An interview is often the first impression that your future employer will get of you. You want to do well, to impress your interviewers and make a lasting impression. However, during this seminar, I also realized that it is just as important to be yourself. You want to know that the company is truly a good fit for you, and if you change your behavior to match what you think the interviewers want, you could be getting yourself into an office environment that is nothing like what you want. The idea of being yourself in an interview seemed a bit contradictory to me at first, of course you don’t want to be too casual or come off too strong but you still want to be bubbly if you re an outgoing person or even serious if that is how you normally are. It is important to show your future employers what they would be getting when hiring you.
Another topic I found interesting from this seminar was the idea of negotiating wages and benefits. As a first generation student, I knew nothing about this topic. Both of my parents work jobs where they are paid hourly, not by salary and any negotiation attempts would not be tolerated. When hearing about negotiations I worried as I would have to do a large deal of research to be able to know what would be a fair salary. I know the amount I could live on, what I would need to cover the necessities but when it comes to negotiating a fair salary, I become pretty clueless.
Overall, this event was very helpful. I was able to hear from other people about what they do in interviews as well as hearing from Sara and all of her interview experiences.
I also appreciated Sara’s advice about not changing your personality too much for an interview, or trying to be too nice and deferential, and instead looking for a company where you really fit. I had previously been trying the “nice” strategy, and I don’t think it’s worked for me.
One area where this has really come up for me is salary. I also have no idea how to negotiate a salary. To be honest, I haven’t even been asking about money in interviews. It seems almost petty to me, and I’m worried about seeming like I’m not interested in the position itself, only the salary. But money is the reason we work, even if we love our jobs. So I guess it is a fair question, and I’m going to work harder to ask it in future.
I also attended this seminar and I did not know that our first salary could determine how much we make over the course of our career. I always thought it was rude to negotiate a salary because it would imply that the employer doesn’t know how much you are worth to the company.