EEIC & IEEE Seattle Mock interview

The Electric Energy Industrial Consortium (EEIC) in collaboration with the IEEE Seattle Chapter is holding its annual mock interview.   The mock interview will be held at the Husky Union Building (HUB) room 337, on Nov 14th  2014 from 1600 to 1800 hrs. Please be ready 5 minutes before the event, and since we will have a limited number of interviewers, students will be scheduled for their mock interview in the order in which they responded to the RSVP (see registration and deadline).

The objectives of this event are:

·    to provide our engineering students with an opportunity to undergo a realistic job interview;

·    to expose industry representatives to student at the University of Washington;

·    to give our students and their prospective employers a chance to meet each other and explore common professional interests;

Registration and deadline

If you are interested in this opportunity, RSVP by 1700 hrs. on November 7th, 2014:

http://sites.ieee.org/seattle-pes/rsvp/

Please include your full name, your category (grad student or undergrad) and email. It is important that you RSVP on time, because we need to prepare the schedules for the interviews. Please see the next section for further instructions.

How to prepare

Be ready for the interview with the following:

·    Do some research about the place you applying to (your interviewer could be from SnoPUD, PSE, TP, BPA, Boeing, Alstom Grid, SCL or PNNL, Rextor Group; it is advisable to do some research about all of them before the mock interview)

·    Think what could you offer to them, and how do you see yourself working for that company

·    Prepare an updated Curriculum Vitæ

·    Prepare a cover letter for the job you are applying (you may want to prepare a generic cover letter explaining why you would be a valuable addition to the

company you are applying to.  Since it will be generic, extoll you qualities in the letter)

·    Dress professionally

Curriculum Vitæ

It is important to have an updated CV since this is the first item a potential employer will have a look at in order to screen possible employees.  This document should present in a concise manner a person’s experience and qualifications.  There are different formats for the CV, but all of them should contain the following basic information:

·    Contact information

·    Educational history

·    Employment history

·    Professional qualifications

·    Awards and honors

·    Professional memberships (if any)

·    Interests

·    Any other you may consider relevant

There are several places online where you can get templates for your CV, and many articles and books describing how to prepare a “compelling” CV.  For instance: “Resume Empower!: Shattering the Paper Ceiling” by Tom Washington and Gary Kanter among many others.  You may also find some tips on how to prepare your CV in places like linkedin.com or jobsearch.com among many others.

Cover letter

A cover letter should always accompany any CV you send out.  The purpose of the cover letter is to complement, not to duplicate your CV.  The reader of the cover letter should be able to get factual relevant data of your CV.  This description should be tailored to the particular position you are applying.   In this letter you can extoll the skills that you possess and that are necessary for the job you are applying.  Bear in mind that this in the first written contact that you will have with the company, so it is important to give a good impression.

Interview

This is probably the most important part of the process.  This includes two fundamental parts: i) the research that you have done about the place you want to work and how do you see yourself in that job and ii) how you conduct the actual interview.

Prepare for the interview.  Review the job description and think about the skills that are required for that particular position.  Think about how you see yourself “growing” in that position; and make a list of the characteristics of the company you are applying to, and try to self-evaluate how you fit in that company.  The interviewer will try to evaluate if you possess the skills, experience and qualifications for the job.  If you have identified the best possible way in which you could contribute to the company, you can leverage on that.

There are some books that give hints about what to expect in an interview, for instance: “Interview Power: Selling Yourself Face to Face” by Tom Washington; or websites like linkedin.com and jobsearch.com among others.  It would be advisable to have a look at them prior the interview.