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FAQs of The Talent Refinery

FAQs

During any interview, you have a short span of time to convey your strengths and to make a great first impression. As well as having to think on your feet when answering very challenging interview questions, you also have to make sure that you convey confidence, poise and enthusiasm. That is why effective preparation and practice for interviews is so important. Despite this, the only preparation many people do is to browse through the internet and memorize canned interview responses.

Here, we offer a tailored interview coaching service.  Not only do we give you an opportunity to practice answering questions based on the roles you are applying for, we guide you thoroughly in the process of preparing effectively for that interview, so that you are confident and relaxed on the day of the interview.  We have years of experience conducting real recruitment interviews and this enables us to provide interview coaching which is very comprehensive and effective, focusing on both behavioural and technical questions.

Many clients are nervous about the first session in case they say the wrong thing or sound unprepared, but best to sound unprepared before the real interview in a coaching session and fix it, than waiting for the real thing and not getting the job because of something you shouldn’t have said.

You can expect a mix of varied questions tailored to the specific job and industry as well as comprehensive action steps to help you improve.

First 1.5 Hour Session
We start with a diagnostic interview.  This enables us to assess your current interview performance. From there, we give you candid feedback on how you are currently performing and perceived from a HR / Line Management perspective.  We explain in detail what is working well and what is not and how you can improve your responses. Then, we start working with you to develop and polish your interview responses. You are given feedback on any answers that you want to practice, as well as information on how to communicate more effectively and confidently. We will work on your success stories to emphasize your past experiences. At the end of the first session, the coach will email you, summarizing areas of improvement and exercises they would like you to complete before the next session.

Second and Third 1.5 Hour Session
The coach will review your preparation. After the review, the coach will do another mock interview with you. You’ll get on-the-spot coaching to help you sound confident, polished, and relaxed.

This call is 15 – 20 minutes in length with one of our coaches and serves to answer any questions you may have about the services, to advise you on which services best meet your individual needs and to clarify any doubts you might have. It is also an opportunity for your coach to get to know you better, and for you to experience working with your coach.

Of course! There are no geographical boundaries. While meeting in person would be best, our business has grown to clients all over the world. As such, it’s necessary to deliver coaching using phone/video conferencing. As long as you have access to a telephone or an internet connection, we can work together. If you are located in Dubai, then face-to-face sessions are recommended. To ensure your needs are met, we encourage you to include a note when booking as to where you are located along with your preferred timings.

We recommend that you get in touch once you have started the job search. The first step would always be to get your CV reviewed and polished before sending any applications out. On the coaching front, candidates often do not have a big window of time to prepare once an interview has been confirmed and as such, we recommend that you do one coaching session to start preparing and then you can schedule the second one just before the real interview.

The more you put into your sessions, the more you will get out. Those who get the best results out of interview coaching are those who are receptive to feedback and open to doing the work after the sessions are over. Prior to starting, make sure that you send us as much relevant information as possible:

  • Details about job you are applying for (e.g. adverts, job descriptions, etc.)
  • Details about the organisation (e.g. web address)
  • The CV or application form you used to apply for the job

We are happy to report that we do not tend to have any dissatisfied customers. Contact us at info@thetalentrefinery.com if you have any problems and it will be dealt with on an individual basis.

Typically, it takes one week to complete a written session – this, of course, is dependent on your schedule, the coach’s schedule, and how many rounds of edit were required. A detailed timeline will be provided to you once you book the service.

This is a collaborative process between The Talent Refinery and the client. We do not write a CV by ourselves without thorough consultation with you and without (a) understanding your career experience to date and (b) identifying your target job/s, companies and industry. Before we start working on your CV, we do a one-hour minimum call with you to get all of this information from you and then we get to work. This thorough approach ensures that you have a CV that is truly tailored to you and relevant to the specific jobs you will be applying for.

You have the option of providing us temporary access to your profile, after which you can change your password, or we can send you the content in a word document and you can upload this information directly yourself. For search optimization, it is easier for us to work directly on your account and most clients go for the temporary access as it’s quicker and easier for them, but this is a personal choice.

The test itself takes less than ten minutes for you to complete. The feedback session on the report is scheduled as soon as the test has been completed and typically takes up to one hour. It is best to do the testing before your first interview coaching session so that the coach already knows your profile and is better equipped to make the coaching session more tailored to you. Our coach is a qualified psychometric practitioner with extensive hands-on experience using the tool in multinational companies.

Absolutely. We take ethical conduct very seriously and will never disclose our clients’ information or the content of our sessions with an external party.

We have worked with people at all different levels, but the majority of our clients are at senior management and executive level.

Please contact us and we will send you a quote based on the services you require.

Our preference is to meet you in person, but for those living outside of Dubai, this is not feasible. We have great success using video conferencing to date and for busy senior management/executive level clients who have hectic schedules or travel plans, video conference calls are actually preferred. Through video conferencing, we can observe and correct the flaws that most employers detect in the in-person interview: eye contact, posture, and vocal projection.

Yes, we will email you a summary of insights from the coaching session including key areas of improvement along with exercises we’d like you to complete in between sessions.

We can record coaching sessions, upon request. Please inquire at the beginning of the call.

Payment must be made prior to the coaching sessions via cash payment or bank transfer. We do our best to reschedule appointments as we understand that work and family commitments can change on a whim but equally, we like to be organized, professional and for our clients to be committed to the services they have signed up for.

Appointments which are cancelled over 48 hours in advance will be refunded in full.
Appointments which are cancelled less than 48 hours in advance will be refunded by 50%. Appointments which are cancelled less than 24 hours in advance will not be refunded.  

No. We want to see our clients succeed, and we have found that two 1.5 hours sessions is the minimum engagement necessary to have a lasting impact on our clients’ interview performance. To see a real return on investment three sessions are recommended, particularly if you have not interviewed for some time. See more on the services section to understand how the interview coaching process works.