{"id":5459,"date":"2013-01-23T17:11:46","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T21:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news\/gatenew\/?page_id=5459"},"modified":"2013-11-20T17:11:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T21:11:54","slug":"lazarus-center-offers-a-chance-to-practice-interviewing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/lazarus-center-offers-a-chance-to-practice-interviewing\/","title":{"rendered":"Lazarus Center Offers a Chance to Practice Interviewing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMock Interview Day with Alums,\u201d<\/a> an event hosted on January 23 by the Lazarus Center for Career Development, gave students an opportunity to practice presenting themselves to potential employers in a supportive environment.<\/p>\n

\"mockinterviewday\"Patricia Woods, assistant director of the Lazarus Center, organized the event. Echoing recent articles in LinkedIn, Woods says that students “are very rarely taught how to get the job to do the skills they want to do. They need to have opportunities to verbalize the answers to interview questions.”<\/p>\n

Many of the participating students, eager for anything that will give them a leg up in a shaky economy, have attended several events sponsored by the center.<\/p>\n

Emuna David \u201914, a theatre major interested in broadcasting and writing for theatre, film, and television, transferred to Smith and became a self-proclaimed \u201cCDO junkie\u201d right away. \u201cA lot of my friends are transfers as well,\u201d she says, \u201cand we all pretty much hit the ground running when we came here, determined to take advantage of all of Smith\u2019s job-finding resources. Thanks to career services, I\u2019ve been able to develop a very great resume and although I\u2019m anxious about getting a job after Smith, I feel well prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

For David, job interviewing gets easier the more she does it, so she wants all the experience she can get. \u201cI want to be able to present myself succinctly and eloquently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julianne Roseman \u201913 signed up for the mock interviews when she saw that one of the participating alumnae worked in consulting, the business she hopes to enter after Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn consulting, the types of interviews are really specific because you have to solve a case during the interview,\u201d she says, \u201clike, they\u2019ll ask you how many taxis there are in New York, and you have to ask framing questions, it\u2019s very tricky. And besides this workshop, there aren\u2019t any other ways to learn how to give an interview like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because she\u2019s an English major\u2014not the traditional background for management consulting\u2014Roseman says she worries about getting an interview in the first place, and she sought information from her interviewer about how the hiring process works, as well as other information.<\/p>\n

Jim Meck, whose wife is an Ada Comstock Scholar, class of 2014, participated as a mock interviewer as a way to stay active in the Smith community. \u201cThis is a way to give back,\u201d says Meck, who has worked in the systems engineering industry since 1985. \u201cThe biggest pattern I noticed is that students tend to assume that potential employers only care about your academic record,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut we want to know, have you ever gotten a paycheck? Some other advice I have for students is to take advantage of all of Smith\u2019s great job-finding resources, and to make human interactions every time you get a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Meck, Beth Likely \u201981, who owns a healthcare public relations and marketing communications firm, also participated as a mock interviewer as a way of giving back to Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmith has been, and will always be, a large part of my life and who I am,\u201d she says. \u201cThis program is an opportunity for me to share some of what I\u2019ve been able to accomplish because of Smith, and to help new Smith grads launch successful careers right out of college.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says students should know that employers look for candidates who \u201chave done their homework and come to the interview with a good understanding of the type of work we do. Also, be ready with specific examples from college, or summer jobs\/internships, that demonstrate skills relevant to the position. Just because you haven\u2019t fully entered the workforce doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t point to great examples of leadership, creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, etc. Always keep in mind that the interview is the single most important opportunity to convince me why you are the person I should hire.\u201d<\/p>\n

For students who might feel discouraged about their job search, Woods urges them to keep their chins up. \u201cRemember, if you don’t get the job, it wasn’t that you were a failure, it was just that the job\/company was not a match. This is a blessing in disguise because there is a better fit out there for you. Keep optimistic. Keep working with us at the Lazarus Center.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMock Interview Day with Alums,\u201d an event hosted on January 23 by the Lazarus Center for Career Development, gave students an opportunity to practice presenting themselves to potential employers in a supportive environment. Patricia Woods, assistant director of the Lazarus Center, organized the event. Echoing recent articles in LinkedIn, Woods says that students “are very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5459","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5461,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5459\/revisions\/5461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}