So you have spent a few years in your first or second job and you have got really good at it and it is time to get promoted. How can you ace the interview?

• Show you understand the bigger picture

Career Progression

A typical career progression is,

• Entry level (1 year)
  • Typical roles are “Graduate Trainee, Junior Analyst, Probationary Police Constable, Trainee Teacher …”
  • At this point you don’t know enough about your employer’s business to be useful. Hopefully you will be mentored but many employers hope that you will “pick up soon enough”.
• Worker (2 years)
  • Typical roles are “Analyst, Police Constable, Newly Qualified Teacher …”
  • Do have done the hard graft to learn your employer’s business and make a contribution. You drive the business forwards but hard work and initiative.
• Team Leader/Senior X
  • Typical roles “Team Leader, Senior Developer, Police Sergeant” you will manage a small team by giving them technical advice and mentoring.
  • You are good at your job so you are a natural candidate for promotion. Either you want more money or the business needs your skills to deliver its service because of staff turnover or growth
• Middle Manager
  • Typical roles are “Head of Department, Technology Lead, Police Inspector”
  • This is globally acknowledged to be the toughest role. Your job is implement the strategy given to you from above while co-ordinating with your fellow middle managers who run other departments and trying to keep your own department running while most of the staff seem to be sick or pregnant.
  • You do it for the money, the occasional satisfaction that comes from a job well done and the possible of promotion to Senior Manager and the rewards and power that flow from it.
• Senior Manager
  • Typical roles are “Director of …, CXX …”
  • You have done it. You have almost reached the top of the rickety ladder of management success and for those people who are not ambitious or deluded enough to seek a CEO role you have reached the top rung.
  • Gone are the day-to-day worries of managing a department, you now work with the CEO to deliver the firm’s business plan by working with your Heads of Department. Your only worries now are regulation, competition, the rise of AI, declining consumer spend … , all of which could mean that you have to downsize the company and fire loyal employees.
• CEO
  • Typical roles are “CEO, Police Superintendent, Head Teacher …”
  • You work with a team of senior managers who hopefully have not been driven to drink, drugs and divorce by the strain of climbing the management ladder to create a business plan that is both possible and satisfies the expressed desires of the Board.
  • Being a CEO has been described as trying to fly an aeroplane that has 100 unlabelled control levers each one of which makes a change that only appears several months later. It is an impossible job for this reason attracts people with irrational level of self belief. Boards will almost always recruit a CEO who genuinely believes he can achieve the impossible rather than one who has a more rational view of possible outcomes.
• Chairman
  • Outside of the USA the board is run by a Chairman whose only job is to fire the CEO when he goes completely crazy. In the USA the CEO is often the Chairman as well. This can promote great success during the growth phase of the business but is causes problems when the business is more mature and shareholders want to protect the value of their investment. Elon Musk and Tesla is an obvious modern example of this issue but the CEO/Chairman split exists because problem has existed for thousands of years and the solution is well known.

What are interviewers asking at a promotion interview?

• Can they do the new job?
• Will we enjoy working with them?
• Will they stay and thrive here?

Can they do the new job?

The common factor in each promotion is that you have to understand more of the “bigger picture”.

• A teacher has to worry about how many of his class will get A levels but a Head Teacher should be considering how the community perceives the educational and social achievements of his school and how it complements and competes with other local schools.
• A software developer has to worry about memory safe code but the Senior Manager has to know how much customers are willing to pay for increased security.
• A police constable has to worry about arresting wrong-doers but a Chief Constable has to worry about the capacity of the court system to process them.

How can I prepare better for my promotion interview?

This advice is targeted at the steps at the lower end of the ladder because by those higher up will have learnt the system.
Think about the job description and any assessment tasks carefully.

What is the actual goal of the team? and how can I contribute to that?

For example,

• An Study Review is part of a process to help clinicians get approval for a trial. If it has a negative outcome how can I it pass when it is resubmitted.
• The goal of a software development team is to deliver on time now but to minimise future support costs. How can I help in that mission.
• A Police Sergeant has to support and encourage the more junior members of their team and manage the the “old sweats”. How will I do that?

Understanding Deliverables

You may be asked to bring deliverables such as slides or a report to an interview. Before ChatGPT you might have been assessed on that deliverable. Now you will be assessed on your understanding of what you have written and how it demonstrates the your understanding of the bigger picture.

The more senior the role the less guidance is given for interview preparation and this is cause of great anxiety for interviewees. To remove this problem you must first define what you are going to deliver. Here is my standard deliverable template.

• Overview
  • Write this after Key Features
• Key Features
  • A list of key features
• Format
  • Word, PowerPoint, PDF, …
• Acceptance Criteria
  • How will I know when it is good enough (ask ChatGPT, share with Dad, …)

Bonus – Analysis and Synthesis

Moving from Worker to Team Leader and Team Leader to Middle Manager requires the ability to move from Analysis (seeing all the trees) to Synthesis (describing the forest clearly and persuasively).

Try asking yourself:

“What story is my analysis telling me?”

That shift — from what you found to what it means — is the essence of synthesis.

Creating an Executive Summary

Here is ChatGPT’s excellent recommendation for a process to follow when creating a 1 page Executive Summary. You will be creating a document with this structure,

Summative Introduction: A 1–2 sentence overview of your overall finding.
Key Themes (3–5): Each with 1–2 lines of context and a relevant example.
Risks/Impact: What matters if this isn’t addressed?
Recommendations: Clear next steps or options.

1. Clarify the Audience and Purpose

Ask:

• Who is this executive summary for?
• What decision or action should it inform?

An executive summary isn’t just a shorter version of the analysis — it’s a useful distillation tailored to what decision-makers care about: impact, risk, priority, and recommendations.

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2. Group Issues into Thematic Buckets

Thirty issues are too many for an executive to absorb one-by-one. Instead:

• Identify 3–5 categories or themes.
• Group related issues under each.

Example:

• Compliance gaps
• Data inconsistencies
• Process inefficiencies

This turns raw findings into patterns, which is the heart of synthesis.

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3. Lead with Key Messages

Use the classic “pyramid” style:

• Start with the headline insight: “The document contains critical gaps that could affect regulatory compliance and operational reliability.”
• Follow with 2–4 high-level themes, each backed by concise examples or stats.

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4. Focus on Impact, Not Just Volume

Executives don’t care that you found 30 issues — they care what’s at stake:

• “Five of the issues pose regulatory risk.”
• “Three issues may delay project timelines by up to 2 weeks.”

Quantify severity, not just count.

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5. Frame Recommendations Clearly

End with:

• What should be done now?
• What can wait?
• Who might need to act?

Even if it’s not your call, showing you’ve thought about solutions elevates you from “analyst” to strategic contributor.