When you add an interview round, Beacon builds a prep plan for it from the job ad, your CV, your practice and your last interview. While it is being written, the page checks again by itself.
What is in a plan
Prep plan, on the tracker row or on the round, opens the plan for your next round. Each item has a heading, a reason, and a label for why it is there:
- Gap: the job ad asks for it, and nothing shows it yet.
- From this job's practice: your practice on this job missed it, or half showed it.
- From your last interview: it was hard in a recent interview, for this job or another.
- From an earlier practice: an earlier practice missed it.
- Claim to defend: a line your answers earned for your CV, which the interviewer may test.
Items come in that order, which is the order to work on them. The side of the page holds the round, Add to calendar and Download the plan (PDF).
If your CV already shows every must-have, the plan says so. It then holds the must-haves to back up with an example, and the nice-to-haves your CV does not show yet.
Without Coach
On the free plan you see every heading and every reason, in order, and you can download the plan. Coach opens each item into a lesson, with practice on it, marked out of ten.
Lessons
With Coach, Open the lesson on any item. A lesson is written from your CV and the job ad, in five parts:
- What they are testing
- How to answer, with a structure
- An example from your CV, or, when your CV does not show it, how to answer honestly anyway
- Pitfalls
- Follow-up questions to expect
The first time you open a lesson it takes a moment to write. The page checks again by itself.
Start the drill, beside the lesson, asks three questions on that item, marked out of ten. It takes about five minutes.
How ready you are
With Coach, each item has a status: To do, Learning, Practised or Confident. Set it yourself on the lesson, under How ready are you on this?
Practice moves it up by itself. A practice averaging 5/10 or more on an item moves To do to Learning, and 8/10 or more moves it to Practised. Confident is yours to set.
The plan counts how many items are ready to answer: ready means Practised or Confident. From the day before the interview it offers Start the refresher, a short practice on your two weakest items.
If you use a great deal of coaching in one day or one week, Beacon asks you to come back later. Every lesson already written stays there to read.