End of the semester and 100th post

I'm multitasking today. Somehow, in the short amount of time I've had allotted to me, I need to acknowledge that this is the very last day of courses for fall term 2009 at Manchester College (check), that it is my last day of fall courses ever as an undergraduate (I hope...I'm really just speculating at this point, which, in all honestly, scares the ever loving crap out of me...check), that this is my one hundredth post on our little forum here (check), that I still have so much left to do regarding end-of-the-semester assignments that I've taken up popping Adderall and Dexedrine, as well as drinking large, copious amounts of green tea - nature's little pick-me-up (check) - and, finally, I need to make sure that you walk away from this post nodding your head in approval and muttering, ever so slightly, under your breath, "I learned something new today and I think I liked it."

Having recently finished Jack Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums," I found myself meditating on the notion of Japhy Ryder's famous exclamation of the approach of the "great rucksack revolution." The day the youth of this country will finally rise together in one voice to stand against the tyranny of corporations and conglomerates and to escape the mind-numbing repetition of the lives they've been trained to lead: "work, consume, produce, work, consume, produce." Is that really the reason we all came to college? What is college supposed to be preparing us for? The answer, my friends, isn't all that simple. It's not career training, I'm sorry to say. It might be considered as such in the sense that it builds us into these living, breathing automatons with "professional skills," but what does this mean exactly?

My mentioning of Kerouac and the "great rucksack revolution" plays into this in more ways than one. The story's two protagonists, Ray Smith and the aforementioned Japhy, embody the image of the "rucksack wanderer," the "zen lunatics" that imbue themselves with feelings of great joy and happiness simply by living and breathing. When they need money, they'll work for it, but when they're not in need of anything financially-related, they pass their time by living, by treating everything they do as a holy act. Whether it be eating breakfast, writing poetry, meditating, or hiking up Desolation Peak, life is sacred and it is lived without the distracting frivolity of material possessions, which seems to have fully enamored the world we live in.

Life, as I've heard on occasion, is about passion. And it could be passion for any number of different things. Colleges, as I've also heard on occasion, have a responsibility to fulfill for those seeking a good undergraduate education. And that responsibility is this: that you will be fully prepared to function well in the world, whatever it may be that you do, and to instill you with the critical foresight to know that you will have to make tough decisions about the welfare of this country. Colleges and universities pride themselves on the students they churn out of their classrooms and their hallways, who may go on to the Ivy League to become a doctor, or get elected to a public office, or those who simply grab the first nine-to-five they could secure to feed themselves. Sure, maybe they developed some kind of "professional skill set" that they could utilize to great effect while they're doing their job, but if a college's mission is to simply produce tradespeople with a specific skill set, then the education system is broken.

Colleges and universities need to hone in on what it is that this country needs to pull it out of the troubled times it's been in for the last two years or so. They not only need to educate their students on the basis and in the discipline of what the student is interested in, but they also need to remember to promote the intangibles. According to a "For English Majors" article I read through the other day: "Readying our entire culture for such an overhaul requires courage, clarity of thought, optimism, commitment, creativity and a willingness to challenge the status quo. It also requires patience, fortitude and sacrifice. These kinds of abilities and qualities aren’t 'skills' you pick up in Marketing 301 or Advanced Linear Programming."

We have to be open to any and every possibility that appears. That doesn't mean we take it at face value and move on. We think critically about all walks of life. There's certainly a time and place to put the emphasis on cold, hard facts to come to a conclusion, but there are also other times when a gut instinct or a strong feeling can suffice as well. We want to be educated in ways that provide us with the tools to effectively deal with the unknown. "Uncertainty" is the million-dollar word right about now, but if our approach is clear and united and filled to the brim with people who have a passion for living and a passion for other people, then I think the future can rest easy.

We need more than individuals with great skill sets. We need more than people who simply want to do whatever is the most practical.

One of my very good friends, a fellow English major herself, remarked on this very subject today, but she had no idea that she had contributed to this piece at the time. She's a remarkably talented actress, and I, along with several others, feel she needs to pursue acting as a career path. "But it's just not practical," she said. That's what she told me. Acting wasn't practical. It's the feeling of contributing to society that slows many people when it comes to pursuing their passions. Every single person contributes in some way. It could be small, could be large, could be long-lasting, could be temporary - practicality is such a relative word that it shouldn't be used in reference to finding a job. If you love it, you love it. Period.

In my humble opinion, at least.

Maybe it won't be the "great rucksack revolution" that Japhy describes in the pages of Kerouac's story, but if secondary educational institutions begin promoting a "pursue your passion" type of mentality coupled with a sharp focus on building character, progress can be made in actively committing to trying to change the future as opposed to simply trying to predict what will happen in the future.

As promised: the sciences get some love

If you don't mind, I need to come right out let my feelings regarding the sciences be known...

(Deep breath...)

I guess they're pretty cool.

Anti-climactic, eh? It was meant to be. Just because I'm a hoity-toity, elitist English major doesn't mean that I don't have interests that lie outside of the humanities division. Believe it or not, chemistry and physics were two of my strongest subjects coming into college. Heck, my Honors English teacher encouraged me to pursue medical school and become a pediatrician.

As good as I may have been (I was better at chemistry than physics but it's debatable as to how proficient I really was in either of them), I didn't enjoy the work. It's really that simple.

But as much as I'd like to preach that a degree in the humanities is exponentially more valuable than any degree in the sciences, I can't. I can't because it's not true. Now, I've read plenty of other blogs defending philosophy, English, religion, and history against all the negative aspects they're so often labeled with i.e. they're not practical, they can't help solve real, concrete problems, and all of it is entirely too objective.

I could spend the next 500 words telling you exactly why all that is wrong, but I'm not going to do that because I assume that you already know it isn't true. Having said that, the sciences certainly deserve their due, but let's not forget that the dialogue works both ways. Neither is better than the other.

The benefits of a scientific background are multitudinous. Scientific research has led to an infinite amount of discoveries that has benefited mankind in some way. But I'm not going to go there. And I'm not going there for two reasons, 1) this is a career blog, not a philosophic dumpsite for some of my mind-numbing ideas, and 2) it's utterly contradictory for me to talk about science in a philosophic way.

How about we just get down to the nitty-gritty job stuff?

Just in general, job opportunities in career fields linked to science are more plentiful than those in the humanities. That's just the way it works. However, there are also a great deal more individuals vying for those jobs as well, so, in the end, it all evens out for the most part.

You may recall that I posted a few of the jobs listed in CNN Money's "50 Best Jobs in America." Those were all the positions related to the healthcare sector, which does include the sciences but not all of them. I think that I've become so accustomed to talking about jobs in terms of "sectors" that I've almost lost sight of the degrees required of each because they start to blend together in some areas.

It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

I'll refer to CNN Money's list again, if only to prove to you that some of the best jobs (according to their criteria) have their roots in the sciences. The #1 job they have listed - systems engineer - requires (surprise, surprise) an engineering degree. The #5 position on their list is "information technology project manager. A computer science degree is needed for that one. I'll let you peruse the list at your own leisure.

As I continue to search for more career paths in science, the more I notice how it isn't all that dissimilar, at least in terms of the industries in which the jobs exist, to positions opening up involving the humanities. While they are two entirely separate skill sets, they are both greatly needed in every sector. The medical journals need the scientists to conduct the research, but they also need editors and publishers to put it together.

I'll spare you any more analogies. If you've never been in the middle of a "sciences vs. humanities" debate, I hope you continue your excellent track record in avoidance. If you have been, then you know as I do that the applications of each job may be different, the skill sets are different, the process of thinking is different, but they both must operate in the same bubble, if you know what I mean, to accomplish specific tasks.

They must learn to get along.

Spreading some Christmas cheer

I apologize for the title in advance. It should probably read "Holiday cheer" instead of "Christmas cheer" because the former is politically correct and I've been informed of enough pending lawsuits regarding said situation to really have a good excuse for not following what would be considered standard protocol.

I'll refrain from coming up with a bad excuse since I, indeed, am not the possessor of a passable one. How about we just start over?

"Spreading some Holiday cheer"

That's better.

I have decided that this week shall be something of a smorgasbord in terms of topic ideas because, I'm not going to lie to you, I've nearly exhausted everything I can say to this point, and I should really act in a more parsimonious way so I actually have something I can talk about next semester as opposed to making it all up as I go, which is a specialty of mine coincidentally.

Since I titled this post before I actually started writing it (Bad Writing Tip #1: Give everything a title before you write it), I have an obligatory notion to maintain a faithful attitude and follow through with what the title is generally trying to communicate.

In this case, "spreading holiday cheer" more or less means that I will cater to the mass of degrees that exist in the universe of post-secondary education and highlight the finer points of how these specific fields must be approached in their own specific way.

When looking for a job, not all of these majors move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you, may not be right for some. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have...an entirely too cheesy segue into our first major (not to mention some kind of plagiarism lawsuit in the near future...much love for "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Facts of Life" though).

And since I'm greedy (Bad Writing Tip #2: When injecting yourself into your own story, be sure to come off as pompous and egomaniacal to maintain control over the reader), we're going to start with much too under appreciated English degree.

(Okay, I just got booed by some senior accouting student who was reading over my shoulder. Shame on them for 1) booing, 2) reading over my shoulder, and 3) choosing accounting over all of the infinitely better major possibilities that exist in colllege...good call, weirdo)

My lawyer tells me that I should issue a statement of apology. I will do so now.

"I'm sorry."

Moving on...

There are few reasons I chose to begin with English. Yes, the fact that I myself am one of these breed is certainly part of it, but it also takes a bad rap as a degree, as I've soapboxed about before on this little forum of mine.

And now for some statistics:

- A survey of Fortune 500 companies found that the number-one piece of criteria employers take into consideration when reviewing a potential candidate for hire is their major. About 42% ranked it at the top of their list.

- Nearly 95% of all employers say that communication skills (both written and verbal) are the most important skills they seek in a candidate. Almost 88% of the 95% said that the written was more important than the verbal, and 100% of everything I just said was completely made up.

The faux percentages may not reflect the exact number of employers who feel this way about writing and speaking, but the fact remains that nearly every employer I've come across and spoken to has said explicitly that verbal and written communication skills will go a very long way to getting a graduate a job. It does top a great many of the "most desired skills" lists.

This relates to the English degree in every way imaginable. English majors are creatures of habit; they spend four years reading, writing, and talking about what they've read and what they've written. That's it. While it might not sound like much to the unassuming collective of math, physics, biology, chemistry, bio-chemistry, and other science-invested students out there (who all remind me of the Borg, by the way, and I refuse to apologize for the utter nerdiness of that reference).

I know English majors garner a reputation for something of a Bohemian, artsy-fartsy, Romantic, video-tapping-a-plastic-bag-in-the-wind way of viewing the world, but, to clarify, we're not all like that. In fact, of the four English majors in my graduating class, (not trying to sound elitist) I am the only one pursuing something "creative," although that isn't the right colloquialism. One is interested in library sciences and book culture, another wants to do publishing, I'm on a path to be a screenwriter/playwright/filmmaker (whichever is the most fun), and the fourth, a good friend of mine, is going to law school. He's the subject of the next item on my list.

Most law students are former political science and history majors. I would say the majority of them begin this way. However, my friend has a different take on the matter, hence his desire for the English degree. While it is true that a background in politics and the history of politics may have behooved him to an extent, his mind wasn't made up on what kind of law he intended to pursue.

With this in mind, he decided that an English degree would be the correct route for him to go. I asked him once, "Why English?" He said: "Because when I get to law school, I'm going to be doing three things: reading, writing, and talking about what I've read and what I've written. An English degree is the best thing for me. That's all we do."

See? I wasn't lying.

My supervisor pointed me towards this blog: For English Majors. Check it out. One author finds a connection between Hemingway and engineering - that's intense.

One particular post, Revenge of the English Major, sums it up best.

In an apologetic effort, the sciences step up to the plate tomorrow.

Finding the importance

Hooray for Friday!

I say that now, but whenever I finally muster up the gumption to face reality and get to work on the three papers I have to write for next week, the weekend starts looking a little less - how shall I put this? - beguiling.

Friday always has this innate power of legerdemain over us college students. We make believe for most of the day that this particular twenty-four hours that marks the end of the school week will somehow bring along with it comfort and relaxation. How wrong we are in making this bold assumption.

Once I wake up tomorrow, I'll start thinking about writing my essays and who knows when the actual act of essay-writing will commence, either one is stressful for me at this point. In fact, its the thinking about it that's the most stressful, but since the fact that I'm writing about it at this very instance obviously means that it has permeated one of the complexly structured portions of grey matter, I am, once again, feeling the stress.

(FYI - If it seems like I'm whining...it's because I am. You hit the nail right on the head.)

No matter, I've been whining since I was a toddler, I don't see why it shouldn't just suddenly cease to continue one day.

Taking that knowledge into consideration, I don't see why I should ever stop giving you good people career advice either. I mean, it's just so helpful.

(I'm not normally this egotistical, but please bear with me, it's a been long week.)

I hope that's it's been at least slightly useful. There's nothing worse than feeling useless. Well, maybe there are a few things that are worse than feeling useless, but, and this is a big "but," I'll never forget the words of one of my favorite teachers from high school. Mr. Tony Garton, the man with the plan, the public speaker teacher, a philosophic genius of the rarest kind - he once said to me, "King, I'll tell you what, there isn't anything more hopeless than feeling as if you have no use in this world. Everybody, every single person on this planet, walks around with an invisible sign across their chest that says, 'Make me feel important.'

And he's right, all of us do.

The job search or graduate school process has a funny way (not funny "haha" but more like funny "ironic") of bringing this out of people. Especially in this economy, so many seasoned workers have been laid off and so many new workers haven't found jobs that those invisible signs are starting to show.

Keeping your head held high in situations like these is always much easier said than done. Always. I even felt some of the "job" weight last year as a junior. Part of the reason I settled on attending graduate school was because of the job outlook in my area of interest and part of it was on the advantages of a master's degree. English majors can literally find a job in any industry because a good writer is always a handy tool for companies to have, but since my area of specialty lied squarely in the realm of "creative writing," I was too stubborn to really accept anything else. Using my stubborness as a gauge, I decided that it would be more beneficial for me to hone my writing for two more years and gain some important contacts rather than braving the shark-invested waters of the current job market.

I guess you could say I copped out. I won't deny it. I feel like I did cop out to a certain extent. But at the same time, applying to heavyweight schools like USC, NYU, Columbia, and UCLA was my way of "feeling important," even if they are tough schools to get into.

Everyone, forgive me for this ancient cliche, must march to the beat of their own drum. And, in the end, it's all about figuring out the best way to continue doing what we love to do. Of course making a living is top priority, but, at the same time, do not sell yourself short just because you think the economy won't allow you to go after something you want.

I'll contextualize a film that fits this particular situation. I didn't particularly care for the movie as a whole although Will Smith's performance is very good and story itself is very inspirational. "The Pursuit of Happyness" epitomizes what my high school teacher was saying. How could he make himself feel important? He had a son to take care of, so he could feel important in that sense, but in order to take care of him, he also had make a living. Did he love the stockbroker's life? Maybe, maybe not, but I'll never forget what he said to his son. "Don't ever let somebody tell you that you can't do something. If you want something. Go get it. Period."

That's the confidence we need instilled in all of us before we venture out into the job market. Of course making a living is always the top priority, I'm not claiming it's not. However, do not sell yourself short out of a fear of failure. John F. Kennedy said, "Only those that dare to fail greatly will ever achieve greatly."

Heed that advice. C0ntinue to pursue what you're passionate about. Do not fear failure.

The Interview - what not to do

Since we've spent the majority of the last few posts talking about what you should do before and during the interview, I think that it's only appropriate we spend at least one post discussing the finer points of what you should not do before and during the interview.

Shall we start with a story? I think we shall.

Once upon a time, a young man named John, who graduated from a lovely, prestigious little school in the Midwest, was looking for a job. He wanted this particular job to pertain to what he specialized in while he was a student. Low and behold, after countless hours of surfing the internet, scanning the classifieds, and pestering local companies about setting up information interviews, he landed a real job interview with one of the top companies on his list.

The day of the interview arrived and John did not anticipate how much traffic there would be and arrived at the office only a few minutes before his scheduled interview time. When the receptionist asked him if he had an appointment he quipped, "I have an interview right now." When she notified him that she had to contact the human resources manager and handed him a form to fill out, he snatched a pen off her desk, filled out the forms hurriedly and sloppily, and then kept the pen. The receptionist notified John that they were ready for him, and, saying nothing, he got up entered the office.

John entered the office, sat down without introducting himself, and then shook hands with the two managers from his chair. They asked him to tell them a little about himself. He replied, "Well, what do you want to know?" He proceeded to talk blandly and boringly about some of the more interesting projects he completed as an undergrad and touched briefly on the internship he completed with a similar company. Then he said, "It's all on my resume. It's some really good stuff." The managers asked John about his strengths and he told them he was a team player with a "can do" attitude. He said that his only weakness was that he was too hard on himself and too much of a perfectionist.

The interview continued with John answering questions with one-word responses; he even managed to slip in a deragatory comment about women while he was at it. He downplayed his role as a member of team that completed a project for his department the year before and talked down about his advisor, who was the chair of his department. He cracked an innappropriate joke about midgets and laughed over the next question he was asked.

After it was all over, the managers asked John if he had any questions. Naturally, he had none and asked if they were done. Again, he shook their hands while sitting down and said nothing as he strolled out the door and past the receptionist.

John didn't hear anything from them after two weeks. After three weeks, he called them to see if they had made a decision. They had, and it wasn't him.

Surprised? Of course you're not surprised. I've schooled you too well in the ways of the interview to know that John failed epically during his. He went wrong in almost every way imaginable. Go back through and make a list of everything he did that caused him to lose the job and compare it to the list below.

If you'd like a list of just about everything that he did wrong, please click here, courtesy of Young Money - it's "Ten Ways to Blow the Interview."

Remember, these are all of the things you should not do. But also remember to be yourself, but if being yourself is not going to get you the job, then I would recommend acting lessons or looking for a new place to interview.

Happy job hunting.

What do the interview questions really mean?

Part of me is glad to be back from break. This is the part telling me that I'm re-energized and rejuvenated, ready to run through and hurdle the remaining semester obstacles - oops...I mean projects - to concentrate my efforts wholeheartedly into every assignment laying in wait for me to accomplish, hand every single one of them in on schedule, and then welcome Christmas Break with a big, jovial bear hug.

Of course, I also have to deal with the other part of me that never thinks it gets enough attention. This is the part telling me that I didn't accomplish anything over break; I'm overworked, underpaid, and my capacity to finish anything by its due date is so uncertain that giving up on the semester and succumbing to the pressure seems like the most profitable option because Christmas Break is going to greet me with a sucker punch to the face anyway.

On that note, I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. I think my own family's Thanksgiving finally ceased to be a personal, wacky-family driven event and crossed the threshold into a traditional, cliched, and boring family exercise in mediocrity - food, family, and football. That about sums it up.

I love my family though. They are some of the most personable people on the face of the earth. I say this with a positive connotation attached to it, even though it has caused me grief in the past, especially when it has involved girlfriends or girls I like meeting them for the first time. They are, in a word, overwhelmed.

My family has this effect on everybody. We're loud, rude, and obnoxious (not in a bad way), we laugh a lot and we make jokes - we're a pretty voluble bunch for the most part, although there are a few detractors - my youngest brother and the newborns don't talk much.


Anytime I do bring somebody new to a family gathering (I haven't in the last few years however), I always feed the need to prepare them for what to expect. I prep them on the questions they will get asked and some of the things they may hear, but also let them know that despite what they might see, everyone is basically harmless.

Actually, to throw this into job terms (I know, it's about time, right?) the meeting of the family is like an interview of gargantuan proportions. Gargantuan in scope, not necessarily in terms of payoff. Preparation is the key to interview success though. That was the topic of discussion that last time I wrote on here I think. I can't remember. I'll go check.

(Checking...)

Yes, that was the basic gist of the post - getting into character for the interview.

Now that we've covered some of the basic preparation, allow me to divulge a little on the questions you'll most likely be asked and what employers really mean when they ask them.

Question-asking is an ancient art and the most routine interview questions seem to be just that -routine. This may be so on the surface but if there is anything that college has taught you it should be to never take things at face value. The reason they're asking you this particular question is because they want to uncover something important about who you are as an employee or who you are as a person.

Just because the question seems simple doesn't mean that you should give them a simple answer in return. Quite the contrary, in fact. If they ask you what appears to be a generic question, do not give a generic response.

Courtesy of Career Builder, MSN Careers covers in detail some of the most common types of interview questions that employers ask and what they really mean with regards to the kinds of answers they're wanting to hear.

Follow the link for the entire article.

Here's a sample:

Question: "What are your strengths?"

Answers such as "I work well with others" or "I have a can-do attitude" may in fact be strengths, but many job candidates make the same type of statements, and a generic response will do little to distinguish you from other applicants.

What it really means: "How have you used your strengths to add value to your employer?" The interviewer wants to know how the particular talents you bring to the table will benefit the firm if you're hired, so put your best qualities in context. Talk about how your strengths can help meet a prospective employer's specific needs. In this economy, many firms are trying to cut costs, for instance. Your experience negotiating vendor contracts, for instance, could be a boon to your chances.

If you want to interview well, it is all in how you prepare. As my high school basketball coach once said, "You have to have passion for the process." Trust me, if you think winging it is a good idea, please consider reconsidering that thought. I'll admit, some people just have a gift for gab, but a little practice never hurt anybody.

Practice being interviewed. Study probable questions ahead of time. Dress the part. Smile a lot. Shake with a firm hand. Look them in the eye. Sit up straight.

Interviewing success lies in all of the above.

Getting into character for the interview

It's getting to that point of the semester where course fatigue begins setting in and it doesn't matter what essay you write, project you complete, or test you take - you simply assume it's all amazing, no matter how bad you know it is. I say this partly in jest, but, as depressing as it is, I say it mostly because it's completely true.

I had a friend tell me the other day that he interviewed for a job but that he couldn't really gauge how it went because he was so caught up with an accounting project he was doing for a class. He said it felt like he interviewed pretty well, but that his mind wasn't totally focused on the questions and that he would drift away from the interview from time to time to do a mental check-up on his project.

Interviews and the late semester drag are not homogenous. They don't coalesce well, or, in most circumstances, they're like oil and water. However, you do not want one to affect the other to the point where everyone else notices just how crabby and confrontational you are becoming. The minute you throw a chair across the floor at a referee during an intramural game, it's time to take a step back and evaluate the situation.

You have to hide it well. Show them your poker face. Listen to Lady Gaga if it serves as a really lame kind of motivation. I don't care how you do it, but you have to put your game face on during the final quarter of the semester. Notice how well your professors do it. Do you honestly think they want to keep talking to you for 50 minutes day after day when the pungent aroma of finals week is steadily seeping like a poisonous gas into their nasal passages. They would like nothing more than to give you the final now so they can say, "Adios!" and kick you out of their classroom for good.

I know this because professors have told me so.

You don't notice this happening though, do you? Most don't. Some professors will slip up and reveal signs of fatigue every once in a while though - as an English major, this is the equivalent of more films, cancelling class so we can do "research," and giving in-class assignments. The truth is that, as a student, I don't really mind. I could use the mental break just as much as they could. Seniors especially love this because their mind is not on course work most of the time (a sad truth...my apologies to my professors), but our minds are focused on graduate school applications and job interviews.

This leads me back to my friend and his job interview. I'm going to teach you how to avoid what happened to him - losing your focus in the middle of the Q & A does not equal interview success...most of the time.

Bear with me while I try to make this analogy as cogent as possible.

I study acting. I don't act regularly (although I would like to), but, nevertheless, I've studied Meisner and Stanislavski (Google them if you're lost) and I know a thing or two about getting under a character's skin and understanding what makes them tick. In terms of interviewing, there is the "you" that everyone else knows (I'll let you fill in the finer details), and then there is the "you" that the employer needs to know.

Now, before you go telling me that I'm divulging into some wacky take on postmodern society's splintering effect on the human pschye and the adverse results that lead most often to multiple personality disorder, then you're way off base and need to drink a Coke or something. I'm not suggesting that you need to be two different people...not entirely anyway.

This is something employers struggle with now, especially in a world inundated with social media networks. Who is the real employee they're hiring? Does it matter as long as they do the job well and don't embarrass the company? Is it something they should factor into a hiring decision?

This whole topic is a little mind numbing.

I honestly didn't know I would get caught in a tiny digression about online identity so I'll just relate my next comment to you as an obiter dictum, pretend I didn't say anything at all, and then we'll keep moving on with the discussion of how to get into character for the interview.

If it's something you wouldn't want your grandmother to see, don't put it on there.

Moving on...

To avoid being weighed down by the semester's activities and letting it affect your interview performance, you need only to follow these three rules.

1. Practice being interviewed - It will help you tremendously. Knowing what to expect is a good way to avoid losing focus when being asked the tough questions. With enough practice, you'll be beyond prepared and ready to jump at any question you may be asked. You'll be amazed at how easy the rest of the interview will seem.

2. Dress the part - And not just on the day of the interview. Even when you practice getting interviewed or when you're going over questions by yourself in front a mirror, put on your interview attire. It sounds weird and your roommates may ask questions, but you'll know that you're doing it to get into character.

3. Smile, smile, smile - Don't misrepresent what I'm telling you and get cheesy, but if you've got a tremendous smile, show it off. I've found that interviewers become more engaged when you smile or crack a joke or make a funny comment. It helps create a more relaxing environment and allows you to come off as genuine and approachable. (Hopefully you are.)

In a way, I feel bad for relating this information in the manner I did because it presents the whole interview process as being something that prevents you from being you. This shouldn't be the case, but you do want to look professional if you're interviewing in a professional environment. You want to be able to talk eloquently and loquaciously about why you want to work for their company. It shouldn't be an act, but it should be a more professionalized version of something you might tell a friend.

Interviews are tricky situations. Consider this an introduction. When I get back from Thanksgiving Break next week, we'll get into some of the more minute details regarding what employers are really wanting to know when they ask certain questions and the kinds of answers you should be prepared to give during any interview.