Project 02 — Reflection

I think the most important aspects of our guide are how to prepare for an interview and what resources to use. Many times, the problem people have with interviews is not knowing what to expect, and if they don’t have the correct resources to prepare then they will be at a severe disadvantage. One of the most important things you can do for an interview is just be prepared and show that you really want to work there. For example, knowing about the company and being able to talk about them really demonstrates that you are interested in working there and have done research. I also think that asking good questions is important because it shows that you know what you want. In my experience, one of the best things I’ve heard was that you are interviewing the company just as much as they are interviewing them. Once I started thinking like that, I started feeling more confident in myself. I would walk into an interview with an attitude of “Why should I choose to work here?” rather than “Please give me a job!!”. This makes a huge difference in your body language and calms your nerves. I wish I would have heard that earlier because I remember a lot of interviews where I was pretty nervous and just hoping that I wouldn’t mess up, which is not the right attitude to have. Having a different perspective of an interview makes a big difference in your confidence and success, in my opinion.

I do think that college curriculum needs to change at least a little bit in order to accommodate for this shift in the amount of time spent preparing for the interview process. I realize that college is a place of learning, but I don’t think that means valuable life skills such as knowing how to interview should be excluded because they aren’t an academic field per say. The field is very competitive, so if you don’t know how to conduct yourself in an interview then you are already behind. Students need to be briefed on the process because that will give them the upper hand on other schools that don’t prepare their students as much. I think Notre Dame does a decent job of helping students learn these important concepts regarding the interview process, but most of the help comes in the form of out of class workshops, talks, etc. This only helps the students who take the initiative to attend these events (which could just be another way of separating stronger applicants who really want to stand out). However, I think a one and a half credit class could easily be taught for half a semester covering all of the most important concepts and techniques students should know going into the interview process. That way, all students have the ability to make the most of the resources given to them, and if they choose to not take advantage of that, it’s their loss.