After a few days of applying to an internship at Openlab for CityTech, I got an email saying they wanted to interview me. I was surprised but excited at the same time, knowing that this may be my first interview. I immediately thought about how I should prepare for it so I decided to email Peri Sharpe, the Career Specialist at ASAP/ACE, to see if she could fit me into her schedule to do a mock interview. She said yes and I prepared certain answers to common questions in an interview. You would think that answering questions about yourself would be so easy but honestly, I had trouble coming up with ideas. It was more about knowing how to say it rather than what to say, I didn’t want to say something in a manner that would be misunderstood especially during an interview.
During the mock interview, Peri guided me by asking questions about what I knew about the interview process. This way we would focus on the things I don’t know rather than reviewing everything which can be overwhelming. I learned much by making mistakes here rather than making them in the interview. One thing I had to practice was wording my sentences correctly and trying to remember them. I also had to try and incorporate talking about Openlab and how I find it valuable rather than just talking about myself. You want to show your interest in the place you’re applying for so that they get the feeling that you are interested in their goals too.
Once I got interviewed by Openlab, I felt so accomplished and confident that I did well. I definitely think I could have done better but for my first time being interviewed, I think I did pretty well. Again, my wording was something I focused on and practiced days before and It helped me explain myself with flow rather than sounding like a robot reading some lines from a script. I felt so confident that I felt like I landed the job… hopefully
