The Observer, March 9, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 20
Ask Amy...
On-campus interviewing (OCI) is an opportunity for you to interview with a wide variety of companies for both internships and full-time career positions without having to leave campus. Since Jan. 29, 955 students and 85 employers participated in OCI. Overall, most students arrived on-time, exuded confidence, and were pleasant the minute they walked through the door. A few students, on the other hand, were unbelievably rude.
Consider the on-campus interview for a moment. You spend 20-30 minutes in a tiny interview suite with a total stranger. The interviewer will subsequently decide whether you will ever have a chance of working for their company. The best you can hope for is to avoid being disqualified, which takes you one step further into the interviewing maze. One little mistake, one little error, and you could be eliminated as a possible candidate. For this reason it is very important to start your interview right. Your interview starts when you walk through the door. It is so important to remember to smile and to be patient because the person behind the front desk holds more power than you think.
Some companies feel a lot can be learned from how candidates treat secretaries/receptionists or those organizing the interview, particularly if they are rude, condescending, or arrogant. Employers feel this is an accurate reflection of how candidates would treat their co-workers and direct reports. So employers now want to get the Career Center's impressions right at the start. So if you are discourteous and dismissive, you may get the thumbs-down. This may result in not getting a call back for the next round of interviews.
Obviously, anyone looking for a new job would do well not to alienate the person who sits outside the interviewer's door. The following are five tips for getting off to the right start:
Be patient and flexible. When scheduling an on-campus interview, it is important to be patient and flexible. Unexpected things happen!
Introduce yourself as you would to any other potential new colleague. Smile, introduce yourself, and so on. It seems odd that this has to be spelled out, but apparently it does; and, besides being a matter of common courtesy, ordinary friendliness offers a practical advantage: learning and remembering a receptionist's name can only help as you advance in the interviewing process.
Don't regard a secretary/receptionist or other assistants as an underling–at least, not as your own personal underling. If you'd like to get a business card from the interviewer, refrain from asking the person at the front desk to get it for you.
Feel free to make small talk, but know that anything you say may get back to the interviewer. Don't ask probing questions about the company or offer unsolicited opinions. No matter what–keep it to yourself. This is no time for whining and grumbling.
Don't forget to say good-bye. Failure to say good-bye to someone you've just met reflects negatively on you. You'll come across as impersonal and uncaring. That's hardly the image any job hunter wants to project.
