My turn for interview advice.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 26, 2003
Messages
10,023
Location
Central Coast, Calif.
I'm "phone interviewing" for a summer internship at a large company on Monday morning. The last interview I've had was in 2000. My background experience is very different from the position I am applying for but I'm 10 years older than the average college student so I actually have experience on my resume. As far as I know I am qualified for the position and they are typically just looking for an interested college senior with good grades.

Any tips on a phone interview?
Any questions I should be prepared for?
How much should I promote the fact that I am older and more experienced than average even though it is in a different field of work?
 
Some colleges are degree mills, pumping out graduates by the thousands with ZERO wrk experience. Its great that you have experience both civilian and military.

But I would suggest knowing as much about the company and the position you are appling for when they ask you... Why do you want this position and why should we hire you ?
 
Thanks for the advice so far.
I figure I don't need to regurgitate my resume to them, rather build on it with why I am currently in school and how I tie school and real experience together.

I know quite a bit about the company but not much about this division, I'm going to do some research this weekend.

Luckily, the program I am in has a reputation for outstanding graduates. I became aware of the position because management in this company sends personal emails to professors my department asking for good students. My correspondence has been through the upper management in the department, not generically through the HR dept.
 
Older and more experienced can also spell "more expensive" so watch out for that. Try to tie whatever experiance you have to this new field.
 
Smile CONSTANTLY.

Believe it or not, it will help your tone inflection and portray a nicer tone.

Pause slightly before you answer the question. It's a magic amount. Too little and you come across and thoughtless. Too much and you appear dumb/nervous.
 
Originally Posted By: Tempest
Older and more experienced can also spell "more expensive" so watch out for that. Try to tie whatever experiance you have to this new field.


I dunno. People like to know they are getting someone who's not wet behind the ears. But at the same time you have to make sure you don't come off as being too crusty. Depending on the age of your supervisor, they might be intimidated.
 
I'd "sell" your experience to the hilt.
Liquid turbo is spot on. I would even go so far as to dress accordingly. Pick a private spot and FOCUS.
 
I had the phone interview today. I believe it went well, their comments were "you've said a lot of the right things". It was very informal, mostly they were testing my communication skills, apparently it is a big part of this job. It is a little odd interviewing for an internship rather than a regular job as they are looking at giving a college student an short-term opportunity that may turn into a real job so they were mostly interested in my college experiences and we only talked a tiny bit about my previous work experience. For the most part I was able to answer what they were looking for. I didn't have an answer for one question, but I was honest about it and explained a similar process in a slightly different situation. Basically this position is in engineering management and all of my experience and education is in operations.

I made the initial cut, they are phone interviewing 3 out of 10 applicants. I'll hear back by the end of the week on their decision.
 
Good Luck.

I did an internship with GE Clinical Services (GE Healthcare) about 15 years ago and out of the 20 students that applied only 4 were chosen. Even if they pay peanuts during the internship it opens many doors once you prove just how good of an employee you really are.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top