In order to improve or enhance your communication skills, make an appointment to video tape a practice interview in the Career Centre. Seeing yourself on tape and having the interview critiqued by an experienced – and friendly – counsellor can be one of the most effective ways to prepare for an interview.

FOCUS & DEDICATION TOWARDS THE INDUSTRY.

• Why did you choose this major and career?
• At what point did you make this decision?
• What attracts you to this industry as a career? Be specific.

COMMUNICATION

Clearly expressing ideas while writing–including grammar, organization and structure.

• Tell of a time when your active listening skills really paid off for you, maybe a time when other people missed the key idea being expressed.
• What have been your experience giving presentations to small or large groups? What has been your most successful experience in speech making?
• What difficulties have you encountered in trying to communicate technical information?
• Tell me about a time when you were most persuasive in overcoming resistance to your point of view.
• Give me an example of a time when you first resisted a change at work and then accepted it.

WORK STANDARDS

• Setting high goals or standards of performance for self, subordinates, others and the organization. Experiencing dissatisfaction with average performance.

• Compare and contrast the times when you did work which was above the standard with times when your work was below the standard.
• Describe some times when you were not very satisfied with your performance. What did you do about it?
• What are your standards of success in school/work? What have you done to meet these standards?
• How have you differed from your professors in evaluating your performance? How did you handle the situation?

JOB MOTIVATION

• The extents to which activities and responsibilities are available in the job overlap with activities and responsibilities those results in personal satisfaction.
• Give examples of your experience at school or in a job that were satisfying.
• Give examples of your experience at school or in a job that were not satisfying.
• What are your standards of success in your school?
• What have you done to meet these standards?
• What conditions are most frustrating to you?
• Describe the last goal you set for yourself that you feel particularly proud of. What happened?

JUDGMENT / PROBLEM SOLVING

• Using past experience, knowledge, and sometime intuition to quickly and clearly identify the crux of the issue or situation at hand. Identify a “game plan” or process by which to develop best solution(s).
• What kinds of decisions do you tend to make rapidly, and which ones do you take more time to determine?
• Tell me about a decision you have made which was the wrong one, and what you did about it.
• Give an example of a time when you used logic to solve a very difficult problem. Cite a situation where you had the longest time to consider a decision before making it. Why was it difficult? What were your alternatives? Was this a good decision in the end?

ADAPTABILITY:

• Assimilating and applying new job-related information properly.
• What tricks or techniques have you learned to make school or a job easier? How did you learn that skill?
• What tricks or techniques have you learned to make yourself more effective? How did you learn that skill?

PLANNING & ORGANIZING / WORK MANAGEMENT

• Establishing a course of action for yourself (and/or others) to accomplish specific goals. Planning proper assignments for personnel and appropriately allocating resources.
• How do you determine priorities in scheduling your time? Give examples.
• Describe a time in school when you had many projects or assignments due at the same time. What steps did you take to get them all done?
• Tell me about a time when your course load was heaviest. How did you get all your work done?
• If you are balancing work with full-time school, how do you prioritize your activities?
• We all encounter situations where something just “slips through the cracks.” Can you give me an example of when this happened to you? Cause? Results?

CUSTOMER SERVICE ORIENTATION

• Making efforts to listen to and understand the customer (both internal and external), anticipating customer needs and giving high priority to customer satisfaction.
• Talk about the most difficult customer service experience that you have handled, perhaps an angry or irate customer. Be specific and tell what you did and what was the outcome?
• Give an example of how you anticipated a customer need (internal or external) and the steps you took to meet it.

SENSITIVITY

• Acting out of consideration for the feelings and needs of others.
• Give an example of when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with. Why was this person difficult? How did you handle that situation?
• Describe a scenario where you found yourself dealing with someone who did not like you. How did you handle it?

PRACTICAL LEARNING

• Assimilating and applying new job-related information promptly.
• Describe a course in which you felt challenged. How did you do? What did you learn from the experience?
• Describe a time when you had difficulty learning something complex?
• Tell me about a situation in which you were able to treat a negative experience as a learning opportunity?