How to Interview for Your First Director Role and Stand Out from a Pool of Candidates

Welcome to roadmap to the executive suite podcast, a place where we talk about accelerating your careers all tailored to the ambitious woman. We're here to have fun, feel empowered and get actionable steps to get you closer to your dream job and salary, no matter where you are in your career. I'm your host, Claudia Miller, Athena, career coach and corporate trainer who helps ambitious women get the jobs they want, almost getting them up to $100,000 in salary increases. I've been featured in Forbes MSNBC, and Business Insider put me there Top Global list of top innovative career coaches, and the creative 90 day job offer program where I teach career driven women like you my proprietary strategy on how to land a job you love in less than 90 days, all while getting 30 to$100,000 in salary increases, no matter if you're just starting in your career, or you're ready to pivot into the executive suite. My clients have been able to move to the next step in their careers successfully pivoted into new industries without having to take a pay cut and broke it into management without any prior experience. I'm coming to you with a new episode every week on Thursdays with mindset job search, interview skills and sound negotiation advice with actionable strategies you can implement today to help you get ahead in your career. Now let's get started with this week's episode. Welcome. Today we're going to talk about how to interview for your first director role and be able to outbid the competition even against other director candidates who have more years of experience than you do. But before I just would like to introduce myself, my name is Claudia Miller, and I'm a Career Coach for women in tech. And I also partner with companies and organizations with workforce development and di strategies. Since COVID, my clients I've been able to get jobs within 90 days or less. And on average, my clients get 56% in salary increases. So that can translate to anywhere between 30 and up to$100,000 in additional earned income. And due to my clients success, I've been featured in Forbes, MSNBC, and Business Insider put me in the Top Global list of top innovative career coaches. So there are a few things that I want to talk about when it comes to tying to your first director role, including some mindset things are might be able to happen or will happen. Or it could also be some of the top four mistakes that I see. First time directors or managers who are applying to the first time directors usually tend to do and for things they should do instead to help them not only be successful, but become the top sought after candidate for that director role. So one of the things that I'm going to talk about first is mindset. There's a lot of things that happen when it comes to job searching, especially when you're going from a manager or senior manager to a director position. Because there is a gap. And there is a huge difference on how you interview and how you even brand yourself. So one of the things that may come up when it comes to mindset is you're probably starting to doubt yourself. And you're wondering if you're going to be able to be successful in that role, you know, impostor syndrome, or you may have already started applying to jobs. But you've heard crickets at this point, you're either getting that automatic rejection, or they went with someone with more experience, or you just been ghosted, and at this point you haven't heard back at all from them. And now you're just wondering, if you just need a few more years of experience, maybe you're not as qualified or as ready to move into that directory as you thought you might be. And maybe it's just not the right time, maybe you don't even want it at this point. And you start trying to convince yourself that you're not ready for that yet. That's a lot of work. And you don't want to take on that much responsibility. So therefore, you should just be happy with the manager role, right? Or, you start feeling like you're a glorified manager. And maybe it's different at other companies, and you just need more experienced again, in order for you to then be qualified and apply for that director role. And maybe your company, if they knew you were ready for that doctor, or they would have given it to you. So maybe you're just not equipped to be a good director at this point. Or perhaps your confidence just has been shut down because you keep getting passed up for that promotion. And it keeps happening over and over again, and everyone else is moving ahead. So these are some of the things that happened mentally and with your mindset on how it can impact your job search. Like I said, mindset is a very important aspect when it comes to job searching because it does impact your confidence. Your confidence leads to how you present yourself not only on LinkedIn, your resume your cover letter, but also through the interview process. And if you're doubting yourself, the interviewer is probably wondering if you even be good enough for the job, but that's because they're just feeding If what you're showing throughout the interview process, so the list goes on when it comes to not feeling enough or not feeling like you're ready, or maybe you tell yourself, you just don't want it. And for whatever that reason may be, it looks different to every single other person. When I talk to clients, or people that are interested in learning more about my career coaching program, these are the very top scenarios that I've seen people face when they're moving and trying to pivot to that first director role. So one of my thoughts is and what my philosophy is, part change is always scary, moving to a director role is moving scary, you've never done it before, you know, are you going to be successful? What did they find out, you're not good, and then they fire you. And then you have to start the job search process, maybe where you're at isn't as bad as you think it is. And I'm here to tell you, yes, you're qualified, yes, you're ready, they are still going to be unknowns in every single situation. Even if you go to a company and apply for a manager role, there are still things you're gonna have to learn their processes, their workflows, their policies and guidelines, the team members, these are all new things that are part of just a learning curve, when it comes to getting a new job. Even if you stay within the company, and you move into another department, there are still different processes, people and so on and so forth. So worried about if you're going to be ready for that director role, you're ready, especially if you've been in your manager role for more than three years. And what I've seen, at least from some of the clients that I've worked with is, they've already done a lot of that management experience with their individual contributor. And then they went into the management experience. So in their resume or LinkedIn, my shield three plus, you know, let's just say three to four years, but they're already doing management responsibilities and work even as an individual contributor. So they're actually have about five, six years of experience at this point. So yes, you do have enough experience. No, you will never know everything, and there's always going to be change. But that should be exciting. And it's just gonna happen. So you might as well move to the next step in your career. You don't want to stagnate your career. And instead, you want to be proactive, you know, making sure you find the right companies you find that fulfilling job and career and that industry you're interested in. But you'll be ready for directorial should never be a question. You are ready. The question is, where do you want to be a director and you want to be in a different industry or a specific type of company, and a different type of situation companies are in, maybe they're looking for someone to develop, if you're a creator and developer, that's something you enjoy. Or maybe you're someone that is more on a maintenance mode, where you know, you don't want to have to create anything, but you're there to make improvements and make something better and better integration. Or you're ready to work out some of those kinks to really improve the user experience. Whatever there is, there's always different cycles our company is in. And there's one typically that people tend to like and thrive in. And the importance is more figuring out what that is for you. As opposed to asking yourself if you're ready for that director all. So yes, you're ready. And it's actually very common. Unfortunately, you know, we all even AI, we all kind of face that impostor syndrome. Are we good enough? Do we need to learn more? Do I need to get another certification? Maybe any more years of my experience under my belt, we all go through these different emotions and downs and challenges, because like I said, change is very scary. But you know, it's very unfortunate. It's very common. I had a client where she wasn't sure if she was ready for that director position. And mind you, she has two Master's, an MBA and a master's in industrial engineering, and has over 15 years of experience in has been manager for about five plus years. And before then, you guessed it, she was already doing management work before she would have the title. And she's wondering if she's ready for that director role. Is she good enough? Does she had enough years of experience? Does she have enough education certifications? And you're probably thinking, gosh, she clearly does like, how could she not know that she's qualified for that role. But that's the position that I'm in when I hear a lot of some of you listeners out there. When you come in, tell me. I don't know if I'll be able to do that role. I don't know if I'm ready. I don't know if I'll be successful. And usually when you worry about those things, it usually means you're successful, unless you're trying to go from entry level to director role. Most of the time, when I talk to people, especially women in tech, they've already been a manager, Senior Manager for at least three plus years. And then the rule of thumb, at least for me is between three to four years. If you have experience, then it's time to move to the next step. Want to make sure you're always sharpening your skills, you're staying ahead in your career, and you're being competitive, and that requires you moving and escalating to the next step in your career, which in this case would be a director role. So, one thing I told her is back to my client that has the two masters 15 years of experience and been to that manager role for five plus years. One of her things that she really loves is operational excellence and process improvement, and how I framed it and she was able to understand the concept is what you're doing process improvement, you're not always going to know the answer before you walk in. And honestly, you should never know the answer. Before you do a process improvement project, you want to really know, what is currently happening. What are the processes? How many different types of processes are there? Is there a five people and there are six different processes? You know, one of the things is really understanding, gathering intel or doing that market research, then you start having conversations, understanding the pain points and challenges, then you start mapping out the process. And then from then on, you've tried to identify, where's that waste? Is it in the waiting? Is it too many steps? What is happening? So as an engineer, or usually in tech, you're not always going to know the answers, but everyone always has a process to figuring out, okay, what is the current challenge, and from then on, it will lead the entire process, you know, that agile or that waterfall methodology everyone in tech tends to use. So the same thing goes with being a new director, you're gonna have new teams, new challenges, maybe a new company, and it's following the same process. During that market research, what is happening? Why were you hired? What are some of the business, you know, metrics or initiatives and how are you being measured as success, and then taking it one step at a time. And then that's going to happen whether you make a lateral move, or you move to the next step. And if you're going to be investing this much time and effort, and you're already qualified, why not go for that director position. So that's kind of how I want you to think about when you're wondering if you're going to be successful in this role, or maybe you don't know enough, and then you need more years of experience. Just walk through that. And the next thing I want us to talk about is the top four mistakes managers make when interviewing and applying for their first director role. So one of the things that I see always is their resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn reeks of management experience. So here's a quick example. In your LinkedIn headline, you have your title manager of software engineer or software engineering manager, well, if I'm a recruiter or hiring manager, and I see that you've portrayed yourself as a manager, so now I'm going to see you as a manager. Alright, I feel like you're not qualified enough, because we're looking for a director role, and you're a manager. Even quickly, something so simple, does not even translate to Why think you're a good fit for the role, or why should I look at you when I'm already can have candidates already have the director role, when I'm hiring for the director role itself. So one recommendation I always say like in the quick thing you can do even on your LinkedIn profile is position yourself as a leader, as opposed to manager. So if you are software engineer, you could be, you know, software engineer, leader with 15 plus years of experience with top three skills in this market or in this industry, or with this many users, depending on the type of role or function that you're in, or you want to apply in. And now instead, I can see Oh, software engineering leader, perfect a director, Senior Director is a leadership position. Okay, I'm going to continue reading, this person actually may be qualified. So those things are just a huge red flag when reviewing a manager going to the director position. So one of the things is kind of scan through your resume cover letter in a different lens and say, Does this person sound like they'd be a good director. Now, once you kind of start positioning in that point of view, it's not that you don't have the experience, it's just you're telling the wrong story. You're telling your management story, it's time to show your leadership story, your director story. And kind of similar to when you're already doing the manager role before you had the title, you're probably already having or taken on director responsibilities without having the title. So it's looking at that same story or achievement through a different lens. It's no longer about tactical but more strategic and vision how aligned with the company values, or its you know, business needs. So make sure your resume cover letter and LinkedIn do not speak manager management. Instead, its leader in focusing on leadership skills and aspects. Worried about technology and Cody. That's one of the things that I hear a lot of clients when I get on calls with them or people that are interested in career coaching They told me I caught it. I haven't coded I know how to cope. But I don't know if I can get through these technical interviews with court coding. And, you know, I can lead a team. And I've been leading a team in managing teams, but I just not brushed up on my coding skills as I should be. And my thing is, when you're at a director position, you should not be expected to code, you should understand the frameworks and the foundation and how it applies and integrates with everything itself, not only through other applications, and third party vendors, but also over the overall company's business goals, needs and primary function. So there's always going to be new technologies, there's always going to be new coding, as Director, they do not worry, and you should not be worrying about up to date coding and where your skills are at. Instead, you have a team that does that for you, or at least, I would hope at a director level, you have a team or a manager that manages all those team members, and they're able to go into the weeds, and be up to par with coding skills. And like I said, it's more about understanding the foundation, the infrastructure, and the overall framework of it that you should understand which at this point of view, been a manager in the tech industry, you already have that foundation, and it's just adding another layer on top of it. The other thing is answering interview questions, and focusing on technical, and just trying to show off how much you know, and this is very common. And I've had really great candidates that really great expertise and background. And when they're, we're running mock interviews, and we're pretending like if it's a real interview, they just talk so much that they lost me as an interviewer. I don't even know how we got to this point. And I can tell good candidates, like, I don't even know what the question is, but I'm just going to keep on talking to show how smart I am. And that is the wrong thing to do. As a director or applying for director position, you should focus on strategy, not tactical, and it's not the time to show up how smart you are, how much you know, because most of the time interviews can be anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour. And there's a lot of things that the person wants to know. They don't want to read or know a whole entire of like, how did the internet start? How did HTML coding start, and then how you're, you know, the ins and outs and everything. Nobody wants to know that. What they want to know is how you can help them at their company achieve their goals or relief pain points. That's it. When you're talking about, well, here's where, you know, tell me a little bit well, you know, this specific coding, and it could go either this way or that way. Honestly, we're not hiding coders. And if we weren't, then maybe this will be an appropriate conversation. But we're hiring for directors and leaders, we don't need you to go into the weeds of it. So to not focus on the tactics or showing off how smart you are. That is the biggest mistake I see managers making when applying to the first director role. And not aligning to the vision and the business goal. So instead of focusing on your accomplishments, focus on accomplishments, but how they can potentially relate to the current role and company that you're applying for. You want to be able to connect the dots and always bring it back to who the employer is, you know, one of the things and you know, here's one of my achievements. And you know, that's I was very excited about this position. Because I'm able to leverage a lot of that expertise and Intel that I have around the specific application or this specific pain point and bringing over and I know I'll be an asset to the organization and company in helping create a strategy that aligns with specific customer segmentation or product or service, whatever that looks like. So you want to focus on the high level strategy, not in the weeds or the specifics of it. That's why they hire coders are individual contributors. And then maybe they have managers to lead individual contributors. They're hiring directors to manage other managers, so managers to manage managers, that's what you're doing. As a leader, you're needing to create that level of you managing managers, and then allowing them to manage individual contributors. So I feel like okay, Claudia, I get it. I guess I am ready for that director role. I'm just getting in my head. This is just confidence and mindset, that something I need to work in. Yes, I've been doing those mistakes, as you mentioned. Okay. So what do I do? How do I apply for my first director role? How can I best prepare, what should I be doing instead? So here are the four things that I have and I recommend when applying for your first director role that's really going to help you stand out from the competition and even I'll beat all those other directors who have director experience and still come out as a sought after candidate. So first, I recommend to figuring out what What is the company's pain points and industry pain points and what is happening right now in the market. And you can just review industry trends. So it could be SAS industry trends, that could be something that you can Google and just search like what is happening. Usually Deloitte McKinsey, or some of the top consulting firms out there or research companies will always release a new report. I think there's some that was released in 2021, talking about what industry trends they think that are going to be happening in 2022, or such as they release in 2022, anticipating and showing like what they think is going to happen throughout this year. So cutting a really good understanding of the industry landscape. Even if you've been in the industry for quite some time, you want to make sure that that's kind of what even if you see there's a gap, they're like, hey, they're saying this industry trend is happening, but I'm seeing something differently, and I'm in the weeds or I'm with these individual contributors, then you want to bring that up in the interview, that is showing your expertise. So really understanding what the industry trends are in the market. What are the company pain points? And why are they in their business? The good way to figure out where they're at is by reviewing their press page or company page, or reviewing the earnings call? Wait, are they are they looking for someone to create a new product or service? Or they're trying to bring in something in house? Because they need more capabilities that just currently doesn't exist in the market? Are they looking to serve as a new customer segmentation or market overall? What is happening? What are they doing? And what are they telling their shareholders or the public that they're looking to achieve in order to disrupt the market or in order to gain competitive or market share? So what is happening here, you want to have a good understanding of that, then I want you to focus on achievement, but telling them from a leadership landscape. So instead of say, No, I work in I integrate different systems, that is not a director, answer. Instead, you want to focus on the pain points. How did you identify? What was the impact to the business? And then what do you do? And how fast did you do it? And what did it look like to the bottom line at the end? That's how you really want to answer those questions. And maybe even you want to go step above. How did that impact and change align with the company's goals and mission for that specific fiscal year? Bad tie, you want to stay at a high level very strategic, and looking at, you know, some of those things? And yes, you can also review job postings, that's a really great tool that you can leverage to see what are they trying to do in this role? Are they're trying to build something? Or they're trying to fix something? Or they're trying to figure out what to build? Or are they looking to make some improvements on what they have? Or maybe they just don't even have the answer, they don't even know that's where they're creating this role. So have an expert come in and be able to shine a light a little bit more on what their pain points are. So you want to make sure again, to recap, focusing on industry pain points and trends, and as well as company, where are they going? And why are they looking at focusing your achievements on more on leadership landscape. And you might be saying, well, I don't think I have a leadership aspect of it or lens, I don't know how to do that. If you're a manager, yes, you already have that vision, you just need to figure out some of the blanks that you currently have. And again, you can leverage that either the industry report or the company earnings call or their press page, to figure out what you did ties to the overall business goal and needs, then you want to rebrand yourself as a leader and focus on the top three skills that are hardest to hire for in this role. There are always three to four skills are always so hard to hire for that directors or whoever the hiring manager is will tell the recruiter or the HR person, we're really looking for someone that has this experience. Or if you find somebody that has this, like I mean, these are the non negotiables, they need to be able to do this. So you want to figure out what are the top three skills? And then once you know what is the hardest skill to hire for in that specific role, then you want to use that to update your marketing assets like your resume your cover letter and your LinkedIn and have it plastered all over those top three skills. Because once they review your resume and look at your LinkedIn, they're gonna say, Okay, this is exactly who we meet. And we have not seen this at all. And we've had challenges trying to hire for someone with these specific skill sets. I'm most interested in interviewing this person, because no one else even mentions these specific things. And that's where we need the most at the moment. So rebranding yourself and the last thing is asking questions in a consultative manner. And if they ask Keep questions that are long winded, or can be long winded answers. What you want to do is this is a perfect time to showcase your expertise. So let's just say they're asking you a question like, you know, if we were to give you this director position, what are some of the changes you will make in our company? So, that could be a long winded answer, Well, I would hate ABCDE, f and g. But you want to go at a high level, this is not the time for you to ramble for 2030 minutes on what you would do to showcase your expertise. Instead, you want to do it more strategic and intentional, and still be able to show everything that you know, and how you're the subject matter expert, without having to say much. So a good way to answer this would be, of course, I'd be happy to tell you a little bit more some of the changes I would make within your company. But one of the things I would do is I will break it out into five parts, I will break it down into team management and identifying skills and gaps, I would go ahead and identify processes, making sure that we're being effective and efficient, and we're optimizing productivity at a top level, so that way, our employees in our department are not getting burnt out, and they're used strategically and intentionally. And then you can go into your top four or five things and then be able to ask them towards the end. You know, is there something specific you want me to go further down and give a little bit more detail in? Or is there one that you're most interested to hear more in comparison to others? You showed your expertise without having to tell them everything? And then let them decide, they can tell you? Oh, actually, I love, you know, the process improvement, we are actually having some of these challenges. And we've had to hire more, but the output is not improving. And that's been one of the things that we would like for someone to do, and how would you approach something like that? Now you know what they're most interested in. And now you can be more intentional on how you're responding in the interviews. And they've already given some insight a little bit more of what their pain points are. Or maybe they just say, you know, what, can you tell us a little bit more about how to improve productivity? Of course, I'd be happy to. I mean, there's various examples that I have. And based on my experience in 15 years, I've seen very different forms of it. Is there something specific in the team you would like to know as in, you know, how do we cross train employees? How do we go through ticket backlog at a faster rate, even though we can hire more personnel? Or are you most interested in this situation? Or is there something perhaps that is a little bit more customized to your organization? Again, you're in the consultative manner, and then they're telling you what they're interested in, and now you know what to focus on. So you're not giving a 1520 minute spiel about something they don't even care or not interested in, or it doesn't even relate to their pain points. So they're not going to care about the story, unfortunately. But now that you know that information, now you can focus on your interview answers be more intentional to exactly what they're experiencing in their challenges. And then you the Savior comes in, and how would they handle the situation. So you can say a lot without having to say a lot. But the way you get these, or you get into this position is by asking the right questions and going in it in a consultative manner, without having to show off, you're already smart, they already know you're capable. The question is who's the best for this role. If you have an interview already, for a director, they already know you're capable, it's trying to figure out who's the best person to fill this role in comparison to the other candidates. That's really it. So you don't have to show off how smart you are, or anything like that, or worried about it, instead, be more strategic and intentional, and they would appreciate it. And again, you'll start knowing more about the role and the company itself. So why does this work? Because everyone going to an interviewer acts and says pretty much in the same way, ask any hiring manager recruiter, people tend to give very similar answers. And in doing so they can either be a Rambler, and you know who you are, you ramble a lot. And sometimes you don't even know what the question was. So you continue talking, or you don't say enough, and it's like pulling teeth all the time. And you've been told, can you explain or can you elaborate? Or can you tell me a little bit more? So if you heard these comments is because you're not saying enough. So, one of the things is most people interview the same way. It's just human nature. They asked the same questions. Tell me what is the day to day look like? You know, what is the culture look like? Why did you decide to work at this company and why this company? Usually people are giving same question, same answers. So we already know what the norm or what other or average people do. We're going to take it a whole nother level where no one even comes close. So During that industry research, understanding, looking at the leadership lens of all the achievements that you have done, and rebranding yourself and asking the right questions will set you apart from the masses. And this is why it works. And this is just the surface when I'm talking about you know how to position yourself for your first director role. In my proprietary program, 90 day job offer, we go into even more depth on exactly how to review these earning calls. How do we extract this information? How do we leverage it into actual interviews and asking the right interview questions? And how can we change our stories from management? To not highlighting that in a director perspective or leadership lens? And then how do you rebrand yourself and repackage your skill set your expertise for a director role and not a manager role? So if you have any questions or want to know more, I want to hear from you. And if you're going through your first director role, please feel free to private message me, I want to know how it's going. What are some of the other challenges that maybe I didn't touch on that you will want me to kind of elaborate and talk a little bit more about and how to go about it. But I hope you enjoy this. And like I said, if you're interested in finding nailing your first director role, feel free to reach out I do offer a complimentary career strategy, call with me to see if the program will be a good fit. There's no obligation. And if I can help you, I'll let you know or I'll refer you to some of my contacts that are in the tech industry. That'd be more than happy to help. So I hope you found this helpful. And tell me in the comment section. What you found most insightful. Have a great day. Did you know I have started 100% free Facebook group dedicated to making job searching easy for career driven women and help them master their interviewing, networking and start negotiation skills. And we're doing free weekly trainings, covering everything from how to sell yourself to increasing your salary by 30% minimum. Plus, you'll be in there with a network of other ambitious women. So make sure to join us by texting us the word join 28449951523 And we'll see you there