Greetings Cornerstone students! I hope everyone is doing well half way through the semester. I am Melissa King and my areas of concentration for my IDS degree are Education and Public Affairs with a minor in Woman’s Studies. Although my areas of concentration might be very different from each other, I hope to use my degree to assist me in continuing my military career or help me to establish a solid foundation for a master’s degree. I am looking forward to graduation this coming spring and seeing how I can use my degree in a professional setting.
This week we will focus on a professional setting. More specifically, we will be focusing on our initial communication in a professional setting with a perspective employer. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I am talking about going to an interview. For many of us an interview is our opportunity to give a great first impression and allow our professional skills and abilities to shine, therefore leaving a memorable impression on our potential employer.
Indeed, interviews can make or break our professional experience at times. Interviews can manifest in a variety of settings such as a one-on-one interview, a panel interview, a phone interview, or several rounds of interviews. Our communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal, must be exemplary and we must enter each encounter with confidence, ease, and positivity. This often takes adequate preparation.
Activity:
You will have a chance to complete a mock “perfect interview”. Please follow the steps closely.
- Click on the link: http://www.perfectinterview.com/ucf/
- Go to create a new account
- Put in the required information and enter in your g-mail email account.
- Check your email account for password information and follow the link to complete your interview.
- Once completed, reflect on the interview. Write a paragraph to describe how you did and answer some of the following questions. Did you handle the questions well? Interviews can come in various forms. How would you deal with a phone interview of a panel interview? When would be a good time to talk about salary? Post this paragraph with your reply after completing the exercises below.
Exercise 1:
· Reflect on past interview(s) that you have gone on. What are some areas you feel were positive points in your interview? What are some areas you could have worked on? What did you learn from the experience(s)? NOTE: If you have never gone on an interview please reflect on what concerns you might have about your first interview.
Exercise 2:
Non- verbal communication plays a large part in the interview process. As an exercise, the next time you speak to a friend or a family member, focus on your non-verbal communication. Take note of the following: How did you position yourself? Did you use a lot of gestures? What were your facial expressions like? Did you make eye contact? Keep in mind these are non-verbal communications in a less formal setting. How might you be able to use appropriate non-verbal communication in an interview setting?
Non- verbal communication plays a large part in the interview process. As an exercise, the next time you speak to a friend or a family member, focus on your non-verbal communication. Take note of the following: How did you position yourself? Did you use a lot of gestures? What were your facial expressions like? Did you make eye contact? Keep in mind these are non-verbal communications in a less formal setting. How might you be able to use appropriate non-verbal communication in an interview setting?
Make sure that you post your responses as comments to this blog post and not as a brand new post. Again, be sure any responses to a particular person’s post are done as a reply to that person’s post and not a brand new comment. This helps keep the conversation going. Feel free to respond to more than one post if you have something to share. As always, reach out to the mentors through the comments and we will reply as quickly as possible. We look forward to learning and sharing more with you this week.
- Group 8 Mentors
EXERCISE ONE
ReplyDeleteIn my past interviews, I have made sure to research the company's mission statement and value system so that I know whether my goals align with those of the company. I have found this is also useful because it shows the dedication and want for the job to look up the company's history and successes. I definitely was not prepared for the financial issues question as I have had some financial issues in the past. Instead of focusing on what the problems were, I mentioned them and focused on the solutions I came up with to overcome them. I found this to be pretty effective. I feel the majority of employers want to hear more about your solutions and problem-solving skills and less about your problems. I learned to stay positive and not give up on any job!
EXERCISE TWO
Oh my gosh I have the hardest time with non-verbals during an interview because I am a leg shaker. I have to really concentrate on not shaking my leg in order for it to stop, haha. I also remember that I should keep my arms in my lap and not in my pockets or twirl them in my lap. I had a wonderful mentor during my years in high school and she truly helped me understand the interviewing process better. Granted, there is always room for improvement!
I felt pretty good about my responses to the questions I was asked. I'm not being an egoist, but I have never had an interview in which I didn't get the job! There were definite "no's" by various employers, but not if I had an interview! I believe being able to relate with the interviewer(s) in some way does flush you out as a person they are interested in. After all, people like to work and hang out with people who are more like themselves than not. Bring on the interviews!
Thanks for the post Melissa!
I know how you feel going into an interview because I think everyone gets nervous even if they don't want to believe that. I am the same way but I remind myself that I am a confident person who is going into this interview strong and show that I have the ablility for this type of job. You always have to remember to breathe because the people giving the interview are sometimes just as nervous as you are.
DeleteI found it funny that you mention you have to concentrate on not being a leg shaker only because I could not think of something to improve on. Now that you mention that I myself have to have my hands on something to keep me focused. So yes I'm that annoying person in class that has to click their pen. In a interview I've realized that I keep my hands folded to stop such an urge. I am like you, anything that I have interviewed for I've gotten that position.
DeleteDavid Chicas
Well it seems like you must exude personal confidence in your interviews, which really is the most important skill and really can't be taught. It is also good that you have keyed into your nonverbal communication. Most of us never think about these things and the signals, both good and bad, that they can send. I think you shared some valuable insights for your classmates here. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteMark Walker
I felt as if my practice interview went well. I feel like the questions that I was asked are common job interview questions. I think I would do well on a phone interview; it would probably be less nerve wracking than a face-to-face interview; however, I think a face-to-face interview is more personal and gives the employer and potential employee a chance to interact and bond.
DeleteExercise 1:
DeleteI think that being a “people-person” has always helped me during interviews. I do not really feel shy around people and I feel like I have a great way of making others feel comfortable. My last interview was over six (6) years ago, however, I remember one thing my, now current employer, brought up was that I wasn’t very observant. I, still to this day, am not the most observant person, but I do acknowledge it and I consciously try to improve this skill.
Exercise 2:
DeleteI use a lot of hand movement and facial expressions when I am having a conversation. My biggest downfall in non-verbal communication is eye-contact. I do make eye-contact but sometimes I feel like I am trying to hard to maintain eye-contact so it distracts me from the actual conversation. I think that eye-contact is a very important skill and I am still working on improving this skill for myself.
Lisa, I agree 100% with the eye contact! Sometimes I can be my own worse enemy and freak myself out. When this happens, the first thing to give is the trusted eye contact. Haha. We'll keep working on it and we'll rock it out! Great post!
DeleteLisa, I agree completely with you on the whole eye contact situation. I took a class that said that the amount of eye contact you make is based on your culture and I know that in my culture making lots of eye contact with a superior is frowned upon. But I am trying to get better of doing it now because I know that it is important in a interview. I think that I have the opposite problem when it comes to being observant sometimes I get so involved in observing what is happening around me I forget that I am suppose to be actively engaged and speaking.
DeleteExercise 1:
ReplyDeleteThis blog assignment seems to come at the perfect time, since I just had an interview on Monday. Thinking back to Monday I would say the positive points to my interview was arriving early and being able to communicate my past jobs and education experiences and how they could relate to the job I was applying for. Its hard to think about something to work better on just because the interview is so fresh in my mind, I felt I had not done anything wrong. I came with knowledge of the job, clear questions about expectations, and arrived on time. Not to sound arrogant but as of now I’m five for five with the jobs I have applied for in my young adult life. I have used the same approach to each interview, so my thought process has been not to change anything that still works.
Exercise two:
While I was talking to my friend an hour ago my body was in a relaxed position. Did not need to have an air of confidence in my stance to tell them anything about myself so essentially my guard was down. Facial expressions were all smiles, since we were two friends hanging out while making eye contact the entire time. One of the key things I would believe is important in non-verbal communication in an interview setting is to make sure you don’t have your arms crossed. That’s seems like a sign that you’re just closed off from anyone entering your realm.
I felt that I did well in this mock interview. The questions that were asked are ones that I have practiced before so I was able to come up with responses that were efficient and effective. Panel interviews are just the same as a one on one interview. Basic question and answer format but phone interviews is a different beast. Phone interviews for me seem to have a lot more dead air time. It’s hard to feel a connection with your interviewer because phone interviews seem so impersonal. Salary is always an odd thing to bring up. In my experience it’s always best for the interviewer to bring this up. The person being interviewed should really only bring up questions about the actual job.
David Chicas
David,
DeleteI have never experienced a phone interview. I can see how their could be a lot of "dead air time". I think face-to-face interviews are much more personable and are a better way to see if the employer and possible employee are compatible.
Lisa
David,
DeleteI absolutely agree with the salary. I wouldn't start in right away with money talks, but you do want to assert your need for money. Everyone in the world needs it! I agree the mock interview was neat but didn't ask me any questions I hadn't heard before. I, again, agree that one shouldn't have their arms crossed because crossed arms send the signal of unapproachable. Awesome post!
Justiss Wilder
That is a good thought. I have always been told to address the issue of salary during the question stage of the interview but I think it would be better just to focus on the actual job. I am glad you feel you did so well in your interview. I need to work on being more confident because many times I forget what I did well and focus mainly on what I think I should have done instead.
DeleteJustiss and Helen,
DeleteAt the moment I really cannot think of a job I've applied to that requires to bring up the question about money. The majority of jobs that I've applied to already have a set salary that applicants are aware of before applying with the exception of this last job that I applied to. I honestly do not know of when to bring up that issue if the employer does not in the first place. Hopefully a consensus is reached here before starting to apply for jobs in the real world. I say real world as full time jobs not the part-time college jobs that I've had.
David Chicas
David,
DeleteThat's an interesting point! Most of the jobs I've had are not salaried positions, so maybe I need to look for better jobs. Haha. Thanks for the response!
Justiss Wilder
David
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I am sure you nailed it in the interview. It is good to reflect on your responses so that you can objectively see where you can improve for next time. However, remember not to beat yourself up ovver the things you did that you cannot change. I agree about what you said about phone interviews being impersonal it is very hard to get a feel for what the interviewer is looking for since a big part of communication is body language.
My friend (who shall remain nameless) always beats herself up about her responses in interviews. I tried to tell her to calm down and not to worry herself to death about them, but she cannot seem to manage to relax. I tell her she cannot go back and change her responses, but still she stresses! Haha, she and I are working on getting her situated and less stressed. I believe some stress is necessary, but too much will distort your body language.
Deletethanks for the vote of confidence Nicole!
DeleteThe manager that did my interview did offer me the job today. Right now its the waiting game for the board to approve me for the job.
David Chicas
No one actually talked about when salary should be brought up. I think it should be after you are offered the job. I feel I should stay confident and trust in my potential abilities for an employer, but I don't want to appear money hungry. I think the interviewer knows that people primarily work (other than for personal happiness) for money!
ReplyDeleteDavid did! :-)
DeleteJustiss,
DeleteI completely agree. Asking about money during the interview will seem tacky, and that you aren't really there for the company but solely to get money. In my opinion, asking after you have been offered, but haven't actually started, seems to be the best time to discuss salary.
I feel that I did well on the interview. I answered the questions honestly but made sure to put a positive spin on any of the responses that may have been considered negative. I think that one issue that I may have faced is not knowing exactly what she was looking for in my responses for example, I wasn’t sure what type of practical knowledge she was asking me about and I wasn’t sure why she wanted to know if I dealt with any financial problems in the past. I feel that for a phone interview I would make sure that I am in an environment that is quiet enough for me to hear the questions being asked as well as, speak clearly and loud enough for the interviewer to hear me. While during a panel interview I would try to remind myself to remain calm, come prepared with any questions I might have and double check to see if I am dressed properly. Finally, I think that the best time to ask about salary is when they ask if you have any questions about the position or after you have been offered the job.
ReplyDeleteExercise 1:
Some concerns I probably will have when I go on interviews are that I am afraid that although I will have prepared for it, I won’t be able to formulate my responses properly. I am also afraid that I will become nervous and avoid eye contact with the person conducting the interview. Also, the decorum for interviews change many times and I am afraid that I will violate some of the behaviors that are expected of those being interviewed.
Exercise 2:
During an informal setting, I have the tendency of leaning back in my seat and not maintaining eye contact with the person I am speaking with. I also found that based on the interaction I didn’t really speak unless it was necessary. At times, my face was very expressive, based on what was discussed but overall if the conversation didn’t invoke much emotional response my face remained passive. I feel that in the case of a formal setting it would be necessary to sit up straight, maintain eye contact with the person I am addressing and allow my face to express the importance of the conversation to me.
Helen,
DeleteIn exercise one, eye-contact and confidence are two of the most important things for face to face interviews, and they are not natural things to most of us. Reminding yourself to stay confident and be on your best behavior but also to remain true to yourself is always difficult. I wish you the best of luck in your future interviews.
In exercise two, I can completely relate to not maintaining the greatest non-verbal communication in informal situations. However I think that's why they call it an "informal" situation. Reminding ourselves of the difference between informal and formal we can easily switch the attitudes on and off and have a successful interview.
Brian
Helen I also have a problem with nerves and worry about my responses. That means we want what we’re interviewing for right? Being aware of avoiding eye contact will help you address it. I’ve found that if I’m distracted I stare at the person’s forehead if I need to concentrate on the questions.
DeleteLuckily I’ve been interviewed multiple times throughout my life. None of the questions that were given were a real surprise and I feel that I did very well. I don’t think that the style of interview would make a difference, although I absolutely would prefer a face-to-face interview as opposed to a phone interview. In regards to salary I think the best time to discuss it would be once you have already been considered after the interview for a position.
ReplyDeleteExercise 1:
In the interviews I have gone on, confidence, speech abilities, and past experience have always been my strongest subjects. In regards to areas I can work on; in one interview (even though I was offered the job) I was told that because I was so calm in my interview, I appeared as if I did not care or was slightly flippant about the interview. This is something I obviously do not wish to convey and should certainly work on. With each interview I have gained experience and confidence and hope to have continued success in the future.
Exercise 2:
During a conversation with my friends or loved ones, I am extremely relaxed and honestly I have terrible non-verbal communication. This could include, not making eye-contact, laying down, etc. In a slightly more formal conversation with an acquaintance I had significantly more formal non-verbal communication, such as making eye-contact, answering with formal titles such as yes sir, no ma'am, and trying my best to sit with correct posture. This latter engagement is how I normally go about interviews, but even to a higher degree. The interview setting is the first chance an employer has to get to know you, therefore you should of course be on your best behavior, while still being yourself.
Exercise 1
ReplyDeleteInterviews in my past haven't been difficult. In my past jobs, I knew I was getting the job before the interview. I usually get jobs from friends that know the boss. Since I knew I was going to get the job, I was calm and relaxed. This helped me answer all the questions with confidence and honesty. I felt that this interviews helped me in later interviews where I didn't know I was going to get the job. For instance, when I got the job I have know, the interview still went smooth. I find that just being truthful and confident, the interview goes very well. My weakness for interviews is professionalism. I sometimes act more as a friend in interviews than as an employee.
Exercise 2
ReplyDeleteWith family and friends I am really relaxed in the way I talk. I know that these people like me and they enjoy my company. My non-verbal communication is stronger with certain family members and friends. For instance, my girlfriend and I can have full conversations without talking. We know each other so well that we can use hand gestures and looks to convey a message. We make eye contact too. With other friends there is less non-verbal communication. There might be a look here and a gesture there, but I still need verbal communication to convey the message. With my family, it is in the middle. I can use more gestures and looks than with my friends, but I sometimes still have to talk verbally.
I think I handled the questions well. They were your basic interview questions, such as what are your strengths and weaknesses. A phone interview would be very interesting. I feel that a phone interview would be easier since the interviewer couldn't see signs of stress or nervousness. This can help keep your composure when answering the interviewers questions on the phone. One would only have to worry about answering the questions and not your appearance. Salary is a touchy subject in an interview. If one asks about salary too soon, it seems that all you care about is the money. I personally wouldn't even ask about the salary. Interviewers usually bring up salary on their own to let you know how much you will be making. I guess if one really had to know what the job paid, I would wait until the question part of the interview. This is near the end of the interview where the interviewer asks if there are any questions. This seems to most appropriate part for a salary question.
ReplyDeleteGreat points about the phone interview I thought differently but after reading your opinions I see some advantages. I also agree about waiting until the end until discussing salary
Delete1. Some positive points have been my social ease as the few interviews I’ve been on haven’t been very formal. The areas I could have worked on in one was having stats on previse experiences memorized instead of estimating as it put a lull in the interview and I felt unprepared. I learned to be better prepared as the areas I was questioned on were not the type that I thought would be asked or discussed.
ReplyDelete2. When being aware of my nonverbal communication I was standing open faced to a coworker. I do use a lot of gestures and found myself using my hands for emphasis. I did make eye contact and my facial expressions were animated with smiles. Knowing that I’m animated to be more formal I have to “tone it down” by not gesturing as much. I’ve been told my face gives me away so I know to be aware of my expressions as well. Eye contact is very important as well as nods of agreement or understanding and I would use those at an interview. I also feel dress is important and would make sure to address that issue of nonverbal communication.
Only having a handful of interviews under my belt this interactive approach really opened my eyes. I don’t feel I answered the questions well as I felt awkward and am inexperienced. I feel like a panel interview would be a better social fit for my personality and would not enjoy a phone conversation as I feel like it’s less personal and condensed. I think a good time to talk about salary is in the second interview?