Three Lessons by Accident
Over the weekend, I delivered an Interview with Success program to college students from various schools around the state. My PowerPoint presentation comprised the first part of the program and the second part of the program was application, a chance for the students to put into practice what they had learned. As per usual, we all learned together…listed below are three lessons:
1. Near the end of my PowerPoint presentation, out of nowhere, the screen went dark and the PowerPoint quit working. The students were thrilled — “time to take a break, hooray, yeah — no more PowerPoint.” As I shared with the class that the PowerPoint was almost over anyway, they said “good!” and “just tell us any important stuff.” Great advice: just tell us any important stuff! — a good lesson to remember when you’re doing an interview (or a PowerPoint) presentation — cut the fluff, the babble, and the filler. Your audience will thank you. Lesson 1.
2. As we were doing the interview practice, one of the students remarked that “all of our answers sound the same.” Each student was practicing responses to the same six questions and as their turn to sit in the Hot Seat came about, there was a definitive pattern of sameness to the responses. When you present yourself in an interview, (for real; not practice) try to do your best to not sound like the candidates before you and the candidates after you in the eyes of the prospective employer. This can be achieved, in part, through the words you intentionally choose to shape your responses. For example, saying that you are “loyal, honest, and hardworking” will not make you memorable, as your competition will also be saying these very words. Visit O*net for good ideas of descriptors that align with your job target and that sound unlike everyone else. Lesson 2.
3. During the presentation, I invited the students to shake hands with one another if they felt comfortable in so doing. Most did. When I asked for feedback about their handshakes, most said “good, fine, okay.” I then asked if anyone did not shake hands. One female student (Gen Y) said she did not because “I bumped.” She showed us through example, saying that she uses the bump handshake to avoid germs. Her bump handshake then led to a discussion about how do you think this will go over in the workplace of today? Lesson 3.
Three good Interview with Success lessons we learned, quite by accident…
Article by, Billie Sucher and courtesy of CareerHub.com. The Career Hub blog connects job seekers with experts in career counseling, resume writing, personal branding and recruiting.
