Allow me to disclose a very, very shocking secret: I, Katie Evans, have never held a paying job. Have I babysat? Yes. Have I received clothing in exchange for sailing regattas with my father? You bet. But thanks to the horrible summer job market and the strict rules of my boarding school, I’ve never had a conventional part-time position.

Want to hear something I have done? Since the beginning of this semester, I’ve assisted in two on-campus job searches, and I intend on assisting with a third. It feels like every department on campus is looking for new blood this year, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited to help. The person who fills these positions impacts my Scripps experience greatly, but once I reached the site of the first interview I realized how helpful it would be for my own future experiences to watch the interviews of others.

I first attended a student panel for a staff position. Members of the Scripps Activities Team, such as myself, and RAs filled the panel, asking questions that pertained to our desires and expectations. We were each given a resume to look at, which, unfortunately, we didn’t get to keep—I found myself studying it, hoping its clean, careful layout would stay in my memory (My current resume is a fearsome thing to behold). The panel was relaxed and benevolent, and I noted things the interviewee did that I did and did not want to replicate in my own interviews. How they presented themselves, navigated difficult questions, and what they wore stayed with me as much as what they had to say about the position. I left the panel wanting to work alongside the interviewee and hoping they got the job. Although I’ll probably never interview for such a position, when the time comes, I know a few things about how I want to show myself.

I also had the pleasure of eating lunch with and participating in mock classes for two candidates for a position in an academic department. Although it was not a department that directly related to my major, I received a lot of benefits from attending these sessions. On one hand, participating in the mock classes helped hone specific skills (two free “classes”!), but, like the previous interview, it showed me images I do and don’t want to project. I’ve always had troubles with confidence, and the candidates showed me, more than ever, how powerful an assured, confident person appears. Society tells women to be humble and quiet, but to command the room and get the job, you need to show you believe in yourself first.

But the biggest lesson I learned from these experiences? Interviews aren’t scary. Yes, your resume should look good and you should answer questions firmly, but your interviewer, like you, is looking for something. You want a job, and they want someone to fill it. No one is seeking to sabotage your career—that is, unless your interviewer’s name is Dwight Schrute.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRmg4Pt4eFQ&fs=1&hl=en_US]

(skip to 1:21 for true interview torture!)