5 Important Interview Questions

By: Anuranjani Korrapati - MBA Student

1.      Tell us about yourself
Because of its open-ended nature, this question often tricks people up.

Good answer:
Stick to the basics and provide relevant facts about your education, career and current life situation. Summarize your whole career into 2 or 3 brief sentences describing most important aspects of your career, which you want to use as influences to next career step.

Focus on what most interests your interviewer. The answer should target the job, not a personal biography. What really matters is how you can contribute to the company not where you were born.

Bad answers:
·         What would you like to know?
·         Do not tell your life history.

Though differently phrased, the following questions are basically same as the above question.
·         Why should we hire you?
·         Why are you the best person for the job?
·         What makes you a good fit?

2.      What are your weaknesses?
This question is asked to gauge your self-awareness and honesty.  Your answer gives the employer an opportunity to see what if anything you needed to make up, if you are hired.

Good Answer:
Your answer should tell them that you can overcome challenges. Try to address uncertainties in your background. Paint a weakness as a strength. For example, instead of saying that “I am a perfectionist”, phrase your answer as follows:

“I always take extra time to check whether my work is complete and accurate. I hate redoing my work. Though taking extra time may sound like I make delays in submitting my work, my employers always appreciated the effort I put into and the quality of the work.”

Bad answer:
·         I can’t think of any!!
·         I work too hard or I am a workaholic

3.      What are your strengths?

Good answer

This is a confidence building interview questions. Later in the interview, these strengths become talking points. For example, if you say team work, the interviewer may ask you ‘Tell me an incident where you demonstrated team work’. Only strengths that count for this question are those which are demonstrable with actions at a workplace and add value to the position you are seeking. Be accurate, specific, and honest and don’t be too humble. Be prepared to demonstrate.

Bad answer
Don’t choose strengths that are not important for the job at hand or strengths that anybody could claim. Who wants to hire someone whose greatest strength is the ability to show up on time?

4.      Why do you want to work here?

Good Answer
Tell what you have learned about the company, why it is appealing for you. Be specific and share how you can be a benefit to the company. It is ok to reference people you know that are employed by the company. It is ok to tell why you are leaving your current job. But do not make any negative comments about your previous employer.

Bad answer
·         I don’t know!
·         Because it seems like a good place to work.
·         It’s a great growth opportunity for me.

The above answers lack research, thought and consideration. They have no relevance to the job seeking and are unimpressive.

5.      Do you have any questions?
Always have a questions for an employer when they ask the above question.

Some possible questions might be:
·         Why is this position open? OR Is this a newly created position?
·         Based on the response you can assess whether the company is growing or not and also the importance of the position to the business.
 ·         Ask about whom you will report to, who reports to you, and which contacts you have day-to-day.

 ·         Ask how they feel about your performance in the interview.

What I wish I had done in undergrad that I didn’t…

By: Ashely Pandazis- MBA Marketing Student

When I was an undergrad, I never really struggled with figuring out what I was going to get a degree in.  My family owns a restaurant, Vic’s Daily Café, so this initially ignited my interest in business.  Also, in high school I took DECA, a business class, consecutively for three years.  I competed nationally two of those years and had a blast.  As a result of being raised in the restaurant industry, as well having such a good experience in DECA, I knew that I wanted to get a degree in business.  However, that is as far as my thinking went when I was an undergrad.  I think it was easy for me to lose sight as to why I was there because some of the classes were completely irrelevant to my degree.  I am sure that some of you can relate to this.

However, in the middle of my undergrad program I took a step-back and truly delved into the reasons why I was in school and asked myself seemingly easy yet in reality challenging questions, like “what I want to do when I grow up.”  Long-story short I ended up getting a degree in Business and Economics, as they both complemented each other well and I feel that they have made me well-rounded in my education. 

Though I am glad I had this epiphany in my undergrad years, I really wished I would have gotten involved more in organizations and participated in events hosted by Anderson.  I totally get that our lives are filled to the brim with to-do lists that seem to grow throughout the day.  In my undergrad years I went to school full time (sometimes 21 hrs.), worked part-time, and volunteered mentoring middle schoolers.  One of the most valuable lessons in life is how to manage ones time, something that I have always struggled with.  Looking back at my undergrad years, I realize that there were many opportunities afforded to me that I did not take full advantage of.  Some of these things are:

·         Professors: I have come to learn that professors really do care about our career path and are willing to help us.  As an undergrad it can be intimidating going into their office.  However, even if you don’t have questions about school work you should still talk with them.  Ask them about their profession, like why they do what they do and what steps did they take to get there.  Maybe their job is something that you aspire to do.  Well, talking with them is a great way to learn more about it and to learn how to someday do that.

 

·         Events: AGBS, ALPFA, and so many other organizations host events throughout the year.  As an undergrad, I did not attend very many of these.  I wish I would have.  They are a great way to get to learn about organizations, get to know other Anderson students, network, meet employers (potentially your future-employer), and eat some really good food (most of these events always have food, so that’s definitely a bonus). 

·         Career Services: Not too surprising that I am mentioning this being an ambassador, but this seriously is an underused resource here at Anderson.  Right now ask yourself: “Why am I in school?”  I don’t know exactly what your answer was, but I can guess what it was not: “because I enjoy buying expensive books, pulling all-nighters, or aspiring to be a professional student.”  You are in school to get a job.  But not just any job, your dream job.  Maybe you know exactly what that is.  Well great, career advisors can help you take the steps to get there.  Maybe you have absolutely no clue what you want to do, that’s not a problem at all.  Career advisors would love to help you discover what job best suits you.  Trust me, I am speaking from experience.

I really enjoyed my undergrad years.  However, looking back I could have really benefitted and had an even more enriched undergrad experience if I would have taken advantage of the MANY opportunities available here at Anderson.  So don’t just coast through school, but be in it with intention and filled with passion.  I challenge you to sign up for an event you’ve never gone to before, talk with one of your professors during their office hours, and schedule an appointment with a career advisor.  Enjoy the adventure of being an undergrad student!

Ashley

Ambassador of Career Services at Anderson School of Business

‘Go Wild’ to Get Credit: An Internship at the ABQ BioPark

By: Sean Anderson- BBA Marketing Student



Petting the baby rhino during my
time at the biopark

Internships are an important part of a student’s educational process. Luckily, Anderson allows students to marry work and school with their internship-for-credit program. Find an internship you like, find a faculty member to sponsor you, fill out five minutes worth of paperwork, and you are on your way to an educational, engaging, and (in my case) enlightening semester experience.

My experience started, as most stories do, with an inciting incident. In my case, I needed a class to meet my concentration (marketing management) requirements. The problem: the spring schedule did not have a single class that would satisfy the requirement. Not one. So, I could either postpone graduation until the fall, or look into this “Get Academic Credit for your Internship!” email that I had been getting on a recurring basis for the past two years. I chose the latter.

I had recently attained an internship with the marketing and graphics department at the ABQ BioPark. It was fun, and I was learning a lot in my limited hours there. So, why not get credit for the fun I was having? Why not add a few hours (10 per week) to my school schedule and call it a degree? My supervisor was happy, my graduation checklist was satisfied, and I was on my way to a cap and gown.

In my 160 hours at the BioPark, I moved alligators, saw an orangutan ultrasound, watched an elephant channel its inner Picasso, and fed a polar bear a peanut. I found out how and why we are saving the Silvery minnow, and I made a video to hopefully help other people understand too. I shot videos, edited videos, wrote press releases, designed banners and posters, researched crises, wrote crisis communication plans, and attended important meetings with head honchos. My favorite thing: I got to be a part of the welcome party for a then two-week old Chopper, our baby white rhino.

Internships don’t have to be getting coffee and sorting mail. Mine wasn’t. I got three graduate concentration credits for having fun, learning things I needed to learn before I graduated, and adding things to my personal portfolio in the process. It was an intensely rewarding experience, and I would recommend it to anyone at Anderson. 

“What I Would Tell My Freshman Self”

By: Brianna Jackson, MBA student- Finance

I know sometimes many of us wish we could go back in time and do things a little differently. When it comes to school, I catch myself thinking about the things I could have done early on that would have helped me now. Mostly, I wish I could tell my freshman self what to expect and to do things that will benefit me in the future.

After I graduated high school, I had no idea what I wanted to study in college because I had absolutely no clue about what I wanted to be when I “grew up”- thank goodness for prerequisites! So, I took my time with my classes and attended the local NMSU branch in Alamogordo; I wasn’t ready to venture off to a new city quite yet. Looking back on it now, I would go back and tell myself to just go for it and move away to have the “real” college experience. Then I think about how all of my classmates who did move away to go to NMSU or UNM ended up coming back to Alamogordo after just one semester. I remember telling myself back then that I had made the right decision to stay at home for a while. And maybe I was right, maybe I would have come back just like the rest of them. But, I would definitely tell myself not to be afraid of taking risks because I’ve learned that sometimes the scariest things are also the most rewarding.

So, I eventually moved to Albuquerque because my dad got a job at Kirtland and I decided to move with my family because the Alamogordo was no longer for me and I didn’t want to be stuck there. I had also already been at the local branch for a year and pretty soon they would no longer be able to offer the classes I needed for a 4 year degree. I was very happy to move because Albuquerque seemed so exciting coming from a small town. However, I did not attend UNM right away; I took online classes for one year through NMSU because we had moved so suddenly. But, I would go back and tell myself to start at UNM right away because this eventually put me behind on the credits I needed to graduate on time. Ultimately, I needed to get out of my comfort zone and venture out into the world.

As a freshman, I don’t think most of us really see how things all fit together from the time you start college until you graduate. At least for me, I always felt like graduation was too far off and I didn’t realize everything it would take to find a job. It is important to start thinking about that right away and get involved with organizations on campus and get to know people; all of that pays off when it comes time to find a job. I was a junior at Anderson by the time I figured out I needed to get involved and do more than just school. So, I joined student organizations and really got to know people who have helped me along the way.

It is weird looking back on my whole college experience and see where I am today. Now, I am already almost done with my first semester as an MBA student and I have a job at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney as a Client Service Associate. I love it and I am learning a lot about the finance world. I’m excited for what else is coming my way after I am completely done with school. It is coming up fast, but I’m ready!

What You SHOULD Be Doing During Your Summer Break

By: Frankie Gonzales, BBA Finance

 

During the summer most students, myself included, usually check-out of school. They just had yet another difficult semester and any talk of school and the upcoming Fall semester usually returns a stop-talking face. However, let me tell you there can be a significant benefit to thinking about your career path. By investing some time into your personal career development you are making a direct investment in yourself.

Fall is a big recruiting season for most firms across the country. Many will be traveling to campuses and will be hosting information sessions about their companies. Also many application deadlines for top-notch summer internships are due towards the end of the fall semester. This means that if you want to be competitive for the recruiting season and land your dream job/internship you should spend some time over the summer getting prepared.  One of the best things is that it doesn’t require any calculus, statistics, accounting or anything that brings up impressions of work. Everyone’s fall semester is busier than they expected during the summer and you don’t want to get caught the night before an application is due trying to throw together a resume and practicing your interview skills.

How should you get started? Well let me tell you… head on over to the Anderson Career Services Office and make an appointment! Kate Williams, the career services advisor, will take care of you and help you setup your personal professional development plan. Come with questions, ideas, and any drafts you have. Don’t worry if you don’t have anything at all, there is no better time to start than now! Some things to think about are what do you want to be doing in the future? Kate has many ideas and lots of helpful advice to help you start your path of professional development.

I had the opportunity to work with the Anderson Career Services Office this past summer and it was an all-around great experience. Kate helped me to setup my resume by showing me how to better use my experience and my skills to my advantage on paper. We talked about everything from how to get my resume noticed by a recruiter to how to introduce myself at an interview. Everything that we went over made me much more confident going into all of the “Brand You” Events and the Career Fair in the fall. So trust me taking time to work on your professional development really pays off in the end.

Summer is such a huge opportunity for Anderson Students to set themselves up for success at all of the career services events over the course of the year and remember that one of the best ways to get a job that you love is to prepare ahead of time. Anderson provides many resources for their students and it’s up to you to take advantage of them, trust me they truly help! If you have any questions at all please contact me at fgonza03@unm.edu.

Life Happens: But Don’t Let it Ruin Your Credibility

By: Emily McGowan – MBA Student

Oh, that event sounds great, and that one too! Oh, that’s my favorite event of the year; of course I’ll be going. It’s a common occurrence for people to hear the description of an event, think it sounds great and sign up without even considering the timing. Then the event approaches and they realize they have to work, class or another commitment and decide not to show.

As a former President of a student organization, let me tell you the easiest way to lose the respect of your peers is for you to sign up for an event and not show. Now we all know “life happens” and things do come up. However, it’s all about how you deal with it. The simple act of letting the person in charge know you can’t make it is all you need to do. If it’s a onetime thing, it won’t be a problem. On the other hand, if you have what I call “trigger finger” where you consistently sign up for things and don’t show, you will forever lose your credibility with others.

What people often don’t realize is the effects on others when they choose not to come to an event. In some instances it creates more work for everyone else by your absence. In other instances money was spent on you or you could be taking the spot of another individual at the event. Something I used to have to continually stress to my members is that we understand you can’t make it to everything, and we don’t expect you to. We would much rather you not sign up, then not show up.

Some of you may be thinking, why would anyone do this? There are a lot of reasons, however a common one I’ve encountered is overscheduling. This is especially common with students because we want to do it all and simply just don’t have the time. I’ve fallen victim to overscheduling myself many times, where you think about everything that has to get done and realize something will have to be cut. It’s all about priorities and planning. By planning ahead, if something really needs to be cut at least it can be done in advance. This is an important lesson for us all to learn before we enter the workforce as no one wants to be the unreliable employee.

When I realized My Major Wasn't for me

By: Melina Chavez BBA International Management Student

It is said that about 50% of college students who declare a major end up changing it. Some change it multiple times throughout their college years. I definitely fell victim to that statistic during the fall of my sophomore year here at UNM. For years I had set my mind to being a nurse. I used to watch all the ER shows such as, House and Mystery Diagnosis on TLC, I even volunteered at MD Urgent care for a few months. My doubts about being a nurse didn’t quite become clear to me until I actually started working at Urgent Care and began to shadow the nurses. This is when I started to realize that I didn’t think I would make a good nurse because I couldn’t stand some of the situations I had the opportunity to be able to observe. I remember one time a little boy about 4 years old had to get a vaccine and after about thirty minutes of kicking and screaming the doctor was finally able to inject the vaccine. This scenario not only broke my heart seeing the kid in tears, but it also opened my eyes to the patience that medical professionals need to have to endure situations such as this one and often times, even worse.

 That semester I was signed up for Chemistry 101 and I dropped the class after the first day because of the assessment test. I took one look at the test and remembered my experience at MD Urgent Care and all of the sudden I realized nursing was not for me. I then went to the Sub dropped out of my Chem 101 class and signed up for macroeconomics. I figured even though medicine was interesting to me, I would do much better on the business side of healthcare than I would actually caring for patients at a hospital. Changing your major requires a lot of planning especially if you want to stick to getting your degree in four years. After signing up for macroeconomics, I went to the advisement center and took one of the Anderson prerequisite sheets so I knew what to plan for next. From that semester on, I took a summer and intersession class every year so I could meet my graduation deadline for 2013.

When deciding whether to change your major networking can be very helpful. By networking you can find a job in the area that you are interested in to make sure that that is the field you will want to pursue. This allows you to have hands on experience in that field. Also, it is important that you take advantage of the advisement centers here at UNM because they advise you on certain classes you need to take and what opportunities are available to you based on the career path you decide to take. Another tip that will help with switching majors is recognizing when certain classes are given ie. fall, spring or summer. This will allow you to plan out your semesters in advice so that you don’t fall back a semester having to wait to take a particular course. It is crucial that you stay on top of the graduation requirements for both your college and your program to ensure thorough completion of all the courses necessary to graduate. Changing majors is common and can often happen multiple times to an individual but it is important that organization and preparation are included in that transition to guarantee success moving forward. Luckily, UNM is full of resources to guide you with your endeavors. For more information or questions feel free to contact me at mc91@unm.edu.