Some interview advice

Many students are currently going through interviews for their R1 applications, so today I'll briefly discuss what I believe to be the three important things to be aware of when trying to improve interview performance.

It's not about the questions you've prepared for

You should most certainly prepare for the questions you think you'll encounter. Self-introduction, resume walkthrough, why X or Y, behavioral questions - these are absolutely worth going over prior to your real interview.

That said, keep the following in mind: If you fail the interview, it will not be because of the questions you've prepared for.

The most common fail case is when we encounter something we did not prepare for (and we have no idea how to respond).

Therefore, it's not a good idea to just write down your answers to questions in advance and memorize them. What if you're asked a question for which you have no answer prepared?

Use frameworks

Compared to memorizing responses, a much better approach would be to practice applying frameworks to questions.

For example, whenever you practice telling a story, apply the STAR framework. Whenever you need to give your opinion on a subject, structure your response by supporting your opinion with two to three points. If you get a mini-case, think about what logical framework would be appropriate for analyzing the business problem.

With sufficient practice, even questions you haven't prepared for will appear less scary. In fact, you may find that you can respond to them by repurposing content from other questions you've prepared for.

Slow down

If I had to give one piece of advice that could have the biggest immediate impact to the most interview candidates, it would be to slow down.

When we speak quickly, we have less time to think. We also tend to use verbal interjections such as "like" and "um" to compensate whenever we need to let our thoughts catch up, making us seem less confident. Punctuation points are lost when we speak quickly, making us more difficult to understand.

What I've learned from a few years of teaching is that if we deliberately slow down our speech, it's possible to eliminate all unnecessary verbal interjections, have better enunciation, and make better use of "verbal" punctuation. Because we communicate fewer words per unit time, more of what we say is understood by listeners. With deliberate pauses and variations in our speech, we also appear more thoughtful and intelligent.

There's a lot more to interview preparation than the above advice. You should certainly prepare at least five stories that you can use to answer the most common behavioral questions. Prepare for and practice your self-intro and resume walkthrough, as well as all the "why" questions - why you, why us, why now, why X, why not Y, and so on.

Find an experienced interview practice partner and request that they ask you questions you probably haven't encountered before. If you're really serious about improving, record your practice interviews and review them. Body language and voice tone are perhaps more important than the content of what you say.

As I always tell students, time spent preparing for interview is time that's very unlikely to be wasted - because most of us will encounter interviews for the rest of our careers. While things such as standardized exam scores and university grades lose their significance with time, our interview ability stays with us and remains useful. Knowing this, it makes sense to invest more time here.