Remember your last interview for a job? Despite a really fine resume and plenty of experience, the interviewers seemed difficult and hard to impress? When I prepare physicians for their interviews, I suggest that they speak to their capabilities, not only to their experiences.

So, an “experience” answer might sound like this, “Yes, I have worked to construct 12 ambulatory units for my system.” That is nice but interviewers know that their system is different! Internally they are thinking, “Yes, she may have built them there, but we have different issues here.”

A better answer would be, “Yes, I have worked to construct 12 ambulatory units for my system…and what I learned when I did that was the executive capability not only of consensus building but of a community feeling among the team to unify our efforts and each persons’ unique capability.” This answer will lead to a deeper question, which will enhance your expertise as being like them, their culture, their unique situation. The inner voice then of the interviewer is, “They have what we need…they could solve our problem.”

Never end the answer with what you did; always with what you learned.