Common mistakes during job interviews
- Not dressing professionally enough
- Using cliche examples about self
- Not practicing beforehand
- Not doing research before an interview
Information from Frank Rowen, assistant director for student connections
After watching many students underprepare for job interviews after college, a Ball State faculty member created an app to help — even if it is awkward at first.
Jonathan Huer, director of emerging technologies and media development, created Be Employed When You Graduate: The App, an application to help students practice for job interviews.
“One of those things you just get better at with practice is interviews, but the only real way to practice is to basically do an interview,” Huer said. “If you are constantly practicing and getting no feedback other than ‘Oh I didn’t get the job,’ it’s just very difficult to get better.”
The first version of the app was added to the iTunes store in early July. The idea for the app came from the book he also wrote, “Be Employed When You Graduate.”
The app includes a feature to record a video response to questions the app verbally asks. Users can review the video afterwards to watch their answer and critique it.
“It’s a painful process to watch yourself, but there’s many advantages,” Huer said. “It’s a really difficult experience, but forcing yourself through it a few times makes you better because it gives you the opportunity to re-teach yourself.”
Huer said this app makes it easier to practice since there is no need to find another person who is willing to help.
“It’s much easier to do this than asking a roommate, professor or friend to do it, you can do it by yourself in the privacy of your own room,” he said. “One of my students told me I made the most awkward app ever, but it’s a lot less awkward than asking someone for help. Interviews are just awkward, it’s a fact of life.”
Huer said as much as people don’t like watching themselves, they’ll get better at telling their story the more they do it.
“It might be using ‘um’ too much. It might be using your hands, the way you sit, the way you present yourself. It might be the time you devote to each part of the story,” Huer said. “There’s a lot of non-verbal cues that happen in communication that you just don’t get, you don’t really realize until you watch yourself doing them.”
Huer said most of the time in interviews, the question will be about the applicant and what he or she is like.
Frank Rowen, assistant director for student connections at the Career Center, said since no one knows how they look or sound, people have to rely on the image of themselves in their head to know.
“You might have a tic or something that you don’t realize,” Rowen said. “You see what you’re presenting versus what you think you’re presenting.”
Rowen said another aspect to keep in mind when going for a job interview is to research beforehand.
“People will prepare generally for the position but they won’t weed in facts about the company [in an interview],” he said. “And how much more impressive it is to be saying things that directly apply to what the company provides.”
Alec Hanley, a senior entrepreneurial management major, said the app would be very useful to get a practice run in before he went for the actual interview.
“I could use it to practice before I go in for the real thing and put my position on the line,” Hanley said. “It could help gauge on what you’ll be asked so you don’t get nervous about what you’ll be asked. There aren’t many ways to practice for this stuff.”
Huer said many students undervalue the importance of practicing.
“It’s very easy to say ‘Well those things don’t matter,’ but at the end of the day, the job market is incredibly competitive,” Huer said.
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