Job Prep For International Students

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 T A R S

Situation Task Action Result 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.