While the on-campus interview is generally thought to be a senior thing, this article should offer some sound advice to any students who may find themselves in an interview situation. You may be preparing for an interview for a very prestigious internship, co-op, or just a summer job. Whether you are a first year student or a senior, you should be able to get something out of this article.

If there is one key to a successful interview, that key would be preparation. Preparation is the key to interviewing with skill and confidence. Think about how you feel when you are really prepared for a test. When you have studied the material and your notes, and you really know the material, you feel confident and ready. The same is true of the interview, study the material and you will ace the interview. What is the material? The material is you, the company and the job market.

Start from Within and Work Your Way Out 

The first thing you need to do in preparing for the job interview is take a good look at yourself and try to determine what it is you want to do and why you want to do it. This is important because recruiters will ask you about your career aspirations during the interview. If you are not sure what it is you want to do, stay away from the interview until you come up with something that feels right for you. Far too many students enter the interview unprepared and then attempt to “wing it.” If you are having difficulty determining what it is you want to do, you should visit the career center on campus and talk with a career counselor. Counselors are professionals who can help you sort out your skills, interests and values. Even if you don’t know exactly what you want to do, don’t panic. A self-assessment is absolutely essential to your preparation for the interview, and at the very least will help you understand how best to present your skills and experience. Entering the interview without a sense of what you want and what skills you have to offer will be a major blow to your confidence. Once you are able to articulate your career goals and how you would like to use your skills, you are well on your way to developing the confidence you need to handle the interview.

Do Your Homework

The next step in preparation for the interview is to gain knowledge of the industry and company you want to interview with. The career counselor should be able to help you link your skills and interests to specific industries. This will be your key to selecting the companies you want to interview with. Since you are a full-time student, it will be a challenge for you to manage your time for school and the interview. This is why it is so important that you develop a list of industries and companies you have an interest in early on in the process. Now this doesn’t have to be a large list. It just needs to provide you with a starting point. This will allow you to focus your time and energy on your prime targets. Avoid the tendency to randomly apply for all openings at the career center. This random or “shotgun” approach is the one most often employed by students and is the source of most of their anxiety and frustration. It’s more difficult and time-consuming to apply for everything and hope for something. Experienced recruiters can generally tell who the “apply for everything” people are, and usually are not impressed. They will probe to see if you have done your homework of researching their company. One of the best ways to prepare for the on-campus interview is to find out from your career center if the company plans to schedule an information session. Many companies use the information sessions as a way of introducing their organization to students. The sessions are very helpful as they cover such important topics as job responsibilities, company culture, benefits, and advancement and training opportunities. The information session is a great opportunity for you to ask questions that are important to you about work environment, typical workday and mentoring opportunities. The challenge many students face is that they may be involved in student organizations that meet at the same time as the information session. Here is where your ability to prioritize and make sound decisions will come into play. You can always get caught up on the student organization, but it would be difficult to get caught up about the company information session. You don’t want to rely on secondhand information about something as important as an employment information session. Go to the session!

The Internet as a Resource

Another way of getting information about the company is to visit its Web site. Most companies have very comprehensive information about the company’s products, services and mission. It is essential to have this information in order for you to feel confident about the interview. Companies will frequently leave brochures and other written material for students at the career center. With all the information available about recruiting organizations, there is no reason to go to an interview unprepared in this important area. Michelle Stidwell, (right) Recruiting, Training, and Development manager for General Mills, says, “If I have to spend too much time answering basic questions in the interview, it makes me wonder why they are there. It becomes obvious that they haven’t done just the basic research necessary for a good interview. If a student absolutely cannot attend our information session, we have a great Web site, so there is no excuse for being unprepared.”

The Mock Interview

Once you have a good understanding of your strengths and skills, and have completed your research on the industry and company you want to interview with, you are well on your way to a successful interview. If time permits, it is always a good idea to schedule a mock interview. This can be arranged through the career center and will be a valuable dress rehearsal for the real interview. A mock interview will give you a good idea about the strengths and weaknesses of your interview style. The purpose of the mock interview is to allow you to develop confidence in handling the tough questions that you should anticipate in the real interview. You should concentrate on articulating the skills you have that match the skills and attributes employers are seeking.

What Are Employers Looking for in the Interview?

According to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the top skills sought by employers are interpersonal skills, teamwork, verbal communication, analytical, computer skills, written communication, and leadership. At General Mills, Stidwell says, “Analytical skills and leadership skills are critical for success. Our ideal candidate will also be a determined achiever, that is, a person who goes the extra mile to achieve personal goals. Such a person is not easily deterred. In the interview, we expect candidates to be able to demonstrate how they have used these skills in the past.”  So, you see, it’s not enough to simply relate what skills you have. You will have to demonstrate how you have used the skills when you are in the interview.

 General Mills, like many companies, uses behavioral interviewing techniques to determine which candidates will advance to the next phase. The idea behind behavioral interviewing is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. “With behavioral interviewing, candidates are forced to describe actual situations where they have used certain skills and what the outcomes were. Hypothetical answers about hypothetical situations simply won’t make it,” says Stidwell. “Our interview style is relaxed so that the candidates can be relaxed enough to present themselves in the most favorable light. We want them to be successful.”

Students often have trouble with certain aspects of the interview, particularly around tough questions about themselves and such areas as leadership. If you are not the president of your sorority or some other campus organization, you may feel it’s difficult to relate your leadership skills. So, how do you respond to questions about leadership? This is where you have to think outside the box. You need to realize that recruiters know there are many ways to express leadership outside of the traditional leadership positions. You can talk about the time you led a team project for a class presentation. How did you come to be selected as the team leader? What did you actually contribute? You may have had the opportunity to serve on a committee where you took on a leadership role. You don’t have to be the committee chair to exhibit leadership. Leadership is about getting things done or motivating others to get a job done. Maybe you were responsible for organizing a program or getting a speaker for an on-campus presentation. You could have organized a tutorial program, or an on-campus recreational day for local youth. There are so many opportunities for leadership to be expressed outside of the traditional positions of leadership. The key is that you be specific, keep the comments directed at what you actually did, and think outside the box. Again, this is where a professional career counselor can help you organize your responses to such questions during a counseling session or a mock interview.

Handling the Parts of the Interview

Most interviews are broken down into three parts: rapport building, information exchange, and the summary. As a candidate, you will be evaluated on all three parts. During the rapport building part of the interview, the recruiter is attempting to get you to relax before the information exchange segment of the interview. Although this part of the interview is rather brief, it is also very important. Your ability to engage in small talk offers an indication of your communication and interpersonal skills. It is not uncommon for the recruiter to ask you a very general question to get you started. A typical question may be something like, “Tell me a little about yourself.” Or they may ask you why you decided to attend your school. The rapport-building segment blends quickly into the information gathering part of the interview. This is the heart of the interview and is what you should have prepared for. Here is where you have to clearly demonstrate that you have the skills, interest and knowledge necessary for the position. The recruiter will try to gather critical information about your background and experience. This is where they try to determine if you have what they are looking for in an ideal candidate. For instance, General Mills will be trying to see if you are a “determined achiever with leadership and analytical skills.” These are the critical competencies they are seeking. If you attended their information session, you will already know this and will be prepared to share information about yourself that will demonstrate that you have what they are looking for.

Be prepared for most recruiters to ask you about your analytical or problem solving skills. “Here, students may look to their course work or class projects,” says Stidwell. “Don’t underestimate what you have accomplished in the classroom. The key here is your ability to apply classroom learning to the workplace.” Problem solving and teamwork employed in a classroom project are very similar to the dynamics of a team project at work. How did you help facilitate the work of the group? Were you on time for meetings and did you come prepared to make a contribution? What were your specific contributions? This is the kind of exchange you should be prepared for in the interview setting.

The final phase of the interview is the summary. The recruiter will want to know if you have any questions and will review the next steps for hiring. Be sure to have a couple of good questions that indicate you are a serious candidate. The one taboo question at this point is to ask about salary. This is much too early in the process to ask about compensation. Salary is properly discussed at the point where an offer is extended and not before.  At this point, you may want to know about mentoring at the company, or if they have any diversity initiatives in place. Mentoring for young minority professionals is a key to successful transition into the workplace. It should be a definite plus if a company has a mentoring plan in action. Good questions identify you as a mature and ideal candidate. You want to leave the interview feeling confident that you gave it your very best. Knowing who you are, and what you have to offer, will make for a solid interview.

If you have done your homework and prepared properly, you should be able to interview with skill and confidence. Good luck!

 A. Tariq Shakoor is the director of the Career Center at Emory University.