#BE

Tag: #BE

Sample Behavioral Interview Questions

It’s time to practice for your interview! While knowing what experiences you have had in the past is very important, knowing how to answer behavioral questions can make the difference between being hired or not. Behavioral questions are designed to learn how you would respond to a specific workplace situation, and how you solve problems to achieve a successful outcome. Here is a list of possible behavioral questions that they could ask you divided into different sections.

Teamwork

With teamwork behavioral questions, interviewers get a sense of whether or not you like working on a team, how well you work in groups, and what role you tend to take on a team project (leader, mediator, follower..). These questions also show whether you are easy to get along with, which is important in almost any work environment.

  • Talk about a time when you had to work closely with someone whose personality was very different from yours
  • Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
  • Tell me about a time you wish you’d handled a situation differently with a colleague

Client-facing skills

Client-facing skills behavioral questions give interviewers a way to see how you react to different kind of clients. What would happen if the client is frustrated, or if there a large number of clients waiting and how you can handle that pressure.

  • Tell me about a time when you made sure a customer was pleased with your service
  • Describe a time when you had to interact with a difficult client. What was the situation, and how did you handle it?
  • When you’re working with a large number of customers, it’s tricky to deliver excellent service to them all. How do you go about prioritizing your customers’ needs?

Ability to adapt

The ability to adapt is a very important soft skill that is required in any job. The way you answer these questions will give a sense of how you are able to adapt in a new working space and how flexible you are to change and adjust to new situations.

  • Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it?
  • Give me an example of a time when you had to think on your feet in order to delicately extricate yourself from a difficult or awkward situation
  • Tell me about a time you failed. How did you deal with the situation?
  • Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure

Time management skills

Time management is another very important skill to have. When one of these questions is asked, make sure you are clear about how you managed your time carefully, what tools did you use and why did those tools help.

  • Describe a long term project you managed. How did you keep everything moving along in a timely manner?
  • Tell me about a time you set a goal for yourself. How did you go about ensuring that you would meet your objective?
  • Tell me about a time you had to be very strategic in order to meet all your top priorities

Communication skills

The ability to communicate is closely evaluated in a job interview. Some recruiters will not ask questions directly related to communication in the interview but just see how the candidate is able to communicate during the interview. However, other recruiters might ask you behavioral questions that show the candidate’s communication skills with a real life example.

  • Tell me about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it was a hit
  • Tell me about a time you had to explain something fairly complex to a frustrated client. How did you handle the situation?

Motivation and values

Motivation and values behavioral questions are asked to see what values and what kind of personality the candidate has. It is important to always be honest and show how your personality could be an asset for the company. 

  • Tell me about a time you saw a problem and took the initiative to solve it rather than waiting for someone else to do it
  • Tell me about your proudest accomplishment in work or school
  • Tell me about a mistake you’ve made. How did you handle it?
  • Tell me about a challenging situation you overcame at work
  • Tell me five things that you are NOT

How to prepare to answer behavioral questions

Read the job description carefully. Make a list of the top skills or qualifications it calls for. Think of a story that demonstrates your ability in each area. Following the STAR technique, write your stories down, including the situation, task, action and result. Then, practice saying them out loud several times. Your answers should only take about 1 ½ to 3 minutes. In order to make a good impression, telling stories that are related to each one of these questions is crucial. Telling stories is the best way to be remembered by the recruiter.

Practice is the best way to succeed at behavioral interviews. If you would like to practice doing behavioral interviews, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (oliver.decroock@lawrence.edu) or Grace Kutney (grace.kutney@lawrence.edu).

Oliver De Croock ’24, Student-Athlete at Lawrence University majoring in Economics and Career Peer Educator. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Job Prospects for Humanities Majors

By Jonathan Hogan

If you’re a humanities major, you may have received some pessimistic or rude comments about your choice of major. As a German major, I am personally sick of people thinking that all I do is study the language of German, and I’ve heard people tell English majors that they’re “majoring in a language that they already speak fluently.” Regardless of your humanities major, whether it be History, Gender Studies, a language, or something else, I hope you haven’t internalized the discourse that demands that your prospects are dim. As this article will demonstrate, humanities majors have the widest array of careers to choose from, making your problem not a lack of opportunities, but rather the difficult decision of which path to take.

Before delving into some of the main career paths taken by humanities majors, it’s worth mentioning that one of the distinct specialties of those holding humanities majors is finding niche positions to work in that likely won’t be enumerated because of their specificity. Thus, if nothing listed is in your interests, don’t fret! This is merely a broad and by no means an exhaustive list. If you know with all your heart that you want to work as a religious advisor at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, then go for it! 

Law

               One of the most common majors that apply and are accepted to Law school is English. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as both humanities majors and law degrees require a mastery of language, as well as the ability to analytically read and critically think about texts. If a law degree sounds interesting to you, click this link to read an article on the first step to applying for law school—the LSAT.

Publishing

               Similar to Law, the field of publishing plays into a strong connection with written language. In comparison to Law, publishing places more of an emphasis on a love of books, networking abilities, and editing skills. For an article on what it’s like to work as an editor, click this link, and for an article on how to break into the relatively tight-knit industry, click here.

NGOs

               Okay, NGO can mean a lot of things, ranging from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative political think tank, to Médecins Sans Frontières; however, the humanities can also mean a lot of things, making NGOs a potential place of work for essentially any major. The Center for Reproductive Rights, for example, would pair nicely with the Butlerian gender theorist out there, and Public Allies, an NGO dedicated to social justice through representative leadership, would pair nicely with a History major, or really any major that focuses on inequality in general.

Journalism

               Another popular path for humanities majors is journalism. Because of the broad range of subjects that are written on, the only real requirement for Journalism is strong writing skills; however, Journalists are most effective when they can pair their strong writing skills with deep background knowledge in another area. For this reason, humanities majors are especially well-positioned to go into the field, as they typically command a deep well of knowledge on a specific topic, as well as immaculate writing skills.

Academia

               For those of you who have read the above career industries and are struggling with the idea of giving up theorizing and researching for more general use of skills developed at Lawrence, academia might be for you. One of the major advantages of going into academia is that, if a doctoral program really wants you, they will ensure that you aren’t losing money when pursuing your degree through fellowships and undergrad teaching positions. That being said, academia in general, is going through a major upheaval in the U.S. and the humanities appear to be suffering more than STEM and Social Science Departments. When asking your favorite professor for advice about pursuing a doctoral program in a humanities field, a question that will likely come up is: “would you still choose to pursue your doctorate even if you knew that it wasn’t going to lead to a job in academia?” If the answer is no, then it’s probably advisable to find a different outlet for your passion. If the answer; however, is yes, then you’ve just determined your next step for after Lawrence.

               A short list of five broad industries in which humanities majors typically find themselves working likely has not solved all of your professional development problems; however, hopefully, it has pointed you towards an industry that you might want to learn more about. In the worst case, however, this article can serve as a good tool for fending off anyone who’s mocking your decision to major in the humanities—just say you’re planning on going to law school 😊. 

Jonathan is a Third Year German and Government major. He works as a Peer Educator to assist students in the CJW and GLI career communities. In addition to professional development, Jonathan is interested in the cultural construction of the modern nation-state, normative constraints on rational behavior, and all things German. You can schedule an appointment with him here to improve your resume, learn more about the CJW and GLI career opportunities, and work on anything else professional development-related.

Video: Summer Research 101 (2021)

Are you interested in summer research, but not sure how to successfully secure a position? Do you want to become a competitive candidate for on-campus and/or off-campus research opportunities? If you answered yes to either of these questions, this workshop is for you. Join Jacklyn Fischer (Career Center) and Prof. Deanna Donohoue as they walk you through the timeline and process of preparing a competitive application for any type of summer research.

Career Spotlights: Product Manager

Interested in pursuing a career as a Product Manager? Read and find out more information about what a career as a Product Manager will look like!

Job Duties

As a Product Manager, your main job is to make strategic decisions related to product management and provide in-depth expertise to improve the product. This profile is one of the most important profiles in every industry, especially in IT and manufacturing companies. A product manager is often considered as a “mini CEO” of a single product as they work closely with marketing, engineering, sales, and support to ensure customer satisfaction goals are met.

Where They Work

The role of Product Manager gained more and more popularity with the growth of technology companies. Based on a Statistic reported by Zippia.com, the biggest percentage of Product Managers work in tech companies and in Fortune 500 companies. However, Product Managers can also be found in other companies in the Manufacturing industry, Finance, Retail, and Health Care.

Working Conditions

As a Product Manager, you will work in a team with many different people to be able to ensure the success of the product. You will often work well over forty-hour weeks, including evenings and weekends. There is a great deal of pressure connected with this job due to numerous deadlines, schedule changes, and regular meetings with other managers. Many product managers must travel frequently throughout the United States and abroad to meet with their clients.

Education and training

Although every company will be different, candidates will usually need a Bachelor’s degree in business or a related field. Based on a report by Zippia.com, 72% of Product Managers have a Bachelor’s Degree, and 17% have a Masters’s Degree. Those who have completed a degree in economics, marketing, communications, or statistics will be preferred. Some companies even require a master’s degree in management. Before becoming the head Product Manager, a candidate will need at least two or three years of experience in the product management field. Other skills required to become a product manager are the following:

  • Business Expertise
  • Leadership Skills
  • Operational Ability
  • Strategic Thinking,
  • Analytical skills
  • Quantitative skills
  • Time Management
  • Negotiating skills

Pay and Benefits

The role of a product manager is one of the highest profiles in a company’s organizational structure (right below the CEO and board of directors). Therefore, the salary to work as a product manager can range from 70k/year in smaller companies to 140k/year in bigger ones. One of the biggest benefits of being promoted as Product Manager is being a step closer to being promoted as CEO of the company.

Oliver De Croock ’24, Student-Athlete at Lawrence University majoring in Economics and Career Peer Educator. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

My experience with the Harvard Business School CORe Program

During the summer of 2021, I participated in The Online Credential of Readiness (CORe) program by the Harvard Business School. In this article, I will share my experience so that future students that are interested in participating will be able to understand more about what to expect and decide if they are willing to commit to this program and gain an unbelievable experience. This program is funded by Lawrence University who is a collaborating college network with Harvard Business School.

What is CORe?

CORe consists of three courses: Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting. In each of the courses, you will get real-life scenarios from big companies like Apple, Amazon or Danaher, to smaller companies like a Yoga Studio in New York City or a Sports Ticket Seller in Boston. Classes are very interactive, with small videos in which the professors either explain the theory of the subject or interview someone relevant in the company, talking about that specific subject. These videos are usually between 2 to 15 minutes long. After each of the videos, there are usually some questions that you have to answer in order to go on or a page or two to read. There are also the so-called “Cold Calls” in which students will get randomly selected and will be asked a question that they will have only 2 minutes to answer. Although these questions aren’t graded, they are a way to keep the students on their toes, and personally, they forced me to listen and focus more, so that I could make sure to answer the questions correctly and move on. Throughout the course, you will also participate in discussions with your peers and ask them to try to explain a subject in a simpler way. In my case, one of my peers created a Whatsapp group in which we were all able to communicate and share our thoughts. I was even able to connect with many of them on LinkedIn.

Business Analytics

The Business Analytics class was probably my favorite one because it explained really complicated subjects in a very simple way that was easy to understand. It also demonstrated how real companies use these analytical techniques to manage and predict their sales, inventory, and forecasting staffing needs. This course taught me how to develop a data mindset, how to analyze and interpret data to make important business decisions and learn about regression analysis.

Economics for Managers

The Economics for Managers class was very interesting and was a good blend between economic theory and real-life scenarios, understanding how fundamental economic principles can be impacted by our day to day decisions. More in specific, we learned how to develop effective pricing strategies and identify sources of competitive advantage through differentiation.

Financial Accounting

Financial Accounting is the language of business, everyone that is willing to get into business needs at least some knowledge about how financial accounting works. This class will give you very important information that you need to know in order to understand how financial statements work, how to prepare and evaluate financial forecasts, and see how managers, Wall Street analysts, and entrepreneurs use accounting to drive strategic decision-making.

When is the best time to do it?

Although this course would be beneficial for anyone at any age, I believe that the best time to complete this course would be just after your first year at Lawrence. If you are studying economics, chances are that in your sophomore year you will go over the “sequence”, doing Microeconomics, Econometrics, and Macroeconomics. By participating in CORe, you will go over many of these subjects already, which will you an advantage in understanding these concepts early. This course can also be helpful for students who are not majoring in economics who are trying to get more of a business mindset and understand the basic concepts of these three very important courses.

Other than the advantage of understanding these concepts before anyone else, having completed a course from Harvard Business School will also be a great addition to your resume. Since getting an internship after the first year in college is unlikely, by completing this course, you will be able to add an incredible experience to your resume that is directly related to your major. This will show recruiters that not only do you have more knowledge than other candidates for completing the course but also that you are willing to go the extra mile to learn and improve yourself. HBS CORe is a great way to add the “Harvard” brand to your resume, learn some very important skills you need for any business setting, and put yourself on a higher pedestal that could be the difference between getting hired for a job, or not.

To apply to CORe, you will need to go through Lawrence Career Services who will help you get the funding necessary and give you the right directions to move on. Applications will open in the early winter term, so stay tuned for more, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Oliver De Croock ’24, Student-Athlete at Lawrence University majoring in Economics and Career Peer Educator. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Hiring Timeline and Internship Programs Series Part 2: Rotational Internships and Educational Programs

While summer is great to enjoy your time off, it is also a good time to start searching or applying for internships. There are many programs for anyone interested in a career relating to the #BE community. We have already covered many summer internships and their hiring timelines in Part 1, which you can see here. This week, we have Part 2 which covers Rotational Internships and Educational Programs.
Rotational Internships require you to work in multiple roles. Some of these types of programs are full-time jobs geared towards new grads. Educational or Training programs involve the participant’s learning.
Most applications for Rotational and Educational Programs open around July or August and the deadlines are usually in September or October for the following summer. It would be wise to plan ahead as during Lawrence’s academic year, you may find yourself busy with classes when these deadlines arrive. Here are some internships to start your search over the summer categorized by when their applications open to help plan out your application process.


Applications opening in July:

  • Cigna: Sales Academy – Deadline in October. For graduates who have had their Bachelor’s for 0-3 years.
  • Cigna: Actuarial Executive Development Program (AEDP) – Deadline in November. For graduates who have their Bachelor’s degree and professional experience for 0-4 years. Successful completion of minimum one SOA examination strongly recommended.

Applications opening in late August or early September:

Ongoing Applications:

Others:

  • Spotify: FAR Program – Deadline is in mid-February. This program is for recent graduates who identify with one or more underrepresented groups.
  • Glaxo Smith-Kline: Future Leaders Graduate Program – This 2-3 year program includes various opportunities in business, marketing, R&D and more!
  • Northern Trust: Opportunities and Student Programs – 12-18 month program for recent graduates. 3.0 GPA preferred.

Educational and Training Programs :

  • JP Morgan Chase: Winning Women Program and Advancing Black Pathways Program – Chase’s Winning Women Program is for currently enrolled female undergraduates that is open from May 2021 and closes by late June. Advancing Black Pathways is for students from underrepresented groups, first generation college students and others facing significant barriers when entering the financial industry. Applications are currently closed but if this interests you, feel free to keep an eye on it for next year!
  • International Monetary Fund Research Assistant Program – For recent graduates with a GPA of 3.5 and higher.
  • Disney: International Exchange and College Programs – The International Exchange program is for currently enrolled undergraduate students while the college programs are for both students and recent graduates.
  • Harvard Business School (HBS): Summer Venture in Management – Not to be confused with HBS’s CORe business classes, this management program is geared towards students who are from groups currently underrepresented in the corporate world, are first generation college students, or from schools whose graduates are underrepresented.

Once again, the majority of internships open during August/September and end up closing in the middle of our fall or winter terms, which makes it difficult to apply while handling all your other responsibilities at Lawrence. You can schedule an appointment with Grace, our #BE advisor (she’s available all summer too), or with Raisa, our CPE, to get help in planning ahead and preparing your applications!
Raisa Fatima ’23 Career Peer Educator