What is an on-campus interview?
What is an on-campus interview?
What is an on-campus interview?
So you’ve sent in your application, you’ve gotten a response, and you’ve connected with the hiring manger over the phone. Great! You’ve gotten past the first round of the student affairs interview! They even said that they would get back to you within a week. Surprise! They got back to you the next day! They want you to come to campus to meet everyone else!
You’re at a critical time in the student affairs job search. The on-campus interview! But what should you do to prepare for the on-campus interview? What’s included? What should you do to prepare?
Exactly how do you prepare for the on-campus interview?
This article will examine what the on-campus interview is and why you’re here. This is a high stakes position that you’re in. How you do from here will determine if you’ll receive an offer or be rejected. This article outlines the structure of the on-campus interview as well as research tips and preparation for representing yourself as the best candidate for the position.
What is the on-campus student affairs interview?
The on-campus student affairs interview is the final step in the recruitment process for student affairs professionals. You’ll visit the institution during this stage of the process. During your visit, you’ll speak with administrators, students, executives, and sometimes faculty. This is a critical time in the search process because only finalists attend the on-campus interview. This means that you’ve made it to the final stage. Now it’s more important than ever to demonstrate that you’re the best person for the position.
Why you’re here
Candidates are only invited to the on-campus interview because they’ve demonstrated to the hiring manager or human resources professional that they can do the job. Candidates (like you) have already proved this via the first round interview.
That means that this stage in the process is no longer about competency (they know you can do it). What this stage is about is “fit.” Fit can mean many things for many institutions and many professionals. But at this stage it’ll be about demonstrating how you fit into the plans of the intuition; the culture of the staff; and the climate of the environment.
However; it’s important to remember that in the end you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. Fit is a process that goes both ways. You need to also determine if this is an institution that you want to work for; co-workers that you want to work with; and a culture that you can support.
This is high stakes
Despite this, know that this is a high stakes period in the student affairs job search. The nature of the on-campus interview is to determine which person from their small pool of finalists will be offered the position. As a candidate, you’ve already invested much time and effort into preparing for the on-campus interview. Likewise, the institution has also invested money and effort into the expenses related to your visit.
However, preparation alone isn’t the only investment that both sides make. Often, the on-campus interview could last anywhere between one to several days. Each day requires both sides to invest programming into all day interviews, activities, and meals.
This is definitely a highly challenging time for student affairs professionals to interview for positions. Especially so for introverted individuals. So make sure that you take time throughout the process to rest, relax, and re-charge between activities.
Making sure that you recoup your energy is especially important because all facets of the on-campus interview can be regarded as part of the screening and hiring process. That means that all interactions you embark upon will be judged and evaluated. That includes everyone from administrative assistants and cleaning staff to directors, students, and executives.
Structure
The on-campus interview will be unique based on the types of positions, functional areas, and institution. But most student affairs on-campus interviews will involve a diverse array of activities. These could include traditional 1on1 interviews with the hiring manger, human resources representative, or executives. It could also include panel interviews with students, faculty, or lateral colleagues from other offices.
That’s why it’s important to prepare yourself for your time ahead by training to answer questions related to the position, institution, as well as your own background and philosophies. Making sure that you have these prepared answers ready will ensure that you’ll represent your best self during this trying process.
Research& preparation
Getting ready for the on-campus interview can be a very challenging endeavor. Especially if you’ve never engaged in an on-campus interview before. But preparation is straight forward once you have an established plan.
One of the first steps of this plan is to read, review, and analyze any materials that the institution provides to you ahead of time. This could be in the form of websites, biographies, reports, descriptions, or even the student newspaper.
In addition, make sure that you ask your interview contact for the schedule of your interview ahead of time. If you’re expected to provide a presentation on the last day of the on-campus interview; then it doesn’t make sense to dedicate much of your energy on the first day to preparing for it.
In addition, your interview contact should provide you with the full names and titles of the individuals you are interviewing with. This alone provides valuable insight on who you will meet in person and how you can tailor your answers to best fit with their expectations and alignment with the position and institution.
Your preparation for the on-campus interview is key. That’s because knowledge of the position, interviewers and the institution shifts the framework of the activity from focused on you to being focused on the group process. By shifting towards a group process you can frame the interview activity as one where all parties can cooperate by hiring the best candidate possible: you.
Your preparation also aids in the interview process by shifting the dialogue from passive to active as you engage with others in a shared dialogue about common goals, projects, objectives, and activities.
The best way that you can align your past experiences, knowledge, abilities, and skills is to first look at the institution’s missions, values, and vision. By doing this you can determine what college philosophies truly resonate and relate to you. You can then craft your responses based on the mission of the institution in a way that positions yourself as the best candidate for the role.
Lastly, your preparation should include at least 5-7 questions that you’ve prepared ahead of time about the institution, role, and responsibilities. Making sure that you have these ready ensures that you’ll have relevant topics to talk about when the interview eventually shifts towards what you wish to learn.
If you’d like to take one step further in the preparation process, then you can arrange to arrive at the institution one day before your scheduled interview. By doing this, you can see the institution, staff, and students in a more relaxed and unstructured atmosphere. Here, you can take advantage of a more candid look at the institution as a whole.
Tips
Remember, the on-campus interview is a long and often draining process. Make sure that you follow these tips for the best and most positive experience.
No matter what happens during the interview, make sure to stay upbeat and polite. You are at the critical phase of the job search process and want to use all interactions to your advantage.
If you will have a meal during a group interview (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) prepare to eat as little as possible. You’ll often be peppered with questions at this stage and won’t have much time to eat (let alone digest) during this trying stage of the student affairs job search.
Realize that you’ll often be asked the same or similar questions throughout the day. This isn’t a failing of your interviewers. Rather, different individuals from different offices have different views of how they would ask the same questions. The question “What does the student experience mean to you?” has different context coming from a human resources representative compared to a student or the president of the institution.
Prepare to speak less rather than more than you would otherwise do during an interview. It’s important to curate your responses based on the input from your interviewers.
Prioritize questions to your hiring manager and potential colleagues about management style, strategic goals, and office priorities while you’re on campus. These will often be the most salient and immediate aspects of the role should you be offered and accept the position.
Spend some of your time during your preparation and research to determine what you’d like to know from each individual that you are interviewing with. Asking the same questions for all interviews is acceptable; but asking specific and pointed questions for each person that you interact with will make your interview more memorable.
Lastly, making a low key effort to wear the school’s colors during the on-campus interview could provide you with an overall positive (and often subliminal vibe) that will be noticed by your interviewers. If you don’t have the school colors in your wardrobe then err on the side of dressing more professionally with darker or more muted tones.
Takeaways
This article examined the on-campus interview and your reason for being there. Remember that this is a high stakes position in the student affairs job search. How you do during this stage of the process will determine if you’ll get an offer or be rejected. This article outlined the structure of the on-campus interview as well as research tips and preparation for representing yourself as the best candidate for the position.
I hope that you found this article useful! If you need some additional help on your student affairs job search, then check out the eBook The Student Affairs Job Search: A Comprehensive Guide available here.
Happy searching,
References
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Love, P. (2017, March 30). Nailing Your On-Campus Interview. Retrieved December 17, 2019, from https://patrickloveblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/nailing-your-on-campus-interview/.
Lenski, T. J., & Barritt, M. B. W. (n.d.). Putting the Student Affairs Job Interview to Work for You. Retrieved December 17, 2019, from https://www.uvm.edu/~vtconn/v16/lenski.html.
Moreno-Kieffer, A. (2010, April 1). Preparing For An On-Campus Interview. Retrieved December 17, 2019, from https://sajobhunt.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/preparing-for-an-on-campus-interview/.
Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2020, January 02). What is an on-campus interview?. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2020/1/2/what-is-an-on-campus-interview
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