Ouachita Stories

Ouachita’s Office of Career Services will host an Interview Skills Workshop on March 15 at 12 noon in the Alumni Room of the Ouachita Commons. The workshop is the follow-up event to the Resume Writing Workshop, both designed to help students prepare for the OBU Spring Career Fair on April 4.

Lauren Land, OBU’s director of career services, encouraged all students to participate in the workshop so that they may come to feel “comfortable and confident” in future interviews with prospective employers. Land stressed the importance of a good interview, saying that “your resume gets you the interview, but the interview gets you the job.”

To help students attain that goal, guest speaker Mark Byrd, a Hot Springs-based recruiter for Sam’s Club, will lead the students through various types of interviewing scenarios and help students learn how to form thoughtful responses, quickly. Byrd is an authority on a style of interviewing called “behavior-based interviewing,” in which the employer asks more open-ended, situational questions. Land called Byrd “the type of person you want to learn from.”

Although an interview can be intimidating, Land stressed the idea that it is a “mutual opportunity” for prospective employees to learn about the company and for them to learn about the prospect. The workshop will help students learn how to properly research a company and what questions to ask in an interview.

For more information on the workshop or other upcoming events, contact Lauren Land at [email protected] or (870) 245-5593.

By Sydney Phillips