Preparing for Interviews

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Topics Well Cover

• Self-assessment
• Company research
• The importance of advance planning
• Preparing for interviews
• Strategies and tips

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Why Advance Planning is Important

• Shows youre taking your job search (and the
  organizations with which youre interviewing)
  seriously
• Helps you be more comfortable and confident in
  interviews
• Helps you stand out from other applicants

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Preparing for Interviews

• Knowing yourself through self-assessment
• Knowing the company via company research

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What is Self-Assessment?

• A process through which you become aware of your
• strengths and weaknesses
• skills and abilities
• interests and values
• goals and aspirations

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Why Self-Assessment is Important

• Helps you identify strengths to emphasize in
  interviews
• Gives you practice in articulating your
  background in a persuasive, coherent way
• Builds your confidence
• Helps you articulate a match between you and the
  organization

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Why Self-Assessment is Important

• Helps determine whats important to you in your
  job
• Skills in which you excel
• Kind of career environment you are seeking
• Whats important to you (e.g. security,
  corporate culture, making a contribution)

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Questions to Consider

• What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
• Where do you want to be in five years? In ten?
• What is your major and why did you choose it?
• How did you choose to spend your summers in
  college?

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Questions to Consider

• What do you think the interviewer is looking for
  when asking these questions?
• What is FIT?
• Match between the organizations needs and the
  candidates personal interests and capabilities
• How did you answer the questions?
• Importance of practice

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Self-Assessment Help

• Make a list of the factors that are important for
  you to have in your job
• List can help you evaluate organizations as you
  research and interview with them

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Behavior-Based Interviews

• About 70 of organizations use behavior-based
  interviewing
• About real-life incidents and how you react to
  them
• Based upon your past

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Behavior-Based Interviews

• Helps the interviewer see how you would react in
  different situations
• No easy way to prepare for behavior-based
  interviews
• Self-assessment can help you anticipate and be
  ready for these questions

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Typical B-B Questions

• Tell me about a time when you were involved in a
  team project.
• What was your role? What did you contribute?
• Describe a time when you had to work under
  pressure.
• What was your role? How did you react?
• How did you contribute to the situation?

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How to Prepare for B-B Questions

• Analyze your own background
• List jobs, internships, volunteer experiences
• Choose 3-5 projects to analyze in detail

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Look at Projects

• What was your role?
• What did you offer?
• How did you contribute?
• What skills did you develop/use?
• What did you learn about yourself?

• How did you react when problems arose?
• How did you interact with others?
• What are you most proud of?
• What would you do different next time?

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Analyze

• What qualities do you bring to the table - in ANY
  project or work experience?
• What patterns are emerging?
• What are your primary skills?

• What positive attributes do you bring to any
  project or work experience?
• How do you react in work-related situations?
• What motivates you to do a good job?

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Self-Assessment - Conclusion

• Answering these questions helps you understand
  yourself
• What do you have to offer to employers?
• How can you articulate this to employers?
• Know yourself

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Company Research

• Enables you to be more knowledgeable
• Enables you to ask better questions

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Information to Obtain on Companies

• Major products/services
• Structure - major businesses and functions
• Industry niche
• Future strategy/direction
• Ownership/alliances

• Locations
• Revenues
• History
• of employees
• Corporate culture
• Career opportunities available
• Contact information

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Sources of Information

• The Career Center
• The Internet
• Print information
• People

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The Career Center

• A wide variety of information on hiring
  organizations
• Coaching on how to utilize other resources such
  as the Internet, print info and people

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The Internet

• Often, the most used source of company
  information (as self-reported by students and
  other job seekers)
• Its expected you will have looked at a companys
  Website before an interview

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Print Information

• May be available at college career center or
  library
• May have to call or write company
• May have to search beyond the Web

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Print Information

• Annual reports
• Recruiting literature
• Job descriptions
• Company profiles
• Alumni profiles

• Recent press clippings
• Industry newsletters and publications
• Class case studies
• Directories
• WetFeet
• Vault

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Information from People

• Expand your research to include people
• Find people familiar with the industry or the
  company

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People to Talk With

• Career center counselors and staff
• Faculty who have knowledge about or who have
  consulted for the company

• Classmates who have interned or worked for the
  organization
• Recent alumni from your school who are now
  employed by the organization

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Information from People

• Things to remember
• Youre not interviewing for a job
• Youre networking with knowledgeable people,
  looking for information that will help you
  prepare for interviews
• Dont talk (yet) with anyone whos in a position
  to evaluate you as a candidate

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Networking Questions to Ask

• Where does this company stand in the industry?
• Who are the organizations major competitors?
• What are the strong and weak points of this
  company?

• What kind of people succeed at this organization?
• Who else should I be talking to?
• What other sources of information should I
  consult?

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Company Research - Conclusion

• Researching organizations before you interview is
  expected
• Go beyond the expected by being thorough in your
  research

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Preparing for Interviews - Conclusion

• Self-assessment and company research are the
  hallmarks of a solid interview preparation
  strategy