Well hellloooo!!
The countdown begins and the angst sets in, hhaa. I think my body has finally had enough of the not eating right, not sleeping at all, stressful environment fun and is succumbing to some sort of bug. Fun times. At least it is hitting me after I have finished my comps and my first on campus interview. So yay, for silver linings.
And about that on campus interview.
I had an incredible time, which is not what I was expecting to come away saying. My on campus is for a job that I was initially reluctant to apply for. It IS in a field that I want to go into but there were parts of the job that I thought I would not enjoy. I was encouraged to apply by a current staff member and after a little informational interviewing, I felt confident enough to submit my materials. I am really excited about this job which is pretty scary for me. I hate let downs and I like preparing for the worst, so I'm reluctant to admit how much this job feels like a good fit and how thrilled I would be if I landed it. I'll give a little rundown of the day, how I prepared, what I learned, and all that jazz.
The day:
It was an all day interview at my current campus so there wasn't any intense traveling involved. Here was the flow:
- Greet search committee chair, ask/answer any prep questions/prepare presentation
- Give presentation: I gave a 10 minute presentation to about half of the staff on my work with college students and then answered questions for about another 30 minutes
- Meet with search committee: Went through the traditional interview song and dance while "being myself" and trying to answer questions without sounding like a toolbag or dud.
- Tour of Campus: Fun stuff
- Lunch with students: This was great and by far my favorite part. It was relaxed but, you know, still an interview
- Wrap up with search committee member: Exhausted but still trying to be perky, ask good questions, and not say anything spazzy.
-Home-sweatpants- sleeeeep.
So how did I prepare:
Fortunately my graduate program does a series for second years on the job search. We had just done a session on interviewing so I had some helpful worksheets on how to craft examples of my skills and experience and good follow up questions. I had done my research on the job, the institution and the culture so I felt really comfortable navigating those questions. I can't stress how important it is to have concrete examples from your experiences. It helped me to write a list of them so I wasn't scrambling around for the same old crusty story when I had to talk about how I managed stress, or planned my time. Here is a technique we used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation,_Task,_Action,_Result
I had a skype sess with my mentor and she gave me some great questions to consider and helped talk me through some of my experiences, successes and challenges. I also crafted my responses to those tricky questions like "what is your weakness." I wanted to be honest AND I WAS but I also think it's important to talk about how you work on your weaknesses. Like saying "I'm not the most detail oriented person so I try to make sure I communicate that to my team and work with people who may be stronger in that area when working on a project, blah blah blah. I didn't want to sound too rehearsed but I also wanted to avoid rambling. It's a fine line but achievable.
I don't mind presenting so it wasn't the scary part for me. I was given a topic and I tried to incorporate my philosophies on college student development and examples from my past experiences. I think it went well.
Most of the interview was just me being me, but a more polished version. I really did feel like I could be myself which helped me feel it was a good fit. I made sure to follow up a few hours after with emails to the search committee letting them know how much I enjoyed my day and included my list of references. I got the timeline and I'll keep an ear out for the phone. eeeeek.
So that was that, first on campus done. I really started freaking out in the final moments about stuff like what I should wear and what theme I should use for my powerpoint. I will advise you to breath and have someone that you can ask advice from wether it be a mentor, colleague or cohort buddy. It felt like preparing for a research paper and I think that prep allowed me to feel more confident and collected and I could really let my personality shine through.
So that's it for now, good luck with all that stuff you probably have going on. Be back with updates from my life sooooon.
Until Next Time,
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