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Week 1 – Blog Post: Job Application Experiences

The last job I applied for was a Risk Management Assistant position with OSU’s Insurance and Risk Management Services. I applied for the position in January of 2019, was hired later that month, and I have been working in this role ever since. Overall, I had a really positive recruitment experience. Looking back, the initial application process felt very impersonal. Because it was a job posted at OSU, the process to apply went through an application portal that is used for all student jobs. This portal served its purpose, but it was not directly related to the department on campus I would be working for, and it did not help me form any kind of connection to the people or role. The portal was very straightforward and the questions asked of me when I applied were relevant to the job. Following this step, I was contacted shortly after the window to apply closed, and I was reached out to personally by an employee of the Risk department to schedule an interview. My email exchanges with this employee were very friendly and I was excited for my interview. Come my interview, I was pleasantly surprised by how well I meshed with the two individuals who interviewed me. I had expected a very formal and serious tone to the interview, however, the two individuals who I sat down with made me feel at ease. I was handed a sheet of 7 or 8 questions that they would ask me, which allowed me to view them all over briefly and also take a second look at the question while I spoke, if needed.

The most memorable part of this recruitment experience was the interview portion. The two employees who interviewed me came across as very warm and unthreatening, and this helped calm my nerves and gave me confidence. I got the impression that I would really like working with these people and in this particular environment. The interviewers were very honest and straightforward with me about the role and what they were looking for. I appreciated this, and it ended up being a truly great fit.

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3 replies on “Week 1 – Blog Post: Job Application Experiences”

I think there is a lot of value in having good interviewers during an interview. In a lot of cases this definitely makes or breaks the hiring process. I personally like when interviews are more casual and like a conversation. When the interviewers are not friendly, it makes me more nervous and ends in a worse interview on my part.

Hannelore, I think that it is pretty cool how your experience started as a distant communication through a portal and slowly got more personal as your advanced. It is great to be calmed by the fact that the interviewers are friendly and it is helpful to have them feel like they really value you as a possible future employee. It sounds like this was a great experience overall and you will learn from it when you are looking for future jobs.

I think that your account of the application process was very good and shares many aspects with applications that I have completed in the past. The initial application does feel quite cold to me, as well, and I’m happy that that feeling did not continue through to the interview stage for you! It really does make a difference when you are given the questions before being asked in an interview to get your bearings and present a more cohesive picture of who you are through your answers.

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