“David Cameron has now spent the best part of four years preparing for a job interview, the employers being the British people.” 

These words appeared in an article by Charles Moore  in the Telegraph last week. It went on to compliment him on showing almost ‘perfect pitch’ in his understanding of handling the interviewer. Us.

“What the employer is really looking for is not an ‘answer’ to everything, but the right approach. Does the applicant inspire confidence?  Does he have a sense of direction, experience, judgement, good character?”

The article reminds us that knocking competitors is not a good idea. “The employer is weighing each applicant against the others.  The winner will not be the one who trashes his rivals but who finds a subtle wayof showing why he is different”

Another good point made in the article relates to the importance of the impression created rather than the specifics of the policies (proposal/CV).  “When people demand policy detail, when they keep on saying, “But what are you going to do ?”, they do not quite mean what they say. They don’t actually want the detail- rather they are trying to test the character of the leader.”

David Cameron understands this.  “The Tory leader is a good enough communicator to know when to shut up”.

He also understands the impact of good body language,-open, interested, engaged, confident- evidenced in no less than four photographs in the same edition of the newspaper. A not so subtle way of differentiating from Gordon Brown!