job prep for international students

8/14/2019 Job Prep for International Students

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Interview Strategies for International Graduate

Students

Nadine Le Gros – [email protected] [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’ experiencesand accomplishments to the job position

requirements

– Interviewer is looking to see how you would fitwithin 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 – willreceive 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



-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

Soft skills-measured by cultural standards



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 perceiveinterviewees as competent(Laroche & Rutherford, 2007)



• “it is not necessarily the best qualified

person who gets the job, but the personwho 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 soundsunrealistic 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 manageany kind of project”

• “I can learn new subjects or job functionsvery 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 eyecontact is considered to be a sign of respect

• In Canada, avoiding eye contact maycommunicate to recruiters a lack of:

– Interest in job position

– Self-confidence

– Trustworthiness - and may suggest thatcandidate is hiding something




Effective non-verbal behaviour

• Practice your hand shake• Maintain eye contact when listening

• Nod occasionally

• Hold your head at a mild angle sometimeswhen 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



– Remember to keep answers short, simpleand to the point

– North American recruiters usually do notconsider information such as the age of thecandidates’ children and other informationabout your family relevant

– Complex language and sentence structuresare usually inappropriate for North Americanrecruiters


Language considerations



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 adjectivesthat 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 pastsituation - 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 hadno 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 occasionwhen 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.



Parting thoughts

• “Our deepest fear is not that we areinadequate. 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.

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