions they like. Almost like interviewing us, really, before they apply for the role. We’ve had questions about access, toilets, chances to use their other skills, progression routes – nothing is too daft.

Trust us – we want to give people who want to work with us every chance to get to interview stage and to get the job. Our job packs are comprehensive. We’re London Living Wage employers, we’re Disability Confident and feedback (unsolicited!) from applicants both successful and unsuccessful thanks us for making the application process open, easy and inclusive, telling us that they felt more confident about applying after the info evenings.

Inevitably some people don’t get to the interview stage, and while we obviously can’t interview 300 plus people (or 200 plus for the one closing tomorrow) and some people won’t get through, here’s my top tips for getting to the interview stage and beyond from the point of view of a shortlister/interviewer/line manager.

• Look carefully at the essential criteria and tailor your supporting statement to these. We don’t look at your employment or education history (often they’re redacted) and this is all we shortlist on.
• Provide examples of how your experience meets the essential criteria. Saying ‘I am a great team player’ is fine, but why are you a great team player? What in your experience makes you say that? Tell us about a time when you worked as part of a team, and how you contributed. Think about transferable skills if you’re early in your working life.
• Use AI sparingly – it’s a useful tool, but when we’ve seen the same opening paragraph so many times we can recite it by heart and in unison, you aren’t standing out to us. If you do use it, make sure you read it through and personalise the output to your own experience. We’ve also run the job description through ChatGPT and asked it to write the job application, so we know what it looks like.
• Don’t write ‘please see attached CV’ instead of a letter. If we’ve asked applicants to complete a form there won’t be an option to add a CV, so all your time has been wasted. And ours.
• Writing ‘I’d be great at this job and when you interview me I’ll tell you why’ is neither big nor clever, and just ensures we won’t be interviewing you (actual example from a role in my previous job. Just don’t.)
• Don’t write ‘I haven’t actually downloaded and read the job pack but this is what I assume will be needed to do the role’.
• Remember that we’re looking for the right person for the job, so show us that you’re that person in a logical way.
• If you have questions about the role and there’s an option to ask – ask!
• If you don’t get to interview stage, we can’t always provide feedback on why – when there’s 300 plus applicants it’s just not possible. We – unlike some other places – always tell you if you’re unsuccessful, but can’t give individual responses.
• We understand it’s frustrating not to get an interview, especially when you’ve been trying for ages to get a job and nothing is working, but my top tip here if you’re early career is to ask someone who’s in a management position, or a teacher or lecturer, to have a look at your application vs the job description and to give you some feedback. It is soul-destroying, I know, and the heritage/art sector is saturated at the moment with people looking for work.

Through to the interview stage? Well done!

• We’ve chosen YOU out of all our applicants. This means we believe you can do the job, so show us why you’d be the best at it.
• Smile! Not in a mad way, but be open and friendly. We’re excited to meet you.
• Look smart – it doesn’t have to be a full-on business suit in our sector, but looking clean and shiny creates a good impression.
• If you’ve been sent questions in advance, prepare for them – test them out on other people at home to make sure you’ve covered everything. It’s fine to use and take notes in an interview. We aren’t trying to catch you out!
• Ask the panel to repeat the question if you need to – writing it down also gives you thinking time. Top tip.
• Try not to patronise the panel. We notice that sort of thing. We’re quite bright underneath the friendly exterior.
• There’s usually a chance to ask questions at the end – come with some pre-prepared ones about the organisation, that show you’re keen to work with them, that haven’t been answered in the job pack.
• Try not to use the word ‘trainspotter’ in an interview with a well-known transport organisation. It’s all downhill from there. Trust me on this.
• Didn’t get the job? Ask for a debrief on why – usually they’ll be happy to give feedback at this point, and if they’re not the sort of organisation who will provide it then you don’t want to work for them.

Didn’t get the job at interview? My Dad tells me it’s all good interview experience. Use the feedback and you’ll be more confident next time. The right role is out there, I promise.

Things making me happy this week

• Turning an £8 Tesco duvet cover into a dress and a skirt, both by Sewing Therapy. Super easy to layer and wear, and the skirt came together from print to finished garment in a couple of hours.
• Early morning coffee with an ex London Museum colleague, catching up and exchanging capital project progress – reassuring each other that photographing accessible door furniture and obsessing over chair finishes is perfectly normal

• A long walk with Thing 2 last Sunday – almost 12k, only 8 of which she spent complaining that her face was cold
• A short walk and mooch round the charity shops on Saturday, where I found a TARDIS and a nice pot to put things in
• TT2 cooking dinner for us all on Thursday, when I was at my wits end about what to cook
• M&S Movie Night popcorn flavour ice cream

That’s it from me, folks! Same time next week.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Vampire in the Potting Shed/The Goblin in the Sink Drain/The Mermaid in the Shot Glass – Hailey Edwards

House of Earth and Blood – Sarah J. Maas (Audible)

An Instruction in Shadow – Benedict Jacka

Direct Descendant – Tanya Huff