Friday, September 5, 2008

Complete an inventory to prep for an interview

I have slowly been adding interview questions that might appear in a library interview, but you could take a personal inventory to prep for an interview (and not wait for my sluggish self to post 1001 questions). How do you take an inventory? Anita Bruzzese posted an inventory, 20 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself if You Want to Smarten Up About Your Career, which, if you look carefully at them, can easily be rewritten as interview questions. For example, no.5, Who is the most difficult person for me to get along with at work? can be transformed into How do you deal with difficult patrons/co-workers? or Who is the worst boss you ever had, and why?. Using the questions in her inventory, you could easily prepare a sheet that will help you with most interview questions that are meant to assess "fit", collegiality or career plans.

The best part about an inventory like this is that your notes should help you prepare for several types of interview questions and that you can do it yourself, again and again, prior to a new job search cycle with a round of interviews. The questions on this inventory are so open that you could take them in any direction, and your answers will probably change the next time you do them--and with more self-knowledge as you grow as a professional.

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