After reflecting on her role & responsibilities as an interviewer, Devon thought about ways to create a welcoming space for students to highlight their strengths, skills, and interests.  Below are a few of her tips for developing an ethical interviewing process.

Check your biases: Knowing your unconscious biases is critical to creating an inclusive & ethical hiring process.  As interviewers, our internal biases impact how we interpret candidates’ body language & tone and how we evaluate the skills, strengths, and experiences of our candidates.  It’s important to do the internal work of understanding your biases so that you can “check them” during your hiring process. 

Develop thoughtful interview questions: Prepare questions which are relevant to the role & department.  Be thoughtful about how you word the questions so that they are clear & concise – avoid asking multi-part questions.  The goal with interviewing is to identify what your candidates bring to the table, not to trick them with poorly worded questions.  I recommend focusing on behavior-based questions as a great way to learn more about your candidates.

Be open & honest about your departmental culture, values, and challenges:  With interviews, we often hear talk of whether a candidate is a good “fit” for the role or department, yet we rarely discuss what “fit” really means.  Avoid vague descriptors.  Instead, know your departmental values and culture, and be able to speak to them openly and honestly to candidates.  Don’t be afraid to have a conversation with candidates about challenges or areas of growth for your department – it’s okay to name things your office is currently working on improving as a team.  Remember, you’re interviewing the candidates, but they’re also interviewing you; honesty is important for both parties. 

These considerations help to humanize the hiring process as well as create transparency in the role & department.  By implementing these considerations into the interview process, Devon hopes to show the candidates the same inclusive environment, authenticity, and trust-building they could expect from her as a supervisor throughout their employment. 

Interviewing can bring up lots of mixed emotions. As GA interviews approach and Yaneli reflected on her own somewhat recent interviewee experience, she shared a few tips that she found helpful when preparing for interviews. We hope these tips help our second-year GAs who are likely in the midst of their job hunt right now!

Take time to research the Who, What, Where, and How of a department or organization. Why do you want to work for this organization? 

Reflect on your skills. Think about what strengths you have that will benefit their organization. Alternatively, what areas of growth are you aware of, and how are you improving those areas? Also, think about the particular role you are interviewing for—why are you interested in joining their team?

Even if it is a virtual interview, dress for success by planning your interview outfit. What you decide to wear can help with feeling more confident. Likewise, plan for success by having a private and/or quiet space that you know will have a good internet connection.

Put your heart & soul into it.  Be your authentic self, and practice your responses to common interview questions (e.g., Tell us about yourself).

Prepare questions. It’s always good to have at least 2-5 questions prepared for your interviewers. The end of an interview is a time for you to get to know the organization better, ask about the things you need to thrive in the workplace and ask about the hiring timeline & next steps.

Follow up after an interview. While not required, it is custom to send a thank you message to the employer/interviewers within 24 hours of your interview.

As a first-generation student, Sierra feels confident in saying the idea of having or building a network is really daunting. It can sometimes feel like you simply don’t have support or connections when it comes to the job market and that you may need to figure it out on your own. While networking is intimidating, it is important and helpful for navigating the professional world – especially since 80% of jobs are filled through networking. Two of Sierra's biggest tips include creating and utilizing a LinkedIn profile and connecting with your professors.

LinkedIn: It’s kind of a magical place. I spend a LOT of time on there. If you have one, I have probably viewed your profile at least once. It is also a wonderful tool to connect with folks who have experience in roles or fields you may be interested in. LinkedIn offers an “alumni” function associated with the University of Utah, where you can search position titles or company names. Once you’ve located a relevant contact, I would recommend sending them a message and asking if they would be willing to meet and share their experiences. That could be through email, zoom, or phone call, whatever you both feel comfortable with. At the end of the conversation, you can conclude by asking if they know of anyone else you should contact. This creates an opportunity to connect with folks you may not have known about before.

Connecting with Professors: If you’re not quite ready to dive deep into cold messaging folks on the internet, you can start with your professors. You can ask them how they got to where they are, what they did/do in their role(s), and where they hope to go. You can also share what you are looking for and see if they have any colleagues they could connect you to, or in general advice they have for somebody in this field.

As always, feel free to connect with the Career & Professional Development Center for more tips and tricks on networking/interviewing.