Promotion Panel Post-Mortem
So it’s done. I had my promotion panel interview yesterday. It went great, apart from one little tiny detail - I went over time. Pretty much the one hard-and-fast rule you’re given, and I broke it. Granted, it was really close - I was partway through my final slide - but it leaves a bitter taste to have come so close to getting through the part I was most worried about.
I know why I ran over. In one of my more content-heavy slides I stumbled a bit with some last minute suggested additions, adding a little too much detail off-the-cuff as I hadn’t practiced these points as much as the rest. Those few seconds made all of the difference, and while I tried to mask the disappointment of being stopped as quickly as I could before going into the Q&A, I’m sure there would have been a split-second where my body language or facial expression gave it away, if any of the panel were looking at my camera feed and not the slide deck.
The Q&A part was fine. It was a little bit of a blur due to trying to recover, but I had the overall impression it was easier than I expected, and shorter. I received one question relating to my last slide which essentially let me finish off what I would have said, and a couple of questions around Agile working practices and specifically on leading Agile teams, which required more longform answers… but overall I came out of the Q&A feeling much more confident again.
So that was it. If I had met the 15 minute criteria I’d be feeling very sure that I’d been successful. As it is, I have to wait until I get the feedback and ultimate decision to find out how much that worked against me. That will be some time in late March/early April. I’m hopeful that everything else was above and beyond what they expected me to deliver, but that’s not going to make the wait any easier!