How to Ace an Interview

0:00 [Music] 0:08 welcome and thank you everyone for joining us today for today's webinar how to ace and interview 0:15 part of michigan online's learn for your future campaign my name is eric joyce and i'm the lead 0:20 marketing specialist at the university of michigan's center for academic innovation i'm excited to be your mc for 0:26 the day our learn for your future campaign encourage you to explore our portfolio 0:31 of free resources and open online courses on michigan online designed to help you to start or advance your career 0:38 you'll learn how to craft a resume interview tips the steps to a successful negotiation 0:44 how to improve your communication skills and emotional intelligence or even how you can introspectively find purpose and 0:51 meaning in your life you do not need to be a university of michigan student to engage in these short online learning experiences so 0:58 after today's event please visit online.umich.edu learn for your future to start exploring 1:05 so before we get started i'd like to share just a few housekeeping items today we invite you to submit your 1:10 questions to our panelists in the q and a section and they'll do the their best to answer 1:15 as many of your questions as they can given our limited time this afternoon we ask that you keep your questions on are 1:22 related to the topic and please do feel free to upvote any questions you'd also like to have answered 1:28 if you haven't already in the chat please share where you're from we always love to see kind of where everyone is joining us in our conversations 1:36 and as a final reminder today's event will be recorded so please uh and we will make sure it's available 1:43 on michigan online later today i'm joined by maurice washington 1:48 director of the university of michigan athletics career center as well as julie fielding assistant director at the 1:54 university of michigan athletics career center welcome maurice and julie take it away 2:01 well thank you so much for inviting us to be a part of this and very very important part of 2:07 landing the job that you want in your life right so if you think about all the elements of 2:13 an interview or elements of job search i i would argue that this is probably the most important because this is the first 2:20 step one of the first steps and so it's it's important to prepare for this it's important to have the 2:26 confidence um in doing well understanding your value that you bring to a company 2:33 we always tell our student athletes that when you're doing an interview um you already qualified for the job 2:40 the employer is trying to see if you are a good fit if you would be a good fit for the organization 2:47 yeah so if you got to this point you know you crafted you spent time crafting your cover letter you've spent time 2:53 editing and tailoring your resume to those jobs that you're applying to but now they want to hear you talk about 2:59 it right the interview like maurice just said you know if you get the interview they know you can do the job but now 3:05 it's your turn and your chance to really articulate um what they've seen in your 3:11 resume and your cover letter in your application and it's your chance to tell your story so 3:16 maurice and i are just going to walk through different steps of of the interview 3:22 interviewing talking about questions that you should be maybe thinking about or preparing to answer and then like 3:29 eric said then we'll open it up and open the floor to questions that you have 3:34 when you think about interviewing you gotta think about the different components of the interview you got the opening uh portion of the interview you 3:41 have a report within to ask questions um there's some agenda setting um there's definitely some research in 3:48 the interview again it's all about preparation um and and it's all about the interpersonal 3:53 as i mentioned before that interpersonal that fit into the organization so how you are projecting and how you are 4:00 representing yourself you want to make sure it's aligned to the organization that you're applying for right 4:06 um and so julie you know when we're talking to our student athletes about interviewing 4:11 what do you think will be the first step right so you got my i have my cover 4:18 letter right um i submitted my resume i get that call and that email saying 4:23 that hey uh you have an interview schedule what would you think is the first step 4:29 yeah let's use the chat function and put in the guesses for the first step in 4:34 enacing that interview what would you do first 4:48 mary had a great response researched the organization absolutely researching the 4:54 organization along with that research and organization is really really paying attention to the job description right 4:59 the job announcement um understanding again aligning your skills and your 5:05 experiences to what the company is asking for and really thinking about 5:11 how they align yeah i'm a big visual person and so you know what i suggest to do is print you 5:17 know print out that job description um and highlight it read through it and 5:22 highlight everything okay i'm going to highlight everything i've done or highlight the skills i know i have or 5:28 the you know the qualifications or job responsibilities highlight that and then when you see that paper highlighted that 5:34 just boosts like oh wow i do have what they're looking for i have done this before and so you can visually 5:41 see that right and it's helping you to start preparing to develop answers that 5:47 are going to be tailored and specialized to the position that they're looking to fill um and what else that helps you do 5:54 is to identify you know those questions maybe oh i don't have the skill that they're looking for yet i haven't 6:00 learned this technical software and so you're able to put yourself in the mindset to say okay if i don't know how 6:06 to do something what do i do or how do i answer that and so you're able to put into play you know 6:13 your ability to think on your feet and learn quickly and before i get this job maurice i'm going to spend time into you 6:20 know looking at youtube or coursera or linkedin learning to get up to stuff the 6:25 best of my ability before i start onboarding right so it really identifies not only the what you're highlighting 6:30 and what you do have but you're able to be prepared um for the maybe what you're not 6:36 um maybe what you haven't prepared or haven't had yet and so you're able to answer that question 6:43 another important thing is to identify the type of interview that you're going to participate in right we are a 6:49 majority of interviews are behavioral so they're going to ask you questions about tell me a time when so you're going to 6:55 be telling a story depending on the industry if you're in engineering maybe there's a practical interview right 7:00 they're going to have you do some type of tasks um some interviews uh definitely in higher education they'll want you to do 7:06 a presentation so asking all of those questions of the type of you know what are the expectations of the interviews 7:12 that you can properly prepare because again it depends on where you're going to work they may ask something of you 7:17 and you don't want to walk into or prepare for an interview and you're just ready for some questions then they give you a task and you're not prepared 7:24 to classify that task yeah and the interview starts at that point right maurice like even before 7:29 those questions start getting fired off at you they're they're looking at and kind of picking apart your 7:34 correspondence to them wow maurice asked me five questions his attention to detail is high right or he's he's 7:41 thorough in in making sure that he understands what's asked of him um or he's been very friendly during this 7:46 whole process and really maybe i'm an assistant and he's made me feel really part of this process and not somebody 7:53 who i'd want to add to the team so making sure you understand that the interview doesn't just necessarily start 7:58 when the questions start getting fired off at you it starts with that initial piece of correspondence whether that's a 8:04 recruiter admin assistant hiring manager so everybody is really interviewing you 8:09 in that all process and then just adding a little bit more on the research piece um you know 8:15 leveraging online resources and making sure you're not only are prepared to talk about the position that you're that 8:22 you're applying for but also the company um and so let's use the chat when you're 8:27 when you're preparing for an interview how long do you tend to pour into the interview process 8:33 how long do you research or prepare for an interview that's um coming up 8:38 maurice what would you say how long how long do you prep i go through the whole interview 8:43 probably four five six times right in front of the mirror right because those non-verbal cues mean so much right 8:50 so if you think it's weird speaking or talking to yourself in the mirror i think we all do it in the mornings 8:55 anyway right when we're doing our hair or shaving practice your interview you'll notice if you're if you turn your hair or if you 9:03 have those non-verbals um and that's even to date with virtual now we're in a virtual space right so the first 9:09 interview is either going to be a phone interview or a virtual interview right dress the part right go through the 9:16 process look at you see what we have behind us you probably don't want that in the interview right so you don't want 9:22 you know you got to think about those different the setting of the interview but definitely definitely practice 9:28 yeah we always say uh fail to plan plan to fail and so you always want to come 9:33 up with a strategy when you're interviewing the competition just keeps getting more intense right 9:39 and so you want to do your best part to put the energy and effort you put into applying and in the written 9:45 marketing materials to do the same when you're when you're interviewing and when you're you're talking about yourself right and so 9:52 why it's a lot of preparation is not just on the company or just the research of the position but 9:59 a lot of the time you know we're not used to talking about ourselves in the way that they're asking 10:04 us to right we we're the experts on ourselves but that's because we know us like the back 10:10 of our hands but when someone's asking us you know maurice what's your tell me about yourself you know 10:17 you have to think about that for a second because it's not something we get asked every day and so that's when the 10:22 preparation comes in and that's really important because you're able to organize your thoughts right you know 10:28 like you know who you are right and what you want else you wouldn't have probably put your name in the hat for that role um whether 10:35 that's on the department level the position level or the organizational level but you have to kind of brush up 10:41 on the oh wow what's my best example or experience in 10:47 oh i haven't talked about myself in a really long time or we get a lot of i'm humble i don't want 10:53 to come off as bragging or sounding pompous or conceited and how do i mirror 10:58 the two of putting my best foot forward but not you know the perception of 11:03 she's a know-it-all he is a know-it-all you know and so making sure that you're setting up that plan so you're able to 11:10 perfectly articulate the message and the story that you want to tell so now you've prepared you've practiced 11:17 in the mirror right you're looking good you have your your best outfit or whether again that's phone because you 11:23 look good you feel good right and it carries on through your voice um you're understanding your nonverbals 11:30 now you're at the interview and the first question that they're always going to ask is tell me a little 11:36 bit about yourself boy i tell you now the thing what you think of an interview is this an interview is really a 11:43 conversation those individuals that are interviewing you i promise they probably have other 11:49 jobs right and so they're they're probably as stressed as you are so it's a conversation so the first question 11:57 you know i i tell i tell individuals that you take over the interview two times at the beginning and at the 12:03 end we'll get to the end here in a moment but at the beginning is tell me a little bit about yourself julie how long do you 12:11 think that conversation that response should be yeah i mean i always say like a minute 12:16 and a half or two minutes which can seem like a really long time but it's allowing you to pace yourself 12:23 especially if you have 20 30 years in a of a career right you want to be 12:28 able to tell your story and you want to set the tone and the pace for the interview that's the first question so 12:35 typically it's the one that you're most nervous about because it's now it's my you know it's my goal to 12:41 start talking about myself but it's allowing you to connect with the interviewer to really lay that 12:47 foundation of hey here's who i am here's what i'm interested in here's what i can do for you and this is me just 12:53 scratching the surface um i always say it's like the equivalent if i you know had a book or you know a 13:00 biography on myself this would be the back page tell me about yourself would be that little paragraph or two of the back of 13:06 what's coming in the next hundred pages of this book um and so it's just an intro it's high level 13:13 here's who i am here's you know why i'm here and i always think it's fun 13:19 to add um like a little fun fact or something that you know i love animals 13:24 and so when i'm not um at work or with my family you can find me at the local animal shelter on 13:31 saturdays volunteering like or something and and that allows like uh that's uh oh she's 13:38 done we're moving on to the next but it also opens the door for you know the conversation to instead of 13:44 moving vertically it goes horizontally because maybe maurice loves dogs and he has a 13:49 photo of his seven dogs on his desk for something and we're talking about that and it's what that does too is it's 13:56 helping me calm down because we found something that we already have in common and i already see maurice as the 14:01 interviewer as like he was just saying it's more of a conversation not an interrogation and so you want to try to 14:07 level the playing field and feel a little bit more comfortable when you're talking and to tell me about 14:13 yourself and ending it with you know where you spend your time or what you you know like to do outside of work or 14:18 hobby is allowing them to look at you now more as a human and not just applicants and i think that's really 14:24 important and um it reminds you too that this is a job 14:30 seekers market right now so you have a lot of stake in and there's equity in this process it's not oh wow 14:37 well the decision is theirs what if i don't get it the decision is also yours you know if that's if the conversation 14:43 doesn't go well or you're not feeling a good you know the vibe or a fit you can also turn that down or say no and i 14:49 think that tell me about yourself really like i said starts the process of evaluating the 14:55 company um as well as well as i'm evaluating you yeah we said in doing research on a 15:01 company but i think it's also important to do the research of those who may be asking you questions right and so 15:07 understanding and knowing and looking at linkedin or looking at the the company structure and finding uh those the names 15:13 of the individuals that's going to be interviewing you and then when you get to that portion of trying to live by yourself maybe there's some commonality 15:20 you never know you went to baby undergrad together or grad school together you're from the same town um so that that brings that synergy 15:27 together yeah yeah i love that it's like wow maurice did the research he knows who 15:33 he's talking to and that just again it shows that he put the time and effort into that 15:38 research now did that have to take too long no linkedin does a great job of giving us a brief snapshot you know in 15:45 two to five minutes which is great but it shows that he thought that was important in this process 15:51 and that people are important to you to him maybe he's you know a people-oriented person at work and so 15:57 maybe that's important to you in the hiring process as well and it'll give you those things outside of what the 16:03 response is to those questions now we got past the first question and we calmed down boy now we're on to the 16:10 dreadful questions and that's what we we dread and we worry and we lose sleep we have no idea what 16:17 they may ask us right so there are thousands and thousands of questions out there but i'll tell you one thing 16:23 they're going to ask you a question you may know it and you may not know it right but again remember it's a 16:28 conversation right and if you don't know an answer right so i'd say this 16:34 someone asked you a question tell me a time when or didn't matter what the question is 16:40 do two things repeat the question right repeat the question and think 16:46 about it you do not have to fire off a response right and i would say repeat the question for two reasons one to let 16:52 them know that you understand what understood what you what they asked you two it gives you time to think about it 16:58 right again if they ask you a question you don't know and if you don't have an answer um believe me when we put 17:03 questions together people take pride in putting those tough questions together right on credit that was a great 17:09 response you know what julie that's a great question i don't have an answer for that right now but can we come back 17:14 to it but you better believe you better shorthand that question right you better write that uh eclipse of that question 17:20 down and come back to it right but you're not going to be marked off or it's not going to be a a mark on your 17:26 record that you didn't ask right away and you come back to that question right uh but if you know it take your time and 17:33 think about it right think about the entire process so how are you answering the questions there's an acronym there 17:39 too sore and star i'm sure many of you have heard of sar um situation task action result 17:46 i like soar situation obstacle because it's definitely an obstacle action a result 17:51 and and i want you to practice that when you're preparing for an interview think about something you're proud of think 17:57 about something you're not proud of think about a decision a difficult decision you made think about a project 18:03 that you had right that did not go well julie think about things that don't go well they all we all often hear 18:10 questions about what is something you know how we turn something good into something bad 18:16 right what is a weakness oh boy that's the question we all get what is a weakness what's your response to that 18:21 what do you think yeah the weakness is always um one that hangs people up and i always 18:28 say don't think of it as a weakness think about it as an area that you're working on improving um and so a lot of 18:33 the parts of interviews are psychological right and so um 18:39 talk about that something that is an area for improvement or that you're working on and put that in the beginning 18:46 and then talk about how you're improving it and how you're working on it so as the interviewer there they've already 18:52 forgotten about oh wait what did maurice even say is his weakness now i know how he 18:58 you know from like a project management standpoint how he works through something and how hey if there's a 19:03 problem here's how it's going to be solved or hey if there's an inefficiency here's how i'm going to you know invest 19:09 in it and work on it um but i always say don't talk about it or call it a weakness it's always you know 19:15 an area for improvement and you know people always tend to run to like oh 19:21 like to google and say you know what's a good answer for the and the weakness question and you'll see like 19:28 i'm a perfectionist or i'm you know i take too much on or you know i'm too 19:33 nice at work or all these things that come up on google as the interviewer 19:39 we can read right through what's authentic and genuine and what's not so don't be afraid to be your authentic 19:45 self in answering what that actually is um i humbly say that i'm not perfect and 19:53 and it's important to recognize that you know there's all things that all of us are working on but but be authentic with 20:00 the interviewer and and say that it's okay to be vulnerable but it's also shows that you're confident in saying 20:05 hey maurice i'm not great at this but i'll tell you what this is something that i'm dedicated and determined to keep 20:12 improving and working on um and i promise you that because i'm a 20:17 hard worker or you know commit my commitment to my job in the organization 20:22 is really important to me um and so again making sure that it's an authentic 20:27 response and not just a canned answer you can tell typically the difference 20:33 and then the interviewer thinks about well if she just kind of googled something or gave me this answer what 20:39 else is he or she doing that for and the other responses so don't be afraid to be a little 20:45 vulnerable and uncover something but make sure you're talking about it in a way that 20:50 obviously isn't detrimental to the position um i that's really important as well 20:58 you are posed with a question and you responded right you're a little nervous you responded and then your you know the 21:04 interview process is starting to you know progress and you you start thinking man i should have i could have answered 21:10 the last question better right before you answer the new question right go back 21:16 you know and just say you know i like to rephrase that or you know i i misquote or you know i gave i gave a different 21:23 stat or i you know as i thought about your your question right there's more i want to add to it again these are things 21:30 that an interviewer is marking down oh he went back or he or she went back to that right you want to again 21:37 when you leave the interview you know how we always say man i wish i would have said that 21:43 i wish i'd have done that you know what leave it on the table put it all out there right this is your time to shine 21:48 and it's not you against anyone but yourself because you only have those experiences 21:53 those are only your experiences that you get to share you're telling again storytelling you're telling the story so don't be afraid of going back right 22:00 you're taking notes um in a lot of the time too we don't really remember everything that 22:08 the person says but we definitely know how they made us feel during that right and so 22:14 maybe i didn't answer the questions 100 but i really connected to the people 22:20 they felt my enthusiasm and excitement for the opportunity and they were like you know what 22:25 she'd be a great fit here because she's willing to ask she's not afraid to ask questions she's not afraid to admit when 22:32 she maybe messes up and that's a person we want to add to our team and so like 22:37 maurice was saying the points off for not answering the question right or 22:42 whatever that's like the old school mentality of interviewing right it really should feel more 22:48 conversational and when you're interviewing fit is really important right we talked 22:53 about at the beginning you get the interview they know you can do the job but are you that person who's going to 22:58 fit into the organization and really contribute the skills the transferable skills that they need to to 23:05 take the company or the department forward in your experience what is like the 23:10 question that really stumped you right that you said oh my god i can leave and ask you that question i'll tell you i'll 23:16 let you think about it and i'll tell you i was asked if i could be an animal 23:23 or an insect or whatever what would i be now most people go say lions tigers and 23:28 bears oh my right you want to be that big thing you know i said i said i won't be an aunt 23:34 and the interviewers were like an aunt yes because they carry four times their 23:39 size and they work as a team again so my point is you have to just 23:44 think off the cuff you just gotta go go with the flow of it right now they they it was humor for them and i'm like yeah 23:50 a little ant right because ants they serve to con they understand their values right they understand their roles 23:56 within the colony and i end up getting the job but i was just thinking on my feet what about you 24:01 julie i hate questions like that because i over analyze everything and i'm like 24:09 well why are they asking me what are they trying to uncover what do they want to know that's absolutely what you just said marie they want to see if you can 24:15 think on your feet and how are you working through something or how are you thinking through something so those 24:21 you know like almost case study type questions like how many m ms would fill this room you know things like that 24:28 who knows but how do you think through that and did i panic that i remain poised um and so those are all things 24:35 that they're looking for and those are all things you have control of they're not they probably don't know the answer to some of those questions and they 24:41 absolutely don't expect you to but they want to see okay how's is going to walk through this problem and how is he going 24:48 to think through it and then that's uh on you to walk them through that okay so 24:53 i'm thinking about okay what are the dimensions of this room how big are an eminent you know how big is an m m and 24:59 then working and talking through their my logic to them is showing them kind of 25:04 how i would work through a problem or a situation at work so those are ones that 25:09 i always i'm like i get annoyed by but that's just because i'm an over analyzer but i also like to 25:15 work through like from a project management standpoint from inception to execution 25:20 so i like to think through my answers so now we're at the end we're near the end 25:27 of the you you have run through the gauntlet of all those great questions you've taken your notes 25:32 along the way and you're thinking wow now this is the second time you get to take control of the interview the 25:38 question right before i would ask any questions i would think back to any of the prior questions 25:45 that were asking me if i wanted to revisit those questions or um i would just close that portion out 25:52 of the interview right i mean and i would ask them that i did i answer any of your questions all of your questions 25:57 successfully or were was i clear on my responses 26:03 now they're going to say thank you for taking the time to be with us what questions would you have for us 26:09 how many questions do you think julie some you should have prepared i think you're kind of ranked i would say three to five three to five 26:16 questions yeah absolutely absolutely you don't know if they're gonna answer a few 26:22 during the process or when you get there and so you always you know and have those written down if it's in person or 26:27 virtual like on your padfolio so when you're going to the interview you have that portfolio extra copies of your 26:33 resume some names of people you'll be meeting along the way um email addresses for 26:39 those people too for the follow-up after the interview but also where your where your your questions are written down so 26:45 you can review and refer to those which is totally fine at the end again just 26:50 shows that preparation piece and you're able to um ask those yeah 26:56 if i had a chance you made it through the phone interview the virtual interview and now it's an in-person 27:01 interview during the question phase i would i would ask that if there's a panel let's 27:07 say there are three people on the panel that's asking questions whoever asks the question you start and you finish your 27:14 response with them but you want to talk to the entire panel meaning so if again three people or more 27:21 or two people you you always want to talk to the entire panel right but i would definitely start my response 27:29 again repeat the question start my response with you julie right and i'm going to speak to everyone else 27:34 and then and when i come to a close i'm going to finish with you that lets everyone know that you're speaking to them right 27:41 and you don't want to ask questions uh based on something in the job description because you didn't do the 27:46 research or didn't review the job description now you can you can gain some clarification you know for example 27:52 a good question is training most job descriptions don't talk about the training that's involved right or how 27:58 the environment is now i'm seeing more and more as we're we're looking at different industries and 28:03 occupations they're listening jobs they're talking about the the environment because that's so important today right you may come across a 28:11 description that doesn't talk about so that's a great question what type of environment you know are you going to be working in right is it a team 28:18 environment are you going to be required to do things as an individual um what does the training structure look like 28:24 right i always ask the question also um they end up the person that's speaking 28:29 to me how do they get to where they are i mean i kind of know the response you know looking at linkedin or doing some research but what were the steps and 28:36 what were the experiences that they had in order to get to where they are today right and that way you'll see if you can 28:43 if you mess with the company yeah i always ask or like to ask about like 28:49 how that person um the mission of the company or the core values of the company how that 28:54 person is carrying those out every day or you know can they recite those or they know those and so that'll tell you a little bit too 29:00 um i did the research but also the culture of the company and if that's something um you know when i work someplace the 29:07 culture is really important to me and so i want a place that really is like living by the values that the ceo or the 29:14 president puts out there and so if the interviewer can speak to those you 29:19 you can see that if the interviewer can speak to those also see see you know so those are 29:25 things that are important um definitely don't want to ask anything that you can just google right because 29:30 that just shows you're disinterested more of like an assertive one especially if there's a few rounds is 29:37 you know maurice do you have any hesitations about hiring me today it's kind of like a oof did you go there 29:42 you know but it's like is there something i didn't say or something i didn't do that gave you a reservation tell me now 29:49 um but like i said it you take it's a little bit more of an assertive question or approach but especially if you're going 29:56 through rounds and rounds like let me know if there's something or let's let's let's see what's going on 30:02 with um how i'm being perceived by the interviewer as well so that's always 30:08 good those are great great questions again your questions is 30:13 you think that although you're the one being interviewed you're interviewing them as well 30:18 you want to put that into mindful i'm asking questions now so i'm shifting you know the power of this interview 30:24 session to ask them questions you really want to get a feel of the organization and and what those people think 30:30 another place julie that i have gone is the freak you know every company or every organization has a frequently 30:37 asked questions area i go there right and you will find some 30:42 great questions there like you know new programs and new uh departments that were added and why 30:48 those departments were added and another question is the mission and vision 30:54 you'll be amazed how many people don't know the company's mission and vision right and so a question is do you know i 31:00 know the company's mission or whatever it is hours of service before self excellence and everything we do so 31:05 everyone knows what the max mission statement is but how do we get to that point right and as 31:12 are do our processes align to what our mission vision is right so those are 31:18 those just some tidbits or some good questions and two um some you know now is a big time people 31:25 are pivoting in their careers right maybe they're leaving industry x to go to y and 31:30 there's that reservation or hesitation of oof like i don't have experience in this that's where your your research on 31:37 linkedin and the people you're talking to you might see oh maurice you know he pivoted his 31:43 career after 20 years from x to y as well that's a really good opportunity to talk about that and 31:49 address that because inevitably it's going to be something that's on in the back of your mind and bothering you or 31:55 worrying you about maybe i'm not going to get this interview because i don't have the direct experience but you can you're 32:01 seeing that they've hired people who were just like that before so getting um 32:07 you know their take in their experience and advice on that too i think would provide some comfort because that is 32:14 something that can be uneasy about well i'm not qualified i don't we always think like that well i'm not qualified i 32:20 don't have this and i always tell our student athletes i don't care what you don't have let's we can't change that but let's talk about 32:26 what you do have and that's market the hell out of it right and so that's something that's really important is when you're talking about yourself 32:33 especially for a job you're competing for something and so you're marketing yourself for that thing there's going to 32:39 be one winner or one person who gets that job and why should it be you do a good job of telling 32:45 your story and articulating that but also it's kind of goes back to that 32:51 you know that on not untalked about but maybe the thing that isn't really talked about and 32:56 what's important to maurice is is confidence you bring to an interview and the connection you have in your voice 33:03 and your belief in yourself that you can do it um whereas talk about that and in 33:10 candidates who've shown confidence in an interview and maybe some who haven't been as confident in an interview and 33:16 what that looks like and how has that affected the result confidence is is the number one key 33:22 right and i think that comes with some practice right again practicing practicing practice your practice makes 33:27 perfect right being able to tell your story if you are the type of person that 33:33 really don't do well speaking to people um 33:38 um that they have a challenger speaking to someone just think that put in a 33:44 frame of mind that you already work at the company and the individual that's asking you questions 33:49 they're new and they're just kind of going around the company asking people what it is they're doing so you're gonna put 33:55 yourself in a mindset that i already work here right you gotta see yourself as being a part of that conversation 34:01 right and and there's nothing wrong with saying at the beginning of the interview i'm a little nervous right it's okay 34:07 because the people asking questions they've been there too right i'm a little nervous but you know i'm here i'm ready i'm excited to be here right 34:15 um and then we also think about confidence you've done well in the interview we all just experienced march 34:21 madness right just because you think of the interview as rounds 34:27 right you have the great phone interview that doesn't mean you you won the job 34:33 every interview every round every every round of the interview doesn't mean that you won the job until you get to the end 34:38 right so you need to prepare and perform at doing each round of the interview 34:44 right now confidence also means that if you are overly confident 34:49 you don't want to be you know i think you don't want to be overly confident you just want to be able to tell your story you're going to be kind of cocky 34:54 with it right you want to go in there and just have the bravado that you know yeah i don't need to prepare for this 35:00 and i can just respond not at all i'll share a an example there was a young man 35:05 who uh a student who interviewed at this finance company and it was a in-person interview and it 35:13 was a sales a sales position and so the recruiter asked the young man to an interview 35:19 um here's my laptop i want you to sell me this laptop sell this laptop to me and the young man 35:26 said you want me to sell you the laptop he said i want to see if you can sell me this laptop so the young man takes the 35:32 laptop and leaves the interview he takes the laptop he leaves the interview and he goes home 35:38 so recruiters sitting there thinking where the heck did this young man where did he go 30 minutes go by right and and 35:44 now there's the recruiters like this guy just stole my laptop where'd he go you remember hey i have this guy's number 35:50 let me call him so he called the young man he said why where are you why did you leave with my laptop the young man 35:57 said how bad do you want it how bad do you what's the value of this laptop right he said sell it but you 36:04 didn't tell me how to do it i wouldn't i wouldn't encourage that but the young man was thinking on his feet and he had 36:09 the confidence that you know i'm going to do this you didn't get the job right you can't take the laptop but the whole 36:15 thing your whole point is really having the confidence in yourself right and if you like the conference just say you 36:21 know what i'm a little nervous but it's okay you know i'm here to have this conversation the other person on the 36:27 other side of the table other side of the video or the other side of the phone they're human right they're human 36:34 just slow down take your time yeah and confidence is one of those things that 36:41 you know it can take practice and it's important to you know if we're not prepared or we're not doing the research 36:47 we're going to be less confident in what we're saying but we're we're the subject matter expert on 36:53 ourselves right and so we need to work on the confidence we have when we're talking about ourselves and 36:59 you know i always tell our student athletes celebrate little wins oh you got an interview you got the interview you know 37:06 how many other people applied for that become like be proud and excited that you made it to that round right and so 37:14 you should have a level of confidence going into it just know you made it that far especially for 37:20 extremely competitive roles um in in leveraging that confidence um or that 37:26 little boost of confidence into the next part of the process so that's definitely something that's 37:32 really important is the competence you bring to the interview as well but like we said that comes comes from practice 37:40 there was a question uh submitted that asked how to interview for a job that you've 37:47 never done but you know that you have you can do the work and you have the transferable skills 37:54 that's the key talk about the transferable skills you know as julie said the whole industry has shifted since the pandemic 38:00 right we are in this great resignation people are leaving jobs because they realize those jobs that they were doing 38:06 um was not the things that they wanted to do with any find value in those things but if you are uh interviewing 38:12 for a job that that you have never done before well that should have been you should have thought about that when you applied 38:18 right why did you apply right why did you think that that job would be the best job for you those 38:25 transferable skills are so very very very important right and i'm sure that unless it's unless you are in healthcare 38:31 you're trying to be an engineer i mean there's totally different industries right but even then i would think about 38:37 something that i've done any experience that i have had in my life whether that's paid or unpaid or volunteer 38:44 experience how would that align to the job that i'm applying for and i 38:49 understand this the interview is not the purpose of interview is not to qualify for the job 38:56 you have an interview because you qualify right so they saw something recruiters saw something in your resume that said 39:03 this person could be a great fit for the organization so now is your time to talk about again what's not on that resume 39:10 right are those transferable skills that was a great question yeah a lot of the time the transferable skills are those unteachables right 39:16 either happen or you don't you're either a good problem solver or you're not you can teach me how to use sales for some 39:22 java or c plus plus i can learn that um the training and things like that but it's hard to 39:28 to really teach those unteachables and those are the transferable skills that you should be talking about and you know 39:35 they should be the pillar pillars of your responses in understanding how you know the parallels between job a and job 39:42 b so how do you see it in a way that makes sense for who you're talking to or the story you're 39:48 telling to to the interviewer yeah questions while we're on that maurice 39:55 how would you handle salary the salary question 40:00 what do you think about that yeah salary is a good one that's when we we get all the time obviously um i'm just big on 40:07 just generally like don't waste people's time anymore right it was before like 40:12 salary was this big secret and you don't talk about it because you 40:18 don't want um people to think oh maurice just applied to this job for the 40:23 money or that's all he's concerned about and now it's more so we're busy there's a lot of recruiters 40:30 are dealing with a lot of candidates candidates are feeling out what jobs they want like be transparent with the salary um so we know you know if i'm 40:37 looking for seventy thousand dollars a year and this job is offering only maxed out is 50 and 40:45 we're not going to meet and negotiate anywhere near what either of us want why waste each 40:50 other's time right find a more suitable candidate for that salary range um and 40:56 so but it's all about approach right it's not you know how much money am i going to make or how much are you going to pay me it's i'm really just curious 41:03 based on my experience level and my education level and what i can bring to this organization in this department 41:09 i'm curious about the salary range i want to make sure that that's an alignment for what i'm looking for 41:16 especially if you're going to pick up and move and cost of living differentials is something in play too 41:22 that's what you want to be especially with the housing market now and things like that inflation lots of things um 41:28 you want to be conscious of all of that stuff but that goes back to research you know what's 41:35 using the salary.com and pay scale and glassdoor what on average should this position be 41:42 be um making or how much should i be paid you want to have an idea too so you know 41:47 is that number coming in low is that number coming in high but i think anymore you shouldn't be afraid and 41:54 ashamed of asking about salary earlier on in the process than in the past um 42:00 just the respect of people's time right of this interviews are long maurice was just saying like you can have four or 42:05 five rounds of interviews and if you wait until round five to talk salary and 42:10 it's been five to seven hours of your time aside from prep on both ends and you're not 42:16 going to meet in the middle of first salary you've just wasted both of your time you 42:22 know the organization's time recruiters time and obviously your time as a candidate and it's disappointing too 42:28 um but but yeah i i think you know having that salary conversation and talking 42:34 about it it's really it's been taboo for a long time but that 42:39 the switch has flipped talk about it um because if there's not something 42:44 if there's not a match then wish you best of luck in your search moving forward i hope you find a 42:51 candidate that um you know aligns better with the salary requirements or salary band that that 42:58 you have set up for that you know and there's no ill will hope to work you know hope there's an opportunity to work with you in the future and think of me 43:04 um for any position that might align better with with laura i'm at so i think 43:10 that that's more than appropriate especially with how many you know how many processes and things are in 43:17 play we just have a few more minutes left 43:22 um i hope this session is going well for everyone we're answering some of the you know the broad questions that you may 43:28 have if anyone else has any other questions there's one in the the chat is it recommended to try to get in touch with 43:35 someone who works at the company to ask some question in advance absolutely i always say you think 43:42 outside of the box and use all of the resources which are people right we'll 43:48 tell you things you can't google they might give you some inside advice on how to best prepare they might know the 43:53 hiring manager and they might be able to say wow like maurice reached out to me before just to ask about my 43:59 experience at the company but i enjoy working there about working there etc 44:06 but also making sure you're not biting off more than you can chew in the preparation phase you don't want to feel overwhelmed with the the research or the 44:13 prep that you're doing so making sure that kind of strategy you're setting for yourself is manageable and you're able 44:20 to not just you know you don't want to just focus on all the oh my gosh i talked to 12 people at the company who said why 44:26 and you know you don't want to get any hang-ups there and take the um the time spent off of you in the prep 44:34 for how to answer questions and invest too much in the the previous but it doesn't hurt especially if you have like 44:40 a third degree connection that maybe works at the company and there's a little bit of not just like it's not a cold call or a 44:46 cold reach out to this person maybe there's some level of connection um that never hurts um it never hurts to send 44:52 the message i always say you don't ask the question the answer is always no so yeah why not it doesn't hurt for sure 45:01 this process if this process you that you're in and you have been in the industry or out of work for a number of 45:08 years um you can still do it again the industry the world has shifted to where 45:13 now people have been doing something for 20 30 years in one place and they're leaving and they want to do what they've 45:19 always wanted to do again what you bring there i think the age gap as is 45:24 shortened right um and from my perspective and again you have tons of tons of experience right and 45:30 transferable skills um and so you know let that be a mantra for let that be 45:36 something you can stand on and say this is what i bring um even when you're shifting jobs and 45:42 different different companies different industries and those type things so 45:47 that was a question yes just um pulling up some more questions we have during an interview 45:54 can you describe some things that really make a candidate stand out 46:02 i thought a little bit before it's how that person makes me feel that connectivity i'm not hanging on every 46:09 answer or word that that person is saying it's someone who you know is making me 46:15 feel excited about interviewing them or like excited about the possibility of them 46:20 um joining the company and thinking oh wow like if maurice accepts this job like i can only think about the projects 46:27 we'll tackle together and how we're get like that feeling of excitement but that comes from how that person makes me feel 46:33 through their enthusiasm um just i mean their personality them wanting to be there and you can tell 46:40 that they want it i think that that's always exciting um but somebody who is i said that earlier as well authentic 46:47 somebody who's not feeding me a line just because i have to get this job or i need to impress the interviewer someone who's 46:53 feeling comfortable in their shoes and that they're really comfortable being themselves and they're letting that show through um 47:01 we've both been doing this and interviewing for really interviewing people and talking about this for decades and so it's always really 47:08 refreshing when we're talking to somebody who is being their authentic self because that's who we're also going 47:14 to get at work you know you've heard it before oh we interviewed this person and we hired them and they're two different 47:20 people right we've all heard that a lot and so we don't want that when that doesn't 47:25 happen that's a good thing but that's because um that person was their authentic self but 47:31 a little attention to detail research somebody who you can just feel you're having a conversation with and not like 47:37 it's a an interrogation i think is really great um but you just get the feeling right 47:42 i'm gonna go with my gut type of girl and when i'm interviewing some somebody and i get that feeling of excitement 47:48 it's hard to explain but um yeah that's for me that's they're kind of intangibles but it's just a feeling what 47:56 about you mo um i would agree with the same thing you know it's it's i remember interviewing you right and i said you know what 48:04 that's the person i want to work with that's gonna be a great colleague because of the interest that you know that you just feel this thing um 48:11 for the person that you're interviewing and you know what and you may not always get it right right you may not always get it right but you 48:17 do the best you can that is the most probably it's costly to interview people the interview process is very expensive 48:24 right for a company and and you do the best you can do it can be stressful for the person interviewing and the people 48:29 being interviewed the last thing i want to share we got fire man's lamp is the all-important follow-up follow-up 48:35 follow-up thank you notes thank you emails if you can do a handwritten note that still 48:40 exists today right i don't know how many stories i've heard of people saying you know what i did not do well my best on 48:47 all of the different phases of the interview but i i did the follow-up letter and i got the job 48:53 right and remember yeah the little things remember something like if i'm interviewing you 48:58 all whatever's behind me or something i'm wearing right bring attention to that you know uh i'll thank you for 49:05 taking the time to interview me i had an amazing time learning about the company and i also love that michigan basketball 49:10 banner you have behind you know my father or whatever my father i'm a huge basketball fan don't not be a michigan 49:16 just those little things that help people remember who you are but that follow-up is so very very important 49:22 yeah follow-up like if you really felt not great about the interview and you're 49:27 like it's not sitting well with you use the follow-up as a chance to say 49:32 hey maurice i didn't really put my best foot forward today i let my nerves get the best of me but here you know maybe 49:38 here's why i deserve another shot or here's three things that why you should bring me back for the next round or why 49:45 you should hire me again hit that nail right on the head don't swipe it under the rug that's again something you used 49:52 to do you've had to be perfect and have this perfect presentation own it if you didn't feel great about it you know hey 49:59 i wasn't my best today but this isn't a good indicator of how i perform i'd love another shot or i'd 50:05 love to move to the next round because a b and c um thanks for your consideration 50:12 and whatever so could also be an opportunity to do that the handwritten note has gotten people 50:17 jobs with us before like we we don't really get mail anymore so when you get a hand and obviously that 50:24 takes a little bit longer right so we always suggest you know the linkedin connection because if i don't get the 50:29 job i still want maurice in my network for the next job and i want him to see okay 50:34 julie wasn't a fit now but now that we're connected on linkedin he's able to see all the things that i'll be continuing to do and maybe if there's 50:42 another opening maybe now he's going to think of me and say hey julie we're posting this job 50:47 i've seen you do all this great work and this and that i i want you to apply right so they're 50:53 able to see what's going on and and then your network is continuing to grow especially if it's an industry that 50:58 you're looking to pivot or transition into um those are those are different things 51:05 again we want to thank we hope this was helpful again this was a 35 000 foot view we kind of dove in a little bit on 51:11 some things we hope this is helpful for everyone that's attending or watching that's going to want to see this 51:17 um i mean it's definitely been something you know interviewing process you know things have changed over time but 51:23 but the interview is just only shifted a little bit because you're still telling your story again thank you for taking the time um 51:31 one last question someone just threw it i'm gonna answer it real fast how can they notice you if they have 500 plus connections that's a good question 51:38 your activity in posting are you liking things that they're posting are you commenting um linkedin does a great job 51:45 of giving you obviously the analytics of who's giving your profile but your activity and you're posting your updates 51:51 and sharing projects you've been a part of papers you've written involvement in the community the more 51:57 frequently you're posting and active with linkedin not only commenting and liking while other people are 52:03 posting but creating your own organic content you're going to be coming up in the top of feeds of people 52:09 who have thousands and thousands of connections 52:15 here's a question if i'm re-entering the job world after long term due to travels and elderly care do i 52:21 have some extra questions not necessarily because they should just ask questions about um about what the job but if they're 52:27 asking you know what were you doing in this period you don't talk about it you know i i had without being too personal 52:33 i had to take care of a elderly parent we all have parents right and while i was traveling not just 52:40 but i was exploring i was developing doing some personal development right i was reading i was researching and that 52:46 caused me to travel right create a story behind all of that yeah and linkedin is a great way to tell 52:52 that story because you can do it from the first person and so you're able to put more detail and explanation um 52:57 whereas on like maybe your resume it's more filling if you aren't want to or looking 53:03 to fill a gap you're doing so and putting some content there but linkedin would be a better place and spot to 53:09 elaborate on this frame and don't be afraid of the curves that life have thrown at us because like 53:16 marie said we've all had something um and so let's normalize it let's talk about it 53:21 instead of well getting nervous that you're feeling inadequate stepping up and pivoting your life and taking care 53:27 of someone who's important to you that's big that's big time that's somebody who i want to hire you know someone who's going to make a tough decision um not 53:34 everybody would do that last thing is you can do it 53:41 can have the confidence you can do it the world is yours you can do it 53:47 yeah if you don't put your name in the hat you're never going to get the job right so same thing with the interview 53:53 make sure you're doing the prep and position yourself for success 53:59 awesome well thank you so much maurice and julia really appreciate it i took a several notes as well certainly the the 54:05 fail to plan plan to fail mantra and investing you know in the process and 54:10 making sure you're well prepared the confidence and belief is is huge as well and telling your story and for me the i love 54:18 the the framing for the how introduce yourself response and thinking of it as the back 54:24 of of your book as well um really love love that uh to keep that in mind moving 54:30 forward um so to all of our attendees we really appreciate you joining us today and uh 54:35 sharing any questions in advance as well as some of the questions that came in this afternoon if this topic is of interest to you 54:43 and you can definitely check out a whole video from maurice within our career kickoff 54:49 collection on michigan online on interviewing so feel free to check that out but if it's of interest of you 54:56 feel free to please join us on michigan online visit online.umich.edu 55:01 learn for your future to learn a little bit more and with that we very much thank you once again for attending and takes us to 55:08 the end of end of this event so uh best of luck moving forward and we look to see see you next time