Over the years, I have worked in many different positions throughout many companies which in turn comes with many different interview experiences. Here are the highlights:
Ineffective Interviews:
I worked at a retail establishment in a mall in high school. The interview process for this was very informal and took place in the food court. The hiring manager was in very casual clothing which made me feel more comfortable during the interview but also gave me a more informal perception of the company since she was the representative. The questions asked were very basic “tell me about yourself,” “why do you want to work for us” type questions which made me feel as though they did not care about my past experience they were just looking for staff to fill the store. They asked maybe 3 very simple questions, what my availability was, then offered me the job. During the interview, the hiring manager made little to no eye contact with me and seemed to be more interested in other things going on around us which made the interview a lot more informal and made me feel unvalued. If I were to go back and give the manager advice, I would suggest changing the overall presentation of the interview and taking a more professional and serious approach to it.
Effective:
I work for the College of Business at OSU and the interview process was very extensive and thorough. The questions were very nuanced and made sure to cover not only work situations and experience but also ethical situations and how I would deal with those. The interview took place over Zoom but was still very formal, the interviewers were dressed in business professional clothing and sat with very poised posture.
Similarly, I am going to be participating in the MECOP internship program. This interview process was even more professional than my interview for the College of Business. There was a competitive application process followed by 2 interviews. The interview was conducted by a board of interviewers, all professionals at their respective companies and had questions ready to ask. The order of who was asking what question was clearly practiced ahead of time as everything flowed very smoothly. These factors helped them establish their professionalism and made me respect them and treat them professionally in return.
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