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Students get job tips

Demonstrations teach career seekers job interview savvy

By Angie Ping
News Reporter

Employers from ExxonMobil and Foleyis conducted two mock interviews on campus Tuesday, providing valuable interview tips through critiques of the interviewees and questions from the audience. The event, called "Interview IQ," was sponsored by University Career Services.

Interviewers said the "behavioral event"-style interviews were an attempt to learn as much about the interviewees as possible through their responses to questions about how they had performed on past jobs or projects.

"The primary focus is to get to know you better," Natara Holloway, a senior auditor for ExxonMobil, told Doug Browning, her interviewee, a business administration junior.

In this type of interview, the interviewers are looking to see how well an applicant can tell the story of a situation in a concise manner.

An example of a behavioral event-type question is "Tell me about something stressful that happened at your job and how you dealt with it."

When the interviewers listened to the answers, they were listening for "STAR," a process used in answering behavioral questions. The interviewee describes the Situation in which he or she was involved, says what his or her specific Task was, tells what Action he or she took and relates the Results.

Both of the interviewers asked most of their questions about the studentsi resumes. During Browningis interview, Holloway asked about his grade point average and the gap he had between jobs.

Both interviewers agreed that the gap between jobs was acceptable, but said it is always important to include a cumulative and major GPA. Ethan Gieb, Foleyis manager of executive recruiting and support placement, said that a resume would not make it past the screening process without a GPA.

Gieb also stressed the need to show a desire for the job. He said that if the interviewee says, "I really want this job," it is a good selling point -- it makes the interviewer think that the person is really interested in the job, not just interviewing for experience.

Writing information down also shows interest in the company. When given the chance to ask questions at the end of an interview, if an interviewee writes down the intervieweris response, it shows genuine interest in the position, Gieb said.

The interviewers both noticed the amount of confidence Browning showed in his answers and praised him for it. Holloway said that confidence helps to put the interviewer at ease.

"If you are nervous, be more energetic than usual," Browning said, adding he had learned in the army that "they will respond to you being confident."

One audience member asked how to address the question, "What is your biggest weakness?" Holloway said to take something that is normally a strength and make it something that needs to be worked on. If the interviewee is organized but is frequently rushed and doesnit have time to keep everything neat, he or she should use that as the weakness.

Gieb said, "Be sincere." He said to try to turn the question around by describing oneis biggest weakness and the specific steps being taken to improve.

Crystal Greenwood, an economics junior, was also interviewed at the event. The interviewers said they liked her preciseness and eye contact.
 

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