Round green shapes of varying sizes glow against the black background. The text reads, "Immersive."

Immersive #22: Behavioral Interviews

The first panel depicts a hand holding pieces of paper that read "tell me about yourself." The second panel depicts a female reaching out to a person that is moving away from her. The text reads, "Describe a time when you made a difficult decision." The third paragraph depicts a notebook page that reads "why do you want to work for us?" The entire comic is drawn in varying shades of purple.

Whether or not you’re currently on the job or internship search, these questions will most likely linger within your mind in an uncomfortable way, and most likely you’ll also have answers to these questions, carefully crafted from the experiences you’ve had throughout your life. As any professional will say, come prepared to an interview and you’re sure to present your best self to an interviewer. Perhaps you’ll even  land an offer if you’re lucky. But, these questions barely scratch the surface of who we are as an individual—a living breathing human being. It’s hard to condense your entire life into a 3 minute pitch without removing the aspects of yourself that make you truly unique. After all, there is beauty and power in all facets of your being and to present one aspect over another creates a different persona of yourself for others to imagine and interact with. All of this isn’t to say that we’re all hiding our true selves and being deceptive when we do that because these interviewers are often strangers who haven’t yet earned access into our authentic self. But, this negotiation and presentation of our identity in semi-public spaces is worth considering, even if it’s for something as simple as a check-list interview.

Liana

Liana Lau is a business administration sophomore at the University of Michigan, who enjoys learning about innovative mediums and storytelling techniques. Her section Immersive is dedicated to disrupting the way in which we facilitate relationships in the digital era by exploring intimate narratives about life through unconventional storytelling mediums. Together, each piece seeks to challenge the way in which we communicate our thoughts and seek connection from others.

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