Ways to Prepare

• Attend an Interview Clinic. You'll practice articulating your accomplishments and the examples that demonstrate your skills, making sure each story has a beginning, middle, and end.
• Participate in a one-on-one mock interview with a UCS counselor or advisor.
• Plan ahead.

What to wear:

• Guidelines for women: business suit or tailored dress, hose, polished shoes, conservative jewelry, clean, trimmed fingernails with clear or natural polish, limited perfume.
• Guidelines for men: business suit, polished shoes, clean, trimmed fingernails, limited cologne.

What to bring: Several copies of resume, notepad, pen, professional portfolio.

• Research the company thoroughly.

• Make a list of the top accomplishments you want to share with an employer, and then think about the behaviors and skills demonstrated by those accomplishments.
• Make a list of the key skills you possess. For each skill, jot down any recent situations in which you demonstrated that skill to the best of your ability.
• Use the STAR (situation, task, action, result) technique when conveying your answers.

Situation: Every behavioral example will contain information that lets the interviewer know why an action took place. Why did you choose that activity? How did you get involved?
Task: What goal were you working toward?
Action: What specific steps did you take? What was your particular contribution? (Be careful! It's easy to describe what the team or group did when talking about certain projects, but this doesn't convey your particular skills. Use the word "I" in describing actions.)
Result: Describe the outcome of your actions. Did you help win the game? Earn a good grade? Satisfy the customer? Let the employer know!

• Eliminate any examples that don't reflect positively on you.
• Note that an example with a negative result (lost the game) doesn't always reflect negatively on you. In fact, sometimes those examples highlight your strengths in the face of adversity (e.g., improved skills and received "best attitude" award).
• Be specific. By painting a vivid picture of you performing desired behaviors in the employer's mind, you are painting yourself into the picture of that job.