Speaker Series: How to Interview, and The Most Common Questions

0:05 hi everyone 0:06 and welcome back to the career kickoff 0:08 collection as you may know 0:09 by now my name is deirdre lee and with 0:12 me is ryan hilaway 0:13 the two of us are partnership 0:15 development fellows with the university 0:16 of michigan center for academic 0:18 innovation 0:19 and today our guest speaker is maurice 0:21 washington 0:22 director of the university of michigan 0:24 athletic career center 0:26 in this final segment we're going to be 0:28 talking about interviewing and what to 0:30 think about 0:31 before and during your interview so 0:34 maurice 0:34 thank you for being here what do you 0:37 tell students to do in order to prepare 0:38 for an interview 0:40 that's a great question deidre and i 0:41 think thank you again for allowing me to 0:43 be here 0:44 one of the most important things to 0:45 prepare for uh interview 0:48 is researching the company understanding 0:50 the company that you're working for 0:52 it's totally different than looking at 0:54 the job description so researching the 0:55 company 0:56 the second thing i would say is really 0:58 understand your value so understanding 0:59 who you are and how much and what value 1:01 you bring to the actual company 1:03 i would ask them to review the job 1:05 description in detail 1:08 it doesn't make it sounds like it seemed 1:10 like it would be simple but 1:11 also review your resume because 1:13 oftentimes some questions will come from 1:15 your resume and you want to really know 1:17 your resume 1:18 in and out the industry it's important 1:21 to understand the industry you're 1:22 getting so you can use that 1:23 the industry language when you're 1:25 preparing for your resume 1:26 or your interview all right the next 1:29 steps i would tell them is 1:30 when you have the interview is to dress 1:32 for success i would all 1:34 i always think if you look if you feel 1:35 the part if you look the part you feel 1:37 the part right 1:38 so you want to dress for the job that 1:39 you want the next thing you want to do 1:41 is 1:42 you want to arrive 10 to 15 minutes 1:44 early right to be prepared for it 1:46 be mindful of your non-verbals a great 1:49 greeting is important you know today 1:51 you know we're not shaking hands but a 1:54 strong reading 1:55 goes a long way you know strong eye 1:57 contact 1:58 will be the different types of things um 2:00 that i would tell the students 2:02 i would also uh remind them that there 2:04 are various dif there are different 2:05 types of of interviewing 2:07 um the most often type we use is 2:10 behavioral 2:11 where you're going to be asked a series 2:12 of questions based off your experiences 2:14 it can be based off the job description 2:17 what you'll be doing 2:18 and it allows you enough time gives you 2:20 the time to think about uh the responses 2:22 to those questions thank you maurice um 2:25 and you definitely did touch on this 2:27 just a little earlier 2:28 um but you know when people get into the 2:30 interview you kind of start to blank out 2:32 and you get a little nervous 2:34 so are there any important elements you 2:36 can think for students to keep in mind 2:38 during that interview process 2:40 that's a great question so what i tell 2:42 students to do is 2:43 you know when you're in an interview you 2:45 think that they're just asking you 2:47 uh just a bunch of questions um 2:50 behavioral questions but you have to be 2:52 mindful that you're also interviewing 2:53 the company 2:54 right so i would encourage students to 2:57 as you're 2:57 discussing or answering the questions 3:00 think of it as 3:01 the person that's asking the question is 3:03 a new employee and they're just 3:05 making their rounds around the 3:06 organization trying to get to know 3:08 everyone 3:09 talk my point is to talk like you have 3:12 already been working there that you're 3:13 part of the organization 3:15 you know watching your pronouns instead 3:17 of saying you know or they're action 3:19 action verbs saying that you know i hope 3:21 to to be 3:22 a member a successful candidate and 3:24 start speaking like you know you're part 3:26 of the team like 3:27 you know when we do this or when i you 3:29 know this is the these are the things 3:31 that i would do 3:32 um and really you should know yourself 3:34 right um relax 3:35 enjoy the process right because it's 3:38 just a question 3:38 understanding that the the individual 3:40 that's asking questions this is just 3:42 their job 3:43 right the first question that students 3:46 uh most often freeze on is the first 3:48 question that where you can 3:49 you can really take charge of the 3:51 interview and they ask you tell me a 3:52 little bit about yourself well that 3:53 should be an easy one 3:54 but you'd be surprised that's a 3:56 challenging question right 3:57 practice that i would say practice in 3:59 the in the mirror you know you got 30 to 4:01 45 seconds to have this conversation 4:03 you know talk about you know you 4:05 understand online you've done 4:07 research on the company so you know what 4:08 the companies are looking for 4:10 but in that tell me a little about 4:11 yourself that's where you get an 4:13 opportunity to 4:14 let them know how much value you bring 4:16 and why you're a great fit 4:18 again the interview is just are you a 4:21 great fit 4:22 you already qualified for the job if you 4:24 didn't qualify you wouldn't be getting 4:26 the interview 4:26 now is the time to to express to them 4:29 why you are a great fit 4:31 maurice is there anything else you would 4:32 like to address when interviewing 4:34 because i know that there's a lot to 4:35 cover and 4:36 i'm sure that there's more we can talk 4:39 about 4:40 yeah thank you deidre for asking that 4:41 question as i'm as i'm thinking about 4:43 why you're 4:44 in the interview the things that you'd 4:45 be mindful of think about your values 4:47 and how your values align to the company 4:50 also respond take your time in 4:52 responding to the question 4:54 i i'd often um suggest that students 4:57 or if you're being interviewed that you 4:59 do two things one 5:00 you want to repeat the question and why 5:03 because it allows you enough time to 5:04 think about your response 5:06 the second part of that it allows it it 5:09 tells them that you understand the 5:11 question that you're being asked 5:12 what you don't want to do is start 5:14 answering a question and then 5:16 they you realize that that's not the 5:18 question that they ask you 5:20 another method that i would encourage 5:21 you use is a star method the star method 5:23 is 5:24 really unique in responding to when 5:26 asked questions like tell me a time when 5:28 so let's talk about the star method the 5:30 s stands for situation 5:32 the the t stands for task the a stands 5:35 for action and e 5:36 r stands for result by staying focused 5:39 and using that method it allows you to 5:41 answer the 5:42 the question um and not go on a tangent 5:46 and start answering and just continue 5:48 the talk right it keeps you on task 5:52 thank you for that i know there's so 5:53 many times that i'm sitting in the 5:54 interview that i absolutely do forget 5:57 the question that they're asking i just 5:58 go on a tangent so it's nice to keep in 6:00 mind 6:02 another key component is if you're asked 6:04 the question and you do not know the 6:05 answer 6:06 don't think that that's a mark against 6:08 you what i would encourage students do 6:09 is take a note because you should have 6:11 pen and paper take a note of the 6:13 question and just simply say that's a 6:15 great question 6:16 i don't have an answer at this time can 6:17 we come back to that but be mindful when 6:20 it when the questions are have concluded 6:22 before you start 6:23 asking your questions i would encourage 6:25 you to go back to that particular answer 6:27 right because they really want to know 6:28 that if you can come back to their 6:30 response 6:30 now you're at the end of the interview 6:33 and it's time for you to ask questions 6:35 i encourage students to have at least 6:37 four to five 6:38 questions to ask the panel or whoever is 6:41 asking a question 6:42 be mindful you do not want to ask a 6:44 question based off something that was on 6:46 the job description because that tells 6:47 them that you did not do the research 6:49 or do not review the job description i 6:52 would not also as you're doing your 6:53 research on the home page of the company 6:55 i would not ask questions about those 6:57 type of things 6:59 ask questions about what you really 7:00 really want to know for example 7:02 training training 7:05 work dynamics the or the environment 7:08 that you're going to be working in 7:10 the protocols of the job but one thing 7:13 that you do not want to ask is about 7:15 money that's one question that many 7:18 students 7:19 ask me do i talk them about pay and i 7:21 would say no the answer is no to that 7:24 however if they introduce pay into the 7:26 conversation then you can use that as a 7:28 caveat 7:29 and kind of talk about it but instead of 7:31 just pay think about pay 7:33 as all of the entitlements so it's it's 7:35 not just the paycheck to bring home but 7:37 it's 7:37 it's about the insurance the uh 7:40 the investments that the company plan 7:43 the conferences that 7:44 the professional development that they 7:46 want to they would be encouraging to 7:47 send you to so 7:48 there's a lot of different things to 7:49 talk about when you're asking those 7:51 questions 7:52 thanks so much freeze and thank you guys 7:54 for sticking with us 7:55 through these three videos and we hope 7:57 you found this to be informative and 7:58 helpful in your own career development