Hi everyone,
There
was a big turnout at Ellen's CSC Interview Workshop and the information
was relevant for all of us undergraduates so I thought I would share
some of the highlights.
The interview process can be really stressful and
many students avoid applying to jobs for fear of the interview. It
doesn't have to be so scary however, if you follow the advice Ellen
gives. First, be on time, have a good handshake, smile and make eye
contact. All of these things may seem obvious but they make a huge
impression. There are a list of interview questions you can find on our
website here. You should go through these and write out
answers for each one in the days before your interview because you could
be asked any of them. Ellen taught us the STAR system, situation, task,
action and result. In your responses give specific examples of your
experience and use these 4 points as a guideline, addressing each.
Professional dress was one part of Ellen's presentation that I believe it would be important to highlight here because after the career fair it seems obvious many people are not aware of how to dress professionally. To me, professional dress seems daunting and to be honest I don't have much professional apparel at the moment. I'm planning on going downtown to buy some things to be prepared for my summer internship interviews. Some stores for professional clothes are H&M, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx and Macy's. You can find some great professional clothes, even on a budget. All of these stores also sell the opposite of professional clothes so be very careful in your selections, keep it conservative and don't show a lot of skin. My boss said to our office last week, "the more skin you show, the more you're viewed according to your gender, not as a professional." Professional dress may be a very sexist institution but in order to succeed you need to dress as much like a man as you can without seeming androgynous/we need to play this to our advantage and use dress to benefit us, not have it work against us. Your rule of thumb should be: if you would wear it out, it's not professional. A mistake many young women make is wearing high heels.Heels should be no more than 1-2 inches, keep it kitten. Men, you have it easy, a classy suit is all you need to worry about having. You can go here for a prezi on how to dress professionally. You can also find the video of Ellen's workshop here.
Professional dress was one part of Ellen's presentation that I believe it would be important to highlight here because after the career fair it seems obvious many people are not aware of how to dress professionally. To me, professional dress seems daunting and to be honest I don't have much professional apparel at the moment. I'm planning on going downtown to buy some things to be prepared for my summer internship interviews. Some stores for professional clothes are H&M, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx and Macy's. You can find some great professional clothes, even on a budget. All of these stores also sell the opposite of professional clothes so be very careful in your selections, keep it conservative and don't show a lot of skin. My boss said to our office last week, "the more skin you show, the more you're viewed according to your gender, not as a professional." Professional dress may be a very sexist institution but in order to succeed you need to dress as much like a man as you can without seeming androgynous/we need to play this to our advantage and use dress to benefit us, not have it work against us. Your rule of thumb should be: if you would wear it out, it's not professional. A mistake many young women make is wearing high heels.Heels should be no more than 1-2 inches, keep it kitten. Men, you have it easy, a classy suit is all you need to worry about having. You can go here for a prezi on how to dress professionally. You can also find the video of Ellen's workshop here.
Kelleen
