In this workshop you will learn how to improve your interviewing skills.

Instructor: Carl M. Cohen, PhD

President, Science Management Associates

Whether you are looking for a position in academia or at a company, at some point in the process you’re going to be sitting across from someone asking you questions about yourself and your work. How you answer those questions and how you come across during the interview process will have as much and likely more influence on the hiring decision than your research or publication history. Going into a job interview believing that your resume and publications speak for themselves is a recipe for disappointment.

In this highly interactive half-day workshop, you will learn how to answer the most common and most difficult questions that interviewers ask job candidates. In a small group setting you will practice responding to interviewers who want to get an idea of how you interact with others, manage conflict and deal with setbacks in your work. During this process you will get direct and immediate feedback on how you did and how to improve.

You will learn how to respond when someone says “So, tell me about yourself” in a way that focuses on what they need to hear from you. The workshop will also show you how to respond to loaded questions like “What is your biggest weakness?” Throughout the workshop you will get feedback and guidance on how you come across to others with a specific focus on body language, eye contact and facial expression. Finally, you will learn the principles of effective networking and how to make sure that the contacts you make keep you in mind when opportunities arise.

What you will learn

• Learn how to answer the eighteen most common questions asked during an interview.

• Practice telling someone about yourself in an engaging manner and in less than a minute.

• Learn the rules of networking and how to capitalize on those who can be most useful to you.

• Using body language to reinforce your message.

• How to customize your message to the interviewer’s interests.

• How to ace interviews with ‘professional’ interviewers’ including recruiters and human resource professionals.

Three weeks in advance of the workshop participants will receive interviewing guidelines for them to review and list of techniques and answers to questions for them to practice. These will be used during the workshop.

Contact: Marian Jakubiak, mjakubiak@flatironinstitute.org