Have you ever been on a first date where the person you were
with was a terrible conversationalist? It’s just about the most agonizing thing in the world. You sit there at a table in a restaurant
trying desperately to think of things to say so you can avoid the excruciating
silence that you know is going to come unless you keep talking. And after about twenty minutes of trying, you
want to pull an imaginary ejection handle and catapult yourself away from the
table.
If you sit in your college interview waiting to be asked
questions and then give short answers without any details, it's like putting the interviewer through a terrible first date.
Don’t confuse the college interview with a job interview
where you will be asked difficult, probing questions about your experience and
what you can bring to the company. This
is a first date (without the chance for romance at the end). The initial conversation could be awkward until you find
common ground. You’ll need to call upon
your personal characteristics that you think make you likeable. You’ll probably want to bathe
beforehand. But ultimately, you and the
interviewer are going to try to get to know each other. You’re going to have to find something to
talk about.
If you want to be impressive, make the interviewer’s job
easier and try to find some common ground.
Be a good conversationalist.
Don’t just sit there.