¡R You should know that your interviews will largely be about you. At the pre-MBA level, recruiters will be much more interested in gauging your intelligence, intuition, motivation, and ability to work in a team than in what you may not about their particular industry. Interviewers will want to understand what have been the most important, influential and formative experiences in your life and why those experiences make you a qualified candidate. Therefore, they will ask what you have learned, what you have been best at, where you have failed and what has motivated you throughout your college years. So spend less time understanding the history of a firm's corporate relationships in the Canadian paper and pulp industry, for instance, and more time thinking critically about your "story".

¡R In every interview you are likely to receive one completely open-ended question that is nothing more than an invitation to tell your story. Questions like, "tell me about yourself", "what brings you to this interview?" or "why do you want to work at this firm?" are simply ways for the interviewer to say, "OK, time to tell your story." If you don't have a story, these questions are interviewing deathtraps that will lead you to ramble aimlessly for what will seem like hours about nothing important at all, a sure way not to impress you interviewer (if you start with, "I was born in a small town just outside of¡­" then you know you've gone wrong).

¡R You can avoid this trap and answer these questions efficiently and convincingly only if you know your story cold. How do you put together and deliver a persuasive story? I recommend these three steps:

¡R 1. Go to as many recruiting events as you can. Talk to people from different firms and different industries. Ask them about their academic and extracurricular experiences at college. Ask them why they chose to work where they do. After going to a few information sessions you will be able to piece together a picture of different firms and industries, you will identify common themes and you will find the areas where firms differ. Most importantly, you will understand what different firms have to offer and why others have chosen to work there.

¡R 2. Study your resume. Ask yourself "why did I do this?" "what did I accomplish?" and "what did I learn?" about each of your extracurricular and professional experiences. (As a side note, your resume is fertile ground for finding answers to common interview questions like, "what are your greatest accomplishments and failures?" and "what was your most challenging experience?").

¡R 3. Put these first two steps together. In other words, understand why your experiences make you a good fit for what the recruiting firm has to offer.

¡R These questions are straightforward, but they are not easy to answer. If you approach them honestly, they will force you to search yourself and think critically about your college years. It will take weeks--not days--to find the best answers to these questions. Strive for answers that represent you accurately and completely, answers in which you feel comfortable and confident. Write these answers out. Work through several drafts. Then practice delivering them in front of a mirror or a friend.

¡R It may sound as though I'm suggesting that all your answers in an interview be pre-programmed. While you don't want to sound rehearsed, you should be prepared to answer the most basic questions like "what are you doing here?" without hesitating and searching for the right words. But more importantly, recognize that the suggestions I am giving you are meant to be more than juts interview tips; they are meant to help you to develop answers that will lead you understand why you may or may not want to work for a particular company or in a particular industry. Preparing for your interviews should help you not only land job offers but also decide between them.

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