My First Interview Experience
As I had introduced in my bio, I am currently an international undergraduate student from china at Penn State University. I want to help others from my community so I had decided to apply for a club and become a member of the Pennsylvania State University Chinese Undergraduate Students Association (aka CUSA).
Moreover, I like to make plans and organize events. I could see how CUSA can offer me the opportunity to learn and communicate with others at the same time so I decided to give it a try. Normally, I find myself very happy and satisfied when I saw people enjoy the ideas I had come up with. I wanted to try my best and expand the scale so I could bring warmth to other overseas students.
Since I have been in the state four years ago already in high school, I definitely have had experienced the homesick feeling. At that time, I wasn't able to do much because of the demography. But now, I saw an opportunity and I want to do something fun to help these college international students from homesickness.
Since CUSA is the first official student organization I had ever applied to in Penn State, I wrote and submitted an official resume to them to start with. Before the interview, I had practiced many times with notes to get used to the speech tone and flaw. This will get me prepared to talk in front of others. I remembered I was extremely nervous because this is the first interview I had ever come across.
A week after I had submitted my resume, I received an email notifying me that I am qualified for an interview, which I get to officially meet the presidium and ministers of each department. I walked into a pressurized glass room, they took turns and asked many questions. Mostly about my strengths and weaknesses, my ambition to join a club, and my attitude or if I'm capable of dealing with problems in a particular situation. Since I had practiced many times before about the possible questions they may want to ask me, so I felt more comfortable talking in front of others and opening myself up.
Finally, I was fortunate enough to pass the interview and be admitted into the Event Planning Department of the club, where the idea of organizing community activities is initially formed. I love my job, there's always something new and interesting, unexpected things that I have to deal with every time when I go. I get to learn many skills that I am only able to gain by experience.
For example, I learned a lot of knowledge about the stage which required setting the lighting and sound, this is something I need to learn from hands-on, outside of the book. And this has nothing to do with my major at all. I also learned how to properly assign people to let them do the most suitable work in a large event, so everyone can participate and enjoy doing the work they are good at.
In conclusion, I enjoyed being a CUSA officer.