Interviews

Interviewing is the best way to express to a possible employer how your academic, work, campus, and personal experiences have prepared you to be successful at their company. Some interviews can be intense while others can be more casual, but either way you as the candidate are responsible for articulating why you should be hired. Along with this information below, the Career Education & Development office offers Mock Interview appointments to allow you to practice and improve prior to the real interview. Schedule one now before any interview is scheduled and another when you have received an interview offer!

Study your own experiences

Most candidates approaching an interview will immediately begin practicing how they would answer an interview question. One by one they try to memorize what they might say to a specific question, but as the possible list of questions grows this approach will quickly become overwhelming. A more effective approach is to look directly at your experiences and think through the details of those moments.

What experiences do you want to tell an employer during an interview?
What class or training program should an employer know that you've completed successfully?
What skills have you gained or demonstrated through on-campus involvement or off-campus work?
Think about what you have listed on your resume and pull out specific examples of leadership, teamwork, problem solving, creativity, etc. that you want to showcase.

Added to this process, think about the field you are moving into and review the job description (which you hopefully copied and saved on your computer when you applied). What words are used in the description of the company's mission and values? What verbs and experiences are highlighted in the job description? For example, maybe program development was highlighted in the job description. Now ask yourself, "When have I had experience developing programs either both in and out of class?"

Once you have an experience, you need to organize the details.

When and what was the experience?
What soft skills or technical skills does this experience show about me?
What was involved in order for any tasks to get completed?
Who else worked with me and what was their role?
What issues or problems arose? How did we work through them?
What was the outcome?
What would I do differently knowing what I know now?

Prepare for the Interview

In our society, we practice for everything: football games, speeches, golf, you name it. But how many people practice and prepare for an interview for a job, which could be the launch of an incredible career for the rest of their lives? Probably not that many. Here is a statistic to consider; even if you make it to the interview phase, typically, so have at least 2 to 5 other people. Only 1 gets the job. That means that once you have an interview, your chances of being hired are still only between 20% and 33%. Those are not the best odds. Improve your odds by utilizing these resources and working directly with a career counseling professional.

Research the company

Knowing about the company you are interviewing with is a huge advantage in the job search process. Organizations are seeking candidates who know what their company does and how they as a candidate align with that organization. It is critical for you candidates to find out about an organization before an interview. A good place to start is the company's website to find out their mission, vision, values, recent news updates. The next step might be to explore the company's social media profiles to gain an understanding of the company's culture and current projects and accomplishments. After that, put the company's name into a Google news search to find any recent new stories, awards, publications. You can pull any of this information into your interview by referencing it while answering questions or using some of the information to inform the questions you ask them.

Utilize Big Interview

This free resource can help you review interview questions, practice web-based interviewing, and give you a peak at how you sound and look during an interview. Now, let's be honest, most people don't enjoy watching themselves on camera and it's odd to hear voice recorded and played back; however, this is one of the best ways to improve your communication style while interviewing. Listening to your answers to practice questions will help you determine what verbal ticks to work towards eliminating, give you an understanding of which answers were detailed and focused, which were short and vague, and which were long and rambling, and it will provide you with actual examples of your facial expressions or lack thereof. Big Interview also provides a database of videos that provide additional tips and advice.

Check out Big Interview and start using it today simply by creating a new account, choose conduct an interview, select your questions, and start recording. To register your account, use your SRU email, along with the access number 0669

Tips for Types of Interviews

Phone or Skype Interviews

Phone or Skype Interviews are often used for screening purposes or long-distance interviews. These pose their own challenges because you may not be able to see or interpret non-verbal cues as easily. So here are some tips to ensure your success.

Find a quiet space where you can focus and be sure to have a copy of your resume, company research, a notebook, and questions for the company
If there are multiple interviewers, do your best to jot down their names and titles at the beginning of the interview so you can refer to them by name throughout the interview
Before the interview, find a picture of someone who makes you happy and tack that up on a wall or next to the camera on your laptop. Then during the interview, answer the questions directly to that picture. This technique will help you focus, keep your voice energetic, and even encourage you to speak with facial expressions which will help to showcase your passion and excitement for the position and fight off monotone and rambling answers.
Be sure to ask about the next stage of the interview process and what is the expected timeline to hear back from them. Without these answers, you won't know when and how to properly follow up after the interview.

Behavior Based Interviews

This is a very common style of interviewing in which the interviewer uses the opportunity to find out about your skills through descriptions of your past experiences. This is a great opportunity for you to showcase your skills, characteristics, decision making ability, and utilize those experiences you "pre-packaged" prior to the interview.

Some examples of Behavior Based Questions
Sometimes it's easy to get in "over your head". Describe a situation where you had to request help or assistance on a project or assignment.
Describe a situation where others you were working with on a project disagreed with your ideas. What did you do?
Tell me about the most difficult customer service experience that you have ever had to handle-perhaps an angry or irate customer. Be specific and tell what you did and what the outcome was.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which your results were not up to your professor/supervisor's expectations. What happened? What action did you take?
Share with me an example of a time when you had to be quick in coming to a decision, and how did you arrive at that decision?

Panel Interview

A panel interview is when you will meet with many representatives of the organization to go over your skills and abilities. The questions will likely be behavior based in nature but will be coming from many different people and you will be tasked with reading everyone's body language throughout the interview.

Some important tips:

Rotate your eye contact around the room to meet each panelists view during your answers. It doesn't have to be in a straight swivel, feel free to move fluidly from one face to another skipping over those who may be writing or reading and come back when they raise their eyes.
Be aware of the panelists' body language but don't stress too much if one or two seem disconnected. Take body language as a ratio; are most of your panelists engaged? If not, make some changes to your energy level or examples.
Send a thank you note to all of the panelists to remind them of your interest in the position and stand out from other candidates

Sample Interview Questions

Interview questions can range from general to behavior based to hypothetical so it's important to have an understanding of some sample questions. Now remember, you'll get more use out of your time preparing for an interview by going over your experiences but since we've talked with so many employers regarding their favorite interview questions, we wanted to share them with you.

Business, Communication, Safety, Hospitality, and Sport Management

What happened on the markets in the last three months?
Where is the market going? What do you think interest rates will be in the next 12 months?
Walk me through the major line items of a Cash Flow Statement.
Say you knew a company's net income. How would you figure out its cash flows?
What is the difference between a balance sheet and an income statement?
Describe your communication style.
What knowledge and/or experience do you have in working with the media, including monitoring media coverage and preparing press kits and media pitches?
Give an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person, even when that individual may not have personally liked you.
In what instances is written communication better than verbal communication?

Humanities, Liberal, Fine, & Performing Arts

Why do you want to go into this field? How is art a passion for you?
How much experience have you had in organizing a show and setting up your performance/work?
Whose work do you relate to most? Who inspires you?
If you were awarded a grant of $2000 for a major project, how would you use the money?
What are some quality advertisements, commercials, or publications you feel are successful in communicating an idea or concept?
What type of experience do you have with arts administration in the areas of exhibition preparation and standards, gallery design, and art history?
In some positions it is necessary to be a thorough meticulous reader, and in others it is important to be able to scan through large documents quickly. Describe to me how you would handle each.

Education, Health, & Human Services

If you were hired in this school (district), what would you bring to your position?
What do you see as the greatest challenge facing teachers today?
Why are you interested in working in this school (district)?
If you had not chosen teaching as a career, what career would you have chosen?
Describe a challenge you encountered during student teaching. What did you learn from it?
What do you hope to accomplish as a social worker?
Do you feel you can be objective in counseling a teen about abortion?
What do you think of the welfare system?
What techniques do you use in crisis intervention work?
What kinds of things go into a psychological assessment?

Science & Technology

What do you think is the most pressing environmental issue we are facing today, and why?
Tell me about your experience using technology (GIS, ARC GIS, etc.) in order to complete a task or project?
What are the top three goals of your health education program?
How would you describe developmentally appropriate curriculum?
Do you have any ideas about how we might promote our health education program to the community?
How do you plan to assess the progress of your clients in health education?
Suppose you are working at a help desk, or are in a situation where someone is seeking your assistance with a computer problem. What items of information would you request from a user to effectively address a technical problem?
Have you had experience in maintaining a web site? If so, please elaborate.
Tell me about your experience with network administration.
What experience do you have in implementing and supporting e-mail applications?
What has been your experience in developing applications?

During the Interview

You have done your research, prepared your experiences, and researched the company so now is the time to be yourself. Yes, interviews are nerve-wracking but don't let that take away from what makes you unique and genuine. Be aware of your body posture during the interview by sitting forward, leaning into the conversation, and avoid nervous mannerisms or weak postures. Keep your language appropriate and thoughtful, avoid verbal ticks such as "uh", "um", "like", or "you know", be careful of disqualifiers such as "just" or "only", and keep any negative descriptions of past employment out of the conversation.

Throughout the interview, you are allowed to ask clarifying questions if you don't understand a point or question and use active listening skills such as paraphrasing, head nods, and facial expressions to show you are listening as well. At all points of the interview from initial handshake to final goodbyes be sure to maintain strong eye contact and avoid darting your eyes up and down or left and right while answering. A planned look just over a person's left or right shoulder or at their forehead or chin while thinking can help to ease the pressure of direct eye contact while thinking.

Closing the Interview

Always ask the Interviewer questions at the end of the interview. Prior to the interview be sure to write down 8-10 questions (and bring them with you to the interview) that you want to ask before the end of the interview. Some questions may have been addressed already so you can skip over those, but use the list to help you remember what you want to know about the company. If you don't, you risk appearing uninterested. Questions should be lively rather than formulaic and should go beyond information that could be found on the job description or the company's home page.

Some quick examples of stronger interview questions are:
What do you see as the key issues/problems facing the person in this job?
Who would be my supervisor and what is that person's supervisory style?
How would you describe the organizational culture?
What improvements would you like to see in these areas?
What is the timeline for hiring and when should I expect to hear from you regarding the next steps in the interview process?

Also keep in mind the way in which you ask a question is important as well. For example, if you want to find out how much vacation is offered you could ask:

How much vacation would I get in this position?

This isn't necessarily a wrong question but it could be taken negatively by the interviewer who may perceive you are more interested in days off rather than working hard to get the job done. A better phrasing would be:

Since I am very interested in starting my career with your organization, if you find that I'm the best fit for the this position, would I be able to see a copy of the benefits package associated with the position?

Thank the Interviewer

Be sure to let the interviewer know if you are interested in the position. Ask what the follow-up procedure will be, tell them that you look forward to hearing from them, and thank the interviewer for his or her time. Again, a firm handshake and a confident smile can go a long way.
Send a thank you note via email or mail. This is not a very common practice and it extremely important to showcase your interest, professionalism, and cover any blips during the interview or great experiences you forgot to share. Before you leave the interview, be sure to ask for an address or email where you can send the note.

Students and Alumni

Interviews

Students and Alumni

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