Do you want to strengthen your interviewing skills? Curtis had sent out 20 applications for a higher education teaching position and had six interviews with no offers when he reached out to Career Services for help with preparing for his next interview.

His qualifications include his enrollment in the Ph.D. in Psychology with a specialization in Social Psychology program and his M.S.in Psychology from Walden.  He also has 15 years of experience as a Violence Prevention Coordinator on a college campus where he worked to prevent sexual assault, stalking, and relationship violence. He also has three years of experience as an adjunct instructor.

So what did he do differently to prepare for his 7^th interview that resulted in an offer?

• He used the OptimalResume Interview Prep tool on the Career Services website to prepare. He practiced answering behavioral type questions and then watched the recording with a critical eye. He said: “by listening to the recording I realized I was not fully answering the questions.”  So each time he practiced, he focused on improving his presentation to show confidence and give a complete yet concise answer with examples.
• For each interview, he was required to give a short, approximately 15 minute, teaching presentation on a topic related to his field. For his 7^th interview, he practiced his presentation to show his style, ability to convey information, and connect with his audience. He also prepared to answer questions about the content of his presentation.
• He prepared questions to learn more about the students and their expectations of the instructors.
• His interview was over Skype, so he made sure that his surroundings were appropriate.
• After the interview, he sent the interview panel an email with links to samples showing his use of social media and YouTube as an instructional tool.
• The human resources representative told Curtis that it was helpful that his references were able to speak about and confirm his accomplishments on his curriculum vita.

We wish Curtis the very best in his new position!

For resources on strengthening your interviewing skills check out the following:

• Live Interview Café webinar which will cover interview strategies and answer your questions:, Oct 15, 6:00 p.m. Eastern.  Register here
• Archived OptimalResume Webinar Series: Part 5 Interview Preparation on how to use the OptimalResume Interview Prep feature
• OptimalResume System Interview Prep feature: (You will need to use your Walden email address to set up a free account if you don’t already have an account.)
• Quick Start Video: Interview Strategies
• Additional Interview resources

Written by Career Services Advisor, Denise Pranke