Are you serious?

Today, during my Personal Finance class, we had a guest lecturer talk about interviewing, networking and all those things I have been training to do since early sophomore year. One girl (not a ditzy girl, even), asked: "What do we do when we feel that we are being grilled in the interview? Like, it is not a conversation, but question after question?"

I about fell off my chair. An interview is, by definition, supposed to be questions. If it happens to become a good conversation, great! But that is not the point of an interview. In my many interviews for full time positions over last semester, I got grilled about my Computer Science and programming skills. And I expected nothing else.

Maybe I am overreacting, but I think that a senior from Cornell University should have enough self-confidence to know that such interviews occur and to be able to handle them, without feeling threatened. Furthermore, such opportunities should be embraced and used to prove what one is capable of doing under pressure. The interviewer sets the tone of the entire interview. If the interviewer wants to simply question and receive answers, that does not mean that: (1) the company sucks, (2) the interviewer is inferior, (3) you are not being treated fairly, or any other silly excuse to avoid assigning fault to yourself.

-Szymon