Dry-Run Interview Questions (Interviewer to Interviewee):

• – What makes you the right candidate for this position?

This question allows the interviewer to gage why the candidate is applying as well as the strengths a candidate will bring to the position.

• – Tell me about why you want to work with students.

This question is vital because the position will need an employee who enjoys students and works with them well. Understanding the kind of relationship the employee would have with students is necessary in deciding who the right candidate is.

• – How will the responsibilities from your past job help prepare you for this position?

This allows the interviewer to learn more about what a candidate may have taken away from their previous job, as well as show an understanding of the position they’re applying for.

3 Big Moments

1. My first “big moment” would have to be a story from my High-school/college job, Dunkin Donuts. Although I always did my work to the best of my ability, I definitely considered the job to be of low-value for my future. At times, it was really hard for me to take the experience seriously because of how low-impact I considered my position. Then, I remember one older gentleman named Kevin. Kevin was a daily customer, sometimes he would even stop in three or four times a day. Kevin and I got to know each-other well over the years that I worked there, and he became somewhat of a grandfather figure in my life. Unfortunately, roughly a year ago to date, Kevin was diagnosed with multiple variations of cancer and he refused any treatment. Suddenly, nobody saw Kevin anymore and nobody knew what had happened. It was a few months later, I was cashing someone out on the lobby registers, and low-and-behold Kevin walks into the building. Immediately I heard his voice yell “well hello darlin!” and a large smile appeared on his normally solemn face. In that moment, I knew what I did mattered to the people around me, whether I considered it high-caliber or not.
2. My second ‘big moment’ happened when I was interning at Across the Disciplines (ATD). I had been given the opportunity to reference check articles for the journal, and I was ecstatic. However, I am not especially strong in my punctuation and I had never worked with APA format before. I remember getting my first assignment and having absolutely no clue of what to do. I spent hours scouring Google to learn about APA format, how to create hyperlinks out of digital object finders (doi), and where/what to punctuate or capitalize or italicize. The first piece I submitted had taken me hours and although I had managed to do it correctly, I was not confident that I was the right fit for the position. That said, I was not going to lose this opportunity. I actually began to study APA format in my free time, and eventually, I built up more confidence in the subject. Although I was not necessarily qualified for the position I was given, I had worked as hard as I could to learn. Now, I am able to finish an entire reference check within a few hours, and not only that, but it is almost always done correctly.
3. My father was a self employed antique dealer, and I spent my free time and money following in his footsteps. Every year we would drive to the Brimfield Antique Show to set up a tent and sell/barter our goods. I had spent my entire summer combing yard-sales to find nice, vintage jewelry. Every year my father would give me $20 and that would be my shopping budget. I would then take the $20 worth of antique/vintage products I found and re-sell them for a profit. At eleven years old, I was keeping log books, learning how to date an item by just looking at it, spotting ‘fake vintage’ (as my father called it), paying rent to my father for space in his booth, and still making a profit. I learned the basic aspects of how to run a business and I enjoyed it. One summer a man tried to steal one of the necklaces I was selling and my father caught him doing it. I had never seen something like that happen before that point in my life, and I was astounded that anyone would do that, especially to a little girl. I learned to be more cautious that day, and I began to understand the ways that I would have to be more observant. This was really the turning point in my life from where I moved from viewer to observer.

Interview Questions (Interviewee to Interviewer)

• – What exactly is “the handbook” and what is its purpose in relation to this position?
• – What kind of information does the handbook contain, and would I be expected to keep that information up-to-date or simply display it?
• – One of the requirements for this position is networking skills, can you tell me more about why that is so important for this position?

Sample Job Description Critique/Questioning

A lot of the language is vague in the sense that a non- member of University of New England (UNE) will most likely not know what is being discussed. For example “acceptance day,” “orientation week,” and “the handbook” were all concepts that could have been elaborated on. Furthermore, I found it odd that the major and minor duties had the same amount of requirements. Visually, the two paragraphs looked equal, and therefore my mind adapted them as equal. Overall, it encompasses everything that is necessary for a job description, but there could have been more elaboration throughout.