Interview Practice

This afternoon I interviewed Elena, one of the other students in the Management class. Our goal was to simulate an interview experience that we might find in the real world, and so we decided that since we didn’t know each other very well, we might be a good match for this assignment.

Elena is interested in working in a library after graduation. Though she now works at the Botany library at UNC and would like to continue with a similar job, she says she has not yet decided whether she would like to be at an academic or public library. While the academic side appeals to her, she also is drawn to the work environment at public libraries, particularly as she had a positive experience working as a high school science teacher in Atlanta and feels that she would like to be involved in a community in a similar way in the future. She brought along a copy of her resume, and I read it over and tried to convincingly play the role of the interviewer, a manager at a University science library. It was helpful to have someone else to talk to about the interviewing and job search process, because writing resumes is not a common activity for either of us, and asking questions like page length and interview strategies helped us both feel better about the process. Not feeling like we are in this alone helped as well. Though we both have a year until we will go on the job market, the job application process can be an anxiety-wrought business. I think we both appreciated the chance to do a few dry runs to have things in order before we actually have to go through the process in the real world.

As an interviewer I tried to draw a balance of questions. I asked her about her long-term goals, the reason she was interested in this position, and what she felt her strengths were. After a few easier questions I tried to ask some less-comfortable questions, the ones I have always felt were the most difficult for me as an interviewee in the past. These include questions like “Describe a situation where you disagreed with a supervisor in the past and how you handled the situation. How would you have handled it differently in hindsight?” Elena seemed very practiced and handled the questions smoothly. I think the fact that she was thinking about applying for a very specific job- one at the library where she now works- helped her focus in a way that made answering all of these questions easier.

When it came time for my interview, I showed Elena a job posting for the kind of position I might be interested in having. It was for a metadata and information systems job at a small University library. I don’t feel that I answered my questions as smoothly as Elena had done, partially because I was not entirely sure about the kind of position I would like to hold when I graduate over a year from now, and partially because I am out of practice with professional interviews. My last interview, for my current job, was held over the phone while I was in a hotel lobby in Mexico City- hardly the most common setting for an interview of that kind. However, even under such strange circumstances my boss, my coworker and I were able to get something of a sense that we would work well together, and indeed things have gone well at my job. I find the prospect of interviewing for a theoretical job very daunting, but when I am trying for a specific position that is well suited to my skills and personality it is far more enjoyable.