Hi All

In just over a week, I've got what will now,be my second interview for a job in HE. To give my background I'm an FE lecturer / manager with a masters, trying to find work in a university education department. I had an interview a few weeks ago which was a disaster as it wasn't quite right for me due to my lack of research experience. Now I've got another one which is less research-y but there seems to be more emphasis on the business side of things and they want ten minutes on how I would boost recruitment to their courses. I used to,work in marketing so have some ideas about targeting different audiences through multi-channel communications - web, pr, social media, open days, etc etc. But I just feel like it's all stating the obvious. Any one got any tips / ideas what they be after?

Thanks.

I will suggest the use of social media -- facebook, youtube with current students sharing their experiences about the course, why they love it and why they would encourage anyone considering a similar subject to give it a try at the university.
The title could be ' proud to be ...insert the name of the university'.

Good luck.

Hi Fallen Onion, don't think that your background knowledge (which you are really familiar with) is obvious to others. The people interviewing you may not have your marketing background (probably don't). Play to your strengths here.

Another tip I have is that, given that a 10 minute presentation actually isn't a lot of time, I'd limit myself to four key strong strategies and be really clear in my presentation about these 4 points.

I would make sure that when I expanded on my strategies or fleshed them out, I linked all detail back to my four main points and any supporting material highlighted the strengths of the ideas without confusion. This is where you can use PM133's point about demonstrating your knowledge of the College and where it is headed. 'Student voice' is really important so Hanginthere's idea could also be a selling point to flesh out your social media strategies.

Don't just rely on where the College have been or are currently situated in the market-think about where they are headed and what their mission or vision for the future is as well and incorporate this into at least one of your strategies.

Very best of luck with this.

PS: In relation to your previous post and interview experience: I was given three interviews last year and received feedback on all of them. First one I was 'gutted' when I didn't get the job and found it hard to take the feedback on board; second one disappointed but more open to the feedback and positive about it all; and the third one I got the job and a lot of highly positive feedback. Even though it can be crushing, try to think of feedback as your friend in these cases and don't be too hard on yourself or worried about your previous experience. Onwards and upwards...

Thanks hanginthere, that's a good suggestion. Cheers.

Thanks pm133. Yes, the USP of the particular role I'm going for is that they are a Russel group uni which run part time courses (degrees and masters) for people already working in educational settings. So I know that communications will have to be very specifically aimed at local people fitting study in with work, not your typical student, but getting a prestigious qualification at the end. Everything I plan to propose would be very cost effective - pr aimed at local media, digital and targeted stakeholder communications at local employers etc.

Thanks also Piju. Definately I want to keep my number of PowerPoint slides quite minimal. I think broadly speaking I'm going to speak about: pr strategies with local media; web presence; building links with local employers; communication with prospective students through open days, email, social media etc. I think I can easily talk about each one of those for a couple of minutes.

I'm definately going to keep at it with the interviews and getting feedback. My first one was a bruising experience, but I did learn from it so I'm hoping this one might be better, but I'll see. I'm keeping positive. So far, I've had two interviews from three applications so that's not so bad. I'd have been daft to think I'd get the very first thing I applied for, so all I see going well really and I know I'll get there in the end.

Hi fallenonion

Congrats on getting another interview invite so soon. I would add to what others have said and suggest looking at how their courses are currently marketed on the website, youtube etc. What are they already doing (and what are they not doing), how could you build on that, and what would it add. I come from a commercial background and it was always important to show you'd really done your homework on them as an organisation and were aware of what they already offered.

Best of luck!

Thanks Tudor Queen. They're already doing some good stuff (a blog, open days etc) but I can see some gaps in what they've got too - not much in the way of video, social - so I think I should be able to do as you suggest. It's at the uni where I did my pgce, about half an hours blast up the motorway, so I want this job so much, was chuffed to bits to get an interview...although I've got another application in somewhere else as backup! Cheers. Onion.

Good luck :)

Thanks!

Just wanted to say thanks all for these tips. That part of my interview went really well, and I felt much more confident for having sounded it out here first. Still didn't get the job like, went to an internal candidate (not in a bad way, I'm sure they'll be better in the role than I would have) but was better than my other interview. So a step nearer, next one up in a few days time!

Good for you! It will boost your confidence for the next one as well.

You may have already done it, but if not, it may be helpful to make a written reflection on what went well at this interview (so you can prime yourself to do it again before the next one), and any areas for improvement. It always helps me whether it is an interview or a talk or what.

Keep us posted :-)

Got it!!!

You got the job after all???