Preparing for Interviews
Hi, this is Kelly Barnett director of the Newhouse Career Development Center at Syracuse University. And this is the ‘Making it a Reality’ podcast, today we’re getting hopeful here in Syracuse for spring and with spring comes interviews for internships and for jobs for students and alumni so I thought I would be a good time to walk through what to expect when you’re going on an interview and how can we best prepare to make sure we’re putting our best foot forward. Probably a good place to start is you know what’s the anatomy of an interview how can we break that down. Usually if the interview is in person the first few minutes is a little bit of chit-chat that’s what you can expect when you get there, they ask “did you find the place okay?” Maybe some weather small talk that kind of thing and then eventually you get into the nitty-gritty. They usually spend about 10 minutes talking about your resume, maybe another 10 minutes telling you about the opportunity, company, and then they always save time at the end for whatever questions you might have. So we can break this down a little bit further how we prepare for each part and we’ll just go from there. The thing to keep in mind though is that a successful interview is really going to require two things; number one preparation and that’s what we’ll talk about today and through that preparation the second thing is the ability to illustrate parallels and if you’ve ever gotten help from the Career Development Center we always talk about being able to draw parallels between the things that you’ve done in the past and the things you can do for a company, so in a cover letter you’ll have to be able to do that in writing and then in an interview you have to be able to put that into words. So hopefully with today’s preparation it will help you do that a little bit better and the nice thing is if you can get those two things down pat you’re gonna feel really confident, you’re gonna go in there feeling really good knowing that you’ve done your homework and that you’re ready for this interview so in preparation for this the first thing you’re gonna have to do is a lot of research. I would start with researching the company. A good place to start this research is in the news section of the company’s website this is usually where they post any news releases about new business stories that they cover, honors for that company, those are always good things to know about, shows that you’re on top of the latest news for that company and what’s going on in the industry. You’ll also want to read your trades. This is something that everybody should be doing and not only does it make you look focused and prepared it also shows that you are that engaged in your industry, you are that interested in the things that are going on within your industry that you read that trade publication. I always like to remind people though that trades are very expensive to subscribe to depending on what area of the industry you’re interested in, whether it’s Advertising, PR, Television, Entertainment, there are different trades, so you got Adweek, Pr week, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, there are trades for everybody but you wouldn’t want to subscribe because they’re literally thousands of dollars. If you’re here on campus you could go up to the new house 3 reading room which is on the 4th floor in there we have a lot of the trades that you can flip through, if you’re not here or if that’s not convenient, you could also go to any of your trade Publications websites if you can’t read the content for free a lot of times they might offer you the ability to get head lines or a compilation of the week’s biggest stories delivered to your inbox. If you set aside time, you know, maybe on Thursday mornings you eat your bagel and read your trade headlines, that would really go a long way. Another thing that I would do to research the company is Network.
We are always such huge proponents of networking. This is where it comes in handy once again. Talking to people who have previously worked at the company, talking to alumni who might currently be working there, talking to them about, you know, what types of things they might recommend you highlight are there certain skill sets or qualities that the company seeks in candidates, just looking to see if they have any advice for you and, remember, that’s the basis of all good networking, you’re always just looking for advice or a few minutes of the person’s time those are things that people can give pretty painlessly. Another thing you want to think about is, you know, what are the basics for the company, what do they actually do. Every company has a product or a service what are their accounts what were their big stories what was their latest production update put out knowing what’s going on in the company just like knowing what’s going on the industry always shows that you’re really engaged and you’re really interested Trends are another thing to think about. When we think about trends it can be in a lot of different ways, it could be within that field in the industry so Trends within say film or television you know what are we seeing a lot of production-wise or maybe it’s Trends across the industry. A good one recently is social media, you know that’s something that’s really affecting all corners of the communications industry. Looking at social media is also, this is a good segway, when you’re thinking about researching a company. Um, I think the two big ones are probably LinkedIn and Twitter. companies really rely on those not only for recruiting so getting the interview in the first place, but also putting out information about the company and keep in mind that they usually have more than one handle when it comes to Twitter there’s usually the company one, there’s maybe one for recruiting, maybe has HR in the handle there, and then there are also people who identify as working at that company so those are all good people to follow. You might get some good hints about, uh, some of those networking questions we talked about before you know what are companies looking for what are qualities that they really want in a candidate looking at social media can off and give you those clues. One thing we talked about in the previous podcast with Kim Brown was there’s a website called followerwonk, that’s follower w o n k, kind of a crazy name, as well as twellow, t w e l l o w, those sites allow you to search social media a little bit more effectively and those are things that might come in handy when we’re trying to prepare for the interview. In addition to preparing research about the company, you also want to research yourself. Basically anything that you’ve provided on your resume is fair game. If you put on a project that you worked on years ago, if you have a part-time job that you did for 2 months, you don’t know what the interviewer is going to ask you about, so anything on there is fair game, so you really have to be able to speak about anything that you have listed there, so that’s something to consider before you even apply what are we including on the resume but also what I would do to prepare is print out a copy of your resume, before you go on the interview, and next to each experience you have listed think about what was in the job description, think about what types of qualities, proficiencies, technical knowledge, things that the company says it’s looking for, and decide, you know, looking at each experience on your resume “What would I talk about if they asked me about this experience” based on the things that they’re looking for from that job description. So if they’re looking for somebody who knows how to use avid, somebody who can use a certain camera, who can use a database of some sort. If you used one of those things and have a proficiency based on one of those experiences, that’s probably the most relevant thing to talk about. When they say, “Oh, tell me about your time at XYZ company” so really go through your resume and decide if they ask me about this company about this experience what would I talk about and tailor it. This is something that will be really helpful and it’ll make sure that you’re really focused in your interview. Another thing that many interviewers will ask during an interview is “tell me about yourself” they want to hear what basically your elevator pitch is and we’ve talked about elevator pitches in the past. Um, this is a good time for you to go back and review what that means, we’ve had other podcast about that as well, but in a nutshell it’s you talking about what you’ve done in the past what that’s taught you what you’ve learned about yourself and you know technically what are the skills that you’ve acquired and where do you want to take that where do you see yourself going and that place where you end up at the end of that little spiel should be in line with the company that you’re interviewing for. You can include things like “Oh, you know, I grew up in Germany” or “We moved around a lot as a kid” or “I was always interested in journalism” little anecdote things like that are fine as well but really you want to focus on what are the things that you’ve done, how have they prepared you and how is it instructed you about the direction you want to go, and I would say this is about a minute or less. The third thing we want to do, though, preparation wise is what I mentioned the beginning really be able to illustrate parallels. Basically look back at that job description or that internship description and think about what that entails.
The third thing we want to do, though, preparation wise is what I mentioned the beginning really be able to illustrate parallels. Basically look back at that job description or that internship description and think about what that entails. Think about, you know, what are the skills that are necessary for the position.
The third area that you really have to prepare is what we talked about earlier: being able to illustrate parallels. This is so important. What you want to do is think about what are they looking for and how can I provide that? A good kind of basic way to do this to start out is think about what are three skills necessary for the position that you know your experience speaks to – that it lends itself to? It’s kind of a fail-safe. If they ask you a question and you feel stumped, and this probably won’t happen, but if it did you would feel pretty good knowing that you have a safety net. But, what are those three qualities? Even if you’re stumped, if you base your answer around one of those qualities, you know you’ll at least be going in the right direction – you’ll have an answer of substance.
In addition to preparation, I think it’s good to really review what are some sample questions or types of things might you be asked when you go on an interview. I think it’s good to break it down into the two different types of interview questions. The first are the more traditional types of questions they’re more straight forward, things like “Oh, what’s your greatest strength,” and asking you about your experiences – pretty factual questions. The other kind of interview question is behavioral. This is where they’re really looking to see how you respond to things as well as giving you kind of a situational question like “tell me about a time when you failed to meet an objective,” or “tell me about a time when you had to confront somebody that you were working with.” These are the types of questions that might come up if you have a teamwork oriented position – which in a lot of communications fields is pretty common. You do want to answer the question, but what helps you here is really having two or three stories in your back pocket. And these should be stories when you took initiative, it could be you solving a problem, noticing something was amiss and taking charge – it doesn’t have to be anything crazy.
I used to work in editing and I worked in a team and I had proofs that I had to look at before they sent them to the printer for their final run. So I got the book from one of my teammates, and I noticed, in flipping to my section, that it appeared that he was missing something. He had skipped over something that I thought was an error. So I took upon myself and I approached him and said, “Hey Paul! I noticed that you did this this way. Am I missing something? Is there something I should be changing?” and he luckily said, “Oh my goodness! You’re right. I did something an error. We need to fix that.” And we were able to correct the problem before it went to the final print. And if we hadn’t caught it, it would have caught the company quite a bit of money. This isn’t a giant project, this wasn’t something where I won an award for being the best at something. It was me noticing a problem, and taking charge, taking initiative to try to fix it or to investigate it. So you might have something like that.
If I was at an interview, and the interviewer asked me, “tell me about a time when you had to take the lead or tell me about a time when a team member wasn’t pulling his own weight,” that would have basically been a good story to go to for any of those questions. So, if I had one more of those in my pocket, then I’d be in pretty good shape. So, obviously you don’t want to use that story it’s not yours, but think about group projects, team-oriented projects, things were something didn’t go as planned. Even if something went wrong, let’s say Paul had sent that off to the printer, maybe I would have had a story about what we did to try and correct the problem or what did I learn from that. That’s something really important to keep in mind anytime you’re really asked a negative question. If they said, “tell me about a time when you failed to meet an objective,” you wouldn’t just want to finger point and say, “oh well my group member didn’t fulfill her share of the project.” That wouldn’t be a very good answer. But if you can give some context, that’s going to be a good way to go. Give some context saying, “here’s what the project was, we divide it up and she didn’t do her part so we failed.” And what would make that even better is if you told me how you tried to fix it, Did you try to get extra credit for a course? Or did you work with the client on a better solution? Or what did you learn from that? That would be a better way to frame that question. So anytime you’re asked one of those negative questions, you have to be really careful not to finger point or sound like you’re shirking responsibility, and show how you’re a valuable member of a team: you can take charge, you understand the importance of right-ing wrongs. That’s going to go really far in a really positive way.
Another question that comes up quite a bit is: why should we hire you? This is a really basic question but it’s one that seems to be kind of a stumper for some people. What you want to think about again is: what do you bring to the table? What are those things you’ve done before that you think add value to you as a candidate? It could be even something that is personality based: are you very flexible? You can move easily between teams? Are you somebody who has a lot of technical expertise in a certain area (you know a program really well)? You have a lot of contacts in the community. There’s a lot of different ways you might have strengths. And that’s what we’re really trying to show with: why should we hire you? It’s always good with that question if you can show examples of it, not just saying “Oh well I’m a great leader.” That’s not really a very robust answer to a question and that’s something to keep in mind for any question – you always want to give robust answers. Even if somebody says, “Oh what’s your greatest strength?” and your greatest strength happens to be that you’re a great writer, you don’t want to just say, “Oh well I’m a great writer.” You should say, “I think that one of my greatest strengths is that I’m a really solid writer. I’m a contributing writer here,” or “I’m blogging regularly at this website.” Whatever it might be to kind of back it up. You have to, again, give context. Context is going to be really important regardless of whether it is a positive or negative questions, but it’s absolutely crucial when it comes to those negative questions.
Sometimes we hear about those people who get strange interview questions. Things like, “If you were a superhero who would you be?” or “If you were a brand, who would you be?” or “If you were an animal, what would you be?” Those can kind of throw you off because maybe you’re not expecting them. What you want to really do there is think about, ok what qualities does this superhero, or brand or animal convey? What do they show? What are their strengths? So maybe, if I were asked, “If you were an animal, what would you be?” and it was a company where working among different types of teams might be helpful, being agile, I might say “Oh well I would be a fish because I can be very fluid when I’m moving from one environment to another.” or if I was going back to the agility thing, thinking about different animals that might be seen as particularly agile or superheroes that had strengths in that area. You can be creative, I think when it comes to superheroes, those fictional type characters, you can make somebody up. You could make up your own superhero. So, it’s about being creative but also thinking about what are the qualities that those characters or those brands bring to mind and that’s how you should base your answer.
Another common question that comes up is: where do you get your news? Or what are the big stories going on right now? Particularly in journalism, I would say public relations it comes up quite a bit, but I think any big stories in the industry, which is where reading your trades will come back into play, any of those big industry stories are also on the table for anybody. So knowing where you get your news and being able to talk about that. If you’re not an avid news consumer, that is something I would also recommend you do. And then knowing what’s going on in the world.
Regardless of the question, if you find yourself just stumped or you blank, you can always say, “That’s a really great question. Let me think about that for a second.” You can get more time. This might feel awkward or uncomfortable to you, but know that you’re the only one who is really feeling that awkwardness. They do these interviews all the time, you’re the only one thinking about the awkwardness. So don’t even waste energy on that. Collect your thoughts, sit there for a second, it’s okay if you can hear the clock ticking and just try and get your best answer together. And remember, you can always go back and base your answer around one of those qualities – what are those three basic qualities you can talk about for any answer.
One thing we mentioned in the beginning, in terms of a portion of the interview, is having questions for your interviewer at the end. This is really important it shows that one, you were paying attention and also that you did your research. This is a good way to really show that off. Basically, if you had any questions that came up in your research, if there’s anything you want to know about the company that came up when you were preparing, these are good things to write down as questions. And you can bring them in with you, it’s okay to come in with things printed out or written down. That’s fine, you’re not expected to memorize everything. Other good questions would be anything that maybe they were talking during an interview and you thought of a question, you can jot that down. It’s also okay to write during an interview, it shows that you’re engaged and paying attention. So you could certainly make a note about something that came to mind. And then, another failsafe here is asking the interviewer about their own personal experience. Not giving them a quiz on their resume but asking, “what’s your favorite part about working at this company? Why do you think your company attracts a lot of candidates?” Those type of things are good safety nets and basically it’s because people like to talk about themselves. The more time they spend talking is the less time you have to spend talking.
There are some questions not to ask. I think for jobs, you never want to ask about salary or benefits. That’s something that would be discussed when they make you an offer. So you don’t want to jump the gun on that. If they bring it up that’s fine, then you can talk about that, but that’s not something you should be bringing up you should wait until you actually get an offer and those things will be made clear at that point. Internships are a little bit different, when it comes to internships, it’s okay if it hasn’t been made clear whether or not an internship is paid. You can ask about that if there’s a stipend or a travel allowance. Those things are all okay.
What should you bring with you? Copies of your resume, that’s really the only time you can use that fancy paper anymore because we usually apply to things electronically. So feel free to print some out and bring it on that heavier weight paper. Definitely something to write on and write with – that way when you do have a question or you want to make some notes you can jot those down. Copies of your reference list is a good idea. Your reference list should be a separate document. I would recommend copying and pasting the header that you use on your resume, put that right on your third document and then you want to have at least three, maybe four, people who can speak to your work ethic. So good candidates for a reference might be former supervisors and managers, you want to include what their current title is, how they’re related to you, they shouldn’t be relatives, but if they were a former supervisor or if they were your boss or if they were a coworker, those are good things to note. Students and people coming right out of school might have one of those people listed on your reference listed as a professor. That’s okay. But as you get into the working world, you’ll probably bump that person out to somebody a little more current. You might bring your portfolio with you if you’re somebody who has clips or design work if you’re a more visual person, or a link where people can see your work. You should have that handy. That’s actually not a bad thing to include in your contact information at the top of all of your application materials. Any other questions you have, we talked about having those questions at the end, and one thing I didn’t mention about the question period at the end is that it’s kind of your last point where you can really emphasize a quality if you feel you haven’t had the opportunity to talk about that yet. So let’s say that the position you’re applying for really needs someone who is adept in social media, somebody who has worked with social media, they’ve gotten results in the past. That’s one of many things they’re looking for and you talked about those other qualities but you just didn’t have a chance to get around to that social media component yet. And the questions for the employer at the end, you could say something along the lines of: “Oh yes, I saw that you are looking for somebody who has this type of social media experience. Back when I worked at XYZ company, I was responsible for daily updates of Twitter and Facebook pages.” Just giving a quick little summary, basically it’s a little sell about you. Then you could say, “Is this something you’re still seeing as a component for this position?” That’s a way to insert your sell, showing how you possess that, and also making up another question for the end of the interview. So keep your ears open for those things that maybe you haven’t had a chance to talk about yet cause interviews aren’t for hours and hours as a rule. So you don’t get to talk about every aspect of the job. But if there’s something that you really know is a selling point for you, and you haven’t had a chance to note that, this is a good time to note that.
Just in general, when it comes to things to bring with you, those questions for the interviewer and basically anything else that’s going to help you. If you found something in your research that was an article, or something that you feel like you want to bring up in the interviewer that you felt would be helpful to have on hand, go ahead and bring that with you.
Okay, so we talked a lot about what to do, now let’s talk about what not to do. In general, you don’t want to be too distracting with your apparel. Now depending on what type of company you are applying to, we may have a little bit of different rules. Largely, that comes down to our television and film people. If you are going on an interview at a production house, you aren’t going to dress up as much. You can look nice but you’re not wearing a tie. Everybody else usually is pretty dressed up, depending on who they are. This is where talking to alumni or former classmates may come in handy. They might be able to tell you what’s appropriate. If you have questions about this, you can talk to the Career Development Center as well. We can help you with that. However, just in general for everybody, don’t wear too much cologne or perfume or makeup. I still want you to be you, so if you have a signature scent, or whatever it may be, go ahead and wear it, but just don’t overdo it. My biggest pet peeve is if I get in an elevator and I can still smell the scent of that person who was in there before you. So, tone it down there. Likewise, don’t be jingly with your jewelry or your pocket change Think about other noisemakers. Those things are really distracting, as is chewing gum. Leave the gum at home. Don’t chew it that day. Also, when it comes to picking your apparel, be aware of neck lines and lengths and all of that. You want to look appropriate. You want to look basically like someone who can be a representative of that company. They’re hiring somebody to be a part of that organization, even for an internship. For a period of time, you are going to be a representative of that company. Think about what they are looking for. Sometimes, students in particular, think that they need to wear a black suit to everything. Don’t get me wrong, black suits are great and they are certainly versatile, but you don’t have to wear a black suit. Wear something that’s matching. It doesn’t have to be black on black, it can be a cute jacket or skirt or pants, or maybe you have a sweater and pants that you want to wear. Whatever that might be that is fine. Again, if you have questions, that is something we can advise you on (whether or not something is appropriate). So be yourself, but don’t be distracting. You are the main event. Your brain is the main event. That is what you want to captivate people with. Don’t let them get distracted by more superficial things.
Also things not to do: don’t give the “limp fish” or the “knuckle-crusher” handshake. Those are things that I would not advise. Have a good, firm handshake, but you don’t want anyone worrying that they’re going to have a broken finger. There’s also this terrible thing, and it happens with female candidates more than it does with males, where they do this dainty hand “limp fish” type of handshake, I think you can imagine what type of thing I’m talking about. That’s not professional seeming. You’re smart and you have things to bring to the table. You are smart, and that does not communicate that. Look the person right in the eye, give them a nice firm handshake, and you’ll be in good shape. Handshakes are really important. It is the first time you really connect with somebody. Again, don’t distract from the main event. A handshake can do that, so can apparel. If you have questions, that’s where we can help you.
In addition to in-person interviews, we also run into phone and Skype interviews. The preparation of what you do beforehand is pretty much the same. Phone interviews are great because you can kind of spread out where you’ll be and have all of your papers in front of you. It’s nice they can’t see you so you can be really comfortable. Things to remember for that though are that you should smile while you’re on the phone. It has this wonderful psychological effect; it really warms up your voice. I think sometimes when people are on phone interviews they get a little too focused or too robotic so smiling will help to warm up your voice. Also be weary of shuffling. You’ll have all of your papers in front of you, but don’t be moving them around too much where they might pick that up on the other end of the phone call. Make sure you’re in a quiet area. It should have really good reception. If you have roommates, or partners, or anyone, maybe a dog, who might come in and ruin your interview, make sure those people are accounted for and that those pets are put away somewhere so you’ll have a nice quiet environment to conduct your interview. Skype interviews will have a lot of the same challenges and benefits, but remember they can see you so you really do have to dress professionally from head to toe. If you have to get up for any reason, or if you are shifting in your seat, we don’t want them to see your pajama bottoms. So dress professionally, just so you feel the part, too. I think there is a psychological element there. If you’re looking the part then you are going to feel the part. Also be aware of what’s in view behind you. It’s okay if you’re in your bedroom or if you’re in your house and there’s something behind you, but just make sure it’s not distracting from the main event. You don’t want posters, or really loud artwork, or something too messy. That’s part of the presentation when they’re looking at you, and they’ll probably comment on that afterward. If you have something distracting, like socks hanging out of a dresser, you know they’re going to talk about that sock dresser after they get off their skype interview with you. Make sure that when you’re on this interview, and this is one of the most important things, that you make eye contact with the camera. We all know from Facetime and from Skype that when you’re video-chatting, you can’t help but look at yourself in the little corner. Don’t do that. Put a post-it note where your face will pop up, put googley eyes on either side of the camera, or whatever you need to do to make eye contact with the camera because that’s how you make eye contact with your interviewer. That’s really important. That’s what you’d do in person, so that’s what we want you to do over Skype. Like a phone interview, you can have your materials on hand, but this is where things are a little more like an in-person interview. You don’t want to be shuffling them a lot or referring to them all the time because they’re seeing you do that. Otherwise, phone and skype interviews are pretty similar to a regular interview in person.
Okay, so after your interview, ask if you can take a business card, It’s always nice to ask instead of just taking one. But take a business card so you have everyone’s name and the spelling correctly and the address so you can send that “thank you” note which I’ll talk more about in a second. Another good thing to do, whether it’s in-person, on the phone, or over Skype, is to ask when they expect to make a decision. This gives you some sense of what the timeline is. If you frame it that way, “oh do you know when you’re expecting to make s decision?” that’s not overstepping. They can answer it pretty vaguely, “oh you’re the first person to come in so it’ll probably a while,” or they might be really specific. “Oh you know we’re interviewing four people and you’re the third, so we hope to make a decision quickly.” Paying attention to this not only will help with your sanity (you won’t be worrying what’s going on), but it will also help you when you go to write that “thank you” note.
You always want to write a “thank you” note. I always recommend hard copy, actually getting a note card and taking the time to put pen to paper. But if they said, “Oh you’re the last person and we’re meeting tomorrow to go over the candidates,” you know your turn-around time is probably a little shorter. I would still send a hard copy, but I would also send maybe a shorter version over email. This will ensure that your thank you gets there before they make a decision. What if the other candidates sent “thank you” notes, but because you were the last person, you didn’t get that chance? That’s not going to look great on you, even though it’s not your fault that you were last. The email can help you, but you should still send that hard copy “thank you” note. It shouldn’t be the same thing word-for-word. In your hard copy, you can expand a little bit more about what you connected about, but you definitely want to send both if you know the timeline is going to be pretty short. We do have a template for a “thank you” note in the “Making it a Reality” handbook that you can download from our website, and we also have some other great interview prep worksheets in that handbook, so those are things you probably want to check out as well.
If it’s an in-person interview, don’t be afraid to ask for directions or landmarks if you’re not familiar with that area. The person who calls you to set up your interview is the person to talk to about this. They will tell you what time your interview is and where you should be. You can say, “I’ve actually never taken the train to your area of the city,” or “I’m not familiar with that stop,” “Where can I go when I get there?” Luckily today we have things like Google Maps, and that will help you quite a bit, but don’t be afraid to ask for directions if you need them. I would always recommend that you plan your outfit ahead of time, especially if you’re travelling. You may want to have a backup outfit in that situation or make sure that you have a backup outfit cleaned because there can the coffee spill or the ironing burn and we don’t want to deal with that. Make sure you’re prepared so you don’t get flustered right before your interview. If you’re going somewhere where you might have to walk, whether it be from the train or wherever that might be, make sure your shoes are comfortable to walk in, and that goes for winter time too. It’s not practical to wear heels or fancy shoes in giant snow drifts. So, you can wear other boots, or other shoes that you can change into. Usually when you enter a company, there will be a place where you can hang a coat. That is where you can quickly swap out your shoes. I would recommend that you get there a little bit early so that you have more than enough time to do that. Usually about fifteen minutes. You don’t want to get too much more than fifteen minutes or too much less because then they’ll be like, “oh you’re that candidate who shows up way too early,” or “you’re the person who didn’t leave enough time to straighten yourself up before your interview,” so I think fifteen minutes is perfect. Always remember your photo ID. Usually people bring their photo ID with them, but just make sure you have it that day because a lot of times companies need you to have that identification before they let you into the building. Make sure, like I mentioned with the directions, that you know your mode of transportation. Know how long the bus ride is going to take or know how long the train ride is going to take. Maybe, if you’re nervous, you can do a trial run so you feel more comfortable and you know how long it’s going to take. Remember sometimes it might be the day where things are running a little bit faster or slower so be sure to factor all of that in.
If you feel anxious about any of this, remember that you are just interviewing with people. You’re just talking—they’re not trying to trick you or trying to “get you.” Also keep in mind that you are interviewing the reps just like they are interviewing you. Yes, they called you, and they selected you, and I think there’s a little anxiety that is always tied to that, but they want you to be the answer to the problem. They have a problem that needs solving: they have an open position and they need someone who is a good fit there. They want you to be the solution. In that sense, they’re rooting for you, They want you to do well and to be that good person. And sometimes that can help. The good news is that even if none of that advice helps you, the more interviews you go on, the more comfortable you’ll feel. You get a sense of what people are looking for and how to answer questions and kind of what your spiel is. Know that things will get easier the more you do it. It’s just like what we say about networking. It might not feel like a natural fit for you, you might not feel like this is really comfortable, but the more you do it, the better you understand it, and the better you are at it.
So, that’s pretty much it, that’s my “interviewing in a nutshell.” I always like to end with a fun fact so, today’s fun fact for interviewing is that a recent survey of 2,000 bosses showed that a third of them said that they know in the first 90 seconds whether or not they are going to hire a candidate. So how can they make that decision in less than two minutes? It comes down to non-verbal mistakes. The number one reason was a failure to make eye contact, and that was followed closely by the way that the person presented themselves, whether that was the way that they dressed, or the way that they acted, or even how they walked through the door. Some other reasons included that the candidate had little, or even no knowledge about the company, a lack of confidence or a lack of a smile, having a bad handshake, or having some off-putting body language like crossing their arms over their chest during the interview. I think, after everything we talked about today, that you can see why all of that preparation is so important and hopefully this preparation is going to help you to avoid those mistakes. Like I mentioned before, look at the “Making it a Reality” handbook that’s on our website. You can also come in if you are on campus and pick up some of our handouts here—we’d be happy to help you with that.
Thanks for tuning in, I hope this was helpful, and we’ll see you in two weeks!
