“No great thing is created suddenly.”

Busy Day February 26, 2008

Tonight I am going to have plenty to do. I’m doing final preparation for upcoming job interviews, selecting a few final positions to apply for, going to a pre-interview information session and then going to finish out the night with pizza and poker with some of the guys. There are always  going to be some tough interview questions, so I’m reviewing my relevant experiences to some of the common questions.

The toughest for me is, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” I’ve got several ideas both in regards to personal life and ambitions and hopes in my professional career. But things change so much in 5 years, that I know that likely things will turn out far differently than the way I expected.

I also like to ask the interviewer questions to give me a better idea about the position’s purpose and its expectations. So typically I’ll ask something like, “What are some of the objectives you would like accomplished in this job?” or “What need does this position fill within the organization that is absolutely critical?” I like to know these things primarily because it helps better fulfill the needs of the position.

This point goes along with one of my favorite quotes, “Our job is not to figure out the how. The how will show up out of a commitment and belief in the what.” — Jack Canfield.  The point is that people tend not care enough until they are committed to idea and to the work.

My internship last summer was an exceptional experience, with one noteworthy difficulty early on. Exactly why was our project relevant to the firm and what was the next step after it going to be? Once our team go answers to these questions it proved extremely helpful in enhancing our ongoing project to what was needed by the company.