Interview Strategies for

International Graduate
Students

Nadine Le Gros – [email protected]

Snjezana [email protected]
 Introductions
Facilitators from:
• Teaching Support Centre –TSC
• The Career Centre @ Western

Students:

• Name

• Program and year

• Home city and country

• Expectations from the workshop

 Today’s session
• A little bit about job interviews in general
• How to ‘put your best foot forward’ – at
the non-verbal and verbal level
• How to self-promote
• Opportunities to practice responding to
questions
 Interview Questions
• “Tell me about yourself”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lipe2wyTkIk

– Is this a good answer?

– Discuss with a partner what’s wrong with the
answer.

A company will hire you to solve the company’s problems !

 Tell me about yourself
• Take 2 minutes – imagine your dream
job – what would you tell somebody
about yourself to make them want to
continue the interview?
• 2 minutes to share with your
partner.
• “The employment interview is an
interpersonal interaction of
limited duration between one or more
interviewers and a job seeker for the
purpose of identifying interviewee
knowledge, skills, abilities and
behaviours that may be predictive of
success in subsequent employment”
(Wiesner & Cronshaw, 1998, p. 276).
 Interviews
• Demonstrate necessary skills, qualifications,
and experience for position:
– Employers match the candidates’ experiences
and accomplishments to the job position
requirements
– Interviewer is looking to see how you would fit
within the organization
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
 In some countries…
• Graduate supervisors, family members,
personal contacts help you land a job
• A graduate degree is like a pass key – will
receive lots of job offers
• In Canada, the key is like a bank safe key
– it only opens ONE door
• To get the key – you need to show
you are a FIT
 Soft skills-measured by cultural standards
-communication, presentation, leadership
-conflict resolution, time management, critical thinking
-organization, problem solving, decision making

Hard skills-specific for a career/field

-technical aptitude, mathematical skills

-media and information skills
-skills in designing and performing experiments
-writing technical reports, surveying and sampling
-accounting skills
 Be aware that…

• Many recruiters don’t know about

intercultural differences
• Behaviours that would be considered
polite in some countries can be
misinterpreted
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
• North American recruiters generally
consider extroversion to be a positive trait
• Long pauses/silence as uncomfortable
(not more than 5-10 seconds)
• Interruptions not recommended
• Result of not speaking in a way they
expect: they may not perceive
interviewees as competent
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
• “it is not necessarily the best qualified
person who gets the job, but the person
who best sells his or her skills throughout
the networking and hiring process”
(Human Resources Development Canada, 2003, p6b.)

• The key to landing a job

is being able to self-promote.
Self-Promotion: a balancing act
• Description of accomplishments:

– Too much self-promotion sounds

unrealistic and possibly arrogant
– Too little self-promotion sounds like
candidates cannot do the job
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
 Inappropriate Responses
• “I am an IT specialist; I can do anything
with computers”
• “I am a project manager; I can manage
any kind of project”
• “I can learn new subjects or job functions
very quickly”
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
 North American Recruitment and
Selection Process
• Canada is a country of specialists
• You need to identify specialization and
accomplishments
• Picture and introduce yourself as specialist rather than
as generalist
• The ideal candidate-someone who has done the same
job in a competing organization for preceding five years
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
 Lack of self-promotion
• Employers may read this as a lack of
responsibility and contribution to the team:
– Recruiter: I see in your resume the you worked on
a…project. What did you do?
– Candidate: As a team we were responsible for…
– Recruiter: Okay, I understand what the team did. What
did you do personally? What was your role on this team?
– Candidate: Well…
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
 Non-verbal language
• In many countries, not maintaining eye
contact is considered to be a sign of
respect
• In Canada, avoiding eye contact may
communicate to recruiters a lack of:
– Interest in job position
– Self-confidence
– Trustworthiness - and may suggest that
candidate is hiding something
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
Effective non-verbal behaviour
• Practice your hand shake
• Maintain eye contact when listening
• Nod occasionally
• Hold your head at a mild angle sometimes
when listening (don’t sit too rigidly)
• Smile occasionally
• Move a bit – make gestures
• Lean forward
• Avoid crossing your arms
Activities for Practice:

• Hand shake
• Eye contact
• Posture
HUMILITY
SHYNESS
 Language considerations
– Remember to keep answers short, simple
and to the point
– North American recruiters usually do not
consider information such as the age of the
candidates’ children and other information
about your family relevant
– Complex language and sentence structures
are usually inappropriate for North American
recruiters
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
 If you don’t understand the question

• Ask for clarification!

• Do NOT respond to a question if you are

unsure about what is being asked.
3 adjectives to describe yourself

• Have the adjectives ready (see handout)

• Have concrete examples to back up

your adjectives
 Example:
• “3 adjectives? First and foremost, I’m very thorough –
whatever I start I do exceedingly well - and I get it
done on time. Secondly, I’m very adaptable – I’ve
worked in 6 countries, and I am quick to determine
what the needs of different jobs and communities are,
which is critical in my field. And I’m creative – I’m
really good at seeing the ‘holes’ in something and
creating something to fill in the gap. The adjectives
that would best describe me in a professional
environment are thorough, adaptable, and creative.”
 Take 7
• Take 3 minutes – what adjectives would
you use to describe yourself
and why?
• 2 minutes each to describe
to your partner.
 Behavioural Questions
– Provide a concrete example of a past
situation - DO NOT SPEAK ABOUT
WHAT YOU WOULD DO IN AN
IMAGINED SITUATION
– Focus on your past experiences; recruiters
may interpret descriptions of what candidates
would do in the future as their having had
no past experience OR AS HAVING
MISUNDERSTOOD THE QUESTION
(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)
 The Proof of Your Skills:
concrete example
• Many interview questions require you to tell stories which provide
concrete examples. These are drawn from your…

– Teaching Assistant duties

– Research Assistant responsibilities
– Interaction with supervisor
– Conference presentations
– Graduate work
– Adjustment to new culture
– Previous work experience
– Life experience
Technique for concrete example
When telling your story use the STARS method:

S Situation
T Task
A Action
R Result
S Summary
“Tell me of a time when you had conflict with a colleague”

• A traffic engineer:

“Oh, I had conflicts with my colleagues

all the time….”
• It needs to cast you in good light – to
show maturity – the ability to learn from
conflict

• “When I was working in Turkey, …”

 Take 7
• Take 3 minutes – think about an occasion
when you experienced conflict.
• 2 minutes each to describe to
your partner.
 Thinking outside the box …

• Tell me about a time when you ‘thought

outside the box’ …
 Situation/Task
• The supervisor at the school where I worked
videotaped all the instructors as part of their
assessment procedure. But nothing was being
done with the videotapes. In addition, despite
the teacher training that the school did do, new
teachers never knew what the levels of students
were until they entered their classes, which
didn’t always result in the best impression being
made in the first class.
Action: Use impact statements

• Verb + object + result

• I organized videotaped sessions of classes

to be used for training purposes

Human Resources Development Canada (2003). Client Handouts for Job Search Strategies Workshop.
Results: Now THAT has impact!
• I systematized the teaching aids, which
increased the efficiency of teacher training
and also facilitated recruiting.
Summary:
The teachers were then much better
prepared for their students.
 Parting thoughts
• “Our deepest fear is not that we are
inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure. It is our
light, not our darkness that most frightens
us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be
brilliant, gorgeous, talented,
fabulous? Actually, who are you not to
be?”
Nelson Mandela's 1994 Inauguration Speech
 Resources on campus
• The Career Centre @Western (www.career.uwo.ca)
- one:one appointment
- mock interview
- Workshops
- Interview Stream (http://uwo.interviewstream.com)

• Communication in the Canadian Classroom &

Advanced Communication in the Canadian
Classroom (Teaching Support Centre)
 References
• Human Resources Development Canada (2003). Client Handouts
for Job Search Strategies Workshop. Centre for Lifelong Learning,
London District Catholic School Board.
• Laroche, L. & Rutherford, D. (2007). Recruiting, Retaining and
Promoting Culturally Different Employees. Butterworth-Heinemann
Publications.
• Wiesner, W.H. & Cronshaw, S.F. (1988). A meta-analytical
investigation of the impact of interview format and degree of
structure on the validity of the employment interview. Journal of
Occupational Psychology, 61, 275-290.