Ask Devin

Okay, okay! Really hoping that you see this answer in time and congratulations on landing this interview! With 20+ years in comms, you are MORE than covered when it comes to transferable skills (I’ll get into that later). So let’s start with what’s drawing you to internal comms after all this time in external. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve already been asked this, but it’s a good “selling point” to really stand out — and the reason doesn’t have to be super deep or personal. For me (I came from the marketing world), internal comms was always the “other duties as assigned” and over time I really came to enjoy communicating to such a dynamic, but underrated audience! I wanted to prove that if you put just as much time/energy into employee comms as you did external campaigns, you’d move the needle on the overall employee experience… which sort of made the alignment to Workshop pretty simple! Anyways, if you don’t have a quick elevator pitch for that yet, 10/10 recommend putting one together.

Now let’s talk about those transferable skills. Like I said, you’re more than covered, but here’s something worth thinking about as you prep — medtech moves fast and I’d take a wild guess that change communications (here’s a good template to exercise that muscle!) is a hefty part of the internal comms function in that space. Product launches, regulatory shifts, reorgs, etc… there’s always something coming down the pipeline that employees need to understand before the rest of the world does. And that’s where your external comms background truly becomes a superpower (I know, I know… cliche!). You already know how to take complex, high-stakes information and turn it into a clear, compelling narrative. The difference (and benefit, in my opinion!) is that internally, you get to be even more transparent, human, and direct about what it means for the people in the room. So as you prep, think about specific examples where you’ve navigated that kind of complexity and be ready to talk about how you’d apply that lens to an internal audience.

Another thing to have in your back pocket: how you’d build out a strategy to meet employees where they are. I imagine this company has a pretty varied workforce. You’ve got people at desks, some on lab floors, others in manufacturing, field teams, distributed offices across time zones. They’re not all checking their emails at 9am or hopping on the intranet between shifts. So the question becomes: what channels are you using, how are you cascading the right information to the right people at the right time, and how are you measuring whether any of it is actually working? That’s a huge part of the internal comms puzzle. And it’s another place where your external mindset is an asset. You’re used to thinking about audience, channels, and timing as three separate levers. In internal comms, that thinking is everything. Even if your ideas aren’t fully baked, having a point of view on this will go a long, long way.

Oh, and one more thing — if you have any experience with AI tools, even just dabbling, bring that up! You don’t need to be an expert.. I mean who is really?! But showing that you have an appetite for learning how AI can support internal comms workflows (whether that’s drafting, analytics, personalization, whatever) signals that you’re forward-thinking and adaptable. In this space, a willingness to explore goes a long, long way.

You’ve got this. Go get ’em, and please keep me updated!