Hello, everyone. Good evening. Thanks so much for joining me tonight. My name is Jill Klees, and I am the iSchool Career Center Liaison. And as your Career Center Liaison, I want to know that I am available to you via email, phone, or video chat to work with you on your career-related questions. I can critique your resumes. You can always send me something via email and have your resume as an attachment. I'm happy to take a look at it. We can always set up mock interview sessions if you want to practice. We can do that online. We can do that on the phone. Or if you just have general interview questions, let me know. Basically, I'm here to help you with whatever you need that has a focus on your career and your job search. And I do recommend checking out the resources on the Career Development site first. Here's what the site looks like. And if you can't find what you're looking for here, then by all means, do contact me. How many of you are familiar with this site? You've either been here, kind of played around with it, seen it in the class. Let's do a show of hands just so I get a sense of how many people are familiar with this. So it looks like about half of you are familiar with it. So it's right here off of the main home page, the iSchools home page. You can see Career Development with the red circle is one of the tabs right at the top. When you open that up, in the green box are all the different sections that you will find. There's a lot of information here. With the pink arrows, I want to point out the interviewing section, which we'll talk about in just a second, of course. And then the recordings to all of these types of workshops, the Career Development workshops, can be found in that section there with other pink arrow that says Career, Webcast, and eNewsletters. So that's where you will find all the recordings to the past workshops that I've done. This is the interviewing section. So if you were to open that section up, these are all the different sections you're going to find within there. And there's a lot. So I highly recommend that you spend some time checking this out, particularly before you have an interview coming up. So there's basic practice interview questions in there, behavioral questions. If you have a phone screen or you know it's going to be a video, like a Skype interview, there's information there. There's something here called Practice with Big Interview. That's actually an online mock interviewing tool. It's a really cool tool. It's widely underutilized. So I do try to point that out to people because it's an excellent resource. If you have questions about references, questions to ask the employers in an interview, you can find all that good information in there. So I just wanted to make sure that you knew that that was available and where to find it. All right. So out of curiosity, I like to find out when was the last time you all interviewed. So you can put in, I guess you could type in the chat box, I suppose, A, B, C, or D, and I can get a sense. So if it's been within the last 12 months, you're A, one to three years, you've been a B, C, and more than five years, which that's a long one. Oh, someone had one yesterday. Very exciting. Can't wait to hear how that goes. Oh, so Katherine, it has been a while for you. All right. Lots of A's, a couple of B's. All right. So mostly A's and B's. That's good news. Okay. But there's always going to be some great information we have to learn about interviewing. That's for darn sure. Okay. So I've taught many, many workshops, interviewing workshops, online and in person. And in these workshops, I really go over the basics, right? How do you prepare for an interview? But you can all find that information on the career development pages. Oh, Katherine's about over 10 years since it's been since you interviewed. Holy smokes, girl. You're going to have lots of questions for me tonight. So bring them on. I'm excited about that. So past interview workshops, as I pointed out, can be found here on the career webcast section. So you could always go back and check those out because I try to make each workshop a little bit different. So some of the basics are you could find some of the recordings. You can also find information on the career development pages that I pointed out to you earlier as well. But if interviewing as the promotion goes for this workshop still makes you weak in the knees, we're going to talk about developing a new strategy. So in addition to me going over some of the basics, I want to give you some background information to mentally prepare yourself for your next interview. So Katherine, for you, for example, what we talked about tonight is going to be super helpful. But I would recommend going back and looking at some of the past interviewing workshops that I've done because those are going to be a little bit different and they will really dive deeper into the basics on how you prepare all the steps you needed to prepare for the interview. Okay. So here's my little secret to interviewing success. And I call it the psychology behind the interview. So before we jump into the nitty gritty of interview prep, let's take a step back. And I want to make sure that you are all mentally prepared for an interview, meaning your heads in the game, so to speak. So I really learned over the years that we can prepare, we can practice answering common interview questions, which of course is excellent. I'm not recommending that you don't do that. But here's the bigger piece to interviewing everyone. If you don't believe in yourself and you don't fully believe that you could do the job, you most often will not be successful in the interview because somehow that's always going to come across. But if you have the passion and the enthusiasm to do the job, if you have a positive attitude and you're willing to learn and you believe that you could do it, that will absolutely shine through just the same like lack of confidence will also shine through. So I have come up with four steps to help you get your head in the game and get you psyched so that you too can believe that you can do the job that you're interviewing for. So tonight we're going to back up a little bit and we're going to kind of talk about these behind the scenes.  Like you're feeling like, all right, I can do this, I've got this. That's what I want to talk about tonight. So this workshop is being recorded. I want you to ask me questions. Feel free to type them in the chat box as we go along throughout. Just put them in there. Let's have an open dialogue. I love it when my workshops are open and informal. So please do ask me questions. All right, so here we go. So step number one is I want you to think that you and no, this is true, you are being interviewed for a reason. You've got to remind yourself that not every person who applied for the position is being interviewed, right? You've got to think about that. Not every single person and sometimes for one job, they could get 100, they could get 250. They could even get more than that applicants for positions. So for you to get an interview is good, right? I want you to be proud of yourself for getting the interview. So remind yourself that not every person who applied is getting an interview. And sometimes, as I said, you're going to beat out hundreds of other applicants for that same opportunity. That means there's something special and intriguing about you. The employer is clearly impressed with something on your resume or they would not be wasting their time talking to you. So most people I work with, most students that I work with, don't embrace this. I find that students will go into the interview already kind of feeling like an underdog. Like somehow they don't deserve to be interviewed because they don't have all of the qualifications. Here's the psychology behind that and hear this. If an employer did not see something of interest on your resume, you would not be getting an interview. Straight up. They aren't talking to you just to be nice. So you want to go when they're feeling empowered. You are among a select few. So you've got to be confident in your capabilities when you walk in there. So right off the bat, you have an interview, there's something special about you right there. Number two, I want you to think and remember and know that the interviewer wants you to be successful. Believe it or not, the recruiter, the hiring manager, the selection committee, whoever it is, they are just as hopeful as you are when you walk in the door for an interview that you are the one. It would make their job so much easier if they could quickly fill their position with the right candidate and then just move on because it takes a lot of time to serve on a search committee. Have any of you actually been on a search committee in prior jobs, part of your role was to interview people? So to do an interview panel, it takes a heck of a lot of time. And then if you've been on the interviewing panels or you've been on the committee, you want to put yourself in those shoes and think about what that experience was like. And then you can use that to your benefit when you're interviewing as well. It's exhausting. It is exhausting. An interview panel, Rebecca, is when a panel of people, so that means more than one, are interviewing a person or interviewing the candidate. The panel could be, you know, three to five people. They're sitting on the panel, one person comes in for an interview, and each person on the panel has one or two questions that they are asking that person. They're all writing down notes, and then once the person leaves, then they're going to kind of sit down and go over what they thought about you as a candidate. But whether you're on a panel, you're part of the committee, you're doing this by yourself, it is exhausting. It takes a lot of time. So think about it. The interviewer wants you to be successful. They would love it if you just walked in and you were the one and they could go, yes, we found our person, we can wrap this up. So I want you to psych yourself up, and I want you to walk in there and wow them. But the only way you're going to do that is if you've got your head in the right place and you are confident and you know you can do this job. Like you walk in there and you know you've got it. So I had a recent grad tell me about an interview that she just went on, and she said she thought she did great and she was super excited about the position. But then she says to me, I'm not going to get my hopes up because they told me they were interviewing a lot of people, and I don't know if I could do this job. So I'm thinking to myself, if that's her thought, I can bet you that there was an inkling of that lack of confidence that came through in the interview. If she's feeling like that already, right?  I'm probably not going to get it. I bet she wasn't as confident as she could have been. So unfortunately, that's what happens to us. So my talks tonight is to really kind of get you thinking differently so that how you can truly be confident and walk in there and just do your very best knowing, yeah, I got this. And whatever you do, it's going to be your ultimate best for that particular position. So I do want to point out, though, that the flip side of this coin here is that even though believing in yourself is a big part of this process, it does come with practice. And I know that, and I'm saying that right out there. So we have all blown interviews in our careers. I have blown many interviews in my career, which is how I learn things, right? And unfortunately, you all are going to have that same experience. So the key is to learn from each one and get better and better and start to really understand yourselves and your strengths and how to talk about them in a confident way. That's the key to being successful in an interview. You guys have any questions so far? Really, if you do, just type them in. I'm checking and I'll get to it. Here's one. This is from Lauren. She does say interview panels are incredibly intimidating. I'm much better at talking with people one-on-one. I believe in myself, but I get intimidated by interview panels and groups of people. So I'm glad that you brought that up, Lauren. So the good news is that you feel like you do a really good job talking with people one-on-one. So here's what I would recommend, honestly. Here's a panel interview. You're going to walk in. You're going to look each person in the eye.  And you're going to focus on people. Even though you have your eye contact and you're looking at different people on that panel, I want you to get in your head that this is one-on-one. I'm talking to this person and then I change my eye contact. I'm talking to this person. You've got to psych yourself out. You really have to go, okay, I can do this if I focus on one person at a time and I just deal with this one person and I'll switch my eye contact rather than really psych going in your head, oh my gosh, there's all these people and I'm going to freak out. It's going to have to be a lot of self-talk for you to get yourself through it, but you can do it. And the more you do it, the better you will get because interviewing is absolutely a skill, but it's something you're going to have to do a lot of self-talk to keep yourself pumped up to get to that situation. Amanda's asking what's the difference between a panel and a committee? There really isn't much of a difference. It's really kind of the same thing. It comes down to a group of people. The interviewing committee might be the whole group that's interviewing people, but it's still considered a panel when the interview E walks into the room. I hope that makes sense. So again, keep the questions coming. Lizette, you mentioned that interviewers want you to be successful. What if you walk in and you're getting vibes from someone who doesn't seem happy to be there? That is a great question. So here's a couple of things that I'm thinking about. One is you're going to have to start to evaluate throughout that interview. Is it that person that is not happy about being in the interview, or are you getting a sense from others that that person is not happy within that organization or that job? That's one of the things if we think about, again, big picture about interviews. Interviews are really a two-way street. They are interviewing us absolutely. But on some level, you really are also interviewing them because you need to find out for yourself if this position, if this organization, if this company, this group of people, if they're going to be a good fit for you and if you're going to be happy being there. So part of noticing the personalities of people, how people interact with each other or don't interact with each other, how happy people look or how not happy people look is a big part of that observation process to see that that seems like a place that you're going to want to be. So I think it's good to pick up on some of those vibes like that. And sometimes you have to listen to those vibes. There was an interview I was on probably about actually about a year ago. And during the interview, I got that same kind of vibe. There was something inside that told me, I don't think I really want this job. And I can remember at a specific point in the interview of kind of purposely blowing it because I felt that vibe and something tells it told me that wasn't it. And I didn't get it. And I was slightly disappointed. But I realized, you know, that really wasn't the right place for me. So then it was OK. So I hope that answers your question. Lauren says, I think not taking it personally helps too. They may be sending bad vibes from something else entirely. Yeah, I think you're absolutely correct. So it's where you have to kind of evaluate it and get a feel. Is it just that one person? Is it the whole group? Is there something else going on here? Rebecca says, as a person with a verbal stammer, what should I do if I'm asked a question that causes me to stammer because I cannot answer it immediately? So I think there's a couple of different strategies, Rebecca. One is, let me, I'm looking at your question again one more time. So is a verbal, so are you saying a verbal stammer is like a feather? And that's something that you can't control. So if that's true, you just answer the question just who you are and it's the best that you are because that's what you would be bringing to this workplace, right? You need to be able to deal with that and accept the person that who you are. You also have the option of just calling it out and saying, I do have a stammer. That may come out sometime throughout this interview. Just wanted to let you know. I might need a little extra time in terms of a minute or so to answer the question. You could be very honest in the front and just say something like that as well. The other thing that I'm wondering is if it is more like a stutter or something you can't control or if it's just something that you do when you're nervous, then you're going to want to work on practicing as much as you can through an interview so that you are as confident as you can so that you won't be as nervous, which then would cause the verbal stammer if that makes sense. So it's kind of putting a strategy into place to help you deal with that. So you have to find what's right for you. If that's something that you want to talk a little bit more about, one-on-one, we can certainly do that offline. I'm very happy to talk with you about that. Okay. Good questions, everybody. All right. I am moving on to number three, step number three. So number three is first impressions in an interview. When you walk in, they open the door, they see you, you reach out, shake hands, make eye contact, smile, those first impressions are made within the first 90 seconds. So what that means then is everything from how you carry yourself to what you're wearing to what you say and even more importantly, how you say it is all being taken into consideration. So based on this first impression, many interviewers have already made a hiring decision and they spend the rest of the interview collecting data in essence to prove to themselves that yes, they want you or no, you didn't make the cut. So on some level, they have kind of gotten an impression in that first 90 seconds and now they're really trying to figure out if the impression that they got when you first walked in works for them, makes sense, right? So you want to do yourself a favor and ensure that you have kind of all the basics covered, meaning you're dressed appropriately, you shake hands appropriately, you do smile because that goes a really long way and you know what you're going to say. You've practiced, you've rehearsed and again, you're as confident as you can be. We're all nervous in interviews. I get nervous in interviews but you have to learn to deal with that nervousness and use it in a positive way. I want to see what Lauren said here in the chat box. Yeah, that's great, Lauren. I love that. I like the honest approach as well. Sometimes people aren't as comfortable with that but if it was Rebecca, yes. But if Rebecca, if you're good with that, I absolutely think that's a nice thing to do. I think that does take the pressure off and somehow it seems to make everybody in the room a little more comfortable but again, that's going to be your personal call. Okay, so we have all heard that nonverbal communication is the single most powerful form of communication and that is particularly true when it comes to interviewing and making a first impression. So the percentages I have here, this is based on some research by a professor at UCLA but a study revealed that verbal communication takes into account only 7% of our overall communication which is crazy and the remaining 93% is coming from nonverbal communication. So those are going to be 55% is going to be our body language, 38% is our tone of voice. So practicing, practicing with other people using big interview, that online mock interviewing tool, that records you. It records your voice so you can hear how you sound, what's the tone? Are you too loud? Are you too quiet? Do you have too many ums? Too many ahs? Do you stammer? Do you hesitate? Do you ramble? Those are things that you want to check for yourself and body language. It's about connecting your mind and your body even though you're nervous and being aware of am I wiggling in my chair? Am I playing with my hair? Did I find a piece of the corner of a paper or a pen and I'm wiggling it around? You've got to tune in to see what your body does when you're nervous in an interview situation and then honestly just make yourself stop.  Nobody can see that because the table's there but you've got to find some strategies that are going to work for you so that your nervous habits don't become distracting. So hopefully that makes sense for people. But again, the key here is to practice a lot and just to start to understand how you come across to others and what type of impression you leave. Does anybody have any questions? So Dorothy, do you have a strategy for rambling? Yeah, that's a good one. So rambling, your strategy there again is to prepare. So that means practicing with common interview questions, practicing out loud. So there's a difference between practicing in our head and practicing out loud. So when you have some common interview questions which we'll talk about just a little bit and maybe you write out your answers or maybe you type out your answers, I want you to then practice talking out loud and record yourself. You can use your phones. I do a lot of recording in preparation when I'm driving in the car because you can just kind of hit the record button and then just talk. But you want to know what you're going to say and know what the point is of what you're going to say so you don't just go on and on and on and on. Ramblers also need to be comfortable with silence. So what you want to say, what you want to say and then stop talking. And if there's silence, it's okay. So a couple of strategies. When you've said what you think you've answered the question and then you stop talking and then it's quiet and now you start to feel uncomfortable with that quietness. You could always say, did I answer your question or are you looking for a little bit more? I mean, you could say something like that if you really felt compelled. A lot of times the silence is there because the interviewer is writing notes, right? They're writing down what you said and they're still writing and you stop talking and they're still trying to finish their thought. And that's usually that uncomfortable silence. So it's okay just to let that silence be. So the main thing for Ramblers, be okay with silence and be very clear on what it is that you want to say and then stop talking. Dorothy says, it's always my toughest issue when I'm asked, tell me about yourself. Yes. So we are absolutely going to hit that question. So I'm going to push that one off if you're okay just for a little bit and then I'm going to come back to it because I definitely want to talk about that. Because that is a tough question and that's where people tend to ramble because they don't know what they're going to say. But it's one of those questions that I absolutely want you to know what you're going to say before you walk into the interview. All right. Here we go. Step number four to my psychology behind the interview. Is the interviewer is not trying to stress you out. Believe it or not, people, it's not a game. They're not typically or purposely trying to make you uncomfortable and stress you out. It's not a trick. The interviewer is not designed to cause you a great deal of discomfort beyond the normal interview jitters. Remember, put it all in perspective. Remember, the interviewer wants you to be successful. Their main goal in the interview is to get to know you and they need to ensure that you are the right candidate and you can handle the job. Because they don't want to rehire for this position anytime soon. It's expensive to hire people and then have to let them go and hire somebody else. It's super time consuming. They don't want to deal with that. They just want to get the right person in, get this person up to speed and get back to life. So you want to be sure again to practice for your interviews a lot. I don't feel like you can ever over prepare for an interview. So you've got to practice positive self-talk and tell yourself, you've got this. You want to walk in there and nail it and just do your best. And remember, they are not purposely trying to stress you out. So there's a huge benefit to taking some much needed mental preparation time before the interview to get in your head, get in the right place. And they can make a big difference in how you present yourself to a potential employer. So before you have your next interview, before you just jump right into, okay, let me look at common interview questions and start practicing that, take a little bit of this reflection time and think about these four steps that we talked about and really get your head in the right place. So you're like, yeah, I've got this interview. I probably beat out a whole bunch of people because it was a super cool job. I'm really excited that I got the interview. I'm going to do my very best, whatever happens happens, but I'm going to prepare as much as I can. You know, talk yourself through it and think, yeah, I've got this. All right, any other questions? All right, just keep them coming if you have them. So here we go. I want you to get psyched about your next interview. I want you to be excited about it. Employers want to hire positive, enthusiastic individuals. And they typically have a pretty solid pool of candidates to choose from. So you want to make sure that your energy and your interest in the position and the company overall totally comes across. So positive self-talk, as I've said, goes a long way. And sorry, this is blurry. And hopefully this is totally not dating myself. Does anybody, how about this? Does anybody know who this guy is? Okay, first we've got it. First we have a serious question before we get into this funny guy. So Rebecca. You've got more of a serious issue and question. So there's a couple things here. Again, first of all, you don't have to disclose the actual diagnosis in the interview. That could be, and this is again your choice, but I would probably wait if you feel comfortable to the time where they've hired you. But the stammer, if it's coming across in the interview as, was it Lauren I think that said it? Yeah. You might honestly just want to say in the beginning of the interview that you do have a stammer. They might notice it when you're answering the interview questions and that you'd appreciate them just being patient with you. And people will be like, okay, I get that. And that's not going to be a problem. So then you go through the whole process, the whole interview. When they hire, I'm not going to say if they hire you. I'm going to say when they hire you. At that point, that's when, again, if you want to, because only because you need an accommodation, you could disclose what the disorder is. If you don't need an accommodation, then you actually still don't even need to disclose it. The biggest fear about the productivity, that's something kind of separate from the interview. Because first you've got to get the job, right? So there are two separate things. So maybe what you and I could do if you want to chat with me about it is we could talk offline about what the fear is, a little bit more of that. But the bigger piece is just getting through the interview so that you get the job. And I hope that makes sense. So Tiffany knows who this is. And Eileen knows. Keith knows. Lisette knows. Yay. I just think this is the funniest thing. And I've thought about this guy for years when I think about interviewing preparation and I think about positive self-talk, right? I think it's perfect. You just say to yourself, look in the mirror, I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. It's dog on it. People like me. I think it works every time. So this is my who-who for positive self-talk. But it's going to work. Just tell yourself that. All right, Dorothy. Quick sharing subject of interviewer is not trying to make you nervous. So did egg timer at the beginning of the interview. So you know what I would say, Dorothy? That totally tell me so much about who that person is. I mean, I'm sure they said the egg timer not to make you nervous but to keep themselves on track in the interview. So that would lead me to believe that that person probably has some pretty bad time management skills. And I would have to wonder, do I really want to work for that person? Yes, that's correct. They can't ask you. Lawrence asked them, Cheney, that they can't ask about health conditions. No, they absolutely can't. That's where it comes down to you as the employee disclosing if and when you're comfortable or if you need the accommodation. Al Franken, that's right. He did go on to become a senator. I did not know that. That's amazing. See, that's how much positive self-talk he had. He knew he was good enough and he was smart enough to leave SNL and become a senator. There you go, people. OK. All right, moving on. So my final tip on getting you psyched for an interview is to think of these three things. So throughout the entire interview, the interviewer is trying to determine can you do the job, will you do the job, and are you a good fit? And honestly, if you could demonstrate these three things, your chances are really strong in landing the job. So breaking it down, can you do the job? This is really looking at basically, do you have the qualifications and the experience? And pretty much, of course you do or you would not have been invited for an interview, right? If they didn't think that you could do the job, you would not be sitting in that chair. So once you get the interview, now it's your job to convince them, let's say, and tell them more about how you have the right skills and how you can do the job to meet their needs. I hope that makes sense. But it's really about you being able to articulate and demonstrate clearly and succinctly through your examples of your past work, how you have the skills to do that work. So I'm going to say a word of caution here, too. Do not make assumptions that the interviewer is going to figure out what you mean or will read between the lines of what you say. You need to be absolutely specific. So that means coming up ahead of time before the interview and part of your preparation, thinking of specific examples of things that you've done in your past that demonstrate the skills that are needed to do the job that you're interviewing for. And you want to have those all fresh in your mind so that you could just, boom, you could talk about them and out they come. So that's part of demonstrating you can do the job. Number two, will you do the job? So this comes down to are you demonstrating excitement, motivation, passion, enthusiasm, a sincere interest in this position and in this organization? You must exude a positive attitude and smiling once in a while helps. Some people are pretty good at it. Others, when I practice interviewing, they become this complete serious person. I'm like, hello, where are you? You've got to be human in there. You've got personality to come across, right? They're trying to figure out who you are. So make sure that you, the person, starts to come out so they can get a sense of that. If not, I think you're doing yourself a disservice. All right, that's will you do the job. And then number three, are you a good fit? Now, this is kind of a tough one.  So there's not too much we can all do about that, right?  It might not feel right. So I really want you to do your best here. I want you to demonstrate what you can do. Show them how you're a team player, how you have a collaborative work style. Be positive. Ask well thought out intentional questions. And try to really just be who you are. And we got to go with that that's going to be enough. And we got to see if that fits with what they're looking for. I'll tell you, this number three, this is one of the things that comes up the most often of why people didn't get a job. They might have had all the right skills and they were enthusiastic, but it came down to they just weren't going to be the right fit for the team. And again, there's not too much that you can do about that. It's unfortunate. It's a bummer when it happens, but it does happen. You can't beat yourself up over it.  We are who we are. And you pick yourself up and you go again. But these are critical things, but I want you to go in there showing you can do it. You will do it. And hey, here's who I am. And overall, interviewing is a skill, just like riding a bike. So the more you do it, the better that you're going to get. So there's a lot of mental preparation that goes into an interview. There's a lot of this, you know, psychology behind the interview to get yourself in your head in the right place. Does anybody have any questions at this point before we jump into some of the nitty-gritty of interviewing? All right. It doesn't look like anybody. So we got, no, just looking at these typing. All right. I'm going to keep going. Let me ask you a question, though. How many of you have actually just do a show of hands or raise of hands? How many of you have actually gone to an interview not fully prepared because you just thought you could wing it? You know, like, oh, I have an interview. I'm going to be going to look over a few things, but I'm not really going to prepare. Yeah. Yeah. Close to half. So how'd that work for you? Out of curiosity. Terrible. Right.  I think we've all had those experiences.  Yeah. Yeah. This is always it, right? I thought I could wing it because I wasn't really that into it, but I blew it. Terrible. It was completely unprepared. Yeah. So thank you for sharing that. Those are our worst-case scenarios, right? When we all think, yeah, I got this. I could just sort of go in there and wing it. Terrible. And we walk out feeling horrible. But lessons learned. So you know from those experiences that you've got to prepare and you've got to do everything possible so that you can just walk in there and try to nail it. I wasn't even prepared for the why do you want to work here question. That's really classic Dorothy. Oh, it's funny. Keith actually thought it was a casual sit-down based on the email conversation. I've heard that one many times as well. The communication somehow doesn't come across to us that this is like a serious interview, so we're not prepared. So that goes to show that anytime you're having an interaction with someone who is in a position to hire you, whether it's an informational interview where you think it's very casual and just going there to get information, be prepared because you never know when things are going to twist and flip on you and it becomes an actual interview. And you still want to always put your best foot forward. Rebecca says my worst interview, but I learned a lot. I bet my disaster interviews a funny story told by employees. Oh, I don't know what I was even trying to be employed by a shoe store and I didn't think about shoes. Yeah, I love it. I think Barnes & Noble would have been a better option. That is great. That is really great. So let's talk about some of these common interview questions and how you might approach the answers to them. So these are the three questions and you relate. You guys are so funny. I love the honesty, by the way. Thank you. These are the three questions that I work with everyone on when we're preparing for interviews. I want to make sure that I do this for myself as well, that I have my answers to these three questions absolutely just like rolling off my tongue. That is exactly what I'm going to say. So these are the three that we're going to focus on as well. There are more common interview questions on the interviewing section of the career development site. You can get a whole list of them there. You can do a Google search and get a whole list. You could even Google or do an internet, I should say, instead of Google. You could do an internet search on interview questions for and put in the type, whether it's a public library, academic library, or the specific place. Because people are really good about posting this stuff and you can find a lot of good questions to practice with just by doing that search. And someone's probably shared with those questions you're going to be with you. So it gives you a good idea what to use. All right. Tell me about yourself. I feel like this question, and you may get it or you may not get it. You might get something like it if they don't start out with that exact question or even the preparation from this will come out somewhere else in the interview. So it's still very worthwhile coming up with your answer. But if you do get this, how many of you get this as your first question, by the way, in an interview? I still tend to get this. So what about what? Five, six of you. Okay. The other question that I find employers are going to lead with, either this one or they'll jump right into why do you want to work here? Those are the ones that I found. But then tell me about yourself.  So you absolutely want to have it nailed. Here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to talk about, you know, here's my name, here's where I came from, here's my major in college, and here's a summary of what I've done, right? They know all of those things. They've got that. That is a waste of your time right there. So what they do want to know about, though, is how your experience is a great fit for the job that they have. So here's a strategy. You might perhaps highlight your years of related experience, maybe you point out a couple. Oops, that's not what I'm looking for. Maybe you point out a couple related accomplishments and you wrap up with why you're interested in the particular job or how you're a good fit and how your past experiences brought you to this point in time interviewing for this particular position. So here is an example. This is long, but you actually could say this in an interview. So I've worked in the academic setting for over seven years, first as a substitute teacher, then as a technology specialist, and then as an academic librarian, all while completing my MLIS. Most recently I created the innovative online instructional program to encourage students to complete assignments on their own after the school library had closed. I was also successful in creating and maintaining a blog database that summarizes and evaluates library materials for young adults that's highly used by students and faculty. Now that it's completed my degree, I'm really interested in an opportunity to apply my technical instructional skills in a university setting. Boom, or bam, I should say. So is this my strategy? Yeah. So here's, OK. Does anybody writing this down or need this or taking a picture or something? You guys good if I change? All right, moving on. So basically here was the strategy, or here's my formula. And this is just my formula. It doesn't mean that you need to use this. But summarizing years of experience or related experience, summarizing the type of experience you've had, maybe you identify a couple key related accomplishments, or really think about something you're particularly proud of. This is all just one way. It's not an absolute. But I have found through my experience that this works pretty well to give people kind of a loose framework to work with. So you play around with it. Scream, do you want me to go back? Let's see. You guys are saved. Lizette, do you want me to go back to this one for a sec? OK, there you go. And then I'll move forward. I'll read Lauren's comment. She did have to do a weird five minute initial interview that asked these types of questions, but we couldn't go over five minutes. How do you keep it short and yet effective? Well, honestly, to say this answer is probably 30 seconds. No joke. So even if you have five minutes, you can actually get a lot of information out in five minutes. But the idea to keep it short yet effective is to know what are the key points of what you want to say and be very concise and you just say that. That goes back to not rambling. So if you kind of know what your key points are, you hit the key points and you stop talking and you move on. Like this answer, for example, of course it's written out, but it's very succinct and it really would only take about 30 seconds to say this. Yes, thank you, Laura. You can say the entire way I put in a PDF. I'm never very good at that. OK, so here's my formula again if you always want to capture this. And this is, like I said, this is no hard and fast rule. This is just something that I found that actually works really well when I'm working with students. Because I'll start to ask them questions to pull the stuff out. So I might say, you know, we might look at a resume and identify, OK, how many years of experience do they have that relates? OK, we've got a number. Or I might go, you know, I might dig a little deeper.  What was about that? Oh, that's an interesting story. OK, tell me a little bit more about that.  And it's all related to, kind of, here's what I've done.  And when you can pull that together like that in your head, it makes a very powerful statement right off the bat. And it's like you could almost feel that you've pulled the interviewer in because you got them with a really solid answer. But it takes practice. It's not going to come to you in the interview. You've got to put this together before and you rehearse it and you go over it and you practice it so that it just rolls right off your tongue. All right, next question. I'm keeping an eye on our time here. So why do you want to work here? Or, you know, what attracts you to this job position? So things you want to consider. It's really, and again, if I was sitting here talking with you, I'd say, well, what made you apply for this particular position? What did you see about this job that made you go, oh, yeah, I think I could do that. That's what you want to focus on. So then once you focus on that, now you have to be able to articulate that to the interviewer in the interview situation. You know, what do you like about the job? Is it the setting where it's located like a university setting? Is it a public library and you really enjoy working with diverse people and helping your community and being part of your community? Is it the skills that you get to use, the variety that's involved, the challenge, the fact that you're doing something different every single day, the fact that it allows you to apply some of the skills that you have been developing and learning in your MLIS program and you absolutely loved your class on digital archives? And, you know, I had no idea that that was going to be an interest area of mine until I took this one class and I was absolutely fascinated by it and then I started to take more classes in my program and now I'm so excited to be able to interview or to get a job where I get to use those skills. You know, something like that, right? So it's really sitting there digging in a little bit deeper. Why am I interested in this job? What about it specifically? Is there any other kind of stuff that an employer is going to be like, yeah, you understand my job? They're going to be excited about that. Let's see, Dee has a question. I have a second round panel interview in a few days that have no idea how to prepare. Seems like the first interview already covered everything. Concerned questions will be difficult and involved. Any ideas of what types of questions I should prepare for? Okay, so if you're first round with some of the basic questions, right? The second round, again, it's a panel. So what that means by doing a panel is they want more people to hear from you and meet you and find out, again, it's coming down to fit. They want to find, wow, I wonder if you guys are at the same interview for the same job. Hmm, interesting. But another round that fits a panel with more people, they want more people to meet you and find out who you are because they're really trying to find out fit. So what I would try to do, Dee and Lori, is I would try to find out if I can ahead of time who are the people that are going to be on the panel. So the question is, who will I be interviewing with when I come back next Tuesday? And then you do a little research on those people. What's the job title? How long have they worked there? What kind of role do they have? So you think about some questions that you're going to even ask in the interview and you're going to find out from those people. How might this position that I'm interviewing for connect or relate to your position? How might we work together? Wow, I noticed that you've worked here for like 20 years. What's kept you here so long? What do you like best about working here? So you're going to come up with some questions that you can ask all of them and then you're going to go through again some of the basics, depending on what the job is that you're applying for. If the position has a large technical aspect, they might be getting now down to some more nitty gritty, like digging in a little bit deeper on how you handle certain situations and things that you could do. So I want you to look at the job description, because now we're talking in general terms because I don't know what the jobs are, but look at the job description, really carefully dig in and figure out what the job is, what are the skills they're looking for. And you think in the first interview, maybe they asked me the general questions. In the second interview, they might be digging in deeper. So I'm going to have to come up with some really specific examples that are going to be able to demonstrate this skill, this skill, this skill, and this skill. That's how I'd start breaking it down, just in a nutshell. Will, how would you go about finding information on your next interviewers? I use LinkedIn. You're welcome. I use LinkedIn. I look people up. I check out kind of their backgrounds. I don't be creepy about doing that based on the questions I ask them. You don't want them to feel creeped out by the research you did, but I think it's perfectly going to say, oh yeah, really great to meet you. I looked at your LinkedIn profile before coming in today, and I noticed that, wow, you've worked here for 15 years. That's really incredible and really interesting the different positions you've done. So what do you like best about being here? What's kept you here so long or something like that? But that's the best source that I use. You, yeah, still LinkedIn. Glassdoor, you can do a little bit of research on companies, not typically on people, but I use LinkedIn for people. Lauren, can we go over one question that always catches me off guard? What's your biggest weakness? Yes, we can, because you always get asked that, and so I actually have that prepared here, and I will speed along and get to it, because someone always asks me that. All right, so here's an answer that you might use with the, why are you interested. I love the energy of working on a college campus. It's inspiring, and I enjoy being challenged with students' reference questions. I also enjoy the diversity of the patrons and knowing that I'm helping people and providing a service. While in graduate school, I developed an aptitude and a strong interest in social media, and I'm fascinated at how it can connect people together across the world with information, and I really want to be a part of that. Boom, what's that going to take? 10 seconds to say that? But it's right on, super concise, specifically related to the position that I'd be interviewed for. Yes, got it. All right, next. So why should we hire you? Or it's going to be something around, you know, what are the strengths that relate, what strengths do you have that relate to this position? It's basically a strengths question. However they're going to word it, it comes down to your strengths.  So here's some other additional questions that might, they might ask you. Another way to word it, what would you bring to this position? What makes you the best candidate? They might even say, what are your strengths? What are your top five strengths? What are your top three strengths? When they ask you that, you want to have the best ones. Boom, boom, boom. They come right off.  So here's how you could answer it. Two different answers, two different examples. I'm really excited to be interviewing for this position. I have the experience and the enthusiasm to excel. I've over two years of experience working in a public library setting. I was able to rotate, gain experience in reference to children's library, and do community outreach. Nice. Or in my MLS program, I had the opportunity to very successfully work as a student assistant providing technical support for our virtual colloquia sessions. I'm comfortable working with people in person online. I have strong communication skills and collaboration skills as evidenced by the partnerships I've been able to make. And I'm looking forward to the opportunity to directly apply my strengths and interests to this position. Boom. Pow. I should say. All right. Are we good? I'm moving on. Here's the dreaded weakness question because I always get asked about this. Let me see. How many people have been asked this question? Lots. All right. Half of you. It's a kooky question, frankly. But it does happen, obviously. Half of you have gotten this question before. So overall, you do not want to unload a real weakness that you just pop on the table and you stun the interviewer, leave them with a red flag in their mind. That would be a gigantic no-no. People do it, and they don't get the job. So you want to answer with something that you can turn into a positive or you can describe how you have made this so-called weakness work for you. I don't want you to spend a lot of time here when you're answering the question and interview. You just answer it straight up, concise to the point, stop talking, and move on. There is no reason to linger with this particular question.  It's not believable. It's pretty cliche. And that's the last answer that an employer wants to hear. So cross that one off your list. But here's a couple of options that you could use. I used to take on too much until I learned how to delegate. Now, I'm much better at managing my time. Short, simple to the point. Public speaking, this is a good one if public speaking has nothing to do with the job that you are interviewing for. If it has any part of the job, don't say that one. The third one, I tend to be highly analytical, which can cause me to overthink. So I've learned to focus on the most important elements of a decision in order to make a sound but faster decision. Boom. And if you have a really good sense of humor, you might be able to pull off the very last one. What is your weakness? Chocolate at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Done. But pow. But that depends on your sense of humor.  Again, you don't have to go on and on about it. Come up with it, write it down somewhere, and use the same one every time you're going to go on an interview. There's no reason to ever have to rethink this one and come up with a variety. Just come up with something that works and use it. All right. Question so far about the weakness question. If you have an answer that you're considering using, you are welcome to send me an email with what that answer is, and I will let you know what I think. You could absolutely do that. All right. We've got just a couple minutes left. The best tip overall that I can give you for interviewing is this, to practice a lot. It truly is the best tip. So give yourself, I should say if I go back, give yourself the time to practice. Do not wait until the night before your interview and go, oh, I guess I better pull some stuff out and prepare. That'd be winging it. And we know a number of us have done that and it doesn't work well. So as much time as you have from when the interview is scheduled, I would start practicing and preparing and do it a little bit every single day. OK. Situational or behavioral questions. How many of you are familiar with that? Those are the questions that say, tell me about a time when. Give me an example of a time. We should all be, have experience with these. So either people are asleep or only a few of you actually get these. You're going to get them. This is what interviewers, interviews are about. You are going to get situational questions. Tell me about a time when you exhibited strong, you were a strong team player. Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult customer and how did you handle it? Can you give me an example of the most, the time you had to make a tough decision and how did you handle it? I mean, this is the kind of questions you're going to get, right?  So you never are ready to answer. So you want to practice and prepare. This list is on the career development site under the interviewing section. Or again, do an internet search on behavioral questions. And just who cares what the questions are? I just practice pretty much with all of them. Because the more prepared I am, the more I have thought about examples that I can pull from, the more I am good to go when I walk into that interview. So practice. Now, there's a strategy, a formula for answering these questions. And this is going to work really good for, was it Rebecca who rambled? I mean, didn't stay on task. I can't remember who the person was.  It's called star. The S stands for situation. The T stands for task. The A is for action. The R is for result. So you start out with, here was the situation or task I was working on. All that does is set the stage. It doesn't take a lot of the time. It's just a quick setting the stage. You spend most of your time talking about the action. What did you do? And you use I statements. I did this. I did this. I did this. This is not we did it. The team did it. The group did it. We're not interviewing the team or the we. They're interviewing you. So your statements are I. Here's what I did to handle this situation. Again, that's where you spend the most of your time talking. And then the result or the outcome is just your closure. It just wraps it up. Here was the outcome. Here's what happened. We were successful. I learned something. I got a bad grade. It doesn't have to always be a great outcome, but here was the result of the outcome. Does this make sense? Do we have questions? This will keep you on track. Because if you learn and you have to practice it ahead of time, but if you learn to answer your questions like this, you will just boop right through it. Situation, here's what I did. Here was the result. Stop talking. It's very effective. All right. I'll keep checking the chat box. You also want to have questions to ask the employer in the interview. It's super, super important for you to have questions. There are sample questions, again, on the interviewing section of the career development site. Lizette says these are all items that came up. So did you do well then, Lizette? Or should you have had this workshop last week so you could have done better? That's what we really want to know. Good. Yep. You've got to practice these, Tracy. We can all do them. You just have to know what the formula is and how to work through them. Dorothy says I have a bit of trouble with this one because I'm a sub. I go to my job and I go home, not a whole lot of room. You know what, though, Dorothy? I'm going to challenge you on that. I'm going to say you actually have a whole lot more room, for examples, in accomplishment statements than you're giving yourself credit for. Our answers to these questions do not necessarily have to be anything that's current. They can be things that happened a long time ago in a job. They could be something that happened in your classes. They could be in a virtual group project that you're working on. They don't always have to be current examples in fact, there's examples that I use from things that happened years ago or 10 years ago, but it's still relevant. It still is an example of how I handled a certain situation. So I want you to give yourself more credit when you think about the answers that you can use for these questions. So Catherine says, using IGOs against my habits of talking about my work. Yes, it absolutely does, but you need to do it because it's a big thing. When I am interviewing people, that's one of those things that I tune into. Are they saying we, or are they saying I? And when you say I, it comes from a place of confidence, right? Here's what I did. Here's what I can do for you. It's not about we. I'm interviewing you, and I want to know specifically, Catherine, what is it you can do for me? So that is a really powerful tip for you to start practicing. I mean, if anything tonight, you walk away with that. Lisa says, I think I did pretty well. I ramble. Well, you're learning, and you're aware of it. So that's important. Lori, UC's list for the first interview, pretty sure helped me get a second one. Nice. Good job. All right. Good job. OK. We are running over. I think I hit everything. We've got that. Yes, we are done. So here's my email address. If you think of some other questions, absolutely feel free to email me and ask me. That's what I'm here for. Again, if you want me to look at a weakness question or to tell me about yourself question, if you want to type this stuff up, I'll look at it. I have no problem with that. Amanda says, is it acceptable to ask about compensation in an interview? No, no, no, no, no. It is absolutely not the time at all to bring up compensation. And if that is something that you have done or do, you probably didn't get a second interview.  And if part of you is wondering, well, I don't even know if I want this job because I don't know what they're going to pay, you wait it out. And if they get to the point where they offer you the job and that means they want you, then you're in a position to negotiate and you can try to get the salary that you actually do want. And Dorothy is saying, do you review resumes? Yes, yes, yes, I do. Send it to me as an attachment. If you send it as a word doc, I'll actually go in and I can make revisions right on the document and send it back to you as well. Yep, you're in the driver's seat. I like it. You guys were great. Thank you for all of your questions and your interaction. Totally appreciate it. Makes it fun. And you guys are very, very welcome. Have a great evening. Thank you, Renee, my trusty technical assistant. And talk to you guys later. Have a great evening. Bye.


It seems like a long way away, but before you know it, this global sporting spectacle will be splashed across your screen as Sportsmax enters your living room to show you the best from the Caribbean and the world. And to do that, we have assembled a world-class team of hosts, commentators and analysts. And today, we'll be unveiling some of those. I guess the best place to start is with the two gentlemen who are no strangers, Lance Whittaker and Ricardo Chambers, who will be a part of the live track and field commentary team. Gentlemen, take it away, Olympic commentary style. Yes, thank you very much, Mariah Ramara, coming up in league number one for the first event. Lance, a little bit too early, 100 days away, Lance. This is going to be your 7th Olympic Games as a commentator. Yes, although the first couple of them weren't live commentary because I did radio in 1992 and radio and television in 1996 when the Caribbean didn't have live coverage. So I covered but I didn't do live coverage but I was there for those two games. So let me count with you, you did 1992 and 1996, 2000 was the first time you had live coverage. That's right. That was the start for Caribbean coverage, yeah. 2004, 2008, 2012, and Tokyo 2020, which was held in 2021. So this will actually be your 8th Olympic Games and the sixth time that you'll be involved in live commentary for the Caribbean. Yeah, and it's really exciting because to be very honest with you, when we did Sydney in 2000, it felt like we had crossed a bridge, you know, because we had before that been subject to coverage coming from ABC, NBC, CBC, Canada and so on. And the Caribbean had to digest what others saw of our performances. So when we were able to assemble in 2000 for the Sydney Games, when Obadele Thompson won a bronze medal for Barbados, it felt really, really special. And we've been able to achieve that in subsequent Olympic Games. And Tokyo, which I did with you three years ago, felt a little bit different because we did the coverage remotely because of the COVID-19 so on. Our broadcast platform had changed and we decided to do it that way. But it was a pleasure doing coverage with you, Ricardo. You're brilliant. And I think that this Paris Olympics coming up would be pretty special for us all, especially because there are so many, as you touched on at the beginning of the show, so many Caribbean stories to unveil and the likelihood, stroke, possibility of a lot of Caribbean success. Yeah. And history-making success as well, which makes the storylines even more compelling than they've ever been before. So I'm really looking forward to that. Incidentally, Sydney was the first Olympic Games that I watched on television. The very first race I ever saw was Lorraine Fenton in Qualifying for the Women's 400 Meters. And you were on commentary. Yes. With Hubert Lawrence. The late great. Oh, yes. With Hubert Lawrence. That was fantastic. But it is amazing to be at this stage, to now be part of a team that brings the Olympics to the Caribbean because you are right. I grew up hearing a lot of individuals complain about US coverage of the Olympic Games, which did not fit the needs of the Caribbean. And so because of CMC initially and no sports max, we have a platform or we've had platforms that we can tell specific Caribbean stories, which is important. And I want to suggest, Ricardo, that without trying to blow our own horns, I believe that when we do the coverage. Yes, we're Caribbean specific in how we are covering the games. But I don't think, to be honest, that we are guilty of ignoring the global aspect of the performances and ignoring gold and silver medals because we are looking at someone from the Caribbean who is finishing fourth or fifth. I don't think we do that. And the foreign commentators did that, which was very disappointing for us. Yeah. Very much the case and very good point, Lance. I think we're ready now to start the unveiling of some of our analysts that will be part of our team for Paris 2024. Let's start with a returning analyst. He made his debut in Tokyo as part of our live track and field team. His unique insights also added depth to our pre and post discussions. We're talking about Ovideli Thompson. We're going to provide an commentary, analysis, insights and some behind the scenes information, especially focused on our Caribbean athletes as they seek to create history and make our region proud once again against the best athletes in the world. So make sure you tune in to SportsBox for the very best courage of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Yeah. You know what? I think I met Ovideli first time, Ricardo, when he was preparing for the 2000s sitting in the Olympics and he would have competed at the Barbados national trials and I was in Barbados at the time and I think that was my first interaction with Ovideli and I must say he had always come across to me as a studious, very serious individual, even in his junior years and his allot life has pretty much portrayed the same thing where he has been this very, very clinical studious individual and it's a pleasure to have him on our team. Yeah. I worked with him for the very first time at the Tokyo Games and I was really impressed with what he delivered, his insights into the sport of track and field, especially as well the mental aspect of the sport that we can under, well, overlook so often and underestimate how important that aspect of sport is and Ovideli, I thought, brought out those areas of the sport and not just track and field but just generally because as you would know Lance, I mean, Oba has expertise that goes beyond the track and field. He knows his basketball very well, table tennis as well and although he didn't speak about those sports specifically for Tokyo, when he did speak, you got the impression that this was a man with tremendous experience and knowledge of what it takes to be among the very best in the world. Yeah. And he's a brilliant academic as well. I guess the Harrison College students watching the show or past students watching the show would want us to emphasize the fact that he went to a top school. So that a school that prepared him well for his adult life and the success that he has had as a professional, as you just mentioned, not only as an athlete but he represented Barbados at the 1996 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, 100 bronze medalists at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, only Barbadian to win an individual Olympic medal and he's of course a Barbados record holder for the 100 and 200 meters at 9.87 and 19.97 seconds. Yeah, outstanding performer and he continues to be outstanding and he will be outstanding, I'm sure, when he is back with the team for the Paris Olympic Games. Another returning live track and field analyst from Tokyo is the former Jamaican 400 meter hurdler, Danielle Dowey, and she has been practicing her French. Bonjour. I'm Danielle Dowey, your track and field analyst for Sports Max is Olympic Games coverage for Paris 2024. I hope you're practicing your French because this August we take you inside the Stade des France for all the nail biting action to come right here on the home of champion. Yeah, Danielle Dowey there. She was 2013 World Athletics Championship 400 meter hurdler, semifinalist, 2009 World Under 18 400 meter silver medalist, 2011 Pan Am Junior 400 meter silver medalist, sports nutritionist. She is author and literary advocate. So, Danielle Dowey, a true track and field avid fan and developing herself as a broadcaster as well. Yeah, has done some coaching in recent years as well either, well, mostly as a consultant, but did some teaching as well at Titchfield High School where she started initially in Portland, Jamaica. And yeah, she has grown tremendously in the last two years and I'm looking forward to what she delivers at the Paris Olympic Games. Yeah, really, really outstanding pleasure to have her and it's always good to have these past athletes joining us on commentary because unlike you and I, Ricardo, who played sport but not at the international level, they can bring that kind of context to the discussions and the coverage as we go along. Yeah, let's now introduce a new member of the team, 2013 world champion of a 400 meter hurdles, JQ Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago. Hi, I'm JQ Gordon, two time Olympian, 2018 world champion of a 400 meter hurdles for Trinidad and Tobago and I'll be part of the sports max team bringing you great coverage come Paris Olympics 2024. Can't wait to see you guys. Yeah, I'm really delighted that JQ is joining the team this time around Lance. He is a special one. Yeah, 2013 world 400 meter hurdles champion in Moscow, 2012 Olympic 400 meter finalist, 2010 world under 2400 meter hurdles champion, represented Trinidad and Tobago at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He was outstanding from he was a schoolboy at in Trinidad and Tobago. I know he did a double thing with schools. I know he ended up at Queens Royal College, but he had been to another school before. And I remember talking to him when I'd gone to Queens Royal College to do some features on some schoolboy programs that we were doing at Sports Max at the time. And he's a special one and good to see him giving back to the sport. He was manager of the Cariftagame's team in Grenada with TNT a couple of weeks ago. And he really is passionate about developing sport in his country. Very much the case. He's involved in administration. He's involved in coaching and JQ Gordon is just a young man who wants the very best for his country, who wants the very best for the athletes in his country and really delighted to have him on the team this time around. You know, I spoke to JQ for the first time Lance. It was around 2010. Was it 2009, 2010 or a long time ago? I was working at a radio station and I had a show called Young Sport. And JQ Gordon was one of the guests on that show. It was a terrific interview. I hope I can find it one day. But it's, we're coming from some ways back. He would have been a teenager then, right? So would I. Anyhow, now we're switching to swimming. Let's introduce Janelle Atkinson, who will be covering her fourth consecutive Olympic games and third as part of the Sports Max roster. Sports fans, guess who? Janelle Atkinson here, Jamaica's first female Olympic swimming finalist. I'm so excited to be back, back, back again for the third time with Sports Max for the Olympic team coverage. I'm so looking forward to it. Team Caribbean, it's time to go. Team Caribbean, it is, Lance. Yeah, and you know what? We just referenced the fact that 2000 Olympics was the first time that the Caribbean had live Caribbean-specific coverage. And Janelle Atkinson was one of the stars of those games, represented Jamaica at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, 04 Games, of course, in Athens, the 2000 in Sydney. First Jamaican female to reach an Olympic final in swimming, fourth in the 400-meter freestyle in Sydney. Double Commonwealth Games bronze medalist in 2002, triple Pan-American Games silver medalist in 1999. And I remember us interviewing Janelle Atkinson in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics when she finished fourth there, which for us as a Caribbean in a swimming event was a triumph in itself. I tell you a quick story. I was watching the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000. It was a Sunday morning, and she swam qualifying for the 400 freestyle. She finished third in her heat. And I remember running to my mom in the kitchen who was cooking at the time. And I said, mom, mom, mom, a Jamaican just came third in the pool. She wasn't interested to be quite honest. She was focused on dinner. But for me, even as a youngster, without even understanding the history at that time, just seeing a Jamaican finish third at the Olympic Games, and mind you, this was just a qualifying race. It made me really excited. And it's great to have Janelle back again. It's no flu clans that even though the last four Olympic Games, three of them broadcast by Sportsmax, won 2016 by others. And Janelle has been part of every single one of those teams. I think it says a lot about what she brings to the table. And it's great to have her again. Yeah, and the fact that she does coaching now also gives her another perspective in analyzing what happens in the pool because that's what she does, and she's good at it. Yeah, very much the case. How about then the very popular in-house analyst, Leighton Levy. He's not just track and field, you know. He can break down just about any discipline. I'm Leighton Levy, and I'm proud to announce today that I'll be a member of the panel for Sportsmax on the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris this summer. 2004 was when I had my first broadcast experience with the Olympic Games, and I've enjoyed every single Olympic experience since then. We're looking forward to bringing you the best of analysis as our athletes excel on the track in Paris. Looking forward to seeing you then on Sportsmax. Can't have a team without Leighton Levy, Lance Vertica? No, we can't. And he's training for the Olympics, you know. Two mornings ago, I was driving on Lindsey Crescent, and I saw him jogging, walking, half-jogging, you know, his style. And I was trying to get his attention, and he didn't see me. You can't call Leighton Levy too early because he is in the gym, or as you witnessed, on the road, having a jog, and he boasts about his muscles all the time. Muscles? Yes. So is it he that Diana Ross sang about? And she said she wanted muscles. Maybe Leighton can answer that. Here we go. Last, but certainly not least, one of the veterans of Sportsmax Olympic coverage returning for his third games after London 2012, Tokyo 2020, and now Paris 2024. We're talking about this man, Anil. The controversial one, his last name is Roberts, Lance Vertica. Yeah, this is a very special individual, Anil Roberts, former sports minister in Trinidad and Tobago, three-time Olympic coach. He coached George Bovelto, Olympic 200-meter, individual bronze in Athens 2004, a level five senior Ascot Olympic swimming coach and an opposition senator in Trinidad and Tobago at the moment. But I first became exposed to Anil while he was coaching Siobhan Cropper and Leah Martin Dale in the mid-1990s. And it was significant for us at the time because these were two Caribbean young ladies who were world-class. And they were being coached right here in the Caribbean, which up to that point, I had never heard of before. They went to world championships. Leah Martin Dale reached an Olympic final. I think she finished fifth for Barbados, coached by Anil Roberts. So his coaching expertise is colossal and that's just a part of the strengths that he brings to the table. And here's the thing, like we spoke about Leighton D'Eve, who can go across just about any sport. So can Anil Roberts's specialty is, of course, swimming, but he knows so much about sport. And we've learned that over the Olympic games that he's covered with Sportsmax and it is fantastic that he will be back with us. It looks like a pretty good cast, doesn't it, Lance? Oh, very, very impressive. Mm, Mariah Ramirez, what do you think? Yeah, I'm looking forward to see the team in action. I love the names that have been added to the cast. And of course, you know, as we get ready to build up for this big, big event, I'm hoping Ricardo that we get to hear a bit more from them and what they intend to bring to the team. So yeah, it's a date, Paris, 2024. We go to break and we'll come back. All right, beautiful about the Olympic Games. Every four years, athletes who have worked for a lifetime put their dreams on the line and in their glory we celebrate, but also their despair is our pain. Yes, we live vicariously through them and there is no stage where this is truer than the Olympic Games. Welcome back to the Sportsmax Zone. We are 100 days away from the start of Paris, 2024. Today, we are unveiling a few of the pieces that will make Sportsmax's coverage of the Games very special. Well, earlier, we introduced you to some of our analysts, but we're not stopping there. Here's Lance and Ricardo to tell you about two very key persons who will be involved come July 26th to August 11th. Ricardo? Yeah, Lance, you know, I like to call these the storytellers because I think it's so important, those wonderful features that you see throughout the course of any Sportsmax coverage of any event, you need individuals like that who can tell these stories in a very unique way. And so when you see them, sometimes they'll bring you to tears, sometimes it's all about laughter, but at the end of the day, there's a lot to get from them. Yeah, and we were very clinical in choosing our storytellers because they're really good at it, aren't they? Yeah, they're very much good. Let's get you the first one. He's a class act storyteller extraordinaire. They call him producer of the world's best, some of the world's best features, producer of the 2022 Choryphtha Games documentary. Here's Donald Oliver. Hello, Donald. How are you? Oh, sorry. Hi, I'm just preparing to go to Paris later this summer, just brushing up on my French. This is Donald Oliver, by the way. I'm going to be going to the Games of the 33rd Olympiad with a few of my friends as we bring some of the best stories and the features from our Caribbean athletes. So do join us, we're going to have a great time. Well, he's always one for the dramatics, Lance. Yeah, I think he has some acting skills somewhere deep down in there. I'm not sure, he still has a long life ahead of him, I think. So maybe he may go there at some point. Maybe he'll have a conversation with Chris Taylor and he'll show him the way. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All right, this next person. She is a very special woman, a former Sportsmax Zone host and definitely no stranger to the Caribbean. Her name is Alex Jordan. She's with Mariah Amarack. Good afternoon, Alex. Welcome to the Sportsmax Zone. How are you? Fine, this is very strange.  Very good, how are you guys? Loved all those intros and totally agree with Lance that Donald should do some acting, definitely. All right, so Alex, of course, we're doing really, really good here. We're excited to have you as a part of our team and it's because you're so special. So talk to me about what you're bringing for us this Paris 2024. You're heading with the team, right? Across the Paris. I am, maybe, maybe, Madame. We're going to Paris 2024 and what a privilege to be with Sportsmax again to cover this 33rd Olympia. 33 is also my lucky number, so there's a lot going on here. I loved what Ricardo said about storytelling. I feel it is one of my core skills and I've always been searching for what is my core skill. I love to tell stories and I was very privileged to be part of the very small team that actually went to Japan at the last Olympics, what we're now calling the Pandemic Olympics. And of course, I mean, we did some, as a team, some extraordinary work, if we may say so ourselves. I thought we told some great stories, but there was this shroud of grief hanging over those Olympics because of course the world was still in the pandemic and in lockdown and we were separated. So it makes me doubly excited for myself, for all the viewers, sports fans, and of course the athletes who'll be competing about these Olympics. You will be unsurprised to hear that the motto this year is Games-Wide Open, right, in French that's because in fact, everything was so close. So to have another opportunity to cover another Olympics, Mariah, is a real privilege. And I thank Sportsmax for having me as part of the team. And just listening to you, Alex, I can understand why, of course, you were chosen. You can speak the language. We're seeing your storytelling skills coming to light and you're just a whole bubbly person. So what are some of the things you're hoping to achieve when you head across to Paris and what are you bringing for us? Well, we've got to have new angles, don't we? You know, when we were in Japan, this such an ancient, unrevered culture, isn't it? It was beautiful that we compared and contrasted all of the cultures, we do much the same. But Paris, you know, mainland Europe, that's a totally different story.  I do think and I rely a lot on my spontaneity. I prepare, I'm very prepared, but then we've got to free up the energy because that's how creativity flows. I am particularly excited about working with Donald Oliver. We haven't really done a lot of work together. They haven't crossed paths. He doesn't do golf. I don't do football, you know, we kind of missed each other. So we're going to get there in Paris together. And I have to tell Donald, Donald, this is a message to you directly. We have got to absolutely nail this assignment for many reasons. An important reason is that the next Olympics in 2028 in LA, I would like to be back invited because cricket and my sport, squash, the sport for which I competed for Barbados, our first time entrance in the Olympics in 2028. So let's get it right, Donald Oliver. Yeah, it's so, so important. And Alex, you know, before you leave us, one of the things I want to say is it's so important that our Caribbean people will be telling the stories. Lance and Ricardo spoke about it at the top of the show. For quite some time, our stories were told by people that never even lived or experienced who we are as a people. So I'm looking forward because our cast includes, you know, people from Barbados, Jamaicans, Trinnies. It's just a wide cast. And of course, really, really looking forward to see what you and the entire team do. I want to thank you so much. It's too bad we didn't get to talk for as long as I would like. Bye. I guess. Bye. Can I say one more thing? Yeah, sure. Yes, Mariah, absolutely. I think you make a great point there. And I don't even think you're old enough to remember all of those Olympics and on those sort of big tournaments where, you know, the big American networks entirely ignored us and did tell our stories at all. So this is why Sportsmax as a station is so special. Right? Because it's us telling our stories. And of course, our competing at the highest level. Yeah, for sure. Well, Alex, take care. I know we're going to be in touch again as we continue to build up to the Olympics. But now it's time for us to pass over to Ricardo and Lance. Yeah, thank you very much. A book of stories there, Lance. And Alex Jordan is a special personality, isn't she? Oh, she is very, very special. There's no one like her in the world, I'm sure. Very much the case. Looking forward to what she has to deliver, Lance. Yeah, a major part of making any event happen is our sponsors. We are pleased to announce partnerships with Suzuki. Yes, Suzuki, we have joined the family and BCIC ensuring your motor, home, business and more dependable and affordable insurance. Here at BCIC, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Sportsmax as the general insurance sponsor for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. I mean, it's the Olympics. So exciting. And we are one of the title sponsors. We are happy to join forces with Sportsmax who we know will provide exceptional coverage of the Games. We can't wait to see you there. Yeah, we can't do anything without the sponsors. Lance is rejoined on set by Mariah Amarek and it's important to have them. And I'm sure that we'll be having even more sponsors as we get closer to the Olympic Games. Yeah, that's for sure. And it was really nice listening to Mariah talk to Alex just a couple of moments ago. And I'm not sure if Mariah told you that at a carnival event a couple of weeks ago, she met up with Alex and Alexis, two former female hosts on the Sportsmax zone. I thought that was some meeting. It was so good. I guess we have a lot of similarities, all three of us. We love carnival, we love parties. We just love having a good time and it was good to link up with them. I think it's so important, you know, that for me as the younger of the two of them, well, all three of us, it's so good that I get to connect with them. I get to hear their stories. I get to see what it was like when they were here on the team before me. What I didn't get to do though is, and I was trying my very best, was to bring them both on set for all of us to be on the show and for us to give both of you a break. But that didn't happen. I'm hoping the next time they come to Jamaica, you know, we connect because I did exchange numbers with Alexis. I always speak to Alex from time to time and then you both get a day off. We'll run the show. Well, I don't mind having a day off or two. That is very much the case. But yeah, it promises to be really great. London 2012, Tokyo 2020 and now Paris 2024, Sportsmax has you covered. Thank you so much for the confidence that you've shown in us and we promise once again to keep the Olympic flame burning with great coverage across the Caribbean. We also have some exciting offerings during the build-up, including a weekly Olympic show. Lebaton, yes, the baton will be carried in fine style starting Wednesday, May 1. Also coming up right after the Sportsmax zone and Olympic special, you definitely won't want to miss that. Let's take a break. More on the Sportsmax zone after this.