One of my duties as an intern at Millennium Personnel is conducting interviews with potential applicants in order to gauge where they would best be placed within our pool of clients. Normally,someone in my status as a new graduate would be in the place of the nervous applicant at a job interview; however here at Millennium, I am required to take the role of the interviewer. Being the one to run the interview has allowed me to take notice of good and bad interview etiquette as well as learn from the mistakes of others before I am put in the place to make them.

There are a wide variety of applicants who come into our office for walk-in interviews: young, old, life-long NYC residents and new U.S. citizens. Some of whom have years of experience while others are still wet behind the ears. As well as reading their resume, I must also read the applicants as the interview progresses: their body language, their tone, and their responses to my questions. Being able to put myself in the position of the interviewer has shown me exactly what not to do at an interview. Some people sit down and immediately begin rambling on about their experience before I even have a chance to ask my first question. Not only is this rude to me, it’s detrimental to their chances of finding a job with us or anywhere for that matter; if you can’t follow the employer’s requests during an interview than they’ll have doubts about you ability to follow directions if actually offered a job.

One of the final questions I ask our applicants is what their salary requirements are. This is a touchy subject for any interview, but a necessary one. Some applicants have outrageous salary requests for the types of jobs we place. When asked if they are flexible to accepting something a bit lower, they’ll claim that it is impossible seeing as how with their experience they deserve to be paid at a much higher rate than someone who is entry-level. In other instances, some people demand that they must make as much or more than the salary at their last job in order to maintain their current lifestyle. Responses such as this strike me as being extremely egotistical and off-putting. This has shown me that regardless of how educated or experienced one might be, it is necessary to check your ego at the door when entering a job interview. Also in this economy, it pays to be flexible with salary requirements as the opportunity to impress your employer enough to evoke a pay raise is always present.

Being able to conduct an interview is a rare opportunity for someone who does not specialize in management. The first few times I had to give an interview were a little nerve-wracking, but once I realized that the some of applicants are trembling with anxiety during the interview, my confidence spiked. Conducting interviews are just another part of my day now, along with answering phones and performing general office duties at Millennium.

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