Pre-Interview Research
Pre-Interview Research
Pre-Interview Research
Getting to the interview stage of the student affairs job search is already tough. It feels like it’s taken months to get here. You’ve written dozens of cover letters and it seems like you’ve written and re-written your resume over a hundred times. Let’s face it: getting ready for an interview seems like it’s at the bottom of your to-do list.
But getting ready for an interview is a critical stage of the student affairs job search. Whether that interview is afirst round phone or video interview or a second round on campus interview; you have to spend time doing your pre-interview research.
So how DO you research your next student affairs job interview?
This article will cover WHY you should do your pre-interview research. It covers four main research areas that you should focus on: the job; the institution; the people; and external factors. The article closes on how to do this for tight turn around interviews (like NASPA’s The Placement Exchange and ACPA’s Career Central). Applications and takeaways will also be discussed.
Why research?
So why is this important? Why should you be spending your days, hours, minutes, and seconds leading up to the interview doing your research? That’s because research is important for multiple factors. First, it demonstrate how you (the candidate) are coming to this important meeting prepared and enthusiastic for the role. Doing your research beforehand demonstrates that you’ve invested time and effort into getting to know the institution.
Research also allows you to articulate how well your knowledge, background, education, skills, abilities, and experiences meet the institution’s and the position’s needs. Concurrently, this research also shows you if this is a place that you TRULY want to be at for the next few years of your professional life.
One of the most important reasons for WHY you should do this research is simply because it can help you answer your own “Why?” question. That’s because most interviews begin with the tried and true question: “Why do you want to work for us?” Doing your research prior to your next student affairs interview will help you identify your why. Perhaps it’s because you want to work for a large public medical school.Maybe it’s because you want to return to your alma mater in a professional capacity. Maybe it’s just because you want to relocate to a research focused institution on the west coast! Outlining these reasons are paramount for preparing for your next interview.
Conducting your research early on also gives you a foundation for asking thoughtful questions when ultimately asked “do you have any questions for us?” You might discover something about the history of the university; the selection of a new president; or the creation of a new residence hall asa cause for asking follow up questions.
Lastly, the depth, breadth, and scope of your research demonstrates to the hiring manager and search committee your work ethic when approaching new and challenging tasks. This is often a critical selling point for new student affairs professionals. Particularly as they enter new and ever evolving field. Will you be able to keep up; implement best practices; and put your best foot forward? Often the quality and scope of your research demonstrates this.
The Job
One of the most basic elements of the student affairs job interview research is finding out more about specific duties. Exactly what will you be doing on a regular basis? Who will you report to? What office will you work in? How do your duties affect the institution as a whole?This may seem like rudimentary information; but also knowing how well you align with these different responsibilities could greatly affect how you prepare for the interview.
Because of this, I always recommend that ALL professionals create an alignment chart to determine how well their experiences and enthusiasm for specific duties aligns with what the position demands of them. If you’re interviewing for an academic advising role, but have only worked in residential life before, then you’re going to need to answer some pointed questions about that transition.
The Institution
It’s time to turn to the institution now that you know what the job entails. What kind of organization are you interviewing with? Are they are large research focused institution based in the heart of a metropolitan area? Are they are medium sized land-grant school located rurally in the Midwest? Is it a small community college serving local students in a suburban community? Knowing the type of institution will serve you well in determining how you want to relate your past experiences, knowledge, and abilities to the role.
Likewise it’s best to determine what the institution’s strong suits are. Are they very competitive admitting less than 5% of their applicants every year? Do they support open access and provide much student support for academics; co-curricular learning; and career development? Do they cater to veteran students; first generation students; or commuter students?
What an institution prioritizes also relates highly to their values and beliefs. This is more than just determining if an institution is non-secular or religiously affiliated. This has more to do with what their mission is; how they articulate their vision; and what both of those look like in action. This in turn informs how the institution’s culture and mission are situated in the greater landscape. What do they hope to achieve this year; next year; and ten years out?Aligning your responses based on these mission and value statements could help you stand out as a competitive candidate.
Lastly, looking at an institution’s history could also shed some light on some interesting areas that relate to your search. I recently helped another student affairs professional who was interviewing at a new institution that was originally founded as an extension to her alma mater. This helped her provide a pivot point in her interview that connected her “why” to the institution’s values, mission, and history.
The People
Of course the responsibilities of the position and the institution are major factors in your pre-interview research. But, so is a look at the people that you’ll be working with in the role. People are the drivers of institutional culture. As such, it makes most sense to also look for the key players in the institution and how they affect that culture. Those key players could be your hiring manger; director; dean; vice president; and president.
These key players can often be management in these organizations. But they don’t always have to be. I’ve yet to work for an institution where the office’s administrative assistant hasn’t had a large impact on the workflow; triumphs; and tribulations of the unit’s performance.
Pro Tip: Get to know administrative assistants well during the job search process. They can often provide insightful and candid information about the role, institution, and people.
Likewise, it’s important to also determine how the community at the institution interacts with one another. This might be something that you might not be able to do from afar prior to meeting in person. But, you can rely on reviews for sites like Glassdoor and Niche to provide some insight information on the culture of an institution overall.
You can also consider going “undercover” in examining an institution’s culture. In Dr. Patrick Love’s book Job Searching in Student Affairs: Strategies to Land the Position YOU Want he suggests arriving on campus a day before your in-person interview. This gives you time to walk around campus; meet other students and professionals; talk to some faculty and gain a general “feel” for the institution.
If you don’t have the time or resources to do that; then you can also prioritize researching both the hiring manger and your future coworkers online. Both can be done by using social networks like LinkedIn. You can even go further by searching online for more information on the search committee. You’ll want to look for past conferences they’ve attended; past presentations they’ve given; or anything they’ve written about student affairs or the profession as a whole.
The External Factors
Of course researching the role, institution, and the people that work there is important. But, there are some external factors to considers as well. One of those are competing institutions that enrollee the same type of student in the same area. What are those institutions and what kind of programs do they offer? You can find more information about these places by reviewing your target institution’s profile on US News and World.
Similarly, you can also use Google News and the institution’s news web page to review anything new that has happened at the institution recently. A secondary place to search is also at the institution’s social media presence. Particularly look for anything new and noteworthy that they’ve spent time and effort promoting.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should reject conducting some “human research” into finding out more about the job, institution, and the people there. That means reaching out and leveraging your contacts in your own network to learn more about the position and what it entails.
Career Fairs
Some student affairs professionals may choose to attend NASPA’s The Placement Exchange or ACPA’s Career Central. These two career fairs are unique in the short turn around time between invitation and interview. As such, you should prepare accordingly by researching as much as you can find about the role leading up to the actual interview.
However, there are other considerations that you should take into account such as limiting your choices of interview to those institutions that you would consider working for. Focusing your time accordingly is paramount as both events are intensive and can be very exhausting. That means dedicating some time to thoroughly considering all interview invitations. Ask yourself: “Does this institution meet all of my preferences?” That could include the location; the institution type; and the functional areas they are recruiting for.
Takeaways
This article covered why student affairs professionals should conduct pre-interview research. It covered four main areas that professionals should focus on. They included: the job; the institution; the people; and external factors. This article closed on the tight turn around times for some interviews like NASPA’s The Placement Exchange and ACPA’s Career Central.
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,
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Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2020, March 10). Pre-Interview Research. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2020/3/10/pre-interview-research
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