Right about now, most students are busy at this moment going through their first and second interviews. Yes, just in case you do not realize, most IT positions are filled by Fall and most signed their offers before Thanksgiving before their graduation in May. A recruiter for a major company, who I immensely respect, once told me that students do not know how to interview. One of the things they don’t learn to do is to balance the amount of “I” versus “we” in their conversation. What does this mean? Too many “we’s” in your interview give signals that you are overly reliable on the team to get the work done while too many “I’s” indicate that you are not a team-player. So have a good balance of saying I’s versus we’s.
For example, you might say, we work on a project for Habitat for Humanity and I took the liberty to first organize the students meeting and during every project I tested the software or applications to ensure that the outcome for everything is as expected. Or you could say you created the user manual as part of the team project. In that way, the recruiters know from you that the team is needed for the success of the project while at the same time is also cognizant of your individual contribution to this success. When the recruiters see the amount of work that needed to be completed for a project, they know everyone needed to chip in. They just want to know where do you fit in. So next time, before you go to an interview, write down a bunch of experience where you want to relate with the “we” part and then a bunch of interesting stuff that you want to use the “I” part.
So true! I feel that many times in interviews I am using too many “I’s” or “We’s” and I can almost get that sense from the interviewer too! I think that the interviewer wants to know that you alone can handle responsiblity, but that isn’t enough…you must also be able to work with others and handle your responsibility in that group as well.
Comment by Stephanie — November 4, 2007 @ 9:29 pm |