{"id":16141,"date":"2017-01-25T10:35:09","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T15:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=16141"},"modified":"2019-03-05T16:18:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T21:18:18","slug":"interview-what-to-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/interview-what-to-say\/","title":{"rendered":"The Interview: What to Say and What to Leave Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Congratulations! You\u2019ve been offered an interview. Whether it\u2019s for a job in your field after graduation or an internship for the summer before your junior year, it\u2019s a considerable step in the right direction. Being offered the interview feels great until the anxiety sets in. While there\u2019s no reason to feel nervous, it\u2019s important to prepare as best you can. Research the company and if you can, the person who\u2019ll be conducting the interview. Don\u2019t forget to bring a copy of your resume and a pen and paper to take notes. You\u2019ll be talking about yourself, though. Don\u2019t forget that there are certain things that you should always say during an interview and other things that you should never say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Interview Tips: What to Say &amp; What NOT to Say\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iWpGdwYHBXk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">[divider]<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<h2><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>\u2714 Say: \u201cWhat is the one thing that I can I do to make your job easier?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Even if your interviewer isn\u2019t the person who would be supervising you on the job, they\u2019ll appreciate the sentiment. I was once told by an interviewer that very few college students ask that question and he wished it was one that he heard more often. Questions such as that are a great way to distinguish yourself. Chances are, the people ahead of and behind you in the interview line didn\u2019t ask it and if that\u2019s true, you\u2019ll be one step ahead of them both just for asking a question that they overlooked. It also helps convey that you care about the company as a whole and want to see it succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">[divider]<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>\u2716 Don\u2019t Say: \u201cI just want to get my foot in the door at a company like this.\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">This has to be one of the most common questions that interviewers hear from college students. I once heard a recruiter say that she hated hearing it. It\u2019s not hard to see why. More than anything, the people running companies want people who genuinely want to work with them. It\u2019s fine to want to dip your toe into the water of a certain industry and see if it\u2019s right for you, but that\u2019s not going to make you the ideal candidate for anyone. Would you hire someone who wasn\u2019t sure if they were passionate about the industry in which you work?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">[divider]<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>\u2714 Say: \u201cI don\u2019t know too much about it, but I\u2019d really like to learn.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Something important to remember when it comes to internships and entry-level jobs is that companies are almost always willing to train the right candidate. Experience is always a plus, but having the right attitude can be just a big a part landing the position. As mentioned above, employers want people who want to work with that, who believe in what they do and are passionate about it and nothing demonstrates passion like a willingness to learn. I know quite a few college students in assorted fields who landed paid positions by convincing their interviewer that they were willing to learn whatever they had to in order to do the job. During its duration, they learned valuable new skills.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">[divider]<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>\u2716 Don\u2019t Say: \u201cMy parents thought I should apply for this position.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Nothing convinces prospective employers that you don\u2019t care about their position like revealing that your parents pushed you to apply for it. Such a statement implies that you don\u2019t actually want it and you\u2019re only sitting there with them to please your parents. Even if that isn\u2019t quite true, it will almost always come across that way. Think about how&nbsp;it must seem to the people taking their time to interview you to think that you aren\u2019t serious about the position that they are offering. I once saw a girl in a group interview I was part of say exactly that. The two men interviewing us exchanged awkward glances on the spot upon hearing it. I suspected that she would not be offered the position. When I was offered it, my suspicions were confirmed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 2\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">[divider]<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>\u2714 Say: \u201cI want this job\/internship for this reason.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">If there is one thing I cannot stress enough, it is the importance of being prepared for the interview and knowing about the position for which you are applying. If you are not able to explain why you want the job in a few sentences, you\u2019re probably wasting your time interviewing for it. How could any employer hire someone without hearing what specifically makes them want the position at their company? If you know why you want the position you are applying for, answering such a question should be quick and painless.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">[divider]<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>\u2716 Don\u2019t Say: \u201cI haven\u2019t updated my resume in a while, but I recently did this.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Part of being a working professional is keeping an updated resume. To me, it seemed only natural to keep my resume as up to date as possible. I never saw how anyone could disagree, but I have known college students who sent their resumes off to companies without updating them to include their internship from the previous summer or semester. If you want to increase your chances of landing the position for which you applying, does it not make the most sense to make sure your interviewer is aware of every credential that you have? Sending employers an out-of-date resume seems like a great way to convince them that you are not taking any of the process seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[divider]<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>RELATED ARTICLES<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"gmail-title gmail-single-title entry-title\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/best-websites-find-internships\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Where to Look: The Best Websites for Finding the Perfect Internships<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"gmail-title gmail-single-title entry-title\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/land-your-dream-internship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Land Your Dream Internship<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"gmail-title gmail-single-title entry-title\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/millennial-networking-linkedin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Millennial Rolodex: Networking Through LinkedIn<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"gmail-title gmail-single-title entry-title\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/preparing-yourself-for-the-workforce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Preparing Yourself for the Workforce<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"gmail-title gmail-single-title entry-title\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/consider-before-starting-job\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">3 Things To Seriously Consider Before Saying YES to a Job<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"gmail-title gmail-single-title entry-title\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/how-to-make-job-offers-come-your-way\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Make Job Offers Come Your Way<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"gmail-title gmail-single-title entry-title\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/how-to-end-up-with-a-job-you-love\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to End Up With A Job You Love<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations! You\u2019ve been offered an interview. Whether it\u2019s for a job in your field after graduation or an internship for the summer before your junior year, it\u2019s a considerable step in the right direction. Being offered the interview feels great until the anxiety sets in. While there\u2019s no reason to feel nervous, it\u2019s important to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":27419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,602,5,228,615],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-advice","category-career-advice-ace-your-career","category-student-life","category-student-guide","category-interview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Samuel O'Brient","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/samuel\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Congratulations! You\u2019ve been offered an interview. Whether it\u2019s for a job in your field after graduation or an internship for the summer before your junior year, it\u2019s a considerable step in the right direction. Being offered the interview feels great until the anxiety sets in. While there\u2019s no reason to feel nervous, it\u2019s important to&hellip;","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/interview-what-to-say.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}