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She recently faced a dilemma: should she leave for another start-up offering a massive pay hike, or stay

Do you worry about missing out? Are you diluting your attention, energy and impact? It’s very tempting to try and do everything all at once when you’re caught up in the excitement of starting a new business, a new role or when changing direction. Or if you’re someone who finds it hard to let go. Or if you want to be involved in everything and find it hard to stay in your lane. You have Pro-Fomo. Professional Fear of Missing Out is, ironically, one of the ways you will miss out. When you’re trying to be involved in everything, working excessively to try and clear that (unending) to-do list or be all things to all people, you will inevitably miss something. Or burn out trying. Your efforts and focus get diluted and, as can often happen, you don’t hit deadlines or meet expectations, your attention is divided and your energy diffused. The result – you don’t do a great job, or you do it too late. How do we solve this? Think of your work effort as a five-course fine dining experience rather than an all you can eat buffet. If you’ve ever heard of the 80/20 rule (also called the Pareto Principle ) then you’ll understand that 80% of your outcomes derive from 20% of your efforts. Think about it for a moment. Are you focusing your efforts where you’ll get the most results? Or are you watering down your results and impact by not being focused on the activities that really matter? To ensure success it’s advisable to have a plan – and stick to it. Like a menu. It sets out in detail the stages we can expect, they have a logical flow and they complement one another. You could use also use the Eisenhower Matrix to help you decide what is more important and where to focus your attention. Plan your work or ‘courses’ so there is an engaging and interesting introduction that you build momentum from as you move forward, perhaps with a few flourishes or hidden ingredients to draw attention but always following a defined direction. That way, your efforts will bring rewards. You’ll be seen as strategic, sharp-minded and focused on the things that matter. If you’re trying to do everything and not do anything particularly well, why not try a session of Career Therapy and find your focus? Swap Pro-Fomo for clarity and direction and move your career forward with confidence. Click ‘Book a call’ on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more career confidence-boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support, grounded in years of coaching experience - and real life. Check out my other articles on careers and confidence:   You can grow your confidence ,   Pick your shine time ,   5 steps to building confidence  and   Want more confidence? Take control . Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash

Iconic brands iPhone and YouTube Just how strong is your personal brand? What are you known for? Can you talk about why your brand is so strong or great? Do you even have a personal brand? Yes? Great, I’m sure you’re very successful. No? May I recommend you keep reading… I encourage people to introduce themselves to others and connect with them by leading with what they do and deliver, not their job title. Why? Well, it was a change I made a few years ago and the results have been astonishing. OK, so some people were impressed with “I’m an executive leadership and career coach”, but most just looked at me with a blank face or blatant disinterest. I get why. It’s too abstract. It means nothing to THEM, the people I’m trying to connect with. Now, I say, “I help women be more confident and able to talk about themselves,” and the result is very different. Every time I’ve said it (no lie), I’ve had a reaction. It sparks curiosity in other people and usually kickstarts a conversation. Why? Because THEY can relate to it. They know what being confident – or lacking confidence – at work feels like. It’s personal. It’s meaningful. And so, we spark a connection. Admittedly, my opening is sometimes met with “Really, are you a magician?” or “I could do with you helping me, I'm not very confident and I hate talking about myself”, but at least there’s an exchange and an opportunity to move the conversation in a more positive direction. So, how did I make the change? And how can you do it? It starts with noting down: – Who you are : what words you would use to describe yourself. Ask people for their ideas too, to gather vocabulary (and insight) – What you are : your job/area – Your expertise and strengths : think about your superpowers, the things you do really well and do better than others. Summarise your expertise and what makes you good at what you do – The impact you generate : the problems you solve and the benefits that brings to people and organisations – Your values : what’s important to you in your professional world and why? – Why you love what you do : what does it give you? The data that comes out of this reflective exercise gives you a framework and language to start playing with. Then, ask yourself – what happens when you do what you do? What’s the (desired) result? It might take some time to find the right definition and the right words, but keep playing until your concise, clear brand statement options surface. Talking it through and out loud can lead to lightbulb moments! Then test a few options on people you trust, get feedback and pick the best one. I accept that we need to talk about what we do and my second line when I introduce myself is exactly that. My third is how I do it. But I don’t ever lead with those now. So, what does your personal brand say about you? Is it compelling? Is it meaningful to other people? If you’d like help to define your brand and come up with a pithy one-liner that grabs people’s attention, and/or build your confidence talking about yourself, why not try a session of Career Therapy?   Click on Book a call on the website or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more confidence boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk Check out my post on Power Words Make Your Personal Brand Stand Out and for a comprehensive intro, I highly recommend Susan Chritton's Personal Branding for Dummies . If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly Career Therapy Newsletter ? It's packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Check out my other articles on careers and confidence:   You can grow your confidence ,   Pick your shine time ,   5 steps to building confidence  and   Want more confidence? Take control . Photo by  Sara Kurfeß  on  Unsplash

Lots and lots of 'why' questions help us find out interesting and useful things Why? It’s a powerful question. And the superpower of knowing your why is that it gives you a very strong sense of purpose. I’ve been asking ‘why?’ since I discovered books existed. My thirst for understanding the why of things was endless (to my mother’s annoyance). I remember being particularly perplexed about why an elephant was named ‘elephant’ and why there are different ways to say the same thing. Innate curiosity has at times been a curse. I was often reminded as a child to remember my place and mind my own business because not everyone wants to be questioned or challenged, especially not adults by a curious child who thought she was being helpful. Thankfully, being curious and asking why became one of my superpowers, my primary superpower, in fact. It fuels so much of what I do and why I do it. It drives me to learn, have a growth mindset and help other people do the same through my work as a coach. Many powerful coaching questions start with what – What’s on your mind today? What are you looking to achieve? What are the barriers to achieving that? What do you want instead? What else? But some of my favourites start with why – Why is that important to you? Why do you think that is? Why are you focusing on this? Why not? Why? Because I find they evoke deeper thinking. Why questions create space to look with open curiosity at motivation, assumption, reason and purpose. And they challenge the reactive or automatic things we think and do constantly, without stopping to understand why we do them or how they serve us. Curiosity isn’t just powerful in coaching, as Amanda Lang’s book, The Power of Why , shows. It’s something that can help us ‘overcome long-standing barriers’ so we can be happier and more fulfilled. Simon Sinek has made a career out of starting with Why . Good for him, he is amazing. His why is powerful but kind. Deceptively simple, but highly persuasive. He has this knack of lasering in and voicing what people are thinking and doing so in a way that makes you think, ‘why wouldn’t I?’ So, why are you doing what you are doing? Is it through habit or purpose? Is it because you haven’t thought about it or because you think it will be too hard to change? Why is a good question to be asking ourselves on a frequent basis. It keeps us focused on the important things, acting with intention and doing the things we want to do because we know why we are doing them. If you’d like someone to help you work out why you are where you are and what might be next, or if you’d like to be challenged to step out of your comfort zone (in a gentle but robust way), why not get in touch and see where a session of Career Therapy could take you? Click on Book a call on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk   Why not follow me for more confidence boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk You might also be interested in my article on trusting your gut instinct . If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience... and real life. Check out my other articles on careers and confidence:   You can grow your confidence ,   Pick your shine time ,   5 steps to building confidence  and   Want more confidence? Take control .  Black question mark photo Arek Socha on Pixabay Orange question mark photo Planet Volumes

outcomes, not the actions Cut down on information about your early career and shine the light on relevant recent

We write reports, make presentations, write emails, so why is a CV so hard to do? CVs have changed a lot in recent years. The language we use now is different.

Speak up for yourself. If you don't, who will? 'Tell me about yourself' should be a very easy question to answer, but if we don't feel comfortable talking about ourselves, then at an interview or when networking, many of us stumble and either blurt out our life story or recite our CV starting from when we left school. Neither of those is the desired answer! Instead, we want to be communicating our brand and value. So, here is a simple, structured way to answer this question successfully. Let’s think about why the question is asked. Well, it signifies that you are several things: articulate and self-aware can select relevant information to share can communicate information clearly and concisely In addition, the answer gives evidence of achievements and sets the scene to talk further about your strengths and the results you deliver as the conversation develops. Back in 2019, I published a blog on how to approach this question, but many requests for help along the lines of “OK, I get that, but how do I actually write it?’ have come in, so here is a step-by-step guide. What you need to create is a pitch or value proposition that demonstrates what you bring to a role, how you generate results and add value. So, it’s just not about you as a professional, it’s about how you contribute to a business and have impact. There are various formulas you can follow, but this is my go-to and it’s been very successful with clients: Who you are (i.e. role or job title) What you do/cover Two or three of your key strengths A brief example or two of the value you bring/outcomes you generate Whistle-stop career journey/your career foundation What you are looking for in the future That’s it. Almost. You need to do all of that in no more than two minutes. It’s brief and concise, so think of it as just a few sentences. Here’s an example: “I’m a career and transition coach who focuses on helping people identify their strengths and use them to be happier and more productive at work. I do this by using key abilities in listening and asking questions (sometimes tough questions) to challenge clients to think in new ways and move out of their comfort zone. I’m action-focused and partner with clients to set and achieve goals that are both realistic and aspirational and I’ve helped over 200 clients move their careers forward. I’ve changed career twice and that’s what led me to my own practice, which has now been running for 10 years. Looking ahead, I’d like to explore how technology can help me connect with people and coach in new ways.” And this is 44 seconds when I say it out loud. Here’s another example: “I’m a sales strategy leader with over 25 years’ experience shaping the vision and strategy for telecoms and tech providers and translating that into actionable Go-To-Market activity. We operate now with a new type of client base and my key strength is championing new ways of thinking to engage digitally native customers, disrupt market norms and exceed customer expectations. I’m known for my ability to embrace ambiguity and operate in challenging market conditions and I’m recognised for navigating complex organisational structures and creating roadmaps that clearly define how teams and functions will collaborate to move forward and how that will feed into the bigger picture of business strategy. My career foundation was built at TechCorp where I came up through the ranks from computing sales before gaining broader experience in marketing, data and forecasting. I moved into telecoms eight years ago and have enjoyed the challenge of a new sector and have driven the UK business to outperform expectations by 26% over two years. In my next role, I’m keen to see how we can innovate around GTM strategies and transform how we engage with our customer base.” A little longer at 65 seconds but it’s still plenty of information to effectively answer the ‘tell me about yourself’ question and provide a springboard for a deeper conversation. If you need some help identifying your value proposition and putting your pitch together, why not get in touch for a session of Career Therapy? Click on Book a call on the website or email me louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk And check out this related post on your brand and for a comprehensive intro to developing your personal brand, I highly recommend Susan Chritton's Personal Branding for Dummies . If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly Career Therapy Newsletter ? It is packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Check out my other articles on careers and confidence:   You can grow your confidence ,   Pick your shine time ,   5 steps to building confidence  and   Want more confidence? Take control . Photo by Alexander Mills on Unsplash

Do you know how to stand out at an interview? If you are in the process of interviews, then you will be focused on this question and you may be asked it directly. Here's how to answer: "Why should we hire you over other candidates?" So, how do you stand out in a crowd when you don’t know who makes up that crowd, but you do know that they have similar skills and experience to you? It might sound like a difficult thing to do, but it’s actually a great question to be asked because it gives you a forum to show just how amazing you are across the four key criteria for being a good hire: You have the skills, experience and knowledge to do the job You can make a positive impact and deliver results You’ll have shared values and will be a good cultural fit for the immediate team and wider business You have the passion and commitment to be successful, which you can demonstrate by showing a strong understanding of what is required in the role Create an answer that covers these areas with an eye (as always) to the job description and company website. Given that you and the other candidates have point 1 covered – otherwise you wouldn’t have got the interview – focus here on specifics and combinations of skills, experience and knowledge from your career that make you unique. And if you’ve already answered questions around skills and experience, briefly recap what you said and focus instead on the other areas. Being prepared, calm and confident will make you stand out too, so be sure to invest the time and effort to create and practise your script. If you’d like to grow your confidence in interviewing or would like help preparing your scripts, why not get in touch and see how a session of Career Therapy can help you? Click ‘Book a call’ on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Check out my other articles on interview success , including 'Tell me about yourself' and 'Why do you want to work here?' And the Harvard Business Review article on how to answer the 'Why should we hire you?' question. Why not follow me for more career confidence-boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support, grounded in years of coaching experience - and real life. Photo by Getty Images on Unsplash

Stay sharp - ensure your CV is ready to use when you need it. Let’s be honest: most of us dread writing or updating our CV. It can feel awkward, overwhelming, or like a tedious admin task. (Read more about that here ). But the truth is, a little discomfort now can lead to a lot of growth later and no regrets about potential missed opportunities. Think of it as a confidence workout. Yes, it takes effort. But it can also remind you of your achievements, clarify your direction, and put you in the driver’s seat of your career. Why is it important to keep your CV up to date? Here are four reasons. – Your CV is your passport, your gateway to new, more challenging, more fulfilling roles. Without a strong, up-to-date CV, you're not just stuck - you're invisible. Even if you're not actively job hunting, opportunities often come when you're not expecting them. Having a current CV ready means you can say yes with confidence to having exploratory conversations, knowing you are ready to go when the right thing comes along. – Regular maintenance is good for your car, so why not run a career MOT? Is your career performing well? Does your CV need a tune-up? We service our cars regularly, but when was the last time you serviced your career? Updating your CV is a smart way to assess whether things are still running smoothly. Are you using your skills to their full potential? Do you still feel energised by your role? This is your chance to make small adjustments or major realignments before burnout or boredom set in. – It’s an opportunity to take stock. Putting your experience on the page forces you to reflect: Are you where you thought you'd be? Are you still growing? What’s missing, and what do you want more of? This kind of career self-awareness can be a catalyst for change. Maybe you’ve outgrown your role. Maybe your values have shifted. A CV update can spark important decisions about what’s next. – It becomes your personal performance review, like an annual appraisal. We often forget our wins, especially the quiet ones. Writing your CV means digging into your achievements, recognising your growth and reminding yourself of how far you’ve come. It’s also a great way to track your development over time and ensure your story reflects who you are today, not just who you were five years ago. Ask yourself: What have I achieved? What progress have I made? What’s next? Is it time to update your CV? Not sure how to start? You don’t need to overhaul everything in one go. Even 30 minutes of reflection or a few bullet points updated to show outcomes is progress. And if you’d like help shaping your experience into a clear, confident narrative that gets results, I can help with that too. Let's review your current CV and see how to get it into shape. Click ‘Book a call’ on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more career confidence-boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support, grounded in years of coaching experience - and real life. Photo by Behnam Norouzi for Unsplash+

Your profile is how you greet your reader. Be welcoming, in a concise, professional way Other than your name and contact details, your profile is the most important part of your CV. If you can’t keep the recruiter/hiring manager’s attention in this brief section, you have lost them and they won’t read the rest of your CV, however fantastic it may be. But how do you make your profile so engaging that they will want to read the rest of your CV? Be concise Your profile is a showcase for you to highlight your alignment to a role - what you do, who you do it for (and where), what you bring (skills, knowledge, capabilities and experience) and how you add value - results you secure, outcomes you generate. Don’t waffle. Use short sentences. Make it easy for the reader to see who you are, what you can do and how you have previously contributed to business success in no more than 4-5 lines. Use third person and be specific, ie, ‘Dedicated and driven Data Analyst with 10 years’ experience providing innovative analytics solutions that drive client decisions’. And no need to use the word ‘profile’ as a title. It wastes space and is obvious. Instead, include a target job title so the reader can immediately see your level and role - and align it to the role you are applying for to show a strong fit. In the past, CV profiles were more concerned with highlighting your professional objective, eg, ‘Looking to develop my career to become Sales Director within the next 5 years.’ This is no longer the case. Your profile is where you highlight who you are, what you have done and what you can offer, to tempt the reader into having a conversation with you. Be relevant Tailor your CV and your profile to the role that you are applying for. You’re not expected to rewrite the whole CV for each role, but as a minimum, you should tailor the profile and the ‘Areas of Expertise’ section with keywords, ie, the top third of the first page. Think of this as the most important real estate on your document. A vital source for relevant keywords is the job ad for the role you are targeting. Of all your CV, the profile especially needs to be relevant to the role you are applying for. Sending out a generic CV to different companies demonstrates a lack of commitment and professionalism that will not get you anywhere. And you might not be found at all if the company is using an applicant tracking system to store and retrieve CVs (more about that and the importance of keywords here ). Including your years of experience positions you as the right level and highlighting your key expertise and achievements immediately helps the reader to see if you fit in the role they are recruiting for. Be creative You may be shy and introverted, but your CV needs to sell you at your professional best. Besides, you are not writing about yourself; you are writing about what you can do . And that is based on evidence, not hyperbole. For example, ‘HR Manager with 15 years’ experience helping teams’ may be true, but it doesn’t show you in the best possible light. Whereas, ‘Innovative HR Manager with 15 years’ experience delivering solutions that enhance individual and team performance, and contribute to business success’ communicates the same information, but in a much more engaging way. Remember, the challenge is to keep the recruiter/hiring manager interested enough to want to continue reading the rest of your CV – and invite you for an interview. Be correct It may seem like a minor thing, but make sure your profile, like the rest of your CV, is clear and correctly written and formatted. Research shows that if a recruiter/hiring manager reads your profile and sees a spelling mistake, they likely won’t read on, as it’s an indicator of a lack of professionalism and attention to detail. If spelling is not your strength, use a spell-checking tool or an app like Grammarly , but don't rely on it for all your proofing - get a person to do that. Digital tools won't notice if fonts are different sizes, margins vary, or if some of your bullets have full stops and others don't! Another way If you want to set out your value in more depth, create a 2-3 line overview followed by three concise bullet points that align your expertise to the job description. So, there you go. Be concise. Be relevant. Be creative. Be correct. A lot is riding on your CV, so it's vital to get it right. If you would like help writing or reviewing your profile - or your CV - book a free intro call and let's see how I can help you. Click ‘Book a call’ on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk If you'd like to keep learning how to do it yourself, take a look at these other posts: 4 tips for writing a 5 star CV Why does a CV need to be two pages? and this handy 2025 guide from ITN Business . Why not follow me for more career confidence-boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support, grounded in years of coaching experience - and real life. Photo by Alison Saeng for Unsplash+

Take control to be more confident Confidence is made up of several parts and one of those parts is control. When you feel more in control, you have more confidence. Want more confidence? Take control.   There are things you can control (your thoughts, actions and reactions) and things you can try to influence (other people’s thoughts, actions and reactions) and the rest of the universe that you have no control or influence over, despite your hardest efforts or wishes (the weather, keeping the cat off the kitchen counter, etc).   In psychology speak, this is called ‘ locus of control ’ and describes how we feel about the control of a situation. An internal  locus of control is when we feel we have a strong effect on what is happening. An external  locus of control is when we perceive that other people or factors are controlling the situation.   This idea of how we feel about control (and where it is/who has it) has a strong relationship with confidence. Our confidence understandably grows when we perceive we have control over what is happening. Conversely, that confidence shrinks when we feel like things are happening beyond our control and, even worse, get ‘out   of control’.   You feel more confident when you have control based on experience, like travelling somewhere new. Once you’ve done it the first time, your confidence grows and the negative naysayers in your head get less airtime. You can’t control the weather or if the train shows up on time, but you can control many other aspects of the journey and feel confident about it. We feel more confident when we are in control because we know what we are doing and what is expected. We know we have the knowledge/skills/resources required by the situation.  With different and evolving situations in the workplace, control is something that we may or may not always completely have, or even be close to having. As our confidence is strongly linked to how much we might feel in control of a situation, this locus of control can have a large impact on our approach to a situation and how we feel about it.   When we feel that we are capable of changing a situation, we brim with confidence, set a goal and a plan for achieving it, develop strategies, trust ourselves and our methods and remove the doubt that can get in the way of our aims and action. The mental naysayers get zero airtime. But when we place too much emphasis on what we cannot control, we push that locus of control away from us, lose confidence and create a more difficult environment for us to succeed in. We lose belief, we second-guess and we procrastinate. And the naysayers in our head win. Even if we cannot control all aspects of a situation, we can control our reactions to it.  “My boss is making me have sleepless nights,” said a client last week. No, they aren’t, thought I. They aren’t at your house poking you with a stick whilst you wriggle about under the duvet. You (client) are allowing  your boss to have control over the situation. You are giving up your control because you don’t feel  or think you have any choice. And when we probed further, it became clear that part of the wider situation causing the sleepless nights is that the client felt their confidence was being eroded by this person they had handed their control over to.   So, how do they take it back? They choose to. If we decide to stop reacting and handing over control, quite simply, we have more control. Give less away = keep more. And that will impact how we see a situation and reframe what is happening.   Your confidence can be raised by taking more control. (And limiting air time for the naysayers).   Confidence can  be changed and working on locus of control is one aspect that I focus on with my clients. The aim is to guide you to see more clearly where you are in the workplace structure and culture, so you can identify and ask for what you want and control the direction that your career is taking.   You can’t always change things, but you can change how you react to them – and how you feel and think about them. Shifting your perception of who has control – and taking more control – enables you to feel stronger and increase your confidence, positively impacting your workplace situation and helping you feel happier and more capable at work. It’s work I do with my clients every week and they say it gets results.   A session of Career Therapy with me as your coach can help you take control and see where the opportunities are to think, feel and act differently about what is going on around you. Let's explore how with a free intro chat.   Click on 'Book a call' anywhere on the website or email me: louise@careertherapy.co.uk   And don't forget to check out other posts on Career Therapy Instagram and LinkedIn for more impactful confidence-boosting tips and tools, including this one on how to grow your confidence .   What's stopping you? Think about how having just a little more control would feel...and what you'd feel able to do. These tips from Calm on taking control of your life can also help you find balance and build resilience. If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Photo on  Unsplash

Convince your interviewer that you would be a good fit for the team and the business Picture yourself in an interview. You’ve got your CV highlights memorised, your STAR stories ready to roll, your active listening face on and confidence pose in place... and then you get asked one of the two deceptively simple questions most interviewees struggle to answer credibly: Why do you want to work here? Like its partner in interview angst crime, ‘ Tell me about yourself ', Tell us why you want to work here’ isn’t something you can hope to answer successfully without preparation. So, how do you prepare? Action 1: Memorise these three words and repeat them as your mantra CLEAR - CONCISE - RELEVANT Action 2: Follow these four steps to create a strong structure that will flow and content that will convince: Firstly, talk about the company – focus on two things about why you like the company, its work, its vision for the future, its strategy on X, its approach to Y Next, talk about what you will bring to the role – your experience, insight, skills and expertise - and interest/enthusiasm for the role Then talk about what the role will give you - an opportunity for stretch and growth, space to apply your expertise and innovations in a new setting Close with culture – say something about how you think the role, team and opportunity is a good fit for your skills and experience, but also that the culture of the company also fits with your personal values and career interests It’s a very similar structure to being asked ‘Why do you want this job?’, but in this scenario, you should focus more on steps 2 and 3 and give specific information about the contribution you would make in the role. Write your answer out, read it back and edit, edit, edit until it flows. Say it out loud and practise, practise, practise until it sounds natural (and not overly rehearsed). And check out what not to say to boost your confidence that you are on the right track. And remember, as with any interview question response, you shouldn’t offer an exhaustive list of everything, but a selection of the most relevant points and pertinent information. Clear. Concise. Relevant. If you’d like help drafting your question responses or some coaching to help you polish your interview technique, then why not get in touch? One session of Career Therapy is usually all it takes to show you how you can shine! Click ‘Book a call’ on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more career confidence-boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support, grounded in years of coaching experience - and real life. Read more posts on tool and tips for successful interviews . Photo by Shubham Dhage  on  Unsplash