Confidence starts with preparation.
Preparing for an interview means more than just picking out what to wear or knowing your resume. It’s about how to effectively tell your story clearly, professionally, and with purpose. If you’re getting ready for an internship or job interview, Drake’s Career Services team is here to help you prepare with confidence.
The Elevator Speech
If someone asked, “What do you do?” or “What are you looking to get out of this role?” would you know what to say?
An elevator speech is a short, confident summary of who you are, what you do, and where you’re headed. It’s called that because you should be able to deliver it in the time it takes to ride an elevator—about 30 seconds.
Crafting your elevator speech gives you a go-to answer you can use in interviews, at career fairs, during networking events, or anytime you’re making a new professional connection. It’s your chance to make a strong first impression and start a meaningful conversation.
Interview Practice and Feedback
Interviewing is a skill, and like any skill, it gets better with practice. Students can schedule a one-on-one mock interview with a Career Services team member to practice answering behavioral and situational questions, receive constructive feedback on your delivery and body language, learn how to tailor your responses to different roles or industries, and more.
Whether it’s your first career interview or your fiftieth, we’ll help you show up with clarity and confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
You might encounter phone screenings, video interviews, in-person one-on-ones, or panel interviews. Our Career Services team can help you prepare for all of these by reviewing formats, expectations, and how to adapt your answers accordingly.
Dress professionally and aim to match the tone of the organization. When in doubt, business casual is a safe starting point. We can offer additional guidance based on the industry or company you’re interviewing with if you’d like a second opinion.
Behavioral questions are based on your experiences and are designed to predict how your skills in areas like teamwork, problem-solving, and leadership might impact your job performance.
An example behavioral question might be, “Tell me about a time when you had to work with someone whose personality was very different from yours.”
Situational questions are often based on hypothetical workplace scenarios to see how you might respond using your problem-solving, interpersonal, and decision-making skills.
An example situational question might be, “What would you do if you disagreed with a decision your manager or supervisor made?”
Use the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result.
This structure helps you tell clear, concise stories that demonstrate your experience and problem-solving skills.
Our team can help you practice crafting strong responses using the STAR method.
Yes! Drake’s Career Services offers mock interviews with our staff. These are low-pressure practice sessions designed to help you gain confidence, get feedback, and improve your delivery.
We suggest following up with your contact at the company within 24 hours by sending a thank-you email. This should reiterate your interest in the role and briefly reference something you discussed in the interview. Our team can help you write and review your follow-up communication.
From there, it’s a waiting game. The company will likely be finishing phone screenings or interviews with other candidates and will need some time to determine who moves on to the next round of interviews or who to extend a job offer to.
If you haven’t heard anything from the company by the notification deadline they gave you, you can send a friendly follow-up email, but avoid sounding pushy or following up too many times.