Art of Interview

Time: Oct 1st, 2012

Talker: Gregory Justice

Seminar materials: doc, pdf

Preparation

• Interview begins at the moment you get the interview
• Research the company
  • Company’s website
  • Periodicals: previous data of the company
  • UVA library
  • UVA career services (alumni information)
• Get a UVA-logo leather folder to hold resumes during career fair and interview
• Get an attire (quality suit), $500~$800

Entering the room: American business protocol

• Keep eye contact and smile
• Don’t turn back to the interviewer (seems odd and impolite to interviewers)
• To lessen nervousness, to relax: relax hands… (Nervousness: America’s first fear: public speaking; 2nd: dying… LOL)
• Interviewers are not your enemy: they want to hire you. So you should respect and honor those interviewers by those gestures (eye contact, don’t turn back on them, smiling, etc.)
• Warm-up is necessary for sportsmen: to condition, avoid injuries and play in the peak. So is it for you.
• Physical warm-up is important for interview

Introduction

• Smiling + eye contact + posture
• Salutation: pick the right one for yourself (Hi, Hello, Good afternoon, …)
• Handshake: medium firm (you don’t want to hurt lady’s hands with jewelry)
• Say your name clearly: avoid the negative energy zone. English tends to put important information in the end of the sentence. So don’t loose power towards the end of sentence.
• For international students, can use Americanized names. This is according to Purdue’s survey, and Purdue has the most international students on campus in US).

Transition/Transformation

• During sitting down and locating the chair (in transformation), don’t turn back to the interviewers -> still honor interviewers.
• Sitting with an angle towards interviewers (to create a 3-D image, a depth. People get tired fairly quickly by looking at a 2-D flat image.)
• Adjust the sitting gesture during the interview (to regain the focus). Face the one who are interviewing you.

Exiting

• Exit: interviewers stand up, shake. If they don’t, don’t shake.
• And don’t make mistake in exit. Interview doesn’t end until you are miles away…

Other

• Talk from the heart, not from your head: this is what strikes the interviewers most. What do you for fun, what is your favorite movie… (this kind of questions mean they want you to talk from your heart).
• Elevator speech: write up, practice, memorize, and unmemorize (sounds like a natural speech)
• Details are in the document attached.