When I used to think of my ideal college interview I hoped for a laid back conversation with a young, relatable interviewer who moves away from discussing numbers and accomplishments and gets to know the “real” me. What I have learned from the last eleven college interviews I have done is that, surprisingly, those qualities are the opposite of what everyone should be crossing my fingers for.
The first seven or eight of my interviewers were very non-traditional, which tends to be the trend in college interviews nowadays. The interviewers were all recent graduates from 2017 or 2018 and they made sure to mention how unnecessary a resume would be since we would be discussing the traits I do not already demonstrate on paper.
While the combination of youth and casual conversation seems like it would lead to the best interview, I learned quickly it results in inexperienced interviewing and a lack of full understanding of the applicant.
Interviewers who are too young to have experience with interviewing under their belt tend to have boring, dry questions and an inability to go off script comfortably and with confidence. The result is a cookie cutter interaction that does not stray far from “tell me about yourself” and “what is your favorite extracurricular.”
The other surprising contradiction for me has been lack of requesting a resume. Interviewers rarely ask for resumes now, in an effort to get to know the student separately from what the university already knows. While I like that idea in theory, in practice it actually achieves the opposite. Any time I have not been allowed to supplement my conversation with a physical resume, the interviewers get scattered on their topics and I find myself forgetting certain accomplishments that I would have loved to expand upon in person.
The conversation should not derive directly from the resume, but as the chatting flows naturally the interviewer and the interviewee can glance down at it and individualize the questions based on the applicant’s interests and experiences rather than talking strictly off a preset, generalized list of questions.
That situation high school seniors tend to imagine and fear – arriving to their interview to see a serious, old man who graduated decades ago reaching out for a pristine resume to harshly judge them off of – is actually somewhat ideal. Interviewers need to stop overcorrecting from “tradition” and create interview environments that give prospective students the best chance at representing themselves well.