Hello, again. As you probably remember in week one, we presented a case study, which described Demode. A fictitious company looking for a suitable candidate for the recently vacated position of communications manager. For your convenience, in this module, you can download the case study again. At the end of this document, we will find a job description for the position. You may assume that this job description is the only one available to candidates about the company and the position. Also in the case, we didn't specify the pay rate or benefits package for the position. Let's assume that it is reasonable and competitive. Now, please meet Sonya. Sonya is a recent college graduate with a masters degree from a nearby university in Communications and Public Relations. While enrolled in her studies, Sonya completed a six month internship for a local newspaper. Sonya's parents have purchased products from Demode in the past and have always been pleased with their services. Based on the information in the case, you may further assume that besides Sonya, there are other job applicants with good credentials. So, the selection process is going to be very competitive. In Course One, we discussed how to write a selection criteria statement. Let's suppose that Sonya did exactly that and then received a letter of invitation for an interview. In the letter, Rick, the hiring manager in the case, informs Sonya that at the interview, she may be asked to demonstrate her presentation skills. In this week, we're going to only focus on presentation skills required for the position. Let's assume that Sonya thinks that she has excellent presentation skills, but upon receiving the invitation letter, she panicked as she has never been asked to demonstrate her presentation skills at a job interview. Also, she feels that her interviewing experience is limited. So, the questions that Sonya asks herself are what do they want me to do? How can I demonstrate excellence? What do they consider excellence? Sonya obviously needs to get some good advice about how to prepare for her job interview. At this point, we'd like to ask you to be her coach. And based on your learning in the course, help her prepare for the interview. How would you approach it? This time, let me help you with coaching. To begin, let's create a plan for Sonya. First, she needs to carefully read the job description and try to understand what exactly is needed, and in what context. You may advise her to get some intelligence on D Mode and research similar jobs, as well. You, the coach and I, your helper can read the case and learn what is on Rick's mind. Sonya cannot do that. As we know from business media, competitive intelligence takes place in the corporate world. It also makes perfect sense to gather information and do research when participating in a competitive selection. Let's suppose that as the result of her working with a coaching team and conducting thorough field research, Sonya's figured out that by describing the successful candidate is having excellent presentation skills and being responsible for presentations to small groups of classes, the company actually wants her to be competent in two areas. Namely, developing PowerPoint presentations and delivering those in a small to medium group setting. Sonya also assumes that the company usually works with educated and wealthy clients, and wants her presentation to be high quality and stylish. The next step for Sonya will be to analyze and make sense of her intelligence data. Why did they want her to demonstrate her skills? Conducting a PowerPoint presentation is routinely done in various situations. What exactly does the company want to see in her presentations? The key words in Sonya's situation seem to be stylish and high quality. The presentations that the company does for their clients are probably not about bulk selling to unknown publics, nor are they about technical details. Sonya assumes that the company expects her to develop and deliver brand image presentation, and be the face of the company. Now she thinks that she has figured out what was hidden between the lines, but how exactly can she demonstrate that she is capable of preparing and delivering high quality stylish presentations acting as a coach what would you recommend? I'll see you in a minute. Please think about it. As a hint you, may download the self-assessment grid and use it as a guiding framework. According to this self- assessment grid, Sonya needs to prepare to respond to a critical task, which is basically, an exercise or simulated activity aimed at demonstrating her proficiency in the assigned job duty. At this stage, Sonya should be able to figure out what Rick, the hiring manager will be looking for in her response and what kind of questions he and other selection team members might ask. She anticipates that the critical task for the position will be to prepare a high quality and stylish brand image presentation for a particular occasion. How should she respond to this critical task? One way of doing it is to use one of Sonya's previous presentations in which she demonstrated the required skills, but how does she know that those samples are relevant for Demode and satisfy their specific requirements? The main question is whether Sonya can really do what the company wants her to do. Is she great at doing it? Is she going to bring value to the company? To find answers to those questions, Sonya needs to run a self-assessment test. Let's help her do it in the next presentation.
