Off on the Wrong Foot

Maybe I'm biased, but I think I have quite the resource in my wife when it comes to skills regarding job-seeking and interviews. She took an employment strategies class her last semester at BYU, where she was told by no less than 3 separate professors that her mock interviewing was marvelous and had nothing to critique her on. So now she's committed to help me practice interviewing to death before I apply to medical school next year. So when we practiced together Monday night before the mock interviews on Tuesday, it largely revolved around the same few questions, over and over again until it was natural, especially the "tell me about yourself" question. But when Tuesday came and the first question I got asked was, "tell me about yourself", I utterly failed it. Got off on the wrong, so to speak. However, it was a trend that my group noted, that everyone's first question went poorly. Then after that it felt more natural and the rest of the interview would go well. The same happened for me. So after the critique session, I definitely felt I should re-practice that first question. But what happened, I didn't expect. My answer proceeded to come out more clearly and more organized than any of my practice with my wife the night before. I began a brief statement of what my answer to the question was going to include, so the "interviewers" would know what to listen for from the start, rather than dramatically leading into the power statements like prose or persuasive writing/speech often do. I was surprised at the response I received from the group afterwards, and I took it as a confirmation that what I did was good. I think I will try that from now on. I recommend it to anyone else who felt like their answers took too long to get the the important information.