Tag Archives: Interviewing

Staying Humble, but Confident

Posted on by
Reply

“I am extremely self-motivated and always willing to help others. I am a team player and an extremely empathetic person. [I am] a true leader is a person who can manage their group all the time.”

These are all sentences that I have written on applications in the past in answer to such questions as “How do you embody [insert position]?” or “What are your strengths and weaknesses in [insert work environment]?” As you can probably tell, these are all positive, desirable traits that I have and am hoping to accentuate. However, they are all sentences that, while I truly believe about myself, I am not particularly comfortable saying out loud or touting about. I’d like to consider myself a humble person, someone who doesn’t always think highly of myself and who is not always confident in my capabilities. Therefore, I don’t like going around arguing definitively that I am the best, like no one ever was! *high five for nerdy reference* I much prefer to use terms like “I believe”, “in my opinion”, or “I would possibly be able to” to describe my skills and abilities.

Though, as many of you may already know, excessive humility isn’t exactly a desirable characteristic when it comes to applications or interviews. There is a very thin line between humility and a perceived lack of confidence, which is considered a negative trait. Just because you’re humble doesn’t mean you’re insecure or incompetent. If you are too humble, however, your true capabilities will become eclipsed by your insecurities. In actuality, employers and interviews want to see an exertion of confidence and a personal knowledge and assessment of your skills. More than your potential shortcomings, which they can develop and train, they want to know if you are, at your core, a good fit for a position

Striking the right balance between accentuating your strengths and acknowledging your weaknesses to an employer is key and can be the difference between making a great first impression and failing to display your true talents. If you find yourself in this pickle, here are some tips for staying humble, yet confident in interviews and applications.

  • Answer Honestly: Capitalize on your humble character traits by answering interview questions honestly. Interviewers can usually tell when a candidate is overstating qualifications, fabricating work skills or concealing relevant information. Listen attentively to the interviewer’s questions and answer the question directly. If you avoid a question or purposefully change the direction of a question, the interviewer might wonder whether you’re hiding something. Use your humility to answer questions with truthful answers, always remembering to shed the best light on any situation.
  • Equal Numbers: Your interviewer may ask for an exact number of strengths and weaknesses, but if she does not, state an equal number of each. This will make you appear balanced in your understanding of your abilities.
  • Weaknesses That Are Really Strengths: In your list of weaknesses, try to include at least one “problem” that really indicates dedication to your work, such as, “I’m too critical of myself,” or “I can be a workaholic.” These positively-spun weaknesses can not only be molded by a specific boss or employer, they also show an attainable level of flexibility and change. Speaking of which…
  • Self-Improvement: Be sure to also discuss the ways in which you’re working to improve on your problem areas. Subtly mention the ways in which you like to have coworkers and bosses help you with this issue. This will get your interviewers imagining you in the position and the ways in which they can aid you while you are aiding them.
  • Recognizing Others: One of the best characteristics of being humble is the ability to look beyond personal self-interests to those of others. Honor your previous employer and co-workers by telling the interviewer how much you appreciate your previous work experience. Offer sincere praise and state specific details so you don’t appear to gush false sentiment or offer insincere flattery.

If you are still having trouble, please feel free to set up an appointment with one of the fabulous CP&R counselors to discuss application and interview tactics!

 

My Fear of Interviewing

Posted on by
Reply

“Are you sure of your answer? There isn’t anything else you want to add?” the interviewer asked me, clearly recognizing that I wasn’t sure of my answer.

“Um, yes, I’m sure,” I replied, attempting to sound confident as I hid my fear of being completely wrong.

To me, the scariest part of the entire career search is the interviewing process. On paper, you can spend as much time as you’d like composing your thoughts for your cover letter, fine-tuning your resume, and presenting the best version of yourself. However, in an interview, you have one chance to make a great first impression. What’s even worse is when you don’t know what to expect in an interview. The pressure of answering questions correctly and demonstrating interest are two areas that I’ve always found hard to juggle, as they both are important during interviews.

What I’ve learned about interviewing, at least in my own experiences, is that interviewers assess your overall performance. Does this mean that you can say something egregious and get by? Maybe, maybe not. But this does mean that minor mistakes in an interview won’t hurt you as badly as an interviewer having a negative overall impression of you. Interviewing. Is. Terrifying. Conveying your interests, personality, and experiences in a fixed time frame is simply extremely difficult to do. I guess I’ve found some comfort in knowing that if I thought a particular question was difficult, other people being interviewed may have felt the same way. Thus, my performance may have been evaluated in comparison to others.

And lastly, I’ve realized that evaluating your own performance after an interview can be really helpful for future interviews. I can’t remember how many times I’ve thought to myself, “I could have worded this better, used this example instead, remembered to bring up this topic…” I don’t think I’ve ever walked out of an interview confident that everything I said was exactly how I wanted to say it. In the same way, I often forget, or am unsure of, what I may have done well on. This probably is the reason why I leave interviews thinking that I could have done better. What I’ve started to do is keep a running list of things that I think I did well on so that in the future, I can highlight these details (I’ll admit it does help when an interviewer says, “That’s a great story!”). Analyzing my own strengths and weaknesses in an interview has really helped me make small improvements in how I present myself.

I am nowhere near where I want to be when it comes to interviewing, but I do think that giving your best effort and improving with each interview goes a long way.

That Moment When You Don’t Actually Know Spanish…

Posted on by
1

Hi! My name is Jennifer, and I’ll be blogging for CP&R this semester. I’m really excited to share my experiences with you all, and I hope you find my good (and not so good) experiences helpful. I’m new to blogging, so if you have any feedback for me, I’d love to hear what you have to say!

One of the most important lessons I learned about the internship application process came a few months ago with a phone interview. I wanted to intern at a Spanish-speaking non-profit organization in the law-related field so I used Claremont Connect to find any openings. To my surprise, I found a Spanish-speaking organization in Los Angeles that provided free legal service to survivors of domestic violence. It was the perfect internship. Having taken Spanish in high school, I was confident that I was good e-n-o-u-g-h in Spanish to pass as being fluent. I wrote “fluent Spanish” on my resume, though I knew I might be overstating how much I actually knew. I expected that my interview might be conducted in Spanish and was prepared to practice for it extensively if I was selected for one. A few weeks after I submitted my application, I received a phone call from a woman from the organization who wanted to set up the interview. After thanking her for the opportunity, she paused and asked, “If you don’t mind, I’m going to start speaking to you in Spanish to assess how well you can hold a conversation in Spanish.” The interview quickly went downhill. Despite the fact that I understood what she was saying, I had extreme difficulty responding to her and demonstrating my “fluent Spanish.” It was a total nightmare. I reiterated, “I really do know Spanish. I just wrote a research paper in Spanish. I’m hoping this internship will help build my fluency.” To this, she responded, “We expect our interns to have a solid grasp of the Spanish language.” She had a good point. After a few more minutes of a desperate attempt to save my reputation, she concluded, “I’m going to speak to my boss to see if we want to continue with this interview.” Two months later, I still have not received that call. I don’t think I ever will.

Applying to intern at a Spanish-speaking organization with my limited speaking capabilities wasn’t exactly a smart choice. I could have easily avoided that situation had I stated how much Spanish I actually knew. Note to self: ¡Don’t overstate your resume if you know you might be asked about what you wrote down!

Keep Calm and Watch Sherlock

Posted on by
Reply

I never have a good feeling about a week when my planner’s lines are too thick to squeeze in all my obligations, even when I use 0.5 mm lead in my mechanical pencil instead of 0.7.

This week was one of those weeks. Actually, now that I mention it, last week was one of those weeks. And I’m pretty darn certain that every week until blissful summer arrives is going to be one of those weeks.

While professors are demanding essays now, suggesting you think about your next essay due in a week, oh yeah, and don’t forget to start studying for the final – it can be hard on your nerves. My time management wasn’t helped by the fact that my friend introduced me to Sherlock just as my extra time was dissipating.

I found the motivation within me to postpone Sherlock until my commitments have been met, but it seems like every time I turn around a new commitment sneaks up behind me.

“Boo!” the commitment cackles. “I know you were planning on spending Friday afternoon with your boyfriend, but come in for a job interview instead!”

And, as my nerves knot up just a little bit tighter, I smile and reply, “Sure!”

Why? Because I genuinely want to be doing all that I’m doing. I’m not in a class I don’t like, and I want every job I’m applying for. But my refusal to say no to opportunities can sometimes lead to my planner getting so jumbled up that I can’t keep up with them all.

Case in point: I am in the middle of a six-day period in which I have three job interviews. Wednesday morning, I have a phone interview for a summer internship. (I’d hoped I would have summer plans nailed down by now!) Last Friday, I interviewed for a tutoring job on campus for next school year. And this Thursday, I’m interviewing for another on-campus position.

Even at this moment my nerves are screaming at me to spend more time preparing for my interviews instead of writing this. “You’ve never had a phone interview before!” they’re warning me. “You won’t have any visuals to distract from the number of times you say ‘uh’ in a sentence!”

But, because my nerves have screamed some variation of this at me before every job interview I’ve ever had, I know I’ll be okay. And I know that sometimes all my nerves need is a little distraction.

So, mimicking the professional and collected tone I’ll use on the phone tomorrow, I confidently reply to my nerves, “Keep calm and watch a Sherlock.”

And that is exactly what I plan to do.

Another Tricky Situation

Posted on by
Reply

These just seem to happen to me far too often. Muse on this:

You’ve just accepted a fantastic internship position. Your application / interview process is over and you’re ready to move on to the next step: finding somewhere to live in a new city. Then something happens that makes you take pause. You get a call from one of the internships you had applied to a month earlier – one you were really interested in. They went over your application and want to schedule an interview. What do you do?

Would you do what I did and politely squeak out a contritely apologetic “I’m so sorry, I’ve already accepted another offer”? Or would you, as my mother recommended, take the interview – for the experience only, of course – knowing you couldn’t take the internship if they offered it? (I know no one out there would take the interview and then backtrack and take the offer if it came.)

It’s another tricky situation, and again, one that I’ve been in before (last semester in DC, no surprises there). It’s funny how these things seem to repeat themselves.

I chose to not to take the interview both times. I’ve always been very into steps, clear progress, and checklists. Applications? Check. Interviews? Check. Offer? Check. Backtracking just doesn’t make sense to me, even for the “experience.” I can’t even stomach the possibility of getting the offer and knowing I would have to turn it down, especially if it was a particularly appealing position at an ideal company. (This is all on top of the fact that I’d be wasting the employers time.) I can, though, see why some people might be tempted to do it anyway to get the experience.

These sticky situations are what makes the internship search so frustrating; it’s not like the college application process where you know at one time what all of your options are. I’ve had to carefully navigate them, but what’s “right” for me might not be “right” for everyone.