Disclaimer: I've had rotten experiences with Career services. I feel that they really don't care about the students and some of their advice is kinda crap. I went to this event because I thought it would prepare me for an eventually interview that I may get...soon.
On April 30th, I went to a career services event called the STAR Interview. It was advertised to be a good interview prep "You will learn how to inventory your marketable skills and effectively communicate your qualifications to the interviewer. You will also practice using the STAR technique to answer behavioral interview questions."
I had high hopes. I came prepared. I got there on time. We had packets of information about interview questions and interview skills. The session was only an hour long so I thought we would get down to the nitty gritty stuff. I was wrong.
We went over why interviews have gone wrong like not coming prepared for the position and not having questions. Okay, I thought that was valid topic to go over. Then we went over having a cheat sheet with name, addresses of references and supervisors. I thought that this was really good, I was planning on making one myself with the butt load of applications I've been filing out lately.
Then we got to how we should dress for the interview. This took up most of the time. Granted, I know that dress is important for an interview and different industries and positions require different types of dress. The presenter advocated, to the nth degree, about wearing a skirted business suit with a jacket. For EVERYTHING. Now, I've been applying for entry-level positions. I highly doubt that a formal business jacket is required. I can understand for middle management or anything higher. But for a position at Smashburger, a business jacket is a little over the top. I'm all for a nice blouse, slacks or a skirt. Just the jacket makes it over the top. But the presenter said that we could put a power pin on it but we can't deviate from the jacket cause it gives an impression of power. This debate went on for quite some time. It got annoying to say the least.
In the last ten minutes of the session, we actually got to the interview questions. We went over how to answer "about yourself" questions and practiced with a partner. Sadly, we couldn't do more cause the session started to run late.
Overall, I was disappointed with the session. I was expecting something more or at least something redeeming from Career Services.
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Have you tried a one-on-one session with CS? Sometimes the group sessions seem boring and uninformative because they have so many people to cater to. Ask for a session with someone who has experience in what you're looking to get into.
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