Interview questions for dry-run
- What are a few of your strengths and weaknesses? How are you working on your weaknesses, and how have you overcome challenges because of them?
- Tell me about yourself and your professional goals. Where do you see yourself five years from now?
- Have you ever been previously employed?
- (yes) What made you leave your previous job? What would you change at that workplace?
- (no) Tell me about relevant experience or education you have in marketing and business.
Three big moments
- If I was asked about challenges I’ve experienced during work and how I dealt with it, I would probably talk about a customer service experience. When I worked at a restaurant and managed phone orders, the kitchen was extremely busy and a customer was getting impatient with how long their food was taking. They made a complaint to me that they didn’t even want the food at that point, to which I apologized and offered to speak with my manager. We were able to comp their meal, which the customer accepted. I feel this shows maintaining a professional attitude and being able to make quick decisions to solve a problem.
- My response to the “tell me about yourself” question would be something along the lines of: I’m a sophomore in college right now at the University of New England. I have experience in customer service, sales transactions, and using Microsoft programs like Word and Excel. I would excel in this position because I am able to manage my time, organize efficiently, and have strong interpersonal skills.
- A question I got in every job interview I’ve had asked me to describe my strengths and weaknesses. I would say my strengths are: creativity, detail-oriented, being flexible, and writing. I would say my weaknesses are limited experience and self-criticism. I am eager and open to learning new things to expand on my skills. Sometimes I am too critical of myself, but I combat that by writing down my goals/objectives to give myself a concrete idea of what I need to accomplish.
Three likely interview questions
- Tell me about a time you faced a challenge at the workplace. What was it, how did you solve it, and what did you learn from that experience?
- Why do you want this job? What motivates you, and how are you different from other applicants?
- Walk me through your resume, and tell me a little about yourself and your professional goals.
Sample job script
- I think “what this held inside of the handbook” wasn’t phrased correctly, which did put me off. Phrases like “pro staff” and “but not required” could’ve been worded differently to be more professional. Personally, I would leave out the “pro” and replace “but not required” with “(preferred)”. I would actually change a lot of things to better reflect the professional job description tone. Some things felt repetitive as well, with the same adverbs appearing twice in the same sentence (like “most”).
Final reflection
Job interviews are, have been, and will be anxiety provoking. Although, taking a look at how both the interviewer and the interviewee prepare for an interview has helped. I never really thought about the interviewer side, but it helped with how interview questions can be answered to gear them more towards what they’re looking for. Creating questions that I would ask to someone interviewing for our handbook sales position allowed me to step in an interviewer’s shoes, which made me a bit less intimated of someone interviewing me as I know they are doing their best, too. I’m hoping for my next interview that I can be more relaxed and realize that the sta there are people too, just doing their assigned tasks to get paid and go home.
Being an interviewer on the search committee was almost as nerve wracking as being an interviewee. It was a bit awkward coordinating who was asking what questions and in what order, but I thought we were able to pull it together with a few hiccups. I felt our search committee asked good questions with a surprise one at the end from Bernie. I thought I took good notes jotting down the general idea of their answers, but I wish I did that for all the interviewers. I thought the other search committees did well with their questions and coordination. Some questions were more specific to sales which I expected to throw the interviewers o, but everyone who interviewed did great making things up on the spot to play into the role.
The thought of being interviewed in front of the class made me super nervous. I knew nothing was actually at stake, but I felt too awkward to pretend that I was sitting in a waiting room and that I’m interviewing for a sales related position. Huge props to those who interviewed. They were all pretty confident and were able to answer the interview questions on the fly, even some that required a bit of imagination. Everyone was definitely a bit nervous in the beginning but I could tell as time went on they got more comfortable and in the headspace of an interviewee. The interviews I’ve done in the past have gone like that, too. I was sti and nervous at the start but eventually eased into it. The anticipation of an interview might even be worse than doing it.
Doing a project on interviewing helped me develop a better sense of the hiring process. I’ve been experiencing a lot of worry around getting a job and my career, and this helped ease it a bit. It’s one thing looking for a job, and it’s another actually getting it. I thought it was eective how we all came up with traits we would want to evaluate candidates on and that it was similar to an actual rubric used for a hiring process. Overall, I’ve become a bit more comfortable with the idea of interviewing knowing now that the interviewer might be nervous too and that they’re in the mindset of “do I want to work with this person, possibly until I die?”, not “I’m going to make this interview really difficult for him.”
