Interviewing & not becoming a robot...

With two interviews down and a few more to go, I thought it was ample time to write a blog post on interviews. My CCPR classmates and I are going on tons of interviews trying to score a great internship.


The night before my first interview I spent hours trying to prep myself for any question they might throw my way. I practiced my answers for questions like "How do you deal with conflict?" and "Tell me about a time you took initiative." After talking to myself for a few hours, I started to get really frustrated with my answers. I sounded like a robot, regurgitating planned answers based on what I thought they would want to hear.

My answers were contrived and forced. As I focused intently on how I could answer the question to best show my skills, I was losing my personality. Of course it is important to answer questions in the best way possible, but I also think it is really important to let your personality shine through. I'm sure interviewers get sick of hearing typical answers, memorized in the hopes of attaining the job.

I think if you give someone a taste of who you really are, this will capture them more than any answer searched on google. If they don't appreciate it, chances are it wasn't the right job for you anyway.

I'm not saying tell your interviewer about the party you went to on the weekend, or the new shoes you just bought. Keep it professional, just don't focus so much on the words you're saying that you forget who you are and the traits which make you a great candidate for the job.

Let's give interviewers a little more than robot clones.

- JS