Learning boring stuff for an interview
November 10, 2018 6:11 PM Subscribe
I have a very important interview coming up and need to read, and retain, a lot of dull corporate-speak and buzzwords before it. What’s the best way to do this?
The interview is to progress to the next eligibility level for jobs in my field, and it’s very important I do well. The good news is, my boss will be conducting these interviews (although not, for obvious reasons, my own). She has told me what to prepare and offered to run through a mock interview with me. Before this mock interview occurs, she has suggested reading materials to me which have titles like ‘co-creating success criteria for collaborative inquiry’ and ‘meeting diverse needs when planning for successes.’ I look at them and just see words that don’t really say anything. How can I get my brain into this wavelength?
The interview is to progress to the next eligibility level for jobs in my field, and it’s very important I do well. The good news is, my boss will be conducting these interviews (although not, for obvious reasons, my own). She has told me what to prepare and offered to run through a mock interview with me. Before this mock interview occurs, she has suggested reading materials to me which have titles like ‘co-creating success criteria for collaborative inquiry’ and ‘meeting diverse needs when planning for successes.’ I look at them and just see words that don’t really say anything. How can I get my brain into this wavelength?
Don’t worry about remembering buzz words and corporate slang. Every company has its own culture and acronyms. And in fact, most professionals recommend avoiding jargon, and instead presenting thoughts clearly, so that your listener understands the meat of what you’re saying, and not a bunch of fluff that’s supposed to sound business-y.
As far as “Co-creating success criteria for collaborative inquiry” (sheesh), if you’re a project manager or analyst, and you care about working together to create effective business requirements for your project, you’re okay with just saying that. Same with getting buy-in from all the stakeholders, which is a little jargony, but a heck of a lot more clear than “meeting diverse needs when planning for successes”.
Your boss may just have a much higher tolerance for buzzword bingo than most people, but there are good books out there for people who want to develop their skills in becoming the kind of person who can get people who have clout to buy in on their project. I’d take a look at those titles on Amazon and see what the reviews say, and what other books are recommended on the same subject.
Knowing how to interpret sentences like those titles into a meaningful phrase is a good skill to have, but not using them in the first place will really make you a more effective communicator, especially if you’re in a role where you have to lead a project that involves multiple teams that have very different priorities. (Business and IT are two that come up pretty often, one team wants to keep overhead down and maximize profit, the other needs to spend money on tools and people so they can work most efficiently, etc.) But I think you can get away with focusing on how you would do those things, and not on the jargon.
Flip through the books. See if you get anything of value out of them. If it all reads like mishmash, then you know that these aren’t the books for you. That’s fine. There are other books out there that may be more up your alley. But the key here isn’t to get your brain into buzzword mode, it’s to understand the concept of...basically getting people to understand your vision, and convincing them to help you out, by assigning resources and budget and letting you hire employees and stuff. It’s not about buzzwords, it’s about connecting with people.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:06 PM on November 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
As far as “Co-creating success criteria for collaborative inquiry” (sheesh), if you’re a project manager or analyst, and you care about working together to create effective business requirements for your project, you’re okay with just saying that. Same with getting buy-in from all the stakeholders, which is a little jargony, but a heck of a lot more clear than “meeting diverse needs when planning for successes”.
Your boss may just have a much higher tolerance for buzzword bingo than most people, but there are good books out there for people who want to develop their skills in becoming the kind of person who can get people who have clout to buy in on their project. I’d take a look at those titles on Amazon and see what the reviews say, and what other books are recommended on the same subject.
Knowing how to interpret sentences like those titles into a meaningful phrase is a good skill to have, but not using them in the first place will really make you a more effective communicator, especially if you’re in a role where you have to lead a project that involves multiple teams that have very different priorities. (Business and IT are two that come up pretty often, one team wants to keep overhead down and maximize profit, the other needs to spend money on tools and people so they can work most efficiently, etc.) But I think you can get away with focusing on how you would do those things, and not on the jargon.
Flip through the books. See if you get anything of value out of them. If it all reads like mishmash, then you know that these aren’t the books for you. That’s fine. There are other books out there that may be more up your alley. But the key here isn’t to get your brain into buzzword mode, it’s to understand the concept of...basically getting people to understand your vision, and convincing them to help you out, by assigning resources and budget and letting you hire employees and stuff. It’s not about buzzwords, it’s about connecting with people.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:06 PM on November 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
As far as just the language issue: Are any of the recommended resources audio/video, or can you find some that are? I sometimes have an easier time getting jargon to start sounding like English if I start with something I'm listening to rather than something I'm reading. Tech stuff is super bad about this and I'm actually better at learning in text, but somehow I can manage the text better if I've started with a video for overview first.
posted by Sequence at 7:24 PM on November 10, 2018
posted by Sequence at 7:24 PM on November 10, 2018
Set it to music so it’s an ear worm. Like, co-creating success criteria for collaborative inquiry = Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:09 PM on November 10, 2018
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:09 PM on November 10, 2018
Can you just straight-up ask your boss if they recommended these books because they think it's important for you to be able to speak the lingo, or if they just think you need a solid grasp of the underlying concepts?
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 4:17 AM on November 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 4:17 AM on November 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
I'm with Anticipation on this one - not sure it's about the lingo. From parsing it, that sounds like a lot of these things:
- being asked to think critically and creatively about the ways in which you can lead,
- ensuring quality work while keeping team morale strong,
- taking into account their differences so as best to address their needs, and
- working with them to create the criteria you'll measure in their success.
I think you may be served the best by working to draw out the meanings of key phrases in these pieces, and perhaps discussing their meaning over a cup of coffee with a good friend who knows what you're up against, who also gets these phrases, and is down to help you unpack and get square with how you'll respond to these needs. As long as you can demonstrate the concepts, I don't think you'll even need to memorize the definitions or the words themselves; I might be wrong, but it would seem to me that creative, intentional, ameliorative leadership is the trait they'll be looking for.
posted by a good beginning at 7:30 AM on November 12, 2018
- being asked to think critically and creatively about the ways in which you can lead,
- ensuring quality work while keeping team morale strong,
- taking into account their differences so as best to address their needs, and
- working with them to create the criteria you'll measure in their success.
I think you may be served the best by working to draw out the meanings of key phrases in these pieces, and perhaps discussing their meaning over a cup of coffee with a good friend who knows what you're up against, who also gets these phrases, and is down to help you unpack and get square with how you'll respond to these needs. As long as you can demonstrate the concepts, I don't think you'll even need to memorize the definitions or the words themselves; I might be wrong, but it would seem to me that creative, intentional, ameliorative leadership is the trait they'll be looking for.
posted by a good beginning at 7:30 AM on November 12, 2018
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posted by Wobbuffet at 6:27 PM on November 10, 2018 [1 favorite]