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Career Planning Guide
For the most part, modesty is an admirable trait. But it’s of little use
during a job interview. The purpose of an interview is to find the
best candidate for a particular job. Employers want to know about
the knowledge, skills, attributes and experience that distinguish
you from other job candidates, and they won’t know what makes
you special unless you tell them. However, most employers won’t
go out of their way to hire someone who comes across as cocky
or arrogant. So how do you balance the two? How do you put your
best foot forward without seeming conceited and egotistical?
CHOOSE WHAT TO TALK ABOUT
Start with the job posting and make a list of all the preferences and
requirements. Then try to match them with your own knowledge,
skills and experience. Make sure that you have examples ready
for as many of the preferences listed as possible. If leadership
experience is preferred, scrutinize your past for examples of it. If
the job requires good teamwork skills, be prepared with examples
from your past. But also be prepared to talk about things not
listed specifically in the job posting. Find out all you can about the
company and the job you are interviewing for. If you have certain
experience or knowledge that you think would make you do the job
better, don’t hesitate to talk about it. The employer is looking for the
best candidate for the job. Looking beyond the job posting could
help separate you from other applicants.
Make sure that everything you discuss is relevant to the job.
It’s not easy to do, but you may have to leave out some of
your most impressive skills and achievements. Talking about
skills, accomplishments or experience with no relevance to the
job does not help the interviewer identify you as a strong job
candidate, and could easily be interpreted as bragging.
Many recent college graduates make the mistake of limiting
their discussion to their college coursework, or jobs they had
that are directly related to the one they are applying for. But this
is a mistake. “Students should be willing to talk about any type
of knowledge or skills that they have acquired that are relevant
to the job they are interviewing for,” says Micael Kemp, retired
Director of Career Services at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. Volunteer experience, leadership positions in
a sorority or a fraternity, extracurricular activities, and even
work experience at retail or fast-food jobs can be sources of
information. “Many students underplay work experience gained
at places like grocery stores or fast-food restaurants,” she
continues. “But employers deeply appreciate people who have
gotten their hands dirty and aren’t afraid to work hard.”
STORY TIME
Reading off a list of knowledge, experience, and accomplish ments
makes for a short and boring interview. Your job during the
interview is to keep the interviewer interested in what you are
saying. Many career counselors suggest that job candidates
prepare a reservoir of stories that they can pull from during the
interview. People are naturally drawn to stories. It’s why we read
novels and why we watch movies. Also, stories allow job candidates
to show interviewers their skills and knowledge instead of just
telling them. “Interviewers need more than just your word that you
have a particular skill or attribute. They need specific examples, and
stories are a good way of providing that,” says Cynthia Redwine,
former Director of the Engineering Career Resource Center at the
University of Michigan, College of Engineering.
Stories have the added benefit of being easy to remember—
for you, as you use a particular story to demonstrate your
qualifications during the interview—and for the interviewer
who must access your skills and attributes after the interview
is completed. Demonstrating a particular job attribute through
a story has the added benefit of sounding less boastful than
stating the qualification directly. Saying that you are a good
leader sounds boastful; explaining how you led a team of
volunteers during a record food drive is admirable.
Once you have created a list of job skills and requirements from
the job posting and your own research of the company and the
position, sit down and try to come up with stories to demonstrate
each. Of course, certain things cannot be demonstrated through a
story (a high GPA, or a certain degree or academic specialty), but
that information is already apparent to the interviewer from your
resume. However, stories can be used in situations that at first might
not be apparent. For example, instead of simply stating that you
are proficient with a particular piece of software, you can tell the
interviewer how you applied the software to accomplish a particular
task. Keep your stories short and to the point. An interview is not a
creative writing class. There is no need to supply vivid descriptions or
unrelated background information. In fact, many career counselors
suggest that students keep their stories limited to one minute.
FINAL ADVICE
Take time to prepare for the interview. Never walk into an
interview with the intention of “winging it” no matter how
qualified you think you are for the position. If you are having
trouble coming up with stories or examples for the interview,
make sure you talk to friends, family members, co-workers,
professors and career counselors. Often those around us can
see skills and attributes that we do not.
Students sometimes make the mistake of telling employers
about job-related knowledge or experience that they don’t have.
While candor is an admirable trait, such frankness is out of
place in a job interview. Employers don’t want to know why you
can’t do the job, but why you can do it.
Employers want to hire people who are excited and proud of the
work that they have done. They want to know that you will bring
that same type of proficiency and enthusiasm to their company.
“You have a responsibility during the interview—not to brag, but
to give the employer the best picture you can of what they will get
if they hire you,” says Kemp. “It’s your responsibility to make sure
they get that information, whether or not they ask good questions.”
Written by Chris Enstrom, a freelance writer in Nashville, Ind.
Your Bragging Rights:
Selling Yourself