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Education has long been a common target of the interview and
selection process, as employers examine the qualifications of
candidates for openings within their companies. There is a tendency
for this to be a far more important component of the interview
discussion for those who are early in their career than for
those who are well along in their careers. In these cases, experience
will represent the lion's share of the focus, with education
taking a back seat.
Nonetheless, there will usually be a few questions concerning
your educational qualifications incorporated into most employer's
interview designs. Here are some of the questions that you might
be asked:
- Tell me about your education.
- What do you most value about your education? Why?
- How did your education prepare
you for your career?
- How has your education been beneficial to your current job?
- In what way has your educational experience helped your
job productivity?
- How relevant has your education been in preparing
you for
your profession?
- What could you do from an educational standpoint to improve
your overall effectiveness in your work?
- What specific courses have proven most helpful to you in
performing your job? How have they helped you?
- How did you select Bucknell University? What factors most
influenced your decision?
- What led to your decision to choose your major?
- In which courses did you do best? Why?
- What were your worst courses? Why?
- What were the key benefits of attending Bucknell University?
- In what ways have you benefited from your decision to be
an accounting major?
- What did you like most about your educational experience?
- What did you least like about your educational experience?
- if you could repeat your educational experience, what would
you do differently? Why?
- What professor most influenced your life? Why?
- What was there about being an engineering major that
you found
most appealing?
- How have you used your education to your benefit?
- What aspects of your life has your education most influenced?
- How good a student were you? What accounted for this?
The Classic Answers
The following answers to education-related questions
should prove beneficial as models for developing your
own well-conceived answers to these same types of interview
questions:
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1. "My decision for selecting Washington University was primarily
based upon the excellent reputation of its School of Forestry
among the leading companies in the forest products industry.
Some basic research that I conducted through the American
Forest Products Institute shows that the school is ranked
only second to the Institute of Paper Chemistry as the
leading pulp and paper school in the United States. Although
the Institute of Paper Chemistry is certainly an excellent
school. Its emphasis is highly technical, and I wanted
a less technical education that would serve to broaden
my thinking. I felt that Washington fit the bill rather
nicely."
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2. "I chose Ohio State because I felt a bigger university
would offer a much larger selection of courses within
my major and would also have the latest computer-related
technology at its disposal. I've not been disappointed
at all with my choice. The course selection has been extensive
and the University is very up-to-date in terms of its computer-related
resources. For me it was an excellent choice."
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3. "In the broad sense, my education has helped me to learn
how to be independent and solve problems with little or
no assistance. It has taught me to how to think, how to
analyze, and where to go to get the answers. More specifically,
it provided me with solid grounding in accounting methods
and principles, which has enabled me to perform at a high
level as an accounting professional. It has given me a
high level of confidence in my technical knowledge and
ability."
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4. "My best course was the undergraduate course that I took
in the Philosophy of Religions. As a theology major, it
provided me with enormous insight into the reasoning behind
the beliefs of the world's major religions. It also stretched
my mind to consider the enormous number of possibilities
that all seem to support the existence of a Supreme Being."
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5. "The choice of engineering was an easy one for me. In
high school, I was an excellent student in math and science.
I particularly enjoyed physics, which involved the application
of math to scientific problems. Engineering, especially
mechanical engineering, seemed a logical extension of
my interest in physics. My worst course was Power and
Politics. Although I did well in the course, I'm not sure
that I see its relevance for someone like me who has chosen
the ministry as my life's work."
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6. "Although my general academic performance has been average,
I have done particularly well in business courses which,
as you know, was my major. In fact, my grade point average
in business courses is approximately 3.4. In marketing,
I have done even better, with close to a 4.0. Marketing
is clearly my strength and also my strongest interest."
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