Thank you for introducing yourselves. I am confident with the group that we have that our interaction will be beneficial. Please remember if you haven’t posted an introduction to copy the welcome post and change the answers to reflect yourself; then post an intro. Also, any concerns or suggestions you may have are welcome. Please remember you can email me (feedback is always desirable)!
For our first discussion topic, I decided to focus on interviews. I was informed that the majority of you had concerns about presenting your degree in an interview. I will admit that I have been on quite a few interviews before (I believe practice makes perfect)! In each of these I found out that there are two deciding factors that will land you a second interview or the position applied for. **Disclaimer: when I’m talking about two deciding factors, I mean outside of the requirements like education or experience qualifications, besides mannerisms, etc.**
The first factor is confidence. Confidence, not arrogance! You have to be confident in your presentation and your answers. Confidence in your presentation comes through in how you dress for the interview and your body language. Confidence in your answers comes from being truthful, knowing your resume, and knowing the company & position applied for. The University of Buffalo Interview Guide (http://mgt.buffalo.edu/files/career/InterviewGuide.pdf) provides plenty of information regarding interview skills. Pages three to four discuss researching the company and position; also, on page 15 begins a discussion about your educational experience.
The second factor is playing on the strengths of the question asked. What I mean by this is if you come across a question that may actually point out a weakness, turn the question around to portray a strength. The University of North Carolina provides an Interview Guide (http://www.unca.edu/career/interviewingskills.pdf) that suggests using their STAR formula for answering questions. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result (page two). In other words, select a prior experience and draw attention to the positive actions and results. The guide also provides good sample interview questions on page four.
- Consider this example: Grace has other responsibilities besides work (i.e.: family, school, weekly book group, etc.) that doesn’t permit her a lot of time for working extra or on weekends. In a recent interview, Grace was asked if she would be available for team projects that may require extra hours. Instead of giving the many reasons why she may not be able to fit in more time at work, she could highlight the points of the question: is this person reliable and are they a team player? So a possible answer Grace could provide would highlight that she is consistent in her deadlines, in her last position she was only late twice in three years, she initiated a team project that decreased accounts payable by ten percent, that she is glad to help others meet their deadlines, and that she assisted in the creation of a company softball team. See, Grace isn’t saying that she’s too busy. Instead, she is actually providing points that showcase how responsible and dependable she is, how she takes the initiative, works well with others, and even interacts outside of the workplace.
When it comes to a degree such as ours that isn’t well known outside of the academic world, depicting its strengths and how it can benefit the company is how you market yourself. Although I have not had many interviewers ask about my degree, there is a direct question that pertains to it. Interviewers may ask about your general education experience or your GPA; but I’ve found one question in my interviews thus far that has forced me to actually market my degree to the employer (which was completely unrelated to my concentrations). The interviewer asked, “How will your educational career benefit our company?” Granted this is an open-ended question and there are many ways you can answer this. I would like to hear how you all would respond to this.
Now employers can phrase it any which way they want, “tell me about your degree,” or they can be really blunt and say something like, “what exactly is interdisciplinary studies?” The point is to relate the degree to the company. Perhaps you can tie in the company mission to your response, or if the qualifications of the position require you to work with many departments in the company you can talk about how flexible and versatile your degree has made you. Face the fact: our degree program is new to the career world and they don’t know a lot about it. Yes, you may have to explain it a bit during an interview. Do not become discouraged!!! There are many aspects about the degree you can emphasize. Such as: yes it’s new, but it is adapting with the changing times; studying several disciplines provides you will skills that are transferable to another department, etc. If the employer doesn’t ask about your educational background (perhaps because you have enough work experience – which is generally my situation) there is always a time at the end of the interview where you can ask questions. A good tip is to develop these questions prior to the interview. In your research of the company you may discover two to three questions about the company or the position or the future thereof. You also have the opportunity here to tell your future employer about the strengths of your degree. Our degree is certainly viable in today’s economy and can prove to be advantageous to securing your future career!
I mentioned earlier that I believe practice makes perfect. I also believe that having others critique your responses to questions is effective. Certainly you should utilize friends, spouses, professors and coworkers to help you practice for an interview. Remember, knowing your resume and the company is essential for answering these questions. I don’t know if your class has done this yet, but my Cornerstone class participated in practice interviews through a service called Perfect Interview. If you have reached this part of class yet, feel free to share your interviews with me. If you haven’t I look forward to hearing your experience with it in the future. Either way, I am available if you would like to practice.
I’m going to share with you all my interviews from my Cornerstone class. I hope they help!
http://www.perfectinterview.com/online/review_gateway.asp?id=3017853&type=standard
http://www.perfectinterview.com/online/review_gateway.asp?id=3017852&type=standard
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