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Responding
to Implied Meanings
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A good performance at one's first major job
interview is paramount for the beginning of a successful career. Thus, we prepare our
students at Nanyang Technological University for the job market by giving them practice in
simulated interviews held in as realistic a situation as possible. For the occasion, we
invited four experienced recruiters of Engineering graduates to conduct the interviews.
The job "applicants" were 14 Engineering students (nine males and five females)
selected by their peers from four different classes in a Communication Skills course.
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Before the interview, the students did their
r,sum,s and letters of application in response to an advertisement taken from the national
newspaper calling for engineers "with a vision." Their letters and r,sum,s,
reflecting their qualifications to date, were sent to the recruiters a week before the
simulated interviews. These interview sessions were conducted in front of the class, each
class with a different recruiter, and videotaped for later analysis.
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Our analysis of the video tapes of the interview
sessions showed that many of our students displayed the tendency to interpret and answer
interview questions literally, rather than responding to their implied meanings. For
example, recruiters often ask questions such as "tell me something about
yourself." or "tell me about your hobbies, interests-how you spend your
time." We found that our students answered such questions too literally, merely
launching into a barrage of facts, as shown in excerpt 1 below:
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Recruiter: Tell me about yourself.
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Student: Okay. I come from a family of seven
and I was the youngest in the family, andcurrently I am looking for ajob that relates to
my study-what I studied-and during my days in NTU* I took upcomputers as a major.And my
hobbies are quite.that means I have a lot of hobbies and they include.
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Recruiter: You have time for a lot of
hobbies?
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Student: I was quite an active person on
campus, you see, and I was once appointed thevice chairman of the CSGSharmonic group, and
also the advisor to the Yishun exco.
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*Nanyang Technological University
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Notice that the student does not seem to be
aware of the implied meaning of the questions, answering them by merely reeling off facts
about himself-being the youngest child in large family, looking for an engineering job,
having majored in computer engineering, having a lot of hobbies-facts which tell the
recruiter a little of himself but nothing more. As one of the recruiters put it, he was
really looking for ".not the facts, which would be contained in the r,sum, anyway,
but the person behind the facts- whether the candidate is flexible, versatile,
responsible, or shows initiative."
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By merely stating facts, the students do not
show their character or their personal development. For example, the student in Excerpt
1 brings out the fact that he is the youngest in a large family, and leaves it to the
recruiter to draw his own conclusions about what effect this could have had on his (the
student's) development. In this particular case, this might have been unfortunate because
of the stereotypical connotations of the youngest child always being the spoilt and
pampered one. If the student could not make a correlation between being the youngest child
and some positive characteristic which would impress the interviewer, he would have been
much better off omitting that fact.
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Answering the question's implied rather than
literal meaning, the student could have said that, being the youngest child in a large
family, he had always been more mature for his age than his peers since his interaction
had always been with those older than he. Or he could have said that, being the youngest
child in a large family, where everybody else had to help out in his parents' business, he
had been left to fend for himself most of the time, and thus had developed a spirit of
independence from a young age.
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When talking about his hobbies, again he merely
mentions the activities he is involved in, losing out on the chance to talk about how he
balances hobbies with studies, thus showing discipline, something that would be to his
credit.
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Excerpts two and three below are two more
examples of students failing to discern the implied meanings behind the recruiter's
question, thus answering the question only literally.
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Recruiter: Tell me about your hobbies,
interests-how you spend your time.
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Student: Oh, how I spend my time, right.
Well, on the weekends I'm involved in churchactivities. I'm the librarycoordinator, so I
try to acquire Christian literature. I am also in charge ofchurch publications, so
weekendsare spent in church activities, and also with my family.
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Recruiter: You also mention that you are very
active in your ECA and all that, right? Wouldyou be able to tell mesome of these
activities?
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Student: During my college days, in fact, I
was involved in clubs.in fact I joined quitea lot of clubs in my collegedays. In my
secondary school, I was president of this Arts Society, mainlyhelping out the students who
arekeen in drawing, organising some trips to museums, or whatever. And at themoment,
during the holidays, Itake up some of the jobs that are written in the r,sum,. In fact,
I've workedfrom operator to clubs.
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Like the first student, these two merely list
their activities without showing the significance on their character development. Notice
that both students have leadership positions-one as library coordinator and in charge of
church publications, the other as president of the Arts Society. However, these facts are
unfortunately lost in the list of details, none of which really answer the question's
implied meaning, which is, in this case, "Show me, through your activities, that you
have the personality and character the job requires."
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In contrast, one student impressed the recruiter
with his answer to a "Tell me about yourself" question. This was the student who
mentioned his struggle to go to a university despite his poor high school results (he
failed English). Not being able to take the direct path to university, he went first to
the polytechnic for his diploma. These facts-poor high school results, failure to enter a
university, settling for a polytechnic diploma-by themselves are not likely to impress any
recruiter. However, the student was able to go beyond the literal meaning of the question
to address its implied meaning. What he did was to show that he had determination, a
characteristic that most companies would want in their employees. He did not allow himself
to be deterred by apparent failure. Rather, he was determined to work hard in the
polytechnic, where he eventually headed his class and thus was accepted into the
university.
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From our analysis, then, it is clear that
students need to be taught that their responses must look to the implied, not just the
literal meanings of job interview questions. In order to do this, students should keep in
mind three important aspects of the job interview in their preparation stage.
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The aim of the recruiter's questions
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Students should always bear in mind the context
of the recruiter's questions-the job interview. They should remember that recruiters are
not looking for factual information alone (especially if it is already contained in their
r,sum,s). Rather, recruiters ask questions to try to assess the candidate's character,
through the implied, or real meaning behind their questions. Keeping this point in mind
will help the student not to fall into the trap of answering the recruiter's questions
only literally.
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The aim of the student's answers
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Students should always try to give answers which
reveal the person behind the facts, to help the recruiter assess whether or not they have
the right characteristics for the job, thus addressing the questions' implied meaning.
This is not as difficult as it may sound, since job interviews are so goal oriented and
the context predictable.
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In this respect, the following extract taken
from a real-life application evaluation form used by recruiters may help students by
showing them the kinds of personal characteristics recruiters usually look for:
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Comments should always be relevant to job
responsibilities or job-related characteristics. (Some examples of job-related
characteristics are, ability to plan, organize, attention to detail, tact, ability to
direct the work of others; or, conversely, to work under close supervision, and possess
analytical ability.) These may not necessarily be directly observed in the interview but
can be inferred from the applicant's discussion of his/her qualifications.
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In order to give answers which demonstrate that
they have the right characteristics for the job, students should reflect on their lives,
education and work experience, and select some significant events to demonstrate
responsibility or achievement. This has to be done before the actual interview since
reflection takes time, time not sufficiently available during the interview itself. Those
students who were not prepared tended to be those who gave literal answers, and literal
answers only.
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Irene
F. H. Wong and Lai Phooi Ching are Senior Lecturers at
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore teaching Communication
Skills and English Proficiency, the former in the School of Accountancy
and Business, and the latter in the School of Electronic and Electrical
Engineering. |
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