I had a client ask me for a list of things that make a candidate sound junior. They requested a checklist of things to avoid or to identify if they sounded junior. I hate checklists because people follow them blindly rather than rounding out their responses.

In this case, the heart of the issue is that senior people take control and know how to effectively communicate the big picture and the why behind a problem as well as next steps. Junior candidates stay focused on the details and often require detailed follow-up because they can’t see a few steps ahead and tell leaders what they need to hear.

My favorite comments on this topic come from Dave Anderson (paywall).

One of the clearest differences between junior and senior employees is how they approach communication. Often, a junior employee will lay out the details that feel important to them, answer the questions important to them, and propose actions they would like to take.

This effectively screams, “I’m inexperienced!”

Example of Junior Employee

“FYI, the XYZ service has an outage. We believe the impact is minimal. I'll send an update later.”

What does this say? Not only is there a disaster, but it’s not under control. There are a ton of unanswered questions.

Example of Senior Employee

“FYI, the XYZ service is currently experiencing a 50 percent outage, approximately. We do not know the cause yet. Customers impacted are those registering for a new account. We do not yet know the number of impacted customers, but we’re investigating. Customers who attempt to register have a 50 percent chance of receiving a ‘try again later’ message, and they can click retry to complete their registration. I will send an update within one hour with our current status and further updates on the above.”

What does this say? There is a problem, but someone’s in charge. It's being dealt with.

You will notice the senior employee laid out the details necessary for their audience. “They answered the audience’s inevitable questions. They write for their audience by anticipating questions and answering them all. Their goal is a one-way conversation.”

Back to the Checklist Request

If you are a junior candidate, you will often sound junior, and that is okay if your delivery is clear and concise. Trying to hit above your weight might be problematic. Therefore, proceed with caution. If you are junior and need to develop specific skills, embrace that and look for roles that will let you gain those skills.

That said, the following are some of the most common things that make candidates sound junior.

• Focusing on execution with lists of tasks you completed.

• Diving into painful details for the sake of the details.

• Not thinking big picture.

• Not explaining why when you do need to get into the details.

• Not thinking upstream from the problem. Typically displayed by fixating on what is right in front of them.

• Being too literal and failing to share the point.

• Presenting a long-running list of what you did

• Not focusing on the key takeaway of your answer

• Trying to prove all your points of value in every answer

• Answering what you want to tell them not what they asked

There are a few other items, but these are some of the most common.