Wheaton News

Career Services assistant director provides tips on productive interviews

You arrive at your job interview ready to answer questions with responses that hopefully will make the points you want to get across. But, how can you drive the conversation in the direction you want to go?

That’s a challenging question for even the most seasoned professional with years of experience interviewing for jobs. For those new to the process, it can be daunting.

Audrey Spina ’17, assistant director of Career Services at Wheaton College, says active listening and being confident but not “pushy” can help. She and the college’s Career Services team regularly offer students many opportunities to hone their job interviewing skills—including learning how to engage employers in a productive conversation.

Spina shares a range of guidance in the guest column she wrote for CollegeRecruiter.com titled “Some Helpful Advice About Embracing the Give-and-Take Nature of an Interview.”

“Though a job interview represents a discussion between an interviewer and a job seeker, the prospect of controlling the direction of the conversation can represent an intimidating prospect, especially for first-time interviewees. Confidence is good; you want to be sure that the interview session covers the right bases regarding your experience, qualifications, and potential. You also want to ensure that your own questions about the hiring organization and the position they’re looking to fill are answered,” she writes in the column published March 25, 2024.

“Approaching the interview with a mindful attitude not only showcases assertiveness, confidence, and knowledge in the right ways but also transforms the interaction into a collaborative exchange rather than a unilateral interrogation. Remember, you are interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you.”