Published by Shelbi Tierney on Wed, Apr 01, 2015
Preparing for an Internship, Job or Scholarship Interview
Tom VanHowe
Aviation Flight Science
As an Aviation Flight Science major at the College of Aviation, we are offered many unique opportunities. Numerous different airlines and corporate flight departments spend a great deal of time visiting the College of Aviation to recruit and mentor students. Employers not only like to hire WMU Aviation graduates, but they also like to provide different opportunities to current students. There are always many different chances to land different internships and scholarships. As a student at WMU, I have applied and interviewed for multiple different jobs, internships, scholarships, and jump seat opportunities.
Each of these opportunities was unique and I quickly realized it was extremely important to be properly prepared for each application. Immediately I began assessing my attributes. This consisted of recording all my skills, talents, and abilities as well as past accomplishments, achievements and different groups and clubs I belong to or have belonged to in the past. This is an ongoing file that I keep so I can remember and organize everything I may want to put on a resume. I then use my ongoing accomplishments file, to begin to add and remove things to customize my resume. I do this to create the best possible resume for whatever it may be that I am applying for. I have realized over time that it is much easier to appeal to each opportunity individually when using a customized resume rather than a standard resume. Also, when creating each of my resumes, I am always mindful that my resume is never more than one page long. Lastly, I make sure that my resume is completely free of spelling and grammar errors.
Upon submitting my application, I begin taking very specific steps to prepare myself for each interview. From my experience, research is by far the most important step in the interview process. When interviewing for a scholarship, whether it is from the Michigan Business Aviation Association, the Regional Airline Association, or from the endless other organization that offer scholarship to aviation students, I research exactly what their mission is and what exactly they do. On the other hand, when interviewing for a job or internship, I make sure to familiarize myself with everything I can about the company. This includes what they do, any interesting facts I can come across, what they expect from their employees and I also begin to develop questions to ask myself during the interview. It is extremely important to do your homework and know everything you possible can about the company or organization from which you are asking for a job or scholarship.
After educating myself, I begin to practice my answers to typical interview questions. These questions can be anything from “Why are you interested in aviation?” to “Why would you be a good fit for our company?” all the way to “What is your greatest weakness?” Another thing I like to prepare myself for is how I am going to answer any questions about the items on my resume. I practice explaining things like my past positions and try to prepare for some harder questions like why I have a lack of leadership experiences. Then, as funny as it may sound, I like to write these questions down and answer them in front of a mirror. This helps me monitor things like hand movement and how fast I am talking. I also have found it extremely helpful to perform mock interviews with friends. Just having a friend interview me helps me prepare for how I will answer different difficult questions with someone waiting for an answer. Ultimately, I try to just be myself, answer all the questions thoroughly, and leave a lasting impression on those interviewing me.