Thursday, October 18, 2007

Interview Reflection

I've had a few important interviews in my life. I've had to interview for kindergarten, high school, and for one of the colleges I applied for. I will always the college interview because I threw the interviewers a huge curve ball and had a great time with them. I applied to University of Denver, and they require an interview with their application process. They had alumni conduct the interviews and had a weekend in most major cities for people to go to. I remember that mine was in the middle of the day on a Saturday and it was a typical Saturday for me, I had a basketball coaching that morning, and I was on my way to a two day tournament that Afternoon. So I entered the interview and they started off the interview with a few general questions, and then very careful began to figure out my feelings on Diversity, and my experience with other races. After a few feeler questions I could tell what they were getting at, and so instead of answering each questions with a little yes and no snippets, I just laid it out. I told them that I went to a very diverse high school, I was dating a girl of Chinese decent at the time, and I had to get out of there in an hour so I could make the basketball tournament I was in with my all black except me team. I don't know what kind of sheltered suburbanites they had interviewed that morning, but that all made them step back, and suddenly all the tension went out the room and it was replaced with something close to admiration. Anyway the rest of the interview went smoothly and I made it on time to the tournament.

I guess I felt like telling that story because I know that any personal interaction, is a place where I can excel. My strengths are dealing with people. I might not look like the best candidate on paper, or might not have the best book or paper skills, however I know that I'll have good interviews, and I'll do exactly what I did during this interview, have such a good time that I'll go over on the allotted time, and neither I or the interviewer will notice. (I felt really bad when I stepped out into the hall and saw three class mates waiting.) However I did learn somethings, first that it is ok to stop talking and really think out an answer. I don't need to "sale's person it," and continue talking when I have no idea of what I'm talking about. However to make sure that I don't do this more then once, I should consider answers to questions, or at leats pick before hand examples that I can talk about and relate to their specific questions. For example I should have two or three examples of a failure ready in my head. Because its close to a sure bet that this will be asked of me in every interview I ever take. The other thing I need to have ready is examples that relate specifically to my resume, so in the future when I prepare I will have two examples from each position in the previous job experience section in my resume.
The other thing I think I need to be careful of how I reflect the person interviewing me's body language. In the mock interview I took on the serious/playful mood that Mrs. Rogers entered the interview with. I need to be aware that if I enter an interview with a solom serious person that I do not reflect only that back. I need to in fact stop the reflecting and instead let my true feelings out.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Free Write!!!

So I've had a few random events happen in my personal life recently and collectivly they have made me think about networking. Networking in the job market is essicental because lets face it, people only trust people that they know, so applying for a job in which you know the guy interviewing, or you know the guy that knows the guy. Well it helps.
Specifically it interesting to look at people out in the job market now as opposed to those still in college. Recently I had some college friends blow me off, which happens I know, however my friends are people who I could see networking with in the future, and though I try to reach out to them, they do not see the need to reach back. On the other hand I had a friend, who is out in the job market email me out of the blue to see how I was doing, and what plans I had made for the future.
I personally know that it is important to create and keep up contacts, because it is through contacts that I'm hoping to find employment. I wish my college friends would wake up and realize that...