Practice interviewing with your children

[Anonymous]

I've done over a dozen alumni interviews for a highly selective liberal arts college. All the applicants I have interviewed are bright and accomplished individuals, but I would say that only 1 or 2 really knew how to interview and how to sell themselves as excellent candidates. A lot of them just answered my questions in somewhat simple fashion and had few questions of their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've done over a dozen alumni interviews for a highly selective liberal arts college. All the applicants I have interviewed are bright and accomplished individuals, but I would say that only 1 or 2 really knew how to interview and how to sell themselves as excellent candidates. A lot of them just answered my questions in somewhat simple fashion and had few questions of their own.

In my job I interview potential interns, and I'm often amazed at how poorly prepared some folks are.

Would you be willing to share what makes for a good interview? Are there particular questions that you think people trip up on?

[Anonymous]

Applicants sometimes struggle with "Tell me about an academic challenge you faced and how you overcame it." It's as if they don't want to admit any weakness, and want to find a way out of the question. Children may not be getting the message that, in most interviews, talking about overcoming a challenge is much more impressive and believable than "I've always been successful in everything."

Applicants often forget to mention impressive details. For example, one told me that he's on the school paper. I asked him if he holds a leadership position, and he replied that he is the Features Editor. He should've said that right away. Another interviewer might not have asked the follow up question that I did.

My alma mater asks me this question, "Was this merely a pleasant conversation, or did the applicant turn the conservation into an asset for their candidacy?" It's an important distinction.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind these are kids and probably their first set of interviews, ever. This isn't a skill thats taught in schools, you pick it up along the way. Sure, you can practice and that may be a good idea. But I would ease up on the kids. With all the pressure thats been put on them its a wonder they can open their mouths at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind these are kids and probably their first set of interviews, ever. This isn't a skill thats taught in schools, you pick it up along the way. Sure, you can practice and that may be a good idea. But I would ease up on the kids. With all the pressure thats been put on them its a wonder they can open their mouths at all.

+1. These are not adults who have been in the workforce and are used to interviewing. They're kids for heaven's sakes! I would wonder about an interviewer who expects a kid to interview as well as an experienced adult.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Ease up? I hope I haven't given the impression that I'm giving them a hard time in person. Of course that's not the case.

Of course most 18 year olds interview like 18 year olds. The admissions committees know this. They're most interested in the ones who stand out.

You want your child to stand out in a college interview? Help them prepare. That's all I'm saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Ease up? I hope I haven't given the impression that I'm giving them a hard time in person. Of course that's not the case.

Of course most 18 year olds interview like 18 year olds. The admissions committees know this. They're most interested in the ones who stand out.

You want your child to stand out in a college interview? Help them prepare. That's all I'm saying.

You ease up too, OP. As you say, they're 18 and not 28. Hopefully, their academics and extracurriculars will stand out more than asking them questions that even some adults would need to contemplate.

I'm sure your intentions are good but maybe you might want to review some of the techniques you use to bring out the best in them (or not) to open up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Ease up? I hope I haven't given the impression that I'm giving them a hard time in person. Of course that's not the case.

Of course most 18 year olds interview like 18 year olds. The admissions committees know this. They're most interested in the ones who stand out.

You want your child to stand out in a college interview? Help them prepare. That's all I'm saying.

OP - how much influence do you have on admission decision? I was just reading the thread below and people don't seem to think it matters much. Care to comment?

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/425290.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind these are kids and probably their first set of interviews, ever. This isn't a skill thats taught in schools, you pick it up along the way. Sure, you can practice and that may be a good idea. But I would ease up on the kids. With all the pressure thats been put on them its a wonder they can open their mouths at all.

I think that's OP's point -- that college interviews should NOT be a kid's first set of interviews. The stakes are way too high for something like college interviews or scholarship interviews to go into it cold. It would be ideal if the applicant had already gone through an authentic interview experience in the form of a job interview, but obviously this won't be the case for everyone.

It wasn't the case for our kids, so we took on the role of helping them prep. Dh & I helped the kids think of possible questions and how to answer them, then we did full mock interviews with the kids; then we had close family friends do mock interviews with them; then we hired our friend's college age neighbor who had just done grad school interviews to do a final round of mock interviews with DD1 and we asked a distant cousin of mine DD had never met who worked in college admissions at a school not on DD's list to do the final round of interview prep for DD2.

This is a service universities typically offer to their upperclassmen applying to jobs or graduate schools, so it seems sensible to take undergraduate admissions just as seriously and make sure we help the kids be appropriately prepared.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's very much. The admissions committee certainly doesn't tell us their specific methods.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, 21:12 is me, OP. In response to 20:56.

[Anonymous]

Well stop asking candidates the questions like " describe an academic challenge and how you overcame it". Those are stupid questions. Back in the day I would have thought "well, school comes easily so I've got nothing, but if I say that I'm an arrogant jerk. So crap, let me make something up". It's also a coachable question and I'm so sick of the answers that I do get. "Beauty pageant contestant" answers, I call them. The university has their resume and teacher recommendations.

Instead ask them questions designed to get them talking about themselves and not their resume. If the candidates can't say anything in response to "if you went into a bookstore, which section would you go to, and which sections would you avoid" then we might have someone not ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind these are kids and probably their first set of interviews, ever. This isn't a skill thats taught in schools, you pick it up along the way. Sure, you can practice and that may be a good idea. But I would ease up on the kids. With all the pressure thats been put on them its a wonder they can open their mouths at all.

+1. These are not adults who have been in the workforce and are used to interviewing. They're kids for heaven's sakes! I would wonder about an interviewer who expects a kid to interview as well as an experienced adult.

+1 I would also wonder about a college that asks whether a conversation was merely pleasant or used as an opportunity to sell oneself.

I used to do these for an Ivy and the emphasis was on trying to figure out if the person was a good match. But they also made clear that most people would not be admitted, so one of their main goals was to generally convey a positive impression of the school. I stopped doing it because they don't matter much, the stats are silly-- meaning crazy impressive kids did not get in-- and it did not seem like a good use of anyone's time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well stop asking candidates the questions like " describe an academic challenge and how you overcame it". Those are stupid questions. Back in the day I would have thought "well, school comes easily so I've got nothing, but if I say that I'm an arrogant jerk. So crap, let me make something up". It's also a coachable question and I'm so sick of the answers that I do get. "Beauty pageant contestant" answers, I call them. The university has their resume and teacher recommendations.

Instead ask them questions designed to get them talking about themselves and not their resume. If the candidates can't say anything in response to "if you went into a bookstore, which section would you go to, and which sections would you avoid" then we might have someone not ready.

I am sure OP knows what she is doing.

[Anonymous]

"Well stop asking candidates the questions like " describe an academic challenge and how you overcame it". Those are stupid questions."

OP again. I'm with you. I don't care for this question. We are asked to address it.