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| So I had this writing sample I made up for a job. Thought I'd share for anyone who cares.
Interviewing Tips
After several months, and hundreds of resumes sent out, you have finally received the fateful first interview from a reputable company. Now what happens? Being a recent successful job searcher, and having the pleasure of working with current job searchers, I would like to share a few tips I have picked up along the way regarding what you need to do prior to the big day. The tips I would like to share come from teachers, books, and mostly experience. I believe they will be a benefit to anyone with an interview in their future.
The first thing you should do upon confirming the date, time, and place of your interview, is sit down and begin your "cheat sheet". A cheat sheet should include research about the company you are applying for, including a description of what the company does, who their customers and competitors are, and any recent news articles you have found about them. This research will not only give you a background into the company, but is also a great place to begin formulating questions for you to ask the interviewer. Your cheat sheet should also contain a section for your personal information, including bullet points about your education, experience, and objectives that you would like to fit into the interview. The bullet points are quick reminders for you to glance at during the interview, not paragraphs to be read verbatim. Once you have written the cheat sheet, which should be one to two pages, review and revise if necessary. This will be an invaluable tool before and during your interview.
The elevator pitch, we've all heard of it, now what is it really? Here is the scenario- you arrive at XYZ Corp. for your interview and hop in an elevator to the 54th floor, you recognize that the woman riding in the elevator next to you is the CEO of the company (thanks to your research about the company you saw her picture in a recent news article). You now have about 30-60 seconds to tell this woman about yourself, and why she should hire you to work at her company. In reality, this short speech will become most useful to you when the interviewer says, "Tell me about yourself." This open ended question is actually not intended to gather your life story or personal beliefs, instead they want to hear about your education, experience, and interview objectives. This speech should give the interviewer just enough information that they become interested in you and ask you follow up questions. Once you have formulated your speech the key is to practice it aloud. Driving in the car, in front of a mirror at home, in the shower, wherever and whenever you can, repeat this speech so you have it somewhat memorized, but it still sounds natural. You can write the bullet points for your elevator pitch on the cheat sheet to be sure you don't miss any of them.
Another good idea is to rehearse aloud your answers to some of the typical interview questions, these are readily available online if you do a little research. You may not experience these same questions in your interview, but you'd be surprised how many people use the typical questions. Finally, it is the day of your interview and you are mentally prepared. In order to really "Wow" the interviewer without even opening your mouth, you need to make sure to dress up. No matter what style (casual, business casual, informal) the interviewer says you may wear, always wear your best suit. It is better to be overdressed and exceed expectations, than to meet the status quo.
I have shared with you a few choice tips for preparing yourself for an interview. The cheat sheet will be an invaluable tool for you to use while studying for this interview. The more you review the information, and read it aloud, the more natural and comfortable you will sound when it comes time for the interview. With practice your elevator pitch will make you sound like a calm, cool, and collected professional who knows what they want. If you combine these tactics with your best suit, and show up on time, I guarantee you will feel more comfortable, and the interview will be a smooth and enjoyable experience.
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| Last night I slept on the bed in one of the other rooms, because both of the beds in my room have been killing my back. Lets just say, it was glorious, and I won't go back to those creaky old beds. This morning I folded my laundry, worked out for an hour, showered, and was going to the mall. I only made it to the end of the driveway though because the neighbors are cutting some branches (finally!), but also decided to cut them all down at once and then move them, so that the driveway is completely blocked. I was going to try and drive over/around them, or just wait for them, but it was not a possibility. So now I'm here, gonna wait about 20 minutes and try again. | | |
| Haven't been here in a while. The big news is I'm getting married next year on October 16th, in the Dirty-D. Kyle is still in Dayton right now, trying to get a job here.
Today Megan came here from Fredricksburg and we went to DC to walk around the mall and went in to the Natural History Museum for a little bit. Then we came back to FFX and had lunch. It was really great to see her.
Back to work tomorrow  I feel like I need more sleep. | | |
| Today at work was SUPER boring, I seriously did about 2 minutes of real work and mindlessly surfed the internet until my eye balls almost fell out the rest of the time. I'm back on the job search band wagon now, hopefully something will come up. This past weekend was good, rookie initiation, & whatnot. Kyle came into town, we got to carve our pumpkin on Sunday. His name is Chip the jack-o-lantern, and he's mighty fine. I got to play my first indoor soccer game with the team from work last night and it was really fun, my hip flexors hurt a little bit tonight but that's ok. Last night I was trying to talk to the mama about issues in my life, but she just brought up Jerry and ended our conversation when I told her that was annoying to me. I'm going to go read and go to bed early. I've got dance class tomorrow, I haven't really practiced, so this should be interesting... | | |
| I had wonderful anniversary celebration with Kyle this past weekend. Friday night we went to see scarecrows at a park in Dayton, then to the Dublin Pub where we had a delicious dinner. Saturday we watched 2 episodes of Greek, went for a Hayride & got a pumpkin at Windmill Farms. Then...we went to The Golden Lamb which is the oldest hotel in Ohio, and several historical figures have stayed there. For our anniversary, Kyle got us a room there, and we had dinner down in the restaraunt downstairs. It was all amazing, and wonderful, and historical, and I loved it. He's really going to have to work hard to out-do that next year. Today at work was boring, tomorrow I have to go shadow one of the corporate events, so that should be interesting. I went to rugby tonight, it was fun. We're scrimmaging OSU on Wednesday. Kyle is coming this weekend, woooohoo! | | |
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