I’d start with being really curious about her experience in that position. What did you like about it? What kind of unwritten rules were there? Was it like my experience doing X, Y, Z? She’ll have plenty to say about it having been promoted out of it.

I’ve come to the conclusion that a good company is looking for familiarity with the work, being reliable, and being pleasant to be around. I think being pleasant is necessarily comes from that active listening when you start asking questions about their experience. During my work for the CIA, I’ve seen this stark difference between companies who hire people who don’t know what’s going on and those that do. Take time to talk shop and mention ways that you get past common pain points. Finally, I’d take a moment to demonstrate your ability to, as I think about it, ‘get through a Legend of Zelda dungeon’ by mentioning a time where you observed X and did Y. Show them that you can be set to a task and relied on to finish it without making their life harder than it has to be. “It was only after I found our vendor’s phone number and waited 20 minutes on hold that I learned we no longer had ball point pens. I realized I had to go out and pluck a feather from a goose myself and dip it in a bottle of nail polish to write a letter to our customer.”

I also don’t think answering questions accurately and fully is as important as getting through your talking points. They’ll probably have 2 or 3 key questions that need your full attention to show that your experience is directly applicable. Otherwise, do like a narcissist and use your 15 seconds of fame to show off your greatest assets. They don’t actually hire and fire based off of what animal you think you most resemble, but they might look twice after you mention that you have experience that helps bridge the gap between two different departments.