How can you present your experience to stand out in a training and development interview?

Not only do you want to be prepared to show the alignment between your practical experience and the role’s requirements, but it also helps to research the org’s key challenges and proactively talk about how your experience can help solve them. Speaking directly to their needs shows you’ve done your homework and understand their key business o me gives. Most candidates won’t do this, so this will make you an outlier.

Strategically preparing for an interview by aligning your experiences with the job requirements is crucial. By proactively using the STAR method to articulate your past achievements, you not only showcase your skills but also provide tangible evidence of your capabilities. This approach enhances your credibility and helps the interviewer visualize your potential contributions to the role.

Answer those “Tell us about a time…” questions with a solid and well-prepared STAR answer. Start with the SITUATION and what it entailed, detail how and why the TASK was assigned to you, describe the ACTIONS you took to meet the situation and the RESULTS that followed. This works in interviews for any role and it’s relatively easy to anticipate and prep for a few standard questions.

Begin by thoroughly investigating the company's values and any specific projects they are currently concentrating on. Highlight your experiences if you've worked on a project matched to the one the company is working on, describe the tasks you were responsible for, your actions and the obtained tangible outcomes relevant to the company's concerns. It's critical to demonstrate how your experience fits the role and aligns with its values and existing projects. This strategy will present you as a professional continuing their significant path in a comparable environment rather than just a candidate competing for a role. Highlighting your awareness of the company's specific demands will showcase your readiness to contribute significantly.

It's equally important to highlight cross sections between your previous job requirement and your personal capabilities like the ability to learn new technologies which you already have demonstrated in your previous job.

A valuable approach I've discovered is dedicating time each day to learn something new, even if it's just for 5-10 minutes. This might involve seeking guidance from a mentor or coach, acknowledging that continuous learning is a continuous process. Furthermore, having someone to look up to is pivotal in shaping your influence within the domain.

Continuous learning is a major motivator for success and growth, especially in the constantly changing market dynamics. To stay updated with new trends and methodologies, I have found it helpful to allocate some time each day for personal development. This could involve tasks such as reading just ten pages in a book, exploring new articles, discussing experiences with colleagues, or listening to podcasts. Regardless of the approach, it is important to have something new to learn every day.

Passion and enthusiasm is something that we cannot lie. Best case scenario is when you truly passionate and enthusiastic. Otherwise, invest in some time and research until you find something that makes you enthusiastic.

This is indeed important to showcase especially when you are applying for Training and Development role. Having a database of all your learning journey through out your career along with how you have implemented those learning’s in your roles will be beneficial. Investing in yourself is crucial and it definitely helps the recruiter to understand your passion for continuous learning.

I lead a Book Club at my organization. We wanted to incorporate innovative ways to introduce experiential learning opportunities to respond to survey results on how people prefer to learn (through shared experiences). I read the book FIRST to break up a curriculum and then facilitate weekly discussions about the content. I love tying back what we are reading to things that we do at our company or explore with the group what we can adopt.

It is essential to have a strong grasp of adult learning principles, such as analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. During the interview, you can provide examples or outline your approach to each phase, showcasing your comprehensive understanding of the process. This demonstrates your proficiency in creating effective learning experiences that align with adult learners' needs and preferences.

I teach public policy and legislative drafting as a continuous professional development module. In my experience, I have found that teaching adults is very challenging especially ensuring you have their attention all through. One of the tools I use are eye catching visual aids such as a picture of a momentous occasion in policy in the country. I then ask the students to describe what was happening in the picture; who is in the picture; who do they represent; what happened behind the scenes before the picture; to trigger thought provoking discussions into the topic I will be teaching. This brings everyone on board to share their insights and experiences after which I can comfortably introduce the technical aspects on the topic.

Quienes gestionamos el talento humano en las organizaciones buscamos candidatos con una propuesta de valor única, auténtica y diferenciadora a la de sus competidores. Es decir queremos identificar la capacidad creativa al momento de construir y visibilizar su perfil. Te animo a preguntarte frecuentemente Qué te hace diferente a tu competencia? Qué solucionas? Qué ofreces?..Define qué puede ser atractivo y de valor para tu consumidor?

If delivery will be part of your training and development role, consider using personal stories to answer interview questions. Storytelling is a key ingredient to effective and engaging presentation delivery and demonstrating this skill during your interview is a great way to stand out!

While Generative AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting in Training & Development, a critical part where human intervention is still needed is successfully collaborating and communicating with peers, experts, clients, and vendors. It helps to present examples of how you collaborated with dispersed, culturally diverse teams, or perhaps completed a time-sensitive task efficiently.

Participants will always form a perception of you regardless and as a consulted your role is to bring them to in to collaborate. If you're young or new to the field a suggestion would be start your meeting/ session by understanding the room by communicating with participants one-on-one to build the rapport and break the ice. It's easier to build relationships individually vs a whole group at a time.

This is important, Collaboration & Communication are vital ingredients. Collaboration is the new innovation. The art of communication is needful to ensure a smooth & seamless process. When Collaboration & Communication are combined, it produces a sweet aroma that facilitates the entire process.

This is not a one-man-army department! You will need support and collaboration from other people and departments. Earning trust of others will go a long way in creating a successful collaboration. An easy way to do so is to listen carefully, and have transparent and regular communication whether it's an internal or an external stakeholder. When sharing your experience in the interview, highlight the steps you have taken to create the ground of a strong collaboration and how it has resulted in a strong bond formation.

As a continuing education expert, you are usually not the subject matter expert but rather reliant on supporting and collaborating with internal and external experts. It is important to take on the roles of mediator and translator. You must specifically understand what requirements the client has and be able to convey these to your subject matter experts. Moreover, you need to assist the subject matter experts in transforming their expert knowledge into applicable knowledge for the client. This necessitates regular communication. Demonstrate your ability to empathize with others and become enthusiastic about their topics.

In a nutshell, I always believe that one of the most important part of your cv and job interview is the way you present your success stories

I love taking snapshots of the comments participants write in course evaluations. I take both the positive and the development areas and keep these for record.

A great way to showcase how learning and development initiatives have impacted business results, explain an entire project life cycle. Start with the needs analysis through evaluating the impact of the initiative. Explain: 1. Training Needs analysis 2. Instructional design process - explain how the design addressed learner needs 3. Working with stakeholders/SME's or venders 4. Everything leading up to rollout including any change management plans such as driving awareness and desire or managing resistance Lastly (this is the best part!) 5. How you designed an evaluation strategy to measure learner sentiment, knowledge retention, behavior change, and a direct link positive business impacts. If you can do that, you've nailed it!

Training impact is what matters to businesses and functions today. It’s not just about input metrics any more. If along with everything else mentioned here, you can also demonstrate the impact of specific training interventions on specific business outcomes, while providing testimonials from business and / or project leads, it will make you a far more desirable candidate in the eyes of potential recruiters. It will speak positively about your approach, methodologies and course designs.

Showcasing what you've done in the past is great as it can be inspirational and show how good you are. But to really make an impact, think about how it applies to the people in front of you. How would it help people in this new organization? What things might be different? What else might you consider? Perhaps put these questions to the interviewers and engage in a dialogue about it to show how you approach things, and ensure that the content you are creating is always focused on the learner, objectives, and outcomes.

Focus first on the business results and how your training improved them. Clearly describe how you went from start to finish (problem identification, solution/intervention design and development (and why you made the decisions you made), implementation, evaluation, and feedback loop to check effectiveness). The most effective learning, training and development is clearly aligned with business objectives, people, and it content is aligned within itself. Presenting yourself in a similar manner makes a powerful, positive impression. Be well my friends. Keep up the fire!

One thing I found helpful is enthusiasm. This is especially helpful if you don’t have a lot of formal/corporate experience but you have an interest or passion for learning and development. During the interview it’s important to showcase your enthusiasm in the way you respond to questions. Show some excitement when you talk about your past experiences and future expectations.

One additional point I have personally found to be helpful is an awareness, if not legitimate interest in the latest developments in the sector. Relevant data points and a contextual understanding of the key challenges your prospective employer and their competitors face is a competitive edge. Absolutely talk about your own success, but depending on the seniority of role you should also try to include some strategic insights. An example would be how companies are currently increasing efficiencies and saving costs by automating processes to enhance the employee experience.

Lorsqu'on fait le récit des expériences passées durant un entretien, il est utile de faire le récit qui a conduit à la prise d'une décision spécifique, pas seulement l'argument. Ce récit (s'il est bien préparé) permettra mieux que n'importe quel argument d'illustrer la capacité du candidat à résoudre un problème, à faire preuve de créativité, d'imagination, d'autonomie, d'inventivité. Plus encore le récit permet de laisser une trace sensible et mémorable de l'entretien auprès du recruteur qui s'en souviendra le moment venu.

In most interviews, I recommend, keeping a portfolio handy. Ensure you conduct research prospect and plan for your interview and interviewee ahead. I emailed a portfolio about myself a day prior to the interview. Plus, being a training development professional, I keep training design relevant to a particular training and ask permission during the interview to present. Therefore, you show credibility and a WoW factor. Just be mindful of your interviewer.