Christa Downey broke down for us what a successful interview entails. She emphasized the importance of genuinely being passionate and interested in the cause we are interviewing for. Additionally, being genuine and passionate are ideas that are reinforced time and time again; however, Christa also emphasized the importance of being well informed and utilizing all of the resources that Cornell has to offer. She discussed the importance of several technical aspects that all play an imperative role in each interview. I found this to be especially helpful because I was in the process of applying to several internships. In the face of adversity and rejections its imperative to identify how to improve. Realizing that a rejection does not define you, or determine how successful or passionate you are or will be is important. It is equally important to realize that ultimately presenting oneself and honing in on improving their interview skills are things that can make a lasting impact as well as a strong impression.

Confidence! Success! Clear skin! All these things and more can be yours if you master the art of the interview! I’m joking, of course, but the recent seminar of interview skills really made me feel tangibly empowered and a lot more ready to take on the workforce. We received an Applications and Interviews Workbook and it makes all the obscure catchphrases you always hear, like “cultural fluency” and “teamwork,” feel more accessible. I was able to flip through and, using the S.T.A.R. method, create my own blurbs for future interviews. The S.T.A.R. method is how you as a job candidate give an example of your work experience and skills: Situation, Task, Action, Result. “This was the situation, my team/I had to complete xyz task, I took xyz action, and we got xyz result.” The workbook and the online resources like lynda.com were so helpful that I shared my notes from the seminar with friends!

This interview experience with Cornell Engineering was insightful since it brought to light the common themes and areas that interviewers expect people to have or show potential for. However, these interview tactics were not only helpful for jobs, but helpful for general approaches to life and even academic. Topics such as leadership, collaboration, work ethic go just beyond trying to impress the interviewer with stories but skill that will actually help people be more successful. Another insight that I learned from these interviews though is how they can’t always be authentic. If people know beforehand the types of qualities and skills that are expected, they will bring up or even make up stories related to these skills so the actual abilities of people can’t be tested until they start work. That is why I believe an alternative system of interviewing would be used where people are evaluated based on how they actually perform tasks and duties on the day of the job. This type of interviewing would be more representative of how people can perform in jobs. It’s understandable that this type of change would be difficult to implement due to the fact of time and money constraints, but I am interested in seeing how interview styles can change during the approaching years to be more representative of actual work applications.

I attended the Rose Scholars event on Thursday, February 21st with Christa Downey. Initially, I was quite hesitant to attend this event because I had already attended a Rose Scholars that was meant to prepare us for going to future interviews. While the first event focused on specific details with how to have a successful interview, this seminar took a rather different turn. Christa Downey ensured us to focus on our qualifications for a job rather than other factors, and how those specific qualifications would transcend in an interview setting. This is why I chose to attend this attend because I wanted to get into the minds of the people who will choose to accept or deny me in their work environment. Downey gave us a list of qualities that would be necessary to have in a successful workplace. She split us up into groups of 2-3, where she asked us to talk about past experiences where we had shown this quality and why it is important to have this. My group was assigned professionalism and work ethic, and we discussed times in our old experiences where we had demonstrated this. We concluded that many would relate professionalism and work ethic to appearance and how you hold yourself up in a professional setting. Personally, I had an internship in the summer where my co-workers were dressed casually, despite the intense and professional environment. This shows how professionalism is not just due to physical appearance, but how you present yourself to your co-workers and peers. After listening to all the groups talk about their experiences and what they perceive to be expectations, I know have a more insightful look into the minds of employers. On my next interview, I will take into account on how I present myself and how to properly demonstrate my qualifications.

I’ve been on interviews before so I’m not a stranger to the process. The objective of an interview is to suss out whether or not you’re a good fit for the position. The interviewer wants to learn your qualities and how they’ve been shaped by your experiences. Christa Downey from Engineering Career Services gave us all these tips and more in last week’s seminar. I found the list of skills she gave us extremely helpful. These were all skills that most industries sought for in all of their applicants. I was surprised to find that I had most of them and that I could easily work on the ones I don’t have here at Cornell.

The past week I attended a job interview workshop by Christina Downey, who is head of Cornell Engineering Career center. As a research-based student, I did not have lots of experience with interviewing and since summer internship was rolling around, I decided to take chance on the session to revitalize my knowledge on interviewing. The session was very helpful, especially when I was provided with the information sheet I can use to reflect on who I am and what are my strongest characteristics are. What I found out was that I am best at is critical thinking and my weakest is the deliverance of critical thinking. I am good at thinking about the question and breaking them down. However, I was weak at delivering them verbally. I was told to focus on how I want to bring the answer out step by step, instead of jumbling them up in the process. I had to make sure I was in a calm state and that there was no need for me to panic about speaking my thoughts out loud. It was nice to receive an opportunity to rethink about what my strength and weakness are and have time to test out strategies and methods of interviewing. I hope this kind of opportunities is available more in the future.

Last week, I attend the Art of the Interview event, and I found it very helpful. I don’t have a lot of experience with interviewing, and it is certainly a skill I can improve on. Christa Downey offered excellent tips and advice on how to market yourself to potential employers. I have upcoming interviews for summer internships and the strategies will be very helpful. I plan on applying these concepts to my future, and I found this Rose event very interesting and useful.

An evening with Christa Downey, helped me understand what is needed to master an interview. Downey’s experience as Career Counselor, helped explain what employers are looking for and how to portray those skills in the limited experience that one has. I have not had that many extracurricular activities that help support all the skills that I have. However, Downey helped me mold the experiences I have to the skills that employers are looking for. She also told us that the number one thing that employers are looking for is interest in their company. If you can portray enthusiasm in the company you will stand out above other candidates.

In Thursday night’s interview seminar, I learned that a big part of having a successful interview is doing the preparations beforehand. Whether this means researching the job and figuring how you and the company fit each other or practicing interview questions, there is a lot that you can do to prepare yourself. Interviews have always been intimidating for me and I always feel a sense of ambiguity because you never know exactly what an interviewer is looking for or whether or not you did well. For instance, my first interview this year was one that I thought I did well in – I was able to answer all of the interviewer’s questions in a clear and concise way, and I felt like I presented myself well. In another interview, I messed up on one of the questions and stumbled to deliver my answer. In the end, I got rejected from the one that I felt like I did well in and accepted into the one that I felt like I did not do well in. Thus, it’s important to keep trying and practicing when it comes to interviews and even if your interview was not successful, you still gained important experience from it. All that you can do is make sure that you prepare yourself beforehand and you know exactly why you want the position and what you can bring to it.

Christa Downey explained to us that in all interviews, the interviewees need to demonstrate their fit, competencies, and interests. Although it is important to have many skills required for the job, Christa emphasized that interviewees should show their genuine interest in working for the company. By showing interest and enthusiasm to learn the duties of the job, the interviewee will leave a positive impression on the interviewers. I really liked how we worked in pairs, discussed the assigned skill including how can we develop the skill, and shared what we discussed as a group. It was interesting how most students shared that leadership, communication, and teamwork skills came from the group projects they had to do for class. One thing that opened my mind was when Christa said people often associate leadership with a title, but leadership is actually having the opportunity to be in a group and taking initiative to work on the project. I agree with her because leaders take initiative. They make sure the subordinates understand the mission and inspire them to complete the mission. Overall, I enjoyed The Art of the Interview seminar, and I am grateful that Christa gave us the interview workbooks to help us prepare for our interviews.

This event was really good because it was an interactive event in which I was able to participate and talk to my peers, rather than just sit there and listen to another talk. I liked how I was able to talk about my own experiences, which was helpful because it helped me come up with talking points for when I interview. A really good point the speaker brought up was how your present yourself during a phone interview. What comes to mind of a phone interview is me in my pajamas just chatting with the interviewer. In my experience I have always found phone interviews very enjoyable, which might sound odd. But, I think it ’s because I talk to the interviewer as if he was like an old friend who I haven’t spoken to in a long time and I’m just catching up with. The host of the event said that while you talk on the phone you should smile. And I think that is why I don’t mind interviewing because I do use facial expressions and hand motions when I speak. It makes the conversation feel more natural. Also, smiling makes you feel more confident and happier. This workshop made me come to realize techniques that I just naturally did. My recommendation for anyone interviewing is don’t stress. Take notes before the interview of why you want the job and what you offer to them. And your golden. Just smile, relax, throw in some small talk and some light jokes.

The day before the event, I had a phone interview for a potential internship this summer. I wish I had attended the event prior to the interview, but I believe that I gathered valuable information for future interviews. The advice that I gained from this talk will allow me to be successful in not only interviews for internships, but for interviews on campus. A tip that I found very beneficial is that when you are conducting a phone interview, you should smile while you are talking to the person. The reason for this is that if you smile then it will come across to the other person as well. Also, it is important to remember to include your values and how they relate to the job. Even if this topic is not brought up in the interview, it is important that you tie it into the interview yourself.

It is really grateful seminar for me. I enjoy learning about interview process and strategies. I know that career readiness is the attainment and demonstration of requisite competencies that broadly prepare college graduates for a successful transition into the workplace. These competencies are: critical thinking/ problem solving, oral / written communication,teamwork, digital technology, leadership, work ethic, career management, global fluency. I am appreciated this talk and hope I can learn from that.