Beginner Job Interviews: An Insider's Perspective

    Does this sound like you? Do I sound like the beginning of a terribly cheesy infomercial? Well this article is for you. Just over a year ago now (at the time of writing of course) I left my now alma mater, the University of Waterloo, and began working at Veriday (where I am still currently employed, luckily they haven’t gotten tired of my terrible jokes yet). During my time at Waterloo, I had the opportunity to go through the co-op job search process along with all my fellow classmates. Shortly after that process, while at Veriday, I got the opportunity to hire my own team of co-ops for a project our company was engaged in. This meant that I would now be sifting through resumes, shortlisting applicants and conducting interviews only about a year after I went through the exact same process from the student perspective. This change in perspective taught me some interesting things about the way I had put together my application package as a student.

    While putting together my resume, I did all the normal things: asking friends to review, following templates, Ducking (yes, that is a shameless plug for DuckDuckGo) help guides and anything else I thought could help me stand out and land the job. Having gone though that process, I found it unbelievably simple to identify those same templates and help guide suggestions in the applications of those I was looking to hire. Resume after resume, cover letter after cover letter looked more and more like the same bland formula I’d seen before. After seeing this enough times I found myself saying “wow, there is a real disconnect between what students are applying with and what I am actually looking for as an employer.” Having discovered this, I wanted to try and identify the specific things I continually noticed that kept me from hiring people. So what did I come up with? If you’re like me, you’ve probably skipped this introduction already and scrolled down this page to the headings to find out. For the rest of you dedicated and loyal readers, I present to you three areas you should reassess when applying for a co-op job:

    I’ll be honest, I had a very serious debate with myself on whether or not to include this section at all. Part of me thought “you know, most employers probably DON’T care about cover letters, I’m probably in the minority when I look those over.” The other part of me thought “well, most jobs still require them, and if you are putting documentation forward that represents you and your human capital, it should probably still get a little TLC.” So, I guess what’s the harm?

    Stop me if this sounds familiar: 

“Dear Recruiter, Thank you for taking the time to review my application. When I first read about the QA Analyst job at Veriday, I was delighted to see that my previous skills and experience perfectly match the job description [authors note: my, isn’t THAT convenient]. 

Through my previous work experience I have gained a number of important skills including  communication and team working ability. 

I hope that you’ll agree my skills and experience are a perfect match for your company. I would love to have the opportunity to speak with you more about this position. Please reach out to me at your convince if you would like to speak further.

Sincerely, co-op student”

    I am willing to bet that if you don’t have something like that already written, you have a friend that does. When I see these sentences (sometimes verbatim the same from one resume to the next) it’s a pretty clear indication that someone used a template and is subbing in the job title and employer name for each new application. Now look, I get it. Sometimes you have to send out 60, 70, 100+ cover letters at a time and you want to be able to automate that process a bit. Makes total sense. What I don’t like about this approach however, is what that signals to an employer. Someone who carbon copies their resume in such an obvious fashion is really saying: “I don't care enough about you to warrant putting one second more than is necessary into this application.” That’s not good. If you don’t care about me, why should I care about you? How do I honestly feel though? Truthfully I don't really care if you use a template, heck, I used them to apply to my co-op jobs. The serious downside to this though, is that you have now made it incredibly easy for me, as an employer, to dismiss you. Using those templates shows me nothing about your personality, your writing ability, your interest in the job etc. So even if I am trying to spend time reviewing your application, you’ve given me nothing to work with, so how can I even begin to consider you? Page flip. Next resume.

    The takeaway? Job searches require you to stand out, not blend in. So don’t use the same cover letter everyone else is using. Stop using camouflage. 

    So, you’ve taken a pledge to stop using templates, or at least the same templates everyone else is using, what now? What are some things you can try to actually make your cover letter stand out? For starters, don’t overwhelm me. After spending who knows how long flipping through applications, the last thing I want is to flip to a cover letter filled with as many words as can be humanly stuffed onto a page. It’s overwhelming, demotivating (it’s probably how you felt when you realized how long this article was) and proves to me you’re not great at concise communication. So, keep it concise. Stick to at most three short paragraphs that get across why you’re unique, why I should pick you and why you’ll do a good job. Any more than that and I won’t even start reading.

    Also, on the topic of showing how you’re unique, that’s a biggie. You’ve got to show me in those first few sentences that you’re different. Show me you stand out from the stack and that you’ve got more to offer than meets the eye. I once interviewed (and later hired) someone solely because the first three sentences on their resume were so different (and albeit, a little odd) that I just had to talk to the person. I would much rather have a conversation with someone who wrote something I’ve never seen before than someone who used something I’ve already forgotten. Those first few sentences can be your hook into someone’s attention to reel them into your resume. It’s a huge opportunity, don’t squander it.

    Employers are selfish. It sounds menacing and perhaps more than a little obvious, but that was one of the biggest revelations I had when I switched from interviewee to interviewer. At the end of the day, as an employer, I want to know what you can do for me. At the end of the day we’ve got clients waiting on deadlines, our own jobs to do and this position to be filled. All I really care about is that you are able to come into our company and do this job well.

    To some, that might sound a bit harsh, but it’s the truth, and is a fact that a lot of students don’t fully understand (myself included at the time). Stop me if you have had any of these thoughts while gunning for a job: “I hope they hire me. I would be great at this job, after all, it’s exactly what I want to do. This company would be so awesome to work for, and would look GREAT on my resume. I just hope they pick my resume so I can show them what a great candidate I am. Fingers crossed!” Notice a theme? It’s the emphasis on the “I.” Very infrequently do I come across a student that thinks like this: “I wonder what skills I can bring to this job to do it well. I have a bit of experience, I hope I can learn fast enough to be able to drive results. I bet I can leverage this skill of mine to drive great results while working there, if I get the job. I hope I get the interview so I can talk to the employer more about the job, what it entails and to see if I would be best fit to get their goals accomplished.” The emphasis on “I” is still there, but notice that it also takes the EMPLOYER’S perspective into account - this is no small thing. A job interview is ultimately a negotiation: you are trying to persuade someone to hire you. I think Arlene Dickinson says it best in her book, Persuasion, when she says “any good persuasion is reciprocal.” What does that mean? It means you have to get out of the mindset that getting this job would be great for YOU, would benefit YOU and would make YOUR life easier if someone would just hire you already, and think about why it might be great for THEM. Think about it, an employer could easily look at any co-op and say “these students have little to no experience, and few, if any, ratings and rapport with previous employers. There is nothing here for me to look at.” Always remember that sure, we’ve listed a job opening for you to apply to, but we don’t have to hire any of you. So then, how do you keep an employer from thinking this about you? Your case will be different to the next readers, but maybe I can give you a few places to start.

            1.     Always think about the benefit to them. I am going to keep echoing this point, it’s that important. In your cover letter, don’t just talk about how great your communication skills are, talk about how you can utilize your communication skills to help you be effective in that particular job. Your history leading a team is great, but is that going to benefit you in this position? Talking about your skills is all well and good, but unless they’re valuable to the employer, it doesn’t matter. In your resume, surface key skills and experience that can be applied to the job in question and what the employer is asking for. In your interview, answer their questions in relation to the job. I did X which taught me Y which will help be perform Z duty. The underline is often forgotten.

            2.     In an interview, ask yourself “why is the employer asking me this.” This is something I never did while answering questions, but was the hugest gap I noticed in responses when I was doing the asking. If I ask “tell me about yourself” I don’t just want to know about your history, I got that from your resume. I’m really asking you to show off your personality to see if I could work with you, and to see if you would fit in at the company. If I ask you about your past failures, I may want to know how you learned from that, but we work in a fast paced, adaptive environment. I am asking about your failures to see how you were able to change directions, shift focus and move forward. If I ask “what is one thing you wish I asked you about that I didn’t” (my actual favourite curveball question to end an interview with) I don’t just want to know about a cool project you did, I want to know what you think the biggest asset you can offer me is, and a story to inform me of why you have that skill. Sub-text is key. Each question is asking something, just make sure you are giving the proper answer. 

            3.     Keep it relevant, otherwise I don’t care. This is similar to point two, but in interviews always remember to keep your answers specific to what is asked. I can’t tell you how upsetting it is to ask a question, looking for a very specific answer, and to receive a 10 minute (no exaggeration) story about how your childhood lead to the outcome of one project you did with a classmate. Keep your answers specific and to the point. I don’t mind if it’s a long answer but the details you’re telling me need to be relevant to what I might want to know. Give me some context, the answer to the question, something to entice my interest a bit further and then stop. The devil really is in the details. 

    That is a summary of how every interview prep course came off to me. It was confusing, but I now understand the importance of why they try so desperately to drive this point home: getting that mix wrong will ruin your interview. You might even leave the interviewer with a story to write an article about.

    Before I get into that, some good news: most students don’t come across as arrogant (yay!). For you stats majors, this means that statistically, based on the sample size I have taken, you can probably skip this whole section because it doesn’t apply to you. That’s good news. Don’t stress more than you already are. The bad news? You need to keep listening to all those classes that tell you not to be arrogant because it IS important; maybe I can help to try and explain why.

    I once interviewed a student for Quality Assurance position that proudly displayed his 95%+ average in the first line of his cover letter. That’s pretty impressive, he may be worth talking to. When asked about the secret sauce for his success, he attributed it to his extremely thorough nature and refined attention to detail. Fair enough. I then asked him what he would do if he applied that methodology to the job, and at the end, the QA Lead performed the task 40% better than he did even though he was sure he performed the task to the same level of detail that got him those high 90’s. The answer I got back? “That wouldn’t happen, I am too thorough.” Ok I’ll admit, that doesn't sound too earth shattering when written down, but trust me, there was a tone. Now, let’s think about what he really said in his answer: “That wouldn’t happen because I know everything already. There is nothing you can teach me. Yes, this QA Lead may have years of industry experience whereas this is my second co-op, but I have this job pretty much down pat.” That doesn't sound like a very great answer. I hear arrogance, an unwillingness to learn and quick judgement with little knowledge about the actual job. He didn’t ask himself how that answer would sound to the employer. He didn’t answer confidently, he answered presumptuously.

    What would a good answer have been? To me it would have sounded like this: “Well in that case I would have to take a step back and reassess the work I had done up to that point. Clearly the QA Lead has a more detailed approach that I could learn from to perform the job better. I would probably try to setup time with them to review their approach and apply that learning going forward. Based on my prior experience, I don’t believe the discrepancy would be 40%, but there is always room to learn from a full time professional.” That is much nicer. Now I hear that you want to learn, are willing to be wrong and are confident enough to suggest next steps.

    Other things you can do to help avoid the branding of arrogance? Bring your personality and your energy to the interview (a.k.a, it’s ok to be a bit weird). Not only will showing a bit of your personality help you stand out, but it will also help to build trust and a sense of authenticity in the interviewer’s mind; a brand of authenticity works wonders in dispelling thoughts of arrogance. Second, always remember that you know nothing. Ok, not nothing. But remember that the people you’re talking to have been working in the industry (potentially) for years. They have infinitely more experience than you do and probably know things that you don't even know are things you should know yet. Remembering that keeps you humble, and steers your mind from arrogant statements. Thirdly, focus on the foundations. I understand the temptation to stretch and say things like “because I worked this summer camp with a bunch of kids my communication skills will be great for this marketing job,” but if you try to sell me a lawnmower when I’m asking for scissors, I can spot the difference. My point here is to say that it’s ok to admit when you don’t have a skill, but do it smartly. Instead of saying “well the only real communication experience I have is with kids is at a summer camp, so I don't really know about this marketing job,” try saying “communication is a hugely important skill and one I was able to work on while being a summer camp lead last summer. I performed X task and ran into Y challenge which really taught me A and B. I think these learnings really lay the foundation of my communication skills and taught me how to learn and grow these sorts of skills rapidly. It is this foundation in communication that I can bring to your company to really excel at Z job duty (always remember the underline).” Wait a minute, you took that three week summer camp experience and were able to grow some foundational job skills? I wonder what else you can do….

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash