In a recent blog post for the National Associations of Colleges and Employers, Kevin Collins offered “four ways to help students to showcase their full range of strengths in their applications and interviews.”
Work on the Narrative. Everyone’s career is a story, even students who are just beginning their journeys. And these career stories are usually not merely statements of fact—they feature obstacles and setbacks to overcome, adaptations and adjustments made on the fly, and achieving hard-won goals.
Unfortunately, many students relate accurate but bland descriptions of their experiences when answering interview questions and leave out those elements which would have given the story more power and interest. For example, many students shy away from talking about failures or setbacks in their interviews (unless specifically asked to provide such an example). This reluctance deprives students of opportunities to describe instances of resilience, and of lessons learned the hard way.
This is of course not to say that every interview question will lend itself to a response full of drama. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best one to give.