Interviewing

Online resources
CaseCoach: Consulting students in particular need to practice case interviews, which use role-playing to test how you would handle potential job situations. You’ll need to access CaseCoach through Handshake to get the password.

Internship and job interviews include personality interviews, case interviews, technical interviews, and more.

View basic interviewing guidelines below.

In this guide:

  1. Before the interview
  2. Professional dress
  3. During the interview
  4. Interview questions to practice
  5. Special interview situations
  6. Case interviews
  7. After the interview

Be sure to spend an adequate amount of time preparing for an interview. If you are conducting a job or internship search, begin preparing for interviews shortly after submitting application materials. That way you have plenty of time to practice and improve before scheduled interviews.

LDL-TV
LDL-TV is a great resource for industry-specific interviews. Hear from Life Design Educators on how to prepare for both virtual and in-person interviews.

S.T.A.R Method
Use the S.T.A.R method to answer an interview question.

  • Situation/problem: your role
  • Tasks: your responsibilities
  • Action/behavior: what you did
  • Result/outcome: what you learned or achieved

Before the Interview:

Know Yourself

  • Give some thought to what you want from a job or employer. What kind of position do you want? What are your interests, abilities and values? How has your education prepared you for different kinds of positions?

Professional Dress

When you have an interview, it is important to dress the part. The most conservative thing to wear on an interview is a dark suit. Ties should be conservative with subtle patterns. Skirt suits should be no shorter than knee-length. Be sure to wear comfortable but professional shoes. Hair, including facial hair should be neatly groomed. This is the time to shower, shave, wear deodorant, and brush your teeth; however, do not wear cologne or perfume, many people are allergic. You can certainly let your personality show through in your appearance, and be yourself, we simply suggest that you be your most professional self. Some companies are very conservative and others are much more relaxed when it comes to professional dress on the job. Unless advised by the employer, please do not ever wear jeans, flip-flops, sneakers, clunky jewelry, miniskirts, exercise wear, T-shirts, or anything else that you would wear to bed, the beach, or the gym.

It is essential that you take some time to research the employer and the industry for an upcoming job interview. You want to make sure you are familiar with the employer’s website, current press releases, their mission and vision statement, five year plan, clients or products, and how their stock is performing if it is a publicly traded company. All of these things can help you stand out amongst other candidates. In addition, you can follow the company’s social media outlets such as Linkedin and Twitter to stay current on up to date information.

Tips for Interview Research

  • View the employer’s website. Pay attention to current press releases, new projects/initiatives, mission and vision statement, etc.
  • If it is your first time interviewing in a specific industry, you may want to read an industry guide that you can download through Vault. To access these guides, log into your Handshake account and find Vault within the resource library. You will need to set up a profile using your JHU email address with Vault if it is your first time logging in. Once inside, click on “Download Guides.” You will find a variety of industries represented.
  • Network with JHU Alumni, who may be working with the organization. Ask them specific questions you have, discuss new initiatives, career growth in that position, etc. If you are not sure how to network with alumni, go to office hours or read our networking handout.

What to Bring

  • Bring a few copies of your resume and a list of references; carry them in a portfolio or folder. If you have a portfolio (depending on your major); you can bring it too. Also, bring a list of questions to ask. It is best to have these written down in advance. You will appear more organized this way.

During the Interview:

Typical Format

  • Be sure to arrive 10-15 minutes early to your interview. Know how to get there or where to park. Make sure you allot time for traffic and finding the location. Be polite and professional to everyone you meet including security guards and receptionists. They may know the person who is interviewing you. Usually you will wait in a reception area and the person who is interviewing you will come out to greet you. Look them in the eye and smile as you give them a firm handshake.
  • Interviews often begin with the interviewer telling you about the job, department, or company. Then they begin to ask you questions. You will also be given the chance to ask questions.

Questions to Reflect on After the Meeting

  • Be sure to ask questions when you are on an interview. Interviewers will usually ask you what questions you have toward the end of the conversation. You can ask anything you want to know about the company, department, or positions. Do not ask about salary and benefits at this time. (If the first thing you want to know is how much are you going to pay me, and when is my vacation, then you don’t seem that interested in the position.) Have about 5-10 questions prepared to ask during your interview. If you will be interviewing with different people, you can ask them different questions.

Sample Questions to Ask:

  1. How did you come to work for Company X? What keeps you here?
  2. Is there any job training for this position? If yes, what kind and who does the training?
  3. Can you give me an idea of what a typical day in this position looks like?
  4. What kind of positions do people move into in the company from this one?
  5. What opportunities for professional development exist?
  6. Is there a formal mentoring program for new employees or recent graduates here?
  7. What is the hiring timeline after this interview? Can you tell me when I might expect to hear from you again?

Types of Interview Questions

Open-Ended Questions

  • This is the most common type of interview question. You control the direction that the interview goes when you answer these kinds of questions.
  • As you answer questions, have a clear point or theme that you focus on throughout your interview, emphasize your strengths as a candidate.
  • If you can, try to refer your answers back to the job description, department, or company.

Preparing your Elevator Speech

One of the most common interview questions you will get is, “Tell me about yourself.” Many students struggle with how to answer this question. It is important to prepare your answer to this question in advance. Include things like your degrees, relevant examples from your experience such as internships, research, volunteer activities, and extracurricular involvement. It is not necessary to include information that would be considered answers to illegal questions such as age, place of birth, marital status, religion, politics, ethnicity, sexual orientation, children, and disabilities. The reason these are illegal questions are because an employer cannot discriminate during the hiring process based on any of these characteristics. Try completing the following information, writing it out in paragraph format, and practicing out loud, to come up with a suitable answer to this question.

  1. Hi, my name is _______ I am a junior at Johns Hopkins University majoring in _______.
  2. What are the three most important things I want this employer to know about me?
  3. Relevant examples to support the most important things I want this employer to know about me.
  4. Why should this employer be interested in me and what separates me from my competition?
  5. Why are you interested in this opportunity with this employer?

Sample Elevator Speech:

“I came to Hopkins as an English major four years ago – my passion in high school was writing, and I have pursued as many opportunities to write in college as I possibly could. I have had three outstanding internships and they were all very different from one another – one as a news reporter for a regional paper, one as a journalist for a non-profit arts group, and one with a public relations firm. I have also written for the school paper for three years, and this year I am Editor-in-Chief.

If I had to sum up what I am all about, I had say two things: first, my greatest passion is writing; and second, I am a results-oriented person – you can see from my resume that when I take something on, I like to work hard and excel. I am proud of the awards I have received in college, and I am anxious to get out there and start working and contributing.

What attracted me to this position was, of course, the fact that the job in public relations and promotion, and I hope I can not only use my writing talents, but also learn a lot more about the public relations field. I am also attracted by the growth of your company over the last few years, and the entrepreneurial style you project. From what I have read, your organization seems like a place for people who like to achieve in a fast paced work environment and I really like that.”

Behavioral Based Questions

  • This is a special kind of interview question. Behavioral based questions focus on your past behavior, which is usually a good predictor of your future behavior. Employers ask these questions to gauge your strengths as a candidate.
  • A good way to answer these questions is with the SAR technique.
    1. S= Situation, briefly describe the situation.
    2. A= Action, describe the specific actions that you took to address the situation.
Interviewing