Claire was a sophomore in college when he applied for an internship at a selective nonpartisan office.
Because this office was so selective, Claire needed to go through three rounds of interviews.
The first two went smoothly, but when Claire interview twist the head of the office, she found herself in a tough spot.
The interviewer asked Claire why she wanted to work in an office that related to history. Claire responded that she was a history major and that she thought history was fascinating because it can be looked at and understood instantly different ways.
The head of the office just looked at her, and dropped this one: “oh, so you think Hitler was a good person.”
Claire quickly backtracked, tripping over her words as she tried to clarify her position. Eventually she settled on, “while you can look at history in 1000 different ways, I think that historians have an obligation to get to the truth of the matter and that’s I hope to help us office achieve.” A much better response.
Although Claire ended up landing the position, she said it taught her to be very precise in her use of language in interviews. ”In politics, which saves everything,” she said.
Rule # 33: Prepare for your interviews and prepare your answers in ways that are both honest and smart… Think about your answers from the perspective of the office—what are they looking for in an intern?
