Turning Your Degree into a Job Offer: 3 Tips for Getting Hired
You’ve made it through a rigorous, challenging academic program and graduation is on the horizon. Now it’s time for the next chapter: to use that knowledge and skill to propel your career forward. Searching for a job can often be a complex and daunting process, and there’s no surefire way to secure an offer. But these three tips can help you make a compelling case for yourself in an interview and make you stand out as a candidate.
Thorough knowledge of the role
Students frequently take this for granted and mistakenly assume that, if they’ve been invited to interview, the conversation should primarily be about them sharing why they want the job. While this is an important part of interviewing, it certainly isn’t everything.
Hiring managers will usually prefer to hire someone who has already done the job — perhaps at a competitor. To compete with more experienced candidates will require extensive research and knowledge of the role — to find out what’s on the desk, so to speak. Someone who can convey that they are intimately familiar with the day-to-day requirements, core competencies, priorities, and expectations of the job will go a long way toward closing the experience gap.
The ideal way to learn about these is through one-on-one meetings or calls with current or former employees. Seeking out those with firsthand knowledge will help you develop a comprehensive understanding of a product or service, the competitive landscape, market dynamics, and other particulars. And knowing the specifics will demonstrate to the interviewer that you’ll be ready to go on day one.
Fit factor
Nuanced, perhaps fickle, but not to be underestimated, understanding the importance of fit is key to getting hired. Like having extensive knowledge of the role, candidates need to have a strong understanding of the company’s culture: organizational norms and expectations, cross-functional collaboration, reporting relationships, and strategic priorities. Fit doesn’t appear in a job description; it’s also something to learn about from current or former employees during the research process.
Equally important, however, is self-understanding: knowledge of one’s personal strengths, temperament, abilities, and communication styles that you can convey authentically in an interview. This requires a certain amount of honest introspection, preparation, and professional maturity.
Tell a convincing story
Storytelling is an absolutely crucial skill in job seeking and interviewing. Using relevant examples to show you possess the core competencies required of the role gives evidence to back up your self-proclaimed strengths and support your answers to situational questions. A convincing use of storytelling and specific examples gives the interviewer a better picture of who you are and how you will approach the job.
The common STAR method (situation, task, action, result) of crafting a story is quite effective in addressing traditional behavioral interview questions. However, I recommend students strengthen their stories by considering the following:
- Does your story and examples reflect how much you truly want this role? How are you illustrating this desire to the interviewer? Perhaps it’s sharing how you prepared for the interview, or perhaps demonstrating your unique knowledge of the product/service.
- Does your story convincingly show that you possess the abilities and competencies to do the job?
- Does your story reflect that your temperament aligns with that required in the role?
- Are you effectively conveying to the interviewer that you possess certain assets that are relevant to the role? Your technical certifications, language skills, and systems knowledge will all help you stand out.
Leonard Morrison is the Career Development and Alumni Officer for the MIT Supply Chain Management master’s program.
