by Professional Resume Writer Doug Fogel
Group interviews – where a team of potential new colleagues grills you – are particularly intimidating.
But try to look at it from the company’s side: They want to see how you perform in a group.
Do a good job here and you’ll be on the short list of people to hire.
Group interviews can be formal, with a scripted set of questions. They can also just be a conversation between you and everybody else in the room.
Most often they’re a hybrid.
How to put yourself in the best light? Simple – research the company thoroughly and make sure you know the job description inside and out.
Also be sure to be able to show how your experience can help the company.
A Quick Tip Sheet For Succeeding at Group Interviews
1. If you’re given a list ahead of time of who will be there, do as much homework as you can onthese people.
Find out their names, go to Google and start digging.
2. Pay attention during the interview and be ready to act on your feet. Especially pay attention to what they express an interest in during the interview AND what they’re most concerned about.
Try to make sure you satisfy everyone’s concerns.
3. Take charge. If, for example, one of the interviewers seems reluctant to participate, try to draw him or her in.
4. Stay on your toes. Don’t let an apparent casual atmosphere keep you from making a good impression.
Remember, even though they may seem informal, they’re voting afterward. And also keep in mind that if you’re being interviewed by several people, you’re most likely a finalist for the job.
And don’t forget, an interview works both ways. In a group interview, you’re getting a window into what it would be like to work for this company.
It may turn out that you want nothing to do with it.
Doug Fogel is a former journalist who now works as a professional resume writer. For more information, visit his web site at:
http://www.resumecoverletterwriting.com
Searching for a permanent job after graduation is not an overnight process. You should be looking your entire senior year. So what happens if you don’t get a job offer when you graduate? The end of the world? Homelessness? Of course not; you will probably move in with family like the characters in this parody.
Graduation Sucks (LMFAO Parody)
As I got ready to enter what my peers commonly refer to as “the real world” or life after graduation, I found myself facing an infinity of decisions. Job or grad school? What grad school? What job? Move home or share an apartment?
Sometime in March- about three months before the school year ended- I had a minor “freak out” because I had not made these decisions yet. In a frenzy, I began applying to master’s programs and jobs in my little college town- Davis. I felt good about the progress I was making until one of my master’s program applications asked me point blank, “why do you want to pursue a graduate degree in English?” Then it occurred to me- I didn’t; I just wanted a plan.
College is an extremely social atmosphere. When I transitioned from my small, suburban private school to my current university, I was overwhelmed by all of the opportunities to meet new people. My dorm housed 49 other students who were constantly inviting me to parties and kickbacks; all of us were excited about all of the social possibilities our new independence afforded us.
My university did a good job acknowledging that students would party. To keep us out of trouble, we received little pamphlets with safety tips about everything from alcohol and drugs to transportation (how to find it if we had been drinking, etc.) However, it didn’t pay much attention to another, very prominent, part of the college social scene: hook-ups, dating, and relationships.
After talking to other girls on my floor who had bad experiences in some of these situations, I wish university had thought to include assertive communication- specifically in sexual situations- in our freshman education. Many of them had been coerced into situations in which they felt uncomfortable, but didn’t want to speak up. For a lot of these girls, stress, depression, lower performance in school, and other negative symptoms resulted from their experiences.
According to RAINN, a national anti-sexual assault organization, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will become sexual assault victims, and college women are 4 times more likely to be victims. 60% of these victims do not report their assaulter.
Sadly, a lot of the girls I talked to had been in completely avoidable situations, but didn’t know how to communicate their discomfort assertively, leading their partner to think that it was okay to go further. They were also uncomfortable seeking help and emotional support after the fact.
In the future, the university should consider teaching students how to communicate assertively and where to find supportive and informative resources. If our education about sexual communication had been half as comprehensive it had been for alcohol and drugs, many of the girls I talked to could have avoided the uncomfortable and sometimes harmful situations in which they were placed.
This lesson has to go beyond high school sex-ed. Instead of using less graphic, more polite euphemisms to describe sexual situations and theoretical lessons to teach students how to respond to or communicate with a parter, it must require students to practice communicating. For a lot of people, there is a big difference between knowing that they should ask their partner to wear protection and actually putting a condom in their partner’s hand and saying “please wear a this.”
I hope that people who have been in those situations find the support they need to help them speak up. A combination of individual accounts and statistics should show the university that there is a need for this kind of aggressive education.
When I was growing up, I always knew that I would attend college and graduate school. Most other girls in my community grew up with this mindset too. Our parents knew that the social and economic structure of society had changed so that gender roles were less clear-cut, marriages more likely to end in divorce, and jobs less secure; they wanted us to plan ahead just in case we became the breadwinners of our future families, had to supplement the income of a future partner, or simply wanted to support ourselves independently.
Many other girls seem to have taken this advice as seriously as I have because the number of women attending college has drastically risen in the past few years. On my own campus, UC Davis, women make up a majority of the student population by about 10%. I frequently notice the effects of this increase- more women are taking leadership roles, gaining representation in clubs and activities, and raising awareness for the issues they find relevant.
When I think about all of this positive involvement, it’s hard for me to believe that some members of the UC Davis community are concerned about the gender gap. Last winter, UC Davis Magazine published an article called “The SeXX Shift” in which author Kathleen Holder examines the possible causes and effects of the gap in a surprisingly negative light. Although Holder herself maintains a fairly neutral voice throughout the article, many of her interviewees make unfortunately short-sighted comments about the new female majority.
For instance, the director of undergraduate admissions, Pamela Burnett, expresses concerns about protecting diversity on campus: “We’re in the business of education and how education can help us become better citizens, utilizing our democracy to create the best society we can. We need to have… full representation, across the board from all corners.”
Although absolutely equal representation between genders is ideal, the social and economic climate does not always allow for that. Holder even points out, “for most of UC Davis’ 100-year history, male students have held the majority.” During this time, many women prioritized marriage and family over higher education. Today, decreases in jobs and salaries, rising divorce rates, and mixed gender roles all prompt women seek higher education. Since we didn’t worry so much when men made up the majority of students, we shouldn’t worry about the female majority so immediately; the gender gap is simply a reflection society’s current condition, and thus, will more than likely fluctuate over time.
Many students and faculty members also speculate about the factors that may have caused the gender gap in the first place. One student, Chris Civil, guesses that “Studies are more passive, and men are into physical things, like sports and doing things with their hands.” Unfortunately, essentializing men as active and women as passive will never give us an answer. Since men have been able to hold the majority in that 100-year stretch Holder mentions, they clearly have the capability to sit still and study. Furthermore, a good education is certainly not passive; students should always take an active role in molding their own learning experience and seeking new opportunities to express themselves.
Although I understand why the gender gap may prompt questions and speculation, this article examines it a way that overlooks the point of a public university education. Our university celebrates its students because they work hard and want to be here; if the university questions the make-up of its current student population, it becomes more like a selective private institution. Before we worry, everyone in the academic community should keep this in mind and see what kind of positive changes the increase of women in academia may bring.
By Matt Boronkay
In an “accepting” and “tolerant” culture, like the one we supposedly live in today, it is shocking to hear how many times a day prejudiced and racist words are muttered throughout a typical college campus. The words gay and fag are two of the most misused slurs, and have the potential to make people feel hurt and unwanted. Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in particular sees a lot of prejudiced acts because of its low diversity attendance on campus. (http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/21/local/me-poly21) I have personally felt disconnected from my campus by some of the horrible things I have heard.
What is happening to the Y generation? Why is apathy running rampant amongst its members? At Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, it’s election time for the ASI Board of directors and ASI president. Students should honor and fight for the opportunity to represent the student union; they should be competing relentlessly to gain this valuable experience and resume-building opportunity. However, it turns out that only two students answered this call for greatness, and only one name will make it to the voting booth, leaving the new ASI president running unopposed.
How is it possible that in an entire student population, only one student- Sarah Storelli-wants this opportunity? Her only competition consisted of a student named Alex Kaplan who viewed the entire election process as a joke, campaigning for the right to wear cut-off shirts in the gym. He admitted that he only ran in order to gain priority registration and change the tank top policy. Alex withdrew from the election leaving Sara running unopposed after the Cal Poly newspaper quoted his true will and reasons for running.
Recently, the REC Expansion referendum at UC Riverside was approved by the Chancellor. Students currently pay $59 per quarter for membership at the Student Recreation Center, an 80,000 sq. foot facility that includes free weights, cardio machines, indoor racquet ball courts, indoor/outdoor basketball courts, outdoor full size roller hockey court, outdoor tennis courts and an outdoor track.
The proposed new additions, which will be in effect as of winter 2014, are as follows: a huge swimming pool and spa, double the number of multi-purpose rooms, triple the cardio/weight space, a new gymnasium which includes more indoor basketball, badminton and volleyball courts, an indoor jogging track, an indoor climbing and bouldering wall, a state of the art fitness lab and massage therapy room, a demonstration kitchen for healthy cooking classes and a juice bar. Furthermore, the newly proposed expansion gives way to an increase of student jobs at the recreation center. It will have approximately 170 more job openings as of winter 2014.
Though UC Berkeley has been a hotbed of liberal ideals and widespread acceptance, the campus has recently experienced a wave of hate crimes. In the wake of the controversy surrounding the divestment bill, swastikas were drawn on the walls of the Clark Kerr residential dorms.
The divestment bill, which was vetoed by ASUC president Will Smelko, stated that the university should divest itself from companies that conduct business with Israel. The divestment bill targets over 130 million dollars supposedly invested by UC Berkeley in the stocks two companies, General Electric and United Technologies.
Those companies, which supply jobs, military equipment and electronics to Israel, would have had a significant amount of their funding cut for their projects. When the president’s veto was not overridden, the present controversy ensued.