In the middle of February I got an email about a job opening in the counseling office of the College of Letters and Science. Most undergraduates at UCLA are part of the College and must adhere to the overall university requirements as well as the college requirements for general education and their major requirements. I grew to really enjoy counseling and working with students and the half-time counselor position felt like the perfect opportunity to do that once again. I revised my resumé and wrote my cover letter and had Ralph fax it in while I was on my way to Sacramento. A couple weeks later, I got a call about an interview and schedule it for Thursday of spring break.
I didn’t think of my interview too much until the day before when I started feeling nervous. I called a friend who works as a counselor at the College and asked if he could offer some tips about possible questions to placate my nerves.
“I have very little experience being interviewed for a job,” I explained.
My job history is rather short. In high school, I never had a formal job. My parents didn’t pressure me to work and instead preferred that I see school and my involvement there and at church as a job. I made extra cash by tutoring a couple of kids in Spanish, math and other subjects. My first “real job” came early in 2000, my sophomore year at UCLA. A friend of mine told me about a job opening in his office. I didn’t even interview for the position. I think I might have had lunch with the graduate student who ran the office and that was all. Getting hired as a work study at the Graduate Students Association office was more about who I knew rather than my skills… but the job didn’t call for much.
For my first full time job, I was interviewed and hired by a selection committee of my peers. My roommate at the time was on the hiring committee. I took on the job of director of MEChA Calmecac and faced a steep learning curve. I didn’t know how to be a supervisor. I had to quickly learn to counsel students and learn about all kinds of university policies that never impacted me because I did alright as a student. For my last job, my advisor hired me on as a graduate student researcher at HERI because she’s the director. There was no interview or formal process.
I’ve conducted dozens of interviews, but that didn’t make me feel any better. Luckily, my friend’s advice helped me to think about some questions that would be asked and some ways to prepare myself. Later that evening, I was more concerned about what I would wear than what I would say.
I think I did okay. There was at least question which threw me a bit for a loop. I said what I thought the interviewers wanted to hear rather than what I would actually do in the situation. I won’t know if I’ll be getting the position until the mid April, but I’m just anxious about knowing what will happen after this academic year.
No, not the counselor one. Actually, I still haven’t heard from them yet. They told me they’d get back to me in mid-April. It is now mid-April and I still haven’t heard anything. 
