Interview Coaching worth it?

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

One thing I've noticed over my career is that I'm really bad at interviewing. I think I might be 0 for 8 or so in the past 5 years.

But it was this last rejection that got me thinking. I got some feedback through back channels and they said that while I had the skills and qualifications, I was a bit too shy and didn't explain my thought process clearly during a 'technical' question. That second one's fair. My process for any sort of mathematical problem, especially in the early stages is iterative probably comes across as jumbled and incoherent when I try to explain it. But I think that with some work and help, I can figure out how to fake it, and don't necessarily need a professional career coach for that. But the first is a bit more alarming to me. They said that my speaking style was too soft and wouldn't work in their group. I've also gotten feedback like this for a similar role at a similar company a few years back. The thing that sort of galls me is that these aren't Big Swinging Dick Wall Street Trading Floors, or high pressure sales roles, these are data analysis jobs at large, relatively staid corporations. Am I too soft-spoken and meek even for that?

I don't think I need to completely rework my personality-I have friends and good relations with people at my current job. I can argue my case and occasionally even sell things to clients. Defintiely less of that lately, but I can probably chalk a lot of that up to ennui or disillusionment with my current role. I think my social skills are mostly fine, even if I won't be gunning for any 100% client facing or sales roles. But clearly there's something wrong with the way I present at interviews, or first impressions or whatever. Maybe I do need a professional interview coach. Has anyone ever used one and had good results? It just feels like a field where the ratio of charlatans to actually useful is pretty high.

 

[maarsen]

Being a shy soft spoken person also, and having a stutter, I understand your frustration. Try looking up standard interview questions, and also write down questions you have been asked specific to your job. Write down a comprehensible answer to these and then mmemorize that. Comes the interview, use the memorized answer.

[BigFatCoward]

in my last 2 promotion processes, where 5 is a good score and 1 is a bad score, i scored 1,1,1,2, and 4,4,4,5, i leave it to you to guess which one was after coaching. 

[Lily Valley]

I took some interview training that used the STAR method.  For my last two interviews, I used what I learned and also googled possible questions and my interviews went MUCH better.

Here's a link to the STAR method.  I basically practiced 7-10 different work stories using this method and then tailored them to answer some of the interview questions.

https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-star-interview-response-technique-2061629

Good luck.  For me the coaching really REALLY helped.  When I get nervous, I tend to ramble.  As a woman applicant, I can't afford to look like a ditz applying for jobs in STEM fields.