COLLEGE ADMISSIONS & CAREER SERVICES

For many students (and even adults!) interviewing for a scholarship, internship or summer job is nerve-wrecking. What’s the number one tactic for overcoming that nervousness?

Preparation.

As someone who has interviewed hundreds of people over the years — from preparing students for various interviews to interviewing professionals for various leadership roles in my corporate job at a large company — I’ve noticed the same things tend to stand out with a stellar candidate no matter what the interview is for. Here are three of them:

1. They did their research: They researched about the opportunity they were going after. You’d be surprised how students walk into an interview without running a few Google searches and doing some research on some of the basic facts about the opportunity. Students should know the basics so that they can spend their time in the interview having a deeper conversation.
2. They’ve practiced their responses: It’s...