Nailing job interview questions—with help from our graduate career coach

In this article:

• Get an inside look at the professional career development Master of Science in Management (MSM) students experience as they build their career path.

Question: “What would you say is your greatest strength?”  

It’s an age-old interview question that can leave candidates thinking: What do I say? What does this person want to hear? Why can’t I remember anything I’m good at?!  

In the Master of Science in Management (MSM) program at the Kelley School of Business, students are thoroughly prepared to answer this question—a moment that could be pivotal in any hiring process. For the answer, we turn to the Clifton StrengthsFinder test; the book Now, Discover Your Strengths by Don Clifton; and a follow-up workshop with the MSM program’s very own Graduate Career Services Coach Birgit Newman.   

After completing the StrengthsFinder test, we spent time with Newman in a personalized workshop to thoroughly understand what our top strengths mean and how to not only capitalize on these in interviews but see how these strengths define the value we add to a team. It’s all part of a team approach used by the MSM program to support students as we explore and prepare for different management careers.  

The MSM way—collaborative and reflective  

During the workshop, we broke into small groups to discuss each other’s strengths and validate where we’ve witnessed these in group project settings. We also took time for personal reflection to journal about how we see these strengths manifest in our everyday life—how they form in our friendships, familial relations, and academic environments.   

Framing our strengths in these ways, Newman deliberately prepared us with a direct, rehearsed answer, such as, “My top three Clifton Strengths are X, Y, Z,” which we can deliver to a recruiter. But she also allowed us time to consider examples from our own lives where these strengths were tested and honed, as real-life scenarios we can capitalize on in hiring conversations.   

Graduate Career Services with MSM  

Graduate Career Services offers many similar workshops throughout a student’s MSM journey, such as Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch, Overcoming Impostor Syndrome, and How to Navigate Your Job Search with AI.   

The MSM program also has a designated career coach—Newman—who is available to meet with students whenever necessary to help us finetune resumes, provide feedback on cover letters, and offer priceless career advice. Newman organized a mock interview process for students still in the job-seeking phase where each student was offered immediate feedback on how to improve their interviewing skills. She is also first and foremost always a source of encouragement as students move to enter the workforce.  

Finding strength in the classroom  

The MSM StrengthsFinder workshop aids students in developing our interviewing skills and connects us with resources for understanding how to express to recruiters the value our skills bring to teams. Many MSM courses also utilize a group project structure, where students are encouraged to practice their leadership skills by creating a supportive, productive team environment. Here, we also receive feedback from our peers and can see firsthand how having a variety of strengths on a team can create something spectacular.  

The MSM curriculum also prepares us with many Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) scenarios from the classroom that we can discuss during interviews. Beyond the interviews, we’re prepared for any and everything once we launch our careers because of insights gained through: 

• Real-life experiences during two consulting practicums 
• Global Business and Social Enterprise (GLOBASE) consulting initiatives 
• Group projects where students work to improve a function in a company or department with real stakes   

Thank you, Birgit, for the meaningful interview coaching and career support! Birgit Newman is associate director of Graduate Career Services, where she has been a career coach since 2015. Before that, she worked for more than 15 years in the consulting industry—specifically at the intersection of IT and financial services.  

This post was written by Katie Kobold, MSM’25. Katie began the MSM program after earning bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University in psychology and English and a neuroscience certificate.