p1,Interviewer: So how are you doing?|Interviewee: Im pretty good.|Interviewer: Ok well  so please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: ok  uhm  so have you looked at my resume or should I  alright  so I guess ah  I am course 6-7 here at M.I.T  ah which is computational biology  so its a mix of computers  science and biology and actually thats where my interest lie in applying like algorithmic kinda software engineering too datasets dealing with genomics and biology.  Uhm some of that activities that you do out side of school  include Camp Kesem which is a summer camp that we run for completely free for kids whose parents have cancer  as well as ah amphibious achievement  which is ah a high school tutoring program for inner city kids in Boston  |Interviewer:  mhhmm|Interviewee: So ah  my interest kinda laid both in a little bit of the health care  I imagined I was going be a Doctor growing up  and then it came down to the tee and Im like  well I can do engineering and still apply and do the same things and help a lot more people.|Interviewer: So please tell me about a time that you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Ok  uhm  one of the things we have to do for Camp Kesem is orgin or fundraise all the money to ah  to  run the camp which is over $50 000.00.  Ah so one of the things that I individually spearhead every year is called the Camp Kesem I say you did auction  where actually my fraternity and I go out and solicit uhm  donations in the form of gift cards  ah to raise money for a date auction where we actually sell dates  and then we use this money obviously we donate it to Camp Kesem. I spearhead the entire event and I kinda orginize everyone into committees and groups  and I send the people out and make sure everything goes according to plan.  |Interviewer: Tell me about a time when your working on a team and faced with a challenge  how did you solve that problem?|Interviewee:  Ahh  I guess the easiest team project I just I just had  was  last semester  uhm I worked on this six double o five project which is algorithm or software architecture.|Interviewer:  uh hun.|Interviewee: and we were put in a group of 3 people  and it was standard you know we signed the contract everyone is supposed to work equally  but it ended up being by the end of it  that someone didn't like put there fair share of work in...Ah essentially we talked to him we didn't really get it out  we actually had to go to some of the T.A's we got a little bit ah  and that kinda like pushed him forward  so I mean I guess what I am showing is like  Im not affraid to go to the right method or like authority like where in cases this situation presents itself.  |Interviewer: Oh yes.  Alright tell me about one of your weaknesses and how you plan to overcome it.|Interviewee:  Uhmmm.  I would say for this job  ah Im a little technically underprepared.  Ah I've yet  I have only taken the introductory software classes so far and as well as introductory bio classes  but I think just from sheer interest and sheer effort i will be able to kinda overcome these obstacles.|Interviewer:  Now why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee:  Ah  Im very interested  in the subject of computation biology  and I think that I will be able to contribute a lot to this field  uhm I've had a good amount of experience and I think I will be a solid intern.|Interviewer: Well thank you.
p10,Interviewer: So  how you doing?|Interviewee: Great  how about you?|Interviewer: I'm okay.|Interviewee: I'm a little [???] by the resurgence of the hurricane  but..|[laughter]|Interviewer: I understand  I got to get home later too and I'm worried.|Interviewee: Yeah  we were half way here and it just turned on a switch  lightening  winds and everything.|Interviewer: Oh wow.|Interviewee: So yeah.|Interviewer: So  uh  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Okay  um  I'm a Junior here at MIT  um  I'm studying aerospace engineering  um  my  my interests are generally in food mechanics  control  um  design  um  mostly aircraft  but protozoan [???] problems in general. Um  I like to  um  I like to play music  listen to music  um  I run  do some other team sports  I like to play hockey. |Interviewer: Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  okay  so  uh  one of the projects that I've worked on since coming to MIT  um  was during my Freshman year  I worked in the  in the uh  Artificial Intelligence group in  uh  Cesil [sp]  which is a lab  a computer science lab here at MIT.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: And  um  I was working on a project with another student  actually another Freshman  uh  basically we were tasked with the  sort of  bringing this project  starting this project  bring it up to the level where it could be presented at conference. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Um  together  and we were kind of left  to work out the cooperation on our own and um   there was  um  as the conference got closer  about halfway  um  about halfway through the year Freshman year  ah  there were a bunch of issues that we had with um  with um  basically meeting the expectations that had been set before us in terms of what we were going to present. Um  and finishing in a timely basis.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And it came down to whether we were really going to be able to  and there were other basically  parts  other people's work in the same group where work depended on us finishing in time  so it really  um  really  we had to make a decision weather we were just going to basically get done what we could  but to the quality standard that  the standard of quality that was expected of us  or to um  try to finish everything and to have other people's work potentially suffer because of our [??] hadn't really been up to snuff. And  um  and so  we kind of had a little bit of a disagreement about this  but what ended up happening was  um  I went and talked to the professor and um  sort of decided to um  make them aware of what was happening  because they weren't really aware that we had fallen behind. And  um  sort of got the other student on board  who had disagreed with me  uh to do this  uh  and to let everyone else know what was going on  and uh  we ended up presenting a lot less than what was originally expected  but  um  I think it was very much for the better. |Interviewer: Tell me about a time when you were working on a team and you were faced with a challenge. How did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: Okay  um  so  another  another thing that I spend a lot of my time doing is called  is an organization called Design  Build  Fly here  um  it's  it's a design competition um  run by the IAA  which is an aerospace professional organization.  And um   and uh  you can enter a team from any university or group  basically anywhere in the world. It's mostly US university though.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And  um  these university teams basically build a plane  um  design it  build it  fly it as the competition name suggests and you compete them all at the end of the year  compete against the other universities at the end of the year at one competition. Basically  um  last year we had  uh  a design challenge  it was pretty unique  um  and um  so  I'll take that as our challenge  um  so we basically had a year to solve this  um  and I was head of one of the sub-groups last year  the actual design sub-group  and um  I mean  we approached in a methodical way  just like I think that's the best way to solve most problems. |Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: Um  got input from every team member  um  and um  basically  um  looked at  looked at all our possibilities  um   and um we ran the numbers.  Ultimately  like I think that's the best way to solve most problems. We ended up with um  a design that got the best overall score...|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: ...on the basis of just  basically incorporating  um  every team member's input.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Tell me about one of your weaknesses and how you plan to overcome it.|Interviewee: Okay  um  so one of my  I think definitely since coming here  I've noticed that one of my biggest weaknesses is written communication. Um  I really was not intimidated by the thought of it in high school  but I um  definitely since coming here  I find that perhaps um at the expense of technical skills  my written communication skills have atrophied  maybe is the right word. And  um  so I definitely  I think I'm um  pretty aware of this and um  and um.. I would definitely like to improve it and um...|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: ...so what I'm going to do is try to force myself whenever I'm writing papers or taking reports for  whether it be for research or for classes  just to go through the proper revision cycle  force myself to make sure that I'm actually being  um  that I'm being succinct in what I'm saying  have other people reading give me feedback.|Interviewer: Now why do you think that we should hire you for this position?|Interviewee: Okay  um  I  um  I mean  I think  I don't know what this position that it is...|Interviewer: Whatever position you want at a company that you're looking for.|Interviewee: Yeah  sure  but if I knew that this position was  I think that I would want it because um  this is really what I thrive off of. I  um  enjoy doing it  um  and I would be excited to come to work every day to do it. Um  which  um  that's like the biggest thing for me. I um  I would be excited to come do it and I know I would put my  you know  put my all into doing a good job at it  because I would be excited to come do it. And  um  I think that um  I have a decent skill set to do this and I think that I'm qualified to contribute in this area.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Well thank you.
p11,Interviewer: So  tell me about yourself. |Interviewee: Uhh  I’m a junior at MIT  uhh I’m double majoring in Management and Biology  er  I’m very interested in the world of finance  uh  business  consulting all of those sorts of things. Um  so I’ve tried to take on different leadership roles that would prepare me for uh  those sort of roles in the business world. Outside of school  I enjoy running  cross-country and track  I’m on the varsity team at MIT. And umm  I’m also very involved in Greek Life at MIT  so I’m on the Panhellenic Executive Board as Vice President of Programming  and also hold a leadership position in my sorority. |Interviewer: Great  okay. Can you tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Umm  so I think this past year  my biggest priority has been my position as Vice President of Programming for Panhellenic and umm  just in that position  uhh  I hold a leadership role on the exec board. We have weekly meetings  I’m charge of putting together our programming calendar for our entire year. So I have interface with a lot of MIT faculty and bring together the exec board as a whole and the different sororities uhh  to meet and attend different events. And I think to put together all these events I’m working together with different people on campus I have to show leadership and show strong communication skills. |Interviewer: Great. So  tell me about a time you were working on a team  and faced a challenge. How did you guys overcome that?|Interviewee: Umm  so I guess this past semester actually  I’m associate advisor for umm  freshmen and I work with my freshmen advisor as well and another associate advisor  and er   the three of us were trying to come up with an event to host for the freshman and I think we all  er  were very uhh  set on our ideas. So having to full time communicate and work on an idea that could bring all our thoughts and goals together . Um  so we had to work together to formulate some sort of event that would satisfy each of our different goals and that was difficult at first  ‘cause we had just met each other and it was difficult to understand where the other people were coming from. But after that  and after communicating what our main goals for the event for would be  we eventually figured out what we wanted to do. |Interviewer: Can you be more specific about that  what you eventually figured out?|Interviewee: Uhh  yeah so  we had — we were trying to communicate via email at first  so I think that was  uhh inefficient  especially since we had only met in a group once before  umm so meeting in person and really  trying to outline not just like   what the event was going to be  what our purpose of the event was going to be  and what we trying to communicate with the freshmen. I think by boiling down to what our purpose was for the event  we were able to build it up from there. |Interviewer: Okay  so can tell me about some of your weakness? Do you have any idea? |Interviewee: Umm  so I think one of my weaknesses is public speaking  actually  and uhh  I think by taking a variety of classes  especially this one class that I’m in  that focuses on management and communication . I’ve been kind of thrown into positions where I have to give impromptu speeches  uhh  and debate my point in different arguments and I think that the practice is helping me a lot and it allows me to become more comfortable and more confident in what I’m saying  which I think helps me in the long run like public speaking in general. I think I’ve been able to build up my confidence and know like  how to structure my speeches and interviews and impromptus better. |Interviewer: Great. So why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Uhh  I think my different leadership positions as well as my academic experience  umm would allow me to perform well on the job. I think  I’ve worked umm  both individually in a project as well as in a team-focused environment  which umm  I think is key for consulting and investment banking positions. I also feel that my MIT background  uh  the quantitative analysis that I’ve done in classes  as well as my internship experiences would help perform well on the job as well  so…|Interviewer: Great.
p12,Interviewer: So how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good  how are you?|Interviewer: Good. So  why don't you tell me about yourself?|Interviewee: Ok  so  I'm a Junior at MIT majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Uh my focus is in uh Robotics and Product Design. Uh I'm originally from Seattle  Washington.|Interviewer: Ok. Any extracurriculars  any interests?|Interviewee: Ummm I'm really interested in a combination of robotics and like psychology  phased in. So artificial intelligence  or that vein of thinking. Um I'm also  I do a little bit of theater on the side. So  considering doing some sort of combination. It's a wide range of interests so I'm trying to figure out a way to uh put in a lot of it into one thing but  yeah.|Interviewer: Great. |Interviewee: Mmhmm.|Interviewer: Can you tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Yeah  ok. So  um  in high school I was a life guard. And that's  it was a great job but it was a lot of working with other lifeguards in kind of in a  a team situation. Um  and a lot of the times one person would have to step up in order to be a leader with you know uh like swi-  like we taught swim lessons. And I would have a partner with me and we'd both be teaching the same kids. And  I'd have to  you know  tell them what to do  or tell them what exactly we were going to do during that class. That sort of stuff.|Interviewer: Ok great. What about  can you tell me about a time you worked on a team  and you had a conflict or challenge  and how you went about solving that.|Interviewee: Ok ummm  not going to use the lifeguard example again.|(both laugh)|Interviewee: Uhhhh in high school we would have to work on team projects a lot  ummm I don't know in history class or that kind of a thing  work  working with projects. And sometimes we'd have kids who wouldn't do their home- do  you know their part on time  or people who didn't like they  what they were doing. There was one specific time where we had a conflict where one girl just decided she didn't really want to do you know any of the  any of the project  she wasn't really showing up to class  wasn't doing any of the  any of the stuff she had to so we had to talk to her  and figure out what was going on and kind of resolve the conflict in that way.|Interviewer: Can you be more specific?|Interviewee: In what way? Like -|Interviewer: Like  you  you just spoke with her?|Interviewee: Yeah. So I mean us as a group we met with the teacher umm and told her what was happening. And then |Interviewer: Oh ok  ok. Ok  ok.|Interviewee: The next  the next day when the girl came to class we  you know sat her down  asked her why she wasn't doing the homework. Whatever  that kind of stuff. But it was  it was just a case of high school kids not wanting to do anything. So (laughs).|Interviewer: Right  ok. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses  and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Ok ummm  I have a really bad habit of trying to do everything all at once  and I sometimes put too much on my plate. And I recognize that you have to delegate tasks in a group or tell someone when they've given you too much to do. So I think it's kind of  in terms of how I'm trying to improve that  is be realistic with myself on the amount of time I have or what my skills are. And if I need help ask for it or if I need someone to do part of it  ask for it. And early on  not the day before something has to be done  tell them that it's not going to happen.|Interviewer: And last question - why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Ummmm I think you should hire me because your company  ummm is a great  would be a great opportunity for me to learn and improve as an Engineer umm and I think I could just add a lot to the team in general in terms of like  like my wide interests  and  and education background.
p13,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Good.|Interviewer: Good. So  why don't you tell me about yourself?|Interviewee: Ok  umm  I'm currently a junior at M.I.T. studying electrical engineering and computer science. Umm  I first became interested in engineering in high school  I guess  when I worked in a lab at  a material science lab  at U.C. Berkley. Umm  and since then I've worked at a variety of different places including labs and at  uh  and in the industry including electrical engineering labs here  and at Standford  and umm Promex Industries  which is a chip packaging company in the silicon valley.|Interviewer: So  tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Umm  in high school I was part of the school orchestra and I played bassoon. I was the principle bassoon there. So  that means I was in charge of the bassoon section. So basically  umm  I ran extra  I ran practices for  within our section outside of  uh   when the orchestra would get together and practice.|Interviewer: Mm Hm.|Interviewee: I coordinated that. I also  uh  set up events between the woodwind sections to  uh you know  so people would get to know each other and  you know  we could practice together and things like that.|Interviewer: Great. Ok. Tell me about time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Umm  this past summer I worked in Spain. Umm  in operations research and I was part of a research group there. Umm  it was  so  we had  uh  within our team  it was  communicating with each other was the biggest challenge because my Spanish isn't so great and their English wasn't so great.|Interviewer: Mm hm.|Interviewee: So  umm  what we ended  we basically communicated through like  the papers  through the papers we read  umm  we  well  one thing that helped was  we both got  like everyone  they got better at speaking English  I got better at understanding them. I guess they got better at understanding my Spanish also. So  we were able to communicate by just  you know  talking really slowly  repeating everything a couple times. Umm  we also did a lot of technical things and so those were mostly related to technical papers and things like that. Those were written mostly in English  so that was  that wasn't so much of a problem for me...but...it made it  because they were working in the area already and I was new to the area  looking through these made it easier for me to understand what my role was  what I was supposed to do. Umm  things like that.|Interviewer: Ok  great.  Can you tell me about one of your weaknesses and what you were doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: umm  well  one thing right now is that I can get really hung up on small details and  uh  it becomes a problem because its  it can be distracting and cause me to lose sight of  like  the big picture. But since coming to M.I.T. I've been  I've been involved in a lot of classes  a lot of activites and things and that's forced me to manage my time better.  So  now that  uh  like  I have  because I have a lot of time constraints  I'm forced to finish a project or assignment or whatever  and I can't  I can't get caught up in  like  little things that don't ultimately make a big a difference. So  um  by being forced to manage my time more  I'm  uh  overcoming this problem.|Interviewer: Great  ok. So  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Well  I have the  I have the quantitative and qualitative skills necessary to accomplish  uh  accomplish project goals and get things done. Uh  I can solve problems and  and can work pretty well in a team.|Interviewer: Ok|Interviewee: I'm also very interested in what this company does  and  um  I'd really like to work there.|Interviewer: Great!
p14,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today|Interviewee: Good  how are you?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: I'm a student at MIT and Im a junior right now but I'm probably gonna graduate this year.  So  uh  that's kind of exciting at scary at the same time.  Uh  like I said I'm a computer science major so some of the stuff that I'm interested in is computational photography and a lot of graphic stuff.  I've got a bunch of experience with web development mainly  uh front end development so that's uh  I guess where a lot of my experience lies.  |Interviewer: Great.  Tell me about a time that you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  so I was  a member of the Society of Women Engineers and with the Graduate Students Association of MIT and the senior class  they run the fall career fair which is the only career fair in the fall and it's the biggest at MIT.  I was actually the publicity chair for that.  So  it involves you know  interfacing  you know  with over 230 companies and dealing with not only making the guide book and making sure all of the information is readily available to students but also publicizing individual info sessions and obviously the career fair itself.  SO  um  it definitely was a lot of responsibility and not only did I have to become a leader for the Society of Women Engineers but also fora leader for this smaller team of seven people that ran the career fair itself.  |Interviewer: Great.  Alright.  Tell me about a time when you were working on a team and you faced a challenge.  How did you overcome that problem.  |Interviewee:  Well  I...so  for one of my classes  we have to  it's a software design class where you have to work with other students.  So  I was assigned two teammates randomly and we had one teammate who really wasn't pulling their weight and wasn't contributing in a way that was you know  fair and even  and so what we ended up doing is  we all thankfully were able to sit down and talk.  We were able to get a hold of her and we realized it was because we were dividing the work in a way that made it really difficult for her  it was not playing off her strengths.  So  we redistributed the work and she was able to do things that were still helpful but played more to her strengths.  |Interviewer: Great.  Okay.  Tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it. |Interviewee:  Um  I think one of my weaknesses is I'm a perfectionist so when I do work on teams I have trouble sometimes delegating tasks because I want to micromanage and make sure everything is just the way it is.  But what I've done to overcome that is basically just sort of familiarized myself with how to um  like  say no to a task and just kind of  I guess  modualize [sic] projects more.  So  I think I had trouble when I was always thinking big picture and then I would want to look at every single detail i that big picture.  But if I just give myself one part of the project and just  you know  divide it into different modules in my head then I'm able to just  you know  perfect my one part but not so much focus on every little detail.|Interviewer: Okay.  And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Uh  I think that my skill set is pretty unique because I'm both technical and also well-spoken and I'd be able to communicate really well.  And I think it's a unique combination to have both of those skills.|Interviewer: Great.
p15,Interviewer: Okay so how are you doing today? |Interviewee: I'm doing fine uh  thank you how about you? Um  have you like you know um  the storm  I hope that hasn't like disturbed any power too much. |Interviewer: No actually it was fine I was expecting it to be a lot worse. I think a lot of people were a lot worse off than I was. |Interviewee: Oh yeah. I mean Boston didn't get hit too bad so. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: That's at least very fortunate. |Interviewer: Great so can you tell me about yourself? |Interviewee: Um  okay so I'm a current junior at MIT. |Interviewer: Okay. |Interviewee: I'm studying biological engineering. Um  so it's some  some of the things I do on campus. Um  I'm really involved in um  MIT Met Life. So I'm  I'm secretary of the club and I go to the meetings um  and um  part of my roles like help you know organize groups where um  poster sessions and information sessions. Just like spread the word of Met Life on campus um  and that's um  sort of helps me like explore like it has really gotten me more interested in a field of like healthcare. Um  that plus like my um  my studies.|Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: Um  I'm also involved in Chinese student club escort culture. So I do a lot of you know pudding on campus for um  events like night market which I worked  I helped organize just last week.|Interviewer: Oh okay. |Interviewee: So um  it that sort of helps me with communication  my communication skills. You know talking to the officers of other student clubs. |Interviewer: Great. So tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership. |Interviewee: Okay so um  last um  uh  this past summer I worked in a research lab in Bangkok and it was the first time that I had ever been outside of you know the United States for an extended period of time. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: And one of my assignments was to you know sort of lead uh  sort of like drive the direction of like a research project that they were doing  which was to research um  a generic um  in hopes of releasing it to the market. |Interviewer: Great. |Interviewee: Um  sometime in the future. Because I had  I was partnered up with some a lab partner that was less experienced than I was um  I found myself in many situations having to help guide her along and getting up to speed with the project and the techniques that we needed to do our experiments. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: Um  it was  it was a little bit of a strange dynamic because she was older than me. Because she was an incoming graduate student  but she did not have much research like lab experience. So I had to balance like being informative without making it seem like this  like she was in some ways my superior. So that was like an um  I had  I had to like teach her the techniques you know coming off as like oh I know more than you do. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: Um  but what I found was what worked for both of us was that um I would like explain it to her before we were in the lab which helped cut down a lot of the frustration that came up if like she had to ask me questions like every  like between like every set. So that's um  that's probably the one way I showed leadership. |Interviewer: Great  okay. Tell me about a time you were working on a team and you faced a challenge and what you did to solve that problem. |Interviewee: Okay so the  a couple um  IPs I worked for a start up um  they were a green billing research directory |Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: online. And I worked for my fellow exterior on helping to market this  the use of this directory to the clients. Um  so we had to  it was a little bit difficult because we had to like  we had to cold call like people and getting over the initial awkwardness of what it's like to talk to somebody you've never met or seen before and trying to like pitch an idea to them  and be like oh there's this really great resource and you've signed up for it. But we've noticed that you like hadn't used it. |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: Um  are there things that like you feel would make it better. Um  things that you would like to see that you think would make it more effective. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: And um  we both had to sort of like teach ourselves how to talk to like the  the reps that we're calling and we would um  strategize what worked  what didn't  what had people respond and what didn't  and-|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: And by like documenting it all down also. So that we could leave like a record of what worked for maybe someone else was to found. So um  eventually we actually got like a system. Like a way we would structure the questions and ask them that word and like list like a couple response. |Interviewer: Great all right. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it. |Interviewee: Okay um  so something so a weakness that I found um  and I'm still like working to try to like overcome it is I tend to be long winded in explaining things. Um  it's hard for me to take something that I'm thinking about and communicating it um  concisely um  the first time around. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: Because I feel like I always leave something out after I finish saying it. So I tend to go back and elaborate. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: And then while I'm thinking about it still I'll like talk more about what's coming to mind. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: Um  it's something that I've been working on by siding it for things like this. |Interviewer: Mm-hm. |Interviewee: And by trying to take up a more prominent role in like the  in like the clubs I'm in and like trying to you know participate more actively in the classes. Um  trying to as much as I can to go to um  lab presentations for my year off and speaking-|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: In front of audiences to try to um  make myself less long winded and more precise. |Interviewer: Alright great and last question. Why do you think we should hire you? |Interviewee: Um  I think that I can bring I don't know like something  different a new perspective to the table especially coming from MIT. Um  having had like a very quantitative background. |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: Um  and given that I've had like extensive experience um  in research um  and my leadership activities on campus  I think that I can bring both the technical skills and um  a way to effectively  hopefully communicate to um  communicate my ideas and bring like a different sort of perspective to your company. And I'm hardworking um  and I always wanna make sure I will do a good job and detail oriented  and um  I just love working with other people on like projects that excite me. So um  that's something that I come from [inaudible] that flatters me is working with people elaborating. And that's um  definitely a skill that I can bring to your company so thank you for your time. |Interviewer: Thank you.
p16,Interviewer: Great  so how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Very good  how are you?|Interviewer: Great  can you tell me a little bit about yourself? |Interviewee: Yea  um so I am junior here at MIT ummm studying economics as well as urban planning and within those departments I am really trying to focus on international development. Ummm and because I am interested in either after school going in to either like public health or umm public policy type areas. But both focusing on international development. Ummm yea  that’s a little bit. I'm from right outside of Philadelphia  ummm and I am the uh  second youngest of 3.  |Interviewer: Great  all right  so can you tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Uh sure  ummm so currently I am actually the co president of an organization here on campus called club med (sp?). And we actually started last year  but last year it was founded by a different person  ummm although I was part of the like founding board  I guess you would say. Ummm and I guess last year  basically what happened was the person who founded it did it for her resume and she wasn't really invested in it. Umm and so basically last year was pretty much a flop  we did  we didn't accomplish much last year. So this year has been trying to start over ummm as well as trying to take what kind of we felt what was wrong last year and really try to fix those pieces. |But also what I really realized from the whole experience is that leadership also needs to recognizes that you are only a leader for a certain amount of time and you really need to be able to kind of set up a situation in which you can set up so someone can transition into your spot.  I mean especially in a like college setting  you are going to be the president for a year or maybe two years  ummm and I think what we really learned I think a lot of the struggle we learned from last year is to set up that sort of structure. Also last year there was some tension within the group  just because we were like what are we doing  like why aren't we doing anything  there wasn't a lot of transparency so really trying to emphasize that this year. And we were  so I keep saying we  because co-presidents  it’s my friend Cheri and I  but we are co-presidents  we have been able to expand the club. Last year we had about 14 members  ummm maybe like 10 or less that were truly committed  so now we are at 30 members. Which is a really really exciting thing.|Interviewer: That's great.|Interviewee: Yea.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time you were working a team and faced a challenge  how did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: umm that is a good question  umm I think  so freshman year ummm I participated in a program here called terescope (sp?). And it’s a program that basically gives freshman a problem to solve. Ummm kind of like a world problem. And so you are just kind of left on your own to solve it. Umm and our problem was solving world hunger. So it is really like a problem that no one has actually solved. |Ummm and what I really learned from  that was a lot about group dynamics I think because it was all freshman led  you had like all these freshman coming from a bunch of schools  where they were the top  they were the ones used to leading everything. |I think one of the main problems we had was maybe not necessarily like figuring out the problem  but like figuring out who - how to best organize ourselves  and how to best kind of - ummm when people should step up and be leaders ummm so what I guess learned from that a lot was trying to not necessary like pinpoint one leader  but more like collaborative working together because what like seemed happened when one person stepped up  they necc - they necessary wouldn't be doing a lot  just kind of be like trying to tell people what to do. |And that wasn’t effective at all. Instead of just like trying to brainstorm  together problem solve together. Like maybe have someone be one person be more like a facilitator and kind of leading the discussion. Instead of telling people what to do. Being like oh this is what you said  and do you want to follow up on that.”  Or like how can we best really tackle that issue. I think what I learned form that what I learned from that  in order to be a leader within a group you need to be asking questions  instead of telling people what to do. Giving people more responsibility and and almost have someone be more like. And giving people more responsibility. Umm and like make them feel like they are taking ownership versus your putting ownership on them. I think that is what the purpose of the class actually is  to teach you how to work in groups  throughout MIT you work in groups pete (sp?) says  so I think I actually learned a lot from that class  just kind of observing how everything was going on.|Interviewer: Great  okay. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Ummm  hmmm  so let's think  so that is a good question. I think sometimes I have trouble working on a project when like  for example when I have too much time right. So umm for example this summer I was working in DC ummm and I felt like when I wasn't given an exact dead line I didn't necessarily like push myself to work to get it done  because it wasn't -- I didn't  have a dead line like I wasn’t sure when I needed it to get done so I was like oh  that’ fine  okay I can do it later. So I think one of my weaknesses I think it is pushing things off unless there is a deadline. So I really have been trying setting internal deadlines for myself. And trying to stick to those deadlines  and I think it is really hard  I think it is really hard when you have a lot of things to do to figure out how to prioritize and actually come through with the deadlines. And I think that is really important skill throughout life. So for example this week I have a lot of things due at the end of the week. So trying to get at least a certain amount done by Tuesday  and kind of like evaluating my progress throughout the week is something I have been trying to work on more. |Interviewer: Great  last question - Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Well  we will pretend this is the (inaudible) institute. I am really interested in studying the intersection on nutrition and health  ummm especially in the kind of evaluating project area. So recently I actually switched to economics  umm I was originally studying biology  but I felt that I could - that there is more to be done in economics in terms of helping people and I really would be excited to learn more about how food security and nutrition intersect. And I would be very committed and willing to work as much as you needed me to. |Interviewer: Great  thank you.
p17,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Doing well. How are you?|Interviewer: Good! Alright  so  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  my name is Stephie. Um  I am a junior here at MIT. Um  and  see  I'm currently studying Computer Science  so  um. I'm a six three  um  and  I'm here hoping to  you know  get in touch  and um  see if there's any opportunity for me over at Google.|Interviewer: Great! [inaudible] So  tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  see... Hm  so last semester  um  I took a class in software constructions.|Interviewer: Great.|Interviewee: So it's six double-o five here. And  um  throughout the semester we had  you know  many individual projects. But  also  two group projects. And  um  something I've noticed very much here at MIT is that people don't like to take initiative and so  um  you know my- we were doing out first group project  and um  you know  my- my partners were pretty cool. But no one seemed to want to arrange a time to meet up and actually get work done.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: So I jumped in  and you know  shot- shot out a few emails. And made it work.|Interviewer: Great. So  tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: [laugh] How about that? Um  let's talk about that second group project in this class.|Interviewer: Great.|Interviewee: Unfortunately  my  um  my group members in this  uh  for this project were not quite as awesome as the one before. Um  and  uh  for some reason  um  there were two guys  and  uh  they- they were overriding my code in the repository. So  um  they've completely disregarded any work I've done even after I'd emailed them and told them hey  you know  there are tools to help resolve conflicts in code-|Interviewer: Mm-hm|Interviewee: -if we're both working on the same thing. And so eventually  I had to go to the TA and to the professor  went spoke to Ann Hunter. And they helped me resolve the situation. So  you know  sometimes you try your best in the situation and you really-- some things are out of your control. But  um  usually people you can go to.|Interviewer: Great. I'm glad that worked out for you.|Interviewee: Thanks.|Interviewer: So  can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: Um  see... I- let's see  I- for the longest time  even when I was small  I've always been pretty quiet. |Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: So  um  and back in elementary school even. Uh  on my progress reports they would- they would just say Stephie is- is this sweet girl [laughs] and then  you know  I'd get a mediocre grade for participation  stuff like that. And so that's been an on going struggle for me  um  throughout my life. But  um  people really aren't as scary as  as sometimes I think they- they seem to be  so. It's been going well.|Interviewer: Okay  good. What have you been doing specifically? |Interviewee: Um  see  uh. Well  I've- I've taken classes with  um  with like  speaking components and presentations. Um  so it's  it's a way to get in- my feet into the water. But  um  it's been a good experience  so.|Interviewer: Great. Okay  last question. Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Hmm  I think that I have a lot to offer. Um  my skill set is  pretty good? Um  you know I've- I've picked up a lot of skills here at MIT and also on my own  um  through research here at MIT.|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: And  you know  I think  I can be a valuable asset to  to...
p20,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Good. How are you?|Interviewer: Good. So  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  so I'm a junior at MIT. I'm majoring in environmental engineering.|Interviewer: Mmhmm|Interviewee: Um  and so I'm taking classes this semester in hydrology  environmental transport. Um  I've done internships previously with environmental restoration companies.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: And I also participated in research last summer.|Interviewer: Career goals?|Interviewee: Um  I'd like to go to Grad school after I graduate in Environmental Enginneering again.|Interviewer: Great. So  tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  so this semester I became President of the Women's Independent Living Group.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: Um  after being House Manager last semester. So I've worked through a lot of problems within the house in trying to kind of get the right atmosphere in the house.|Interviewer: Can you be a little bit more specific?|Interviewee: Um  So as house manager  um  I organized work week at the beginning of this year. So it's a time when - there's about 30 members in the house and everybody gets together and  um  works on the house  paints rooms  like fixes it up before the school year starts. So I organized that  assigned jobs to people and facilitated that.|Interviewer: Okay  great. Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Um  so I'm also on the rowing team.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: And I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for  but I guess  I was in the second boat last year and we were having a lot of problems throughout the season kind of like we would go to a race and we would be okay  but we weren't performing up to our standards. And so it was a big struggle for me to try and figure out how to kind of help turn the attitude around in the boat. Um  and we were finally able to pull it off in our very last race and we won the semi-finals at Patriot League. So I think it's the right mix of like knowing when to speak up say something and knowing what to say.|Interviewer: So the way you change the attitude was by?|Interviewee: Um  kind of by speaking up and letting people know not like putting people down  but letting people know that there was way more potential to be had.|Interviewer: Okay. Great. And can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Um  one of my weaknesses  I tend to be  I guess  a little more withdrawn sometimes. Um  and that's something I've been working on like I've taken leadership in my house and as the rowing team  um  but I think something good about that is I tend to be a very good listener. |Interviewer: Mmhmm|And then I'm starting to learn when to speak up and become more of a like up-front role.|Interviewer: Great. And last question. Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um  I think I'm like extremely responsible.|Interviewer: Mmhmm|Interviewee: Um  I have a lot of experience. And this is something that I think will help further my career goals and something I'm really excited about learning about. And so I'll put a lot of effort into this project.|Interviewer: Great.
p21,Interviewer: So how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Um  pretty good. Um   yeah.|Interviewer: Good. So tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: So  um  my name is Dina Wong. I'm a student at MIT. I'm in my third year. I'm majoring in course six seven which is biological engin-um  biologic-um  Computational Biology. Um It's pretty new so it only like existed my freshman year.|Interviewer: Oh wow|Interviewee: So yeah  so I've been taking a lot of computer science and technology classes. Um in my free time I like to  um  write for the Tech and a be edit  um articles at the  um the student newspaper  for the student newspaper. Um I also like to bake and like um like exercising and running  stuff like that.|Interviewer: Great what are your career goals.|Interviewee: So currently I'm looking for an internship for the summer. Um  I actually um  I'm exploring like the industry side of um like computer science ummm and I think that if I find a position or if I find like the industry side like really suits me that I would want to go for like um being hired by a company after I graduate.|Interviewer: Great. Ok. So tell me about a time you've demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Ok. Soo this I guess this happens quite a bit during a my stint as um campus life editor of the Tech. So a what happens is  um  like um  for my section I have to a make sure that the publication is like going out on time.|Interviewer: mhm|Interviewee: So  um  one time I demonstrated leadership was in getting a um  column for for the campus life section. So there was a um  the precedent of the Pan-Hellenic society um want to have like a column in the Tech for Greek life. And so um  I negotiated with her to like um  sort to arrange how the column would work  because like um  I guess we both had the same like um  intent of how we should like publish articles  but her ideas were slightly different from mine in that she  if your original idea was that she wanted to  I could  it was kind of like advertisement in the Tech and um  people like  like the Tech is a newspaper you don’t like necessarily want articles to be like advertising sororities so we made a deal with her to like um  write articles that would be more about the personal side and not like um to avertisey.|Interviewer: Ok great. So  tell me about a time you were on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Hmm  Ah...Um I guess again probably using um  let me see..ok so I guess again on  for the Tech cause it's like my major leadership my pretty main extracurricular. Um  I guess um  what happened was um  shit  um I really don’t know how to answer these type of questions sorry.|Interviewer: It's ok  take your time.|Interviewee: Um...|Interviewer: It doesn't necessarily be extracurricular either.|Interviewee: Um...Ok I guess I'll go back to high school then. So in high school I was on the cross country team and um  so what happened was we a like we're  we're competing right so we um  so we had to like  um train in groups so on so on team sports and what happened was kind of that the  um so there's a girls team and a boys team and like um the boys team a was  i guess people the boys were like motivated and things like that and like they would um  and the girls team was like less motivated and wha  and so since they were less motivated they would do stuff like if the coach asked you to like run around this block than they would like sort of cut  take short cuts and stuff like that. Um  I guess what happened was my um  there was another student on the team who was also  who was also like really motivated and I wanted to improve running so I think initially I guess we sort of tried asking people like Hey um  could you not do that?  but eventually what happened was I guess we  me and the other more motivated girl trained with the boys team because that was really the only way  like I mean there's  there's motivating people  but in the sense like they have to want to do it themselves so I guess that's what happened.|Interviewer: Ok.  Great. So can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: OK  Um  I would  let me think. One of my  I guess one weakness I have is um  well MIT is full of smart people right. Um  if everybody is like always doing like these amazing products and projects and I mean like coding since they were like nine years old and stuff  so because of the like abundance of geniuses I sometimes I feel like I'm not as at their level. So um  I guess what I try  what I try to do is like I  I was  feeling badly  but then I realized. Well first of all I guess everybody has to start somewhere. I've been like training my own skills like  reach up to the  to learn more in depth and eventually I'll get that good  just takes like practice and I've also been like just sort of telling myself that it's  to like just apply to things and like don’t  and I guess sort of fake it till you make it right. So make like um  project the image of like confidence and then it will probably come.|Interviewer: Great. And last question. Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Well um  so I've been learning a lot about um  computer science since I was here. I've um  I am a pretty reliable person so like for example during the Tech I always like am reliably like editing everything  getting thing in time  on deadline. Though if you gave me an assignment then I would reliably like a work on it and um and I  and not procrastinate or anything like that. Um I'm pretty good at learning as demonstrated by my ability to succeed at MIT and um I also um  I would a really enjoy working and contributing to the Google community as a person and a I hope that a  I would be able to produce um  good products.|Interviewer: Great
p22,Interviewer: Ready? So how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good. How are you?|Interviewer: Good. So  tell me about yourself. |Interviewee: OK. Um  I'm a junior in aerospace engineering  um  I'm originally from Kansas City  um  and I was born on the East Coast. I'm currently deciding whether or not I want to go into aerospace industry or go into consulting or another aviation-related field. I'm minoring in management. |Interviewer: Great. [pause] So  can you tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership? |Interviewee: Uh  so  right now I'm actually quite involved with the Global Poverty Initiative here at MIT  and I'm currently the director of ACTION under GPI  Global Poverty Initiative  so I'm currently in charge of the projects we are involved with abroad  so that includes projects in Mexico  service projects in Central Mexico...|Interviewer: Um-hmm.|Interviewee: ...as well as a project with a domestic..an NGO in India that works with domestic workers in setting up domestic workers with local employers  and training women  and working with employer-employee relationships. Um  most of my work has been on the Mexico project  and I led a team -- I actually have traveled down three times -- and we have a greenhouse initiative that is our main goal right now  and I oversaw a team of four people on two separate trips where we built fourteen greenhouses as well as conducted classes at the secondary school as well as classes for adults in both computers and English.|Uh  and we worked with NGOs on the ground  um  and they've actually managed to continue our projects since we've been gone  uh  as well as working with the Peace Corps  and  uh  they've actually recently decided to send a full-time Peace Corps volunteer to the rural community where we were working  so...|Interviewer: Great.|Interviewee: ...that was really validating.|Interviewer: Good. OK. So  tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem? |Interviewee: Um  well  most of the challenges that I've faced with a team have been with my projects in Mexico. |Interviewer: OK.|Interviewee: Um  so  probably the largest challenge that we had when we got there was working across cultures and identifying with community members  because when we went there  we had originally thought -- we had brainstormed project ideas like solar ovens and greenhouses and bio-digesters  which are used to make fertilizer from natural waste -- and when we got there  we talked to lots of community members. First of all  they can be rather skeptical of outsides coming in  so we first had to earn their trust  and we had to establish that we weren't going to  um  just come in and give them something and leave. This wasn't going to be a hand-out. |So it was interesting being the leader within my group and trying to help those who had not had the same experiences with other cultures and working with people across borders  so helping those people adjust as well as working that relationship between  you know  rural Mexicans who have limited experience with outsiders and are used to either government hand-outs or people coming in and doing one thing and leaving  and not following up. |So that's was a challenge  but in the end  we ended up using community feedback to determine which project we wanted to do. So  they were most interested in greenhouses as well as some [?] small business  so we ended up catering to both of those project ideas. The way that we decided to work around the not wanting to seem like we were giving a hand-out  we actually had all the families build their own greenhouses with our help. |So we distributed all the materials and then had them pay small deposits so they would have some small investment into the project. Obviously they couldn't afford to pay for the whole thing. Um  then we worked with each individual family  and they built it and made it their own  and so they had a bigger incentive to take care of it. |Interviewer: Great. OK. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it? |Interviewee: Yeah. Sometimes I can be disorganized. I mean  I think everyone struggles with that a little bit  but the way I try to deal with that...recently I've taken to becoming a list person. [laughs] In order for me to ensure that I get things done -- I always get things done  but  you know  when you leave things for the last minute  sometimes the quality of your work is not always the best. |So  to deal with this  I've tried to break down all the problems and break down my tasks into small steps  make lists  and then set separate deadlines for each individual thing  knowing that if I have things that come up and everything is all due at the same time  everything needs to be done at once  I can handle that. |And also I've learned that it's important to delegate your tasks  especially with GPI. Being director of ACTION  a lot of responsibility falls on me and it can be very easy to be  like  Oh  yeah  I need to take care of this and talk to these people  but that's why I have a team. There are 20 people on GPI ACTION  so in order to delegate those tasks  it makes my life easier and keeps those other people involved. |Interviewer: Great. OK. Last question: Why do you think we should hire you? |Interviewee: I think I have a diverse skill set  and I have very diverse background working with other cultures  not only in Mexico  but I've had experiences in Europe and in China. I'm bi-racial myself  and I think I have a very unique background  and especially as an engineer who's interested in going into consulting  and I have work experience at Space-X and NASA and  um  other companies. |I think I offer very unique perspective into what your company culture would be. And I think that's very important  in not having everyone have the same background and everyone in your community...you need different perspectives  and I think I would definitely help fill that. |Interviewer: Great.
p24,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm doing very well. How are you?|Interviewer: Good. So  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: I'm currently a junior at MIT. I'm studying biology. Ummm I am interested in pursuing some sort of a future in medicine  but I don't know if necessarily like the medschool route or more the research side  but you know having to do with patient care and drugs and things like that. So  within the broader field but I'm not sure specifically what path yet. |Interviewer: Okay  great. So  tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Umm  okay. So umm the summer after my sophomore year of high school I actually went on a leadership trip. Um so it was through uh my summer camp and some other camps are a part of the same foundation and we actually went on a trip to Israel for the summer. |Interviewer: Wow  okay.|Interviewee: And it was the first time I'd ever been  which was very exciting um. And it was a very cool experience 'cause not only were they teaching a lot of leadership skills  but also a lot of you know the daily activities we did like going for really long hikes and things just kind of brought out that innate like  'someone has to make sure everyone brought enough water.'|Interviewer: Right  right right right right right.|Interviewee: And  you know  make sure the group's staying together and things like that  um. So that was definitely something that I think impacted me a lot.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And I think  you know  in other leadership roles  you know  even in a small group project or something. A lot of the time I find myself reflecting back to that trip and kind of saying  'Okay  we were in a tough spot like that before.'|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: 'How did we kinda rally the group back together?'. Something like that.|Interviewer: Great  okay. And can you tell me about a time when you were working on a team and faced a challenge? What did you do to solve that problem?|Interviewee: Umm  sure. So  a time when I was working on a team. So I think  um  this situation arises a lot of times in lab. |Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: So I was  um  this past summer I was back in Israel and working in a lab at the Hebrew University.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Um  and it was a pretty small lab. I was working um for one of the post-ocs and then there are about four other people in the lab. And so things like that kind of came up all the time where it would be a matter of  'Okay  we don't have the exact materials that we needed to do the experiment. Can I borrow this from this lab?' |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: 'Can someone check down the hall  if maybe they have this?' |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And just kind of that group mentality of making sure everyone was getting their experiments done. Um and then it was also interesting 'cause there were a lot of language barriers that were going on in lab.|Interviewer: Oh  okay.|Interviewee: Um 'cause there were some Israelis that were working there.|Interviewer: Mhmm. |Interviewee: And then one of the PhD students was from Russia  and then two of the post-ocs were from India. Um and so the common language among them was English  but in sort of a broken-down manner in different ways.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So that was kind of interesting also coming in and sort of having to step into that role of almost like translating English to English for people|Interviewer: Right  right right.|Interviewee: And checking emails and making sure they made sense  and things like that.|Interviewer: Okay. Right. So  can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Sure. Uh  I think sometimes I tend to be a little bit on the shy side. Especially um like if I'm the person coming into a new group or a new experience. And I think I just kind of have to remind myself like  there's a reason why I'm here.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And I can add something to the experience  even if it's not in a major sort of leadership necessarily role. Like for example  the lab last summer  I was the only undergraduate working there. And so that kind of brought out that shyer side.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: 'Cause I walked in and  you know  everyone had already been working there and they were all much older and much more established in their fields. Um  so just kind of keep  keeping up the reminders that like  'I'm here to get something out of this experience and hopefully I can help out the lab  while at the same time realizing that  you know  I'm not necessarily going to come up with a big breakthrough today. And that's okay.' |Interviewer: Mhmm  mhmm.|Interviewee: 'And  you know  I still need to feel comfortable here; I need to add what I can  and then the rest will fall into place when it does.' And I think just  you know  keeping those reminders coming that I don't have to be like the person solving the problem right away has kind of helped me to take a step back  relax; see what I  what I can add to the table without freaking out that it's not enough.|Interviewer: Okay  great. And  last question: Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um  I think for me where I'm  where I am at this point  where I'm deciding between sort of going the medical school route or the research route;|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: The more time I spend in a hospital setting I think definitely will enable me to kind of make those distinctions between if it's the one-on-one patient care that I care more about  or if it's the sort of overarching like how are these people being cured more from a scientific standpoint?|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Um  and I think just sort of that open-mindedness towards both sides will help out the hospital a lot. Because you know it's always good to have people that are interacting between the pure doctors and the pure scientist level.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: And someone that has interest in both areas and can kind of mediate and interact between those two.|Interviewer: Great  okay.
p25,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Um. I'm good. How are you?|Interviewer: I'm doing well. So  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um. I'm a core 16 here at MIT  which is aeronautical and astronautical engineering. Um. I'm a junior. Um. And my experience has been last summer I worked with NASA Glenn Research Center doing  ah  interplanetary rover work. Um. I was. |Um doing design work with Jeff Landis as my mentor. Um. So  ah  yeah I had a really good time working on that project. Um. Doing a lot of (inaudible) coding. Making a lot of design decisions. Um. As well as ah separately working on a project with just my fellow interns where we  um  where we built a autonomous navigation system for a Dropsonde. Um which is a meteorological measuring device. Um but we didn't worry about the Dropsonde itself  we were just concerned with building a navigation system.|Interviewer: Mm hmm.|Interviewee: Um. So  that it could be recovered by  um  the people who are using it. Um  and I personally worked on the steerable para-foil parachute for that.|Interviewer: Great. Alright. So can you tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Um. Yes. I can. Um. When we were working on the Dropsonde project which I mentioned before  um  there was um  some question about whether we were gonna be able to get a good drop site for it. Um  because in order to test how the navigation system worked we had to have the thing flying for a significant period of time. Um. So  it was fairly...it takes um  not very long for most things to fall from reasonable height. So we had to find a really good drop location.|Interviewer: Mm hmm.|Interviewee: Um. And we were having a lot of trouble with that. And  um  we...we were pursuing some options with working with NASA  um  but it didn't look like they were gonna work out. And I took the initiative  um  and I went and I contact the owner of this airport where we had been skydiving there previously there in the summer. Um. |So we'd like spoken the owner there before  but not like  not about anything official. We just said hi  we've skydived at your airport. Um. But  I called him  talked to him about it  um  and got actually um  a plane and a free flight for our time to go and be able to drop our (inaudible) um project  which was pretty significant for the success of the project.|Interviewer: Great. And tell me about a time you were working on a team and face a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Well I guess I should probably pick a different time that I was working on a team. Um. So  um  when..for the Venus rover  which was the other project that I worked on last summer. Um  we had  um  we basically started just with with nothing. Um  because  um  this  this idea's really like in early design phases. It's not like..there's no Venus rover being built by any team. It's just people like sitting down working equations figuring out what would be feasible for a Venus rover. |Um  so there's a flexibility there. Lot of room to sort of um figure out what we thought would work out best. And initially there is  um  there are two basically competing ideas. Um  there was the idea of using  ahh  wind turbine  um  to power the rover. Verses having actually be a land sailer. Um. And  I mean there was no clear answer regarding which one of those was better. |The wind turbine had some advantage in that it would be able to sit and charge  what would the term...the....it would be able to sit still and um  accumulate power as the wind blew on it so it wouldn't have to be moving constantly. Um  where is the land sailer would have to have some threshold level of wind to move to work (inaudible) friction. |It didn't have that then it wouldn't be able to do anything useful. Um  so in that way the turbine seemed a little bit less risky  but a turbine also has more moving parts. Um  and it would require a little bit more on the electronics side and that's riskier as well. Um  so it was...um  so yeah  it was not a clear decision. |Um  and  basically the team was split between wanting to do the turbine wanting to do the land sailer. Um  so  what we ended up doing was  um  we...I was pro turbine so I ended up doing an analysis of the wind turbine. Um  and my fellow intern was pro land sailer. Did a analysis of the land sailer. Um  neither of us did anything super in depth. But we just did  the um a basic analysis and then we compared our numbers. |We looked through each others processes. Um made sure that we were sort of working from the same assumptions. Um  which we were  I mean cause I mean we both like did an honest job with it. Um  and then we just went based on the math. Which one seemed like it was gonna work out better. Um  so it ended up being non confrontational.|Interviewer: Good. And which ended up working better?|Interviewee: The turbine did. Which I was happy about.|Interviewer: OK. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Um. Yeah. I am not extremely well organized. Um  so  ahh  yeah. My ...my work tends to be a little bit of a mess and I have trouble meeting deadlines. Um. But I ...um  overcome it just by recognizing something that....recognizing that something that will happen to be where my work will become sloppy and I will miss deadlines if I don't really pay attention to it. Um  so  I do writing down deadlines keeping a Google calendar. Um. Trying to keep myself on top of things.|Interviewer: And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um. I think you should hire me because  um  I am intelligent and hard working. Um  and I think...I think my grades at MIT really prove that I am intelligent and hard working. Um  and  I think that  as well as that I also have the experience that you would want at JPO. Working on interplanetary rovers  I've done that before. Also worked on teams um  to try to accomplish goals. Um  so I think that really I am a pretty well qualified applicant for this position.|Interviewer: Great.
p27,Interviewer: How are you doing?|Interviewee: I'm doing well thank you.|Interviewer: Good. Can you tell me about yourself?|Interviewee: Um  I'm currently a junior studying chemistry in biology  at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I'm primarily interested in biochemistry research  pacifically  how small molecules interact with the body  um  and produce physiological effects. |Interviewer: MmmHmm.|Interviewee: I've done research as an undergraduate  um  in the lab that's chemistry and biological  um  engineering. So I've been able to work at a chemical  biology interface.|Interviewer: Great. Okay  so tell me about a time you've demonstrated leadership. |Interviewee: I've demonstrated leadership through my role in dorm's house government.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: I've been dieting chair and environmental chair for almost two years. Um  so through that I've been able to work with others  and um  work with the  like  other members of house government as well as the administration. Um  and bring  um  concerns from residents to the administration  and represent them.    |Interviewer: Okay. Tell me about a time where you were on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: I've um  been able to work on teams  um  during my undergraduate classes  we  um  in our laboratory classes in the chemistry department we generally work  um  in small groups of two or three. So there's definitely been challenges in those situations where  for example  team member accidentally does something wrong  like  cost us a lot of product  or makes our experiment go wrong  and I found it helpful to kind of  be like  able to put  you know  aside my annoying side when someone's done in the moment  and figure how to move forward.|Interviewer: Mmmhmm.|Interviewee: Um  as opposed to just being frustrated with the fact where we are currently  try to see how to go forward with that. |     |Interviewer: Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to overcome it?  |Interviewee: I would say my weakness is actually leadership experience  because I haven't had a lot of it. Um  I also haven't had much experience working in a team environment  but I have been seeking out opportunities to improve this  um  looking for even more of a role in house government this year  um  and actually running for house president. How soon to try to get a leadership position. So I'm trying to more experience in those areas.|Interviewer: Great. Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think you should hire me because I bring experience from  um  from my education at M.I.T.  which has really prepared me for a rigorous work environment  to work hard and be able to solve problems  and I've demonstrated this to my work at other internships and my research that I've already done. |Interviewer: Good.
p29,Interviewer: Um how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Good thanks.|Interviewer: tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um I'm a junior at MIT. Um I'm majoring in biological engineering. I play for the women's varsity volleyball team at MIT. Um and also then also fairly involved with my sorority at MIT alpha phi. I'm the vice president of the chapter of operations so I'm pretty involved with the house maintenance and things like that.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me how you've demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um I think my most active role in leadership would be within my sorority um it's my job to make sure that everything is operating smoothly so thats includes coordinating with our chef like meals that are working  that all our facilities including our washers and driers and everything are up and running. We've had like issues with refrigerators. Um like last year when the power went off there was a lot of issues with that  that we had to kind of adjust so I think I being being able to maintain calm and like make sure everything was dealt with a timely and efficient manner.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time when working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Um so the obvious team choice would be my volleyball team.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: Um and we actually get along pretty well so there's not too many conflicts. But I think this is silly as it sounds. One of the things is what we eat after meals or after games. Um and so I think it's kind of nice sometimes I'll just speak with one or two players r come to a consensus before we really discuss with the team what we are doing after games. And so that way I kind of get a feel like amongst the 3 or 4 of us like what the team would like be most receptive to something like that and so then we come to some kind of consensus this is what we're gonna do instead of opening it up to the entire team. Like what would you like to do after the game? And getting you know 16 different opinions and having to deal with that. I'm getting like of small set of like you know options and we have people with dietary restrictions and things like that. So uh I think that way it's just being able to get a couple of different opinions  come to a conclusion before um making a decision. That's been pretty successful.|Interviewer: Great. And tell me about one of your weaknesses and what you're trying to do to overcome it.|Interviewee: one of my weaknesses might be um maybe voicing my opinion all the time. Sometimes if I'm in a group with a lot of like loud personalities I might have um an opinion on a matter but not always want to voice it in the most. I won't um word my feelings in the best way or be able to convey exactly my emotions um so I think working to do that and I think just through getting more leadership exposure and really pushing myself to get out there has been helping me overcome that. I think that from freshman to now junior year that it definitely by taking more leadership roles on I've been able to become more vocal person to kind of like express my concerns.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think you should hire me because I think I have a lot of uh technical or skills both um like bases off of my academic performance s. I would have good but also more I feel like I work well with others. I'm able to take initiative and if there's ever some sort of concern I've never had a pro with people coming to me to discuss it. Um I think I'm good at recognizing problems early before they get too uh become a good a big problem. Um and kind of address them in a very professional manner and fix it um the problem can go over smoothly.
p3,Interviewer: So  uhh  how are you doing?|Interviewee: Good. You?|Interviewer: I’m well. Thanks for coming.|Interviewee: Yeah  sorry  I was- think I was late. I totally  like  messed up. I thought we were at the media lab. But . . .|Interviewer: It’s ok. So please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Ahh  hmm. So  uhh  I would- would say that the job I’m interviewing for  let’s stay down here. So  yeay   I’m Chase  and I guess  um  I don’t know. I really enjoy computers and outdoors  that’s -that’s generally what I give people. Um  so in both of these  um  in computers mainly  uhh  at MIT I think some of my favorite classes have actually been graphics . . .|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . and computational photography as well. So it’s actually been really interesting to me getting into harder problems. |Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Um  like really deep programming like C  I’m actually getting more interested in. Whereas before when I came to MIT I had no idea about this stuff and I just did a lot of web-development.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  otherwise I just . . . I really just enjoy working on random projects. Going to Aca-thons [SP?] a lot and hanging out with people. Umm  yeah. Just building cool things. Uhh  otherwise  uhh  my main thing I do afterwards is ultimate Frisbee  which I really enjoy.|Interviewer: OK  cool. Uhh  so  uhh  tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Uhh  actually that would probably be . . . I would actually put this on Frisbee.|Interviewer: [laughs]|Interviewee: Uhh  so I started the Frisbee club in my high school  um  my junior year. |Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: And  umm  basically it was just a bunch of my friends. We used to play around a lot  and we said  “Hey  why don’t we just make this a team?” It was about 15 or 20 of us.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  so I became captain and what that entailed was getting people to practices every day or maybe three times a week  depending on  like  how people’s schedules were.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: But it was definitely tricky because  I mean  we had to get  you know  at least 15 people out on the field to be able to actually play a game  because you need 7 on each side.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  so  uhh  getting all this organized like everyday was umm  definitely like pretty hard to do. And I had to get people passionate enough to be wanting to play every time that we needed to play. Umm  and by the end  uhh  we went to a tournament in Texas . . .|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . .which is where I’m from. Umm  and we got 5th my junior year and 3rd my senior year which is great without a coach or anything.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  just a lot of playing around with my friends yeah.|Interviewer: So tell me about a time you were on a team and were faced with a challenge. How did you overcome it?|Interviewee: Uhh  hmm  OK. So let’s- let’s go with robotics. That was one of the classes I was in  uhh  last semester. So  umm  basically  uhh  the first half of the class was just learning in general about robots.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: And figuring out  umm  you know  just like all the electronics first of all and then actually the computer sense behind it  doing vision and such. Umm  so finally at the very end of the  umm  uhh  class we had to make our own robots.|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: And so what I did there  umm  basically  uhh we had a few meetings to figure out what type of robot we would be building and stuff. Umm  and I guess  uhh  what I wanted to do was  umm  basically go ahead with everything we’d already done. Uhh  and just push forward with that and just finish off basically. And what my team members wanted to do was actually redo everything and start from the very bottom.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  so what we ended up doing  I actually took their side  umm  and it worked out very well. Umm  we had  uhh  quite a few tricky problems involved like  umm  uhh  one really cool thing we worked on was figuring out exactly  umm  how the robot can see the world . . .|Interviewer: Huh.|Interviewee: . . . and what we had with this  we had a tile floor that we kind of cheated with. We had a tile floor and then walls . . .|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . everywhere. Umm  so what we were able to do is say  “Let’s just color the tile floor and wherever the coloring stops.”|Interviewer: Huh.|Interviewee: “So let’s look at all the light in the picture and whenever we don’t see any white  that’s actually the bottom of the wall.”|Interviewer: Ahh.|Interviewee: Umm  yeah. So then we basically took all these points that existed  that represented roughly the bottom of the wall  and then basically ran that through an algorhythm that created it  uhh  turned it into a line. Umm  so yeah. That was- that was kind of what it was and it worked really well. In the end we actually had this vision turned on which is really tricky and . . .|Interviewer: Ohh.|Interviewee: I think the first time they’d actually had  umm  some- something like this instead of just looking for balls and doing path planning. Umm  actually local- relocalization in the world.|Interviewer: Ahh. |Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: So tell me about one of your weaknesses and how do you plan to overcome it?|Interviewee: OK  uhh  hmm. One of my weaknesses? Umm  I would go with  umm  . . . umm . . .Yeah I should’ve had a better answer for this question . . .umm  I guess . . . I don’t know if I can plan to overcome it. [laughing] I don’t know.|Interviewer: You can pick anything.|Interviewee: I- I- I’d actually say  umm  I- I wish I was a lot better in working- in working in teams. |Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  so  I actually really enjoy working in teams in general and that’s  umm  actually been one of my biggest focuses at MIT because I just know everyone is like really great at everything. Umm  but being able to  umm  basically inspire people to do stuff that I think is a good idea. |Interviewer: Hmm. Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Uhh  I have found that I’m not the best at basically.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  uhh  I mean just like  just- just various aspects of just everything. You know  like working in this social club where we just throw offense in general for students and you know  I’ve got like various ideas that I need to get across to people but sometimes people don’t agree with me and . . .|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: . . . I either have to be persuasive or something or come up with better ideas.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  so  I guess- I guess my plan to overcome this  uhh  so far has basically just been a lot of practice . . .|Interviewer: Uhh.|Interviewee: . . . and just doing more  uhh  basically again  like I’ve been doing a lot of teamwork in general. |Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: I do really enjoy it. So I think it just comes with practice and being very conscious about how other people do stuff very well and inspire me  umm  so hopefully I can inspire others.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm. Now why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Umm  [laughs] uhh  I guess because  umm  I- I would probably say the one word comes down to passion.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  I- whatever I’m doing  I make sure  umm  to do it with everything that I have and I’m- I’m basically always thinking about the problems that I’m working on. Umm I- I- I generally have like a pretty small scope of problems as well  that I always try to narrow it down. I’m not- I can’t take so many problems at the same time and try and solve all of them. If I’m reading a book  I’m only reading like one or two books.|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: Umm  but with this  umm  I don’t know I- I- I’ve found it so far to be really helpful. Umm  I think my passion generally overflows to other people. Umm  I- I think I’m frequently jumping around  uhh  when I’m doing stuff . . .|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: . . . and like explaining stuff and like listening to people. Umm  so I think I- I- I bring kind of some liveliness to places and also with this passion goes- I’m always looking at new stuff  learning new stuff and- and teaching people about it  umm  and you know just enjoy making stuff.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmm. Well thank you. ‘Preciate your interviewing with us today.
p30,Interviewer: So how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Pretty well.|Interviewer: Good!|Interviewee: How are you?|Interviewer: Good. Um  tell me about yourself?|Interviewee: Um  I'm Nikki. I'm a course 6 major at MIT this year. I live at east campus. Um  what do you want to know?|Interviewer: Oh  great!|Interviewee: I'm from Minnesota...|Interviewer: Tell me about how a time you've demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Um...um. I was in APO. I was the fellowship vice president for a time.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: I was responsible for organizing the [xx?]... basically it's limited to three sections.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: Friendship  leadership and service. It was on my [xx?] organizing the events that...helped to foster friendship among the brothers.|Interviewer: Great. Okay. So tell about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge? How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: So we had this project a few weeks ago...|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: It was a [xx?] of [xx?] and one of our group-mates did the whole thing.|Interviewer: Oh  wow!|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: Okay  so...|Interviewee: Um. So we...the other two of us we talked among ourselves to figure out what like had happened exactly  because both of us are just kind of [xx?] really quickly.|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: And then arranged a meeting with the TA [xx?]  to see if we could work out a solution and at the end it worked out okay. It wasn't the best  obviously  because we hadn't gotten to do the work.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Resolved it.|Interviewer: Good.|Interviewee: I haven't had this kind of interview in forever....I'm going to ask you to code.|Interviewer: Um  can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're trying to do to overcome it?|Interviewee: I'm really quiet.|Interviewer: Oh  okay.|Interviewee: I just speak really quietly and it's because in my head it sounds louder than I guess it is.|Interviewer: Oh  okay.|Interviewee: I work on it. I try to project and all that. I ask people to tell me if I'm being too quiet  cause I can't [xx?]. It's a real problem though.|Interviewer: Okay  and last question. Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: For what? Uhm  because I learn really quickly.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: Um. I bring a very positive attitude to the job and I like to have fun with what I do.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And I work hard at it and I don't what to let people down [xx?].
p31,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Good.|Interviewer: Good. Ready?|Interviewee: Yep.|Interviewer: So  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Uh  well I'm a Junior. I'm an MIT student. Um  I'm majoring in both Math and Computer Science. Uh what sort of skills and interests are you looking to find out about?|Interviewer: Oh just like a general idea of what your interests are and like you know what kind of goals you're looking for in terms of the future.|Interviewee: Cool  well I'm really interested in distributed systems actually and that's more of a research interest and the sort of application that it generally tends to have when I look at companies is parallel computing. Um  I actually did an internship last summer with Amazon and uh for them I ended up doing a lot of parallel computing with the hoodoo platform. I'm also taking 6172 which is a performance engineering class and we do a lot of parallelism in C++.|Interviewer: Great! So tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Well  uh  this was in high school but in high school I was the  uh  president of our robotics team as well as the  uh  in the earlier years the head of  respectively the  the  uh mechanical engineering team and our mechanical arm team. Uh  and you know that was a good leadership experience uh  I've also been in  uh  in 6172 we have group projects - they're only two people - but um  in some of the projects I've been the person doing a lot of the organizing. Uh  yeah  um.|Interviewer: Okay. So tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Are you more interested in a technical challenge or like in a working with people challenge? |Interviewer: I mean any situation where you're working with people and there is an issue.|Interviewee: Okay. Well  um  in my 6172 class I'm taking right now I was working with Jason. He is a friend of mine and we were both working on the first project and we were trying to improve our speed in order to get up to the benchmark for like good fastness um  of improvement. And we had to prioritize different choices in terms of what might actually speed up our code by approximately five hundredfold. Yeah  it was pretty intense. And we as such like had to sort of try and paralyze the work and you know it was pretty hard because the code - like  merging two code documents is never fun and there was really only one document we were working on. What ended up happening is that I spent most of the time uh driving which is to say coding  him watching - verifying my algorithm. It was stressful because it was getting close to the deadline and if we didn't finish this optimization we'd have to turn in an old version which was only ten times faster as opposed to five hundred times faster. We ended up getting it not five hundred times faster  but one hundred times faster. I was quite pleased. Working with him was sort of both working on the strategies of how to fix the technical problem as fast as possible given that we had two peoples' worth of manhours but only n actual hours. Um  and thinking about solutions to that technical problem was interesting.|Interviewer: Okay  great. Can you tell me about one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Uh  I  when I get stressed tend to get a little snippy with people I'm working with. I think it is not uncommon. Um  but definitely when I'm - especially when I'm tired it's like 4 AM in the morning and I'm working with people. When they're trying to explain something to me or I'm trying to explain something to them there's like inherent overhead and that can be very frustrating. It causes me to like  be short with people when like they're trying to explain things to me or I'm explaining things to them. And it's something I'm working on because it doesn't actually make communication more effective  it just makes everyone unhappy. Um. One of - so - there's a couple things one is that like I have to stay up late working on things so I inevitably get practice working at not being snippy. Um  but also like having recognized that this is something that I do  something that is not effective for communication  uh  I have been trying to pay attention to  um  you know  my tone of voice  my friendliness and I've been trying to take the approach that when I do have to try to communicate in these situations  to like  optimize by minimizing the communication needed and being expressively relaxed during the periods of communication. Because even if I need to be like  working hard and stressing out about the work  the communication portion doesn't need to take up much time. And so if it takes like twice as long  it doesn't matter  because that's not the time you need to optimize.|Interviewer: Great! Last question - why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think you should hire me because I'm technically qualified  I get along well with people  I am interested in these fields. Like  I'm excited about Computer Science it's like what I want to do. It's a large part of who I am - the Math and Computer Science part of me. And as a result  I'm going to enjoy work  and enjoy working with people. Um  also the people I spend my time with outside of work will tend to be very similar kinds of people to the kinds of people I'll be interacting with at work. And so  it tends to work out pretty well. In my previous internship with Amazon my team liked me a lot because I'm pretty laid back and enjoy joking around with people. Bake food  you know. So I  yeah  you know I will solve your technical problems and I will get along with the team.|Interviewer: Great!
p32,Ready.|Interviewer: Ready.  So how are you doing today?|Interviewee:  Good  how are you?|Interviewer:  Good.  Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee:  So I’m a junior in chemical engineering.  Im very interested in energy application so um from alternative energy to more traditional sources so basically oil fossil fuels.  Um and kind of optimizing that industry I think theres a lot of potential there so that’s that’s where my main interest is.|Interviewer:  great.  and can you tell me a time you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee:  yeah.  Um so im uh vice president of corporalations (sp) for the society of woman engineers.  And um we just held in September a career fair banquet.  So we had a dinner for about 200 people following the career fair.  Um and its it’s a huge event to organize in the sense that students need to be matched up with companies that suit their interest for dinner.  |Interviewer:  mmhmm|Interviewee:  so the goal is just to have kind of a relaxed networking event after you know the hecticness of the carrerr fair.|Interviewer:  uh huh|Interviewee:  and and to just give people a chance to talk.  Um and so so I was working with a committee of six people and which I was the leader of and um I think one thing that I I really did to make sure that the event went smoothly was delegate tasks very early on.  Um so one of the one of things that happened in the previous years when I was one of the team and not leading the|Interviewer:  uh huh|Interviewee:  team was it became very disorganized because we didn’t know what the other tasks were what the other people were doing.|Interviewer:  Mmm.|Interviewee:  and in the end we ended up having to work throughout the event to keep things running smoothly and I wanted the team members to be able to sit down and have dinner as well.|Interviewer:  right|Interviewee: so in the end it ended up running very well  um  and um kind of we all got to have dinner to so that was awesome.|Interviewer:  great.  Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge.  How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: um  so one of our senior design or not our senior but one of our design classes within chemical engineering|Interviewer:  uh huh|Interviewee:  um asks us to design uh chemical plant in one of the uh software programs we use. um  and so it’s a very big project|Interviewer:  uh huh|Interviewee:  but its very modular.  So you can have somebody working on distillation columns and somebody working on the (sp) separator. Um and so one of the challenges um within that um is making sure that everyone is keeping up with their um their part of the project.|Interviewer:  right|Interviewee:  and so one challenge that I faced with that project was making sure that one particular person was thou rally involved because um its a lot of work today and we cant really afford to have any anyone kind of  slacking off|Interviewer:  mmhmm|Interviewee: um so kind of to addrses that problem I sat down with him  had a conversation with him about it  you know we are all feeling kind of the strain of this project  the deadline is coming.  Um but um you know we cant have anyone sitting on the sidelines so what is it that you want to get more involved in or where do you think your skills are?  And it turned out that um he wasn’t very um he wasn’t very comfortable writing the code in the program.  |Interviewer:  Mmm|Interviewee:  So he didn’t want to write bunky code and just have somebody else try to fix his work all the time but he was very tight with the teaching assistants and so he could funnel our questions through them and getr us some good answers um back from them so that we could keep going through the project so through that conversation we found a way for him to contribute|Interviewer:  Great.  Tell me about one of your weakness and what you are doing to overcome it?|Interviewee:  I think  um kind of within my personality|Interviewer:  Uh huh|Interviewee:  I hacve a lot of a lot of go go go and uh and  a lot of times I don’t um  realize that waiting is the best option you know just letting certain events take their course um may in fact be the best option.  Um so kind of to give you a good example of this is um when I was trying to decide which internships um or which internship offerse to accept I kind of was very anxious to kind of pick one and go with it um and kinf of get started in meeting people |Interviewer:  Mmhmm |Interviewee:  In that company and figuring ouit what I wanted to do and um I think in that circumstance it would have been better after I had accepted an offer I I got other offers that I of course couldn’t consider because I was already tied to one particular offer and in that circumstance it would have been better to wait to see how things panned out|Interviewer:  Uh huh |Interviewee:  And to just communicate with other people saying that you know I really do think that pushing the deadline is the best|Interviewer:  Uh huh |Interviewee:  Option in this circumstance.  So kind of this year now I definitely waited for everything to pan out before making a decision.  Um and it has worked out really well actually . I I was very tempted to give a response to one of the offers I received|Interviewer:  Uh huh|Interviewee: But over this last weekend I actually went to a conference um and it changed my mind.  Both companies that I was deciding between was at the conference|Interviewer:  Uh huh |Interviewee:  And talking to the representatives really helped me.  So im glad that I waited to you know hit the buttons|Interviewer:  -great.  And last question.  Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee:  -I think that I have a uh ability to contribute really well to the group so not just bringing the knowledge um or the skills that are|Interviewer:  Uh huh|Interviewee:  In your job description   but also kind of the enthusiasms. T he willingness to contribute my ideas to the|Interviewee:  Uh huh|Interviewee:  Discussion and um really emerge myself in whats going on would make me a stellar candidate I think|Interviewer:  great
p33,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today? |Interviewee: I'm  uh  pretty good. The weather's nice  uh  outside. |Interviewer: Oh yeah  the weather's great. Um. Talk about yourself.|Interviewee: Okay  so I'm a Junior.|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: I'm a Junior at IT. Going to graduate  uh  a semester early  actually. |Interviewer: Oh wow.|Interviewee: So I'm going to be graduating next fall.|Interviewer: Oh.|Interviewee: Um. Because uh...I  I've been doing my  my work pretty quickly I guess so I|Interviewer: Mmhmm. |Interviewee: So uh I can graduate early  that's a good thing. Um I'm interested in going into nutrition in the long run. Uh  whether it be through medical school or  you know  even  a certification.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: Whatever  but I uh in the meantime  I want to get into Life Sciences consulting. And I want to um explore the field and and and uh yeah...do it as as soon as I can  pretty  much  as long as I can. In the field. Um being successful. Uh  and getting somewhere. Uh. So. Uh  yeah. |Interviewer: Great! So tell me about how you have demonstrated leadership. |Interviewee: Okay  so I am President of the Endometrius Society  and last year we organized a networking event so uh that  that comprised of not only students but also  like  working professionals in the Boston area  so basically I got in touch with and invited every single Armenian that I knew  in the Boston area  and it ended up being a hundred plus event that we actually coordinated in one of the dorms here in Bexley hall  so it was also a lot of logistical um  you know  like  practice  getting over uh  getting around the rules and stuff with capacity and everything and whether or not to serve alcohol and all that stuff. So uh that that was a very big event and uh it was very successfully because people were still talking about it today. So.|Interviewer: Good job.|Interviewee: Thank you.|Interviewer: So tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem? |Interviewee: Okay  so  I'm also involved in MIT Undergraduate research journal  and uh last spring we we we we publish twice a year  at the end of each semester  and last spring um we were a little late in our uh  in our uh  timeline  so  it was kind of near finals week  and we still hadn't gotten anything published. So  uh  sorry this was last fall  so we still had the spring semester to uh sort of remediate our uh error. So um  we kind of  um  all  you know  pitched in together  and I guess the main thing we had to uh draw upon was each other's initiative  like in the whole process  and motivation  and motivation  you know  for some people  it's more self-centered  and for others  it's more of a community motivation  you know? And we each had to tap into our individual editors' motivation you know  what kind of people they were  what they were looking for  et cetera  so we had to get people kind of  uh  self started in a way. And uh  yeah  we we got to work really quickly and uh and and we had it published by like the first two weeks of the spring semester so uh. yeah. yeah. It was a good skill that I picked up  kind of  how to tap into people's sense of initiative and stuff. So. |Interviewer: Definitely.  |Interviewee: Yeah. Uh.  |Interviewer: Great! Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to work on it? |Interviewee: Yeah. So  uh  one of my weakness I think is  uh  like well  shyness. You know  um um and I may see a little like confident  you know  on the outside  but um I definitely have my moments where I'm like you know  I just  freeze  and I feel like so  you know  like I can't talk to anyone  pretty much  you know  and it's like  it's like maybe ten percent of the time that I'm like that  but uh I kinda want to like get rid of that completely  so  yeah I'm just I'm doing  I'm like putting myself into more like  challenging situations  socially and stuff  to kind of like overcome it. So um  yeah  just  like  you know  taking advantage of every opportunity that comes my way  to be social  and stuff  like going to parties  and just being used to being around people  because definitely at MIT you can become  like  socially uh  you know  like  blocked away  so. Yeah. |Interviewer: Okay. And last question. Why do you think we should hire you? |Interviewee: Um  so I draw upon a lot of leadership experiences  with my enrollment at MIT student groups  um  I've completed three years of MIT without going insane  that's just a joke  but um  um...and I'm very  you know  like  um I'm very organized  I'm a self-starter  I'm  you know  I take initiative  I've organized a lot of events through these student groups  so I'm I'm um  I'm definitely able to take upon like large tasks with being organized  and you know very  like  having initiative. So yeah.
p34,Interviewer: so how are you?|Interviewee: I'm doing pretty well.|Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself?|Interviewee: I'm a Junior in course two  [?unknown word?]. I just started going to last semester but I got very interested in product design when I took a class called product design. It was really cool because we got to work in small teams to make our own projects. So ours was a toy called Con[?] Control  and my main role is to do a lot of the solid worksing[?] so I make a lot of the CAD 3-D modeling so that we could make the physical components that didn't already exsist. I really enjoyed that because it's kind of an intersection between designing a part and engineering  which I have never really thought of until last year. Outside of classes I try to do a lot of design work as well  maybe in somewhat different fields. Like I work for the Tech as a production editor. So It's a lot of making info graphics and laying out the entire newspaper and making it look really pretty. It's kind of a good break though from equations and things like that.|Interviewer: Alright. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee:  I think a very recent example is I am going to be chair of my sorority so we just held an event called catwalk  which is ten months of planning  but it took a lot of delegation  a lot of staying on top of things because there's so many components they needed to coordinate. We ended up having fourteen designers but we had to contact way more than that from around the Boston area. And the sorority has a hundred forty girls in it  so all of them has to participate in some way  whether it's working with a designer or helping me to create the decoration scheme or logistics. I personally think it ran really smoothly as a result of extreme organization. I had a co-chair and another girl helping me organize it and we got very good at creating tabs on Google Docs to stay on top of things |Interviewer: Great. And can you tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: If I may  I'll go back to toy product design  'cause I think that was a really good good example. I think all of us--it was a team of three freshmen and two sophomores--none of us had that much experience with product design at all  so we were all bringing different skills to the table and different ideas  different preferences and visions for what we wanted to do  and they clashed a lot in the beginning. It was really difficult for us  like our personalities clashed as well  not just our ideas  which was really difficult to work with because meetings were unproductive  and we just felt like we weren't moving anywhere because other teams were moving forward with their ideas  prototyping things  and we were still arguing over what design would be most feasible  or what was interesting. So we worked through that by just--we worked with our mentors  talking to them as kind of a mediator so it wasn't a completely self-motivated resolution or self--I don't know how to describe it. But it ended up working out  we all kind of slowed down  took a step back  and saw from eachother's perspectives  talked out very explicitly what the plus and minuses of each idea were and what our goals were  given the constraints of the class  being that we had a two hundred dollar budget and just a semester to complete it in. And at this point  like a month left to go. And in the end we just recognized eachother's strengths and we could each take on responsibility for a certain component of the toy  and figure out a way to just meld them all together into the final product. And we did by the end. We had something that we were really proud of. Like a lot of teams ended up relying a lot on their mentors to kind of do the project for them  but because we each wanted to take so much ownership of the project it was very much our own  and we were able to present it on the final day  and that's something that was very rewarding|Interviewer: Great. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?||Interviewee: I think one of my weaknesses is my--I forget what it is called. Oh  lack of assertiveness  or lack of confidence in a way. Like I always want to make sure that everyone's ideas are heard  and I feel like lots of times I don't want to create conflict  so I'll kind of back down after a little bit. I'm very open to sharing my ideas  but if there's a lot of criticism then I will back down  and that's something that I'm working on a lot  like just trying to stand behind my own ideas  trying to be more objective about them so I have reasons to resent so that I don't feel like there's any reason for me to need to back down.|Interviewer: And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think you should hire me because I am very passionate about product design. I feel like it's something that people told me when I started the mechanical engineering lessons  they were like Oh  you just lit up and I can see that you found your passion here. I feel like I'm very detail oriented  so I'm able to create CAD models in a very methodical manner  instead of just drawing random things together. I'm able to think of design for manufacturing overall  and not just what looks nice on paper  but what's actually practicable. I think I am a great team player in that even though I can be passive sometimes  in a way it's good to have people with different levels of aggressiveness  and different levels of confidence  because that way it's not all like  butting heads all the time.  And I think that as I improve in my own smoothly and not confrontationally with people  but also get things done very effectively.   |Interviewer: Great.
p35,Interviewer: Yeah  so how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good. How are you?|Interviewer: Good. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?|Interviewee: Ok  well i'm a junior at MIT and I'm currently studying Computer Science and Biology. It's a new joint major with a minor in management. So that's a little bit of my background. Um  last summer I worked at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco.  I was in their principal investing group. So  I was investing in a lot of longer term securities. So  it was like buy side trading.|Interviewer: Great. So  tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Ok  so  my freshman year  um  I was doing this project called Six Four Seventy and this is during IEP. It's like a competition where you're supposed to get a team and design your on website. So  it was like the first time that all of us had been doing this kind of programming before. Well  I had a little background but not much. Um  and  basically at the end of the day it came to me to get the team together because everyone was doing other things. And it's IEP  everyone is trying to have fun also. Then I was like guys we have deadlines. We need to get a B in this. So  basically I stepped into a leadership roll and I brought our team together and we managed to finish our project and pass the class.|Interviewer: Great.|Interviewee: It didn't win any of us awards but at least we finished it.|Interviewer: Ok  so  tell me about a time you were working on a team and you faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: I guess that is kind of related to my previous example. I can talk more in depth about it  I guess.|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: Um  so  I guess our main issue was getting the back end database to work correctly. Um  which none of us had ever programmed with  like  MySQL or any of those languages before  you know. So  um  I basically tried to delegate tasks. So  I made one of my friends set up the  uh  get hub server and then another friend. I said ok  just try to focus on like the matching algorithms. Then I'll try to put all these things together and create  like  the front end of the website and bring all the code together and yeah. So that was my team experience.|Interviewer: Ok  so that's [pause] Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: I think one of my weaknesses is  um  when I am working on a team sometimes I try to do too much myself. Um  like  sometimes  like  people are  say: oh what can I help you with?  but if they had previously shown inconsistency in the past  then I'll try to get it done on my own and not really  like delegate things to them  so yeah. That's something I need to work on I think.|Interviewer: And  what are you doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Uh  to overcome it  I am trying to be a better leader. Um  I am actually going through this leadership  uh  program right now. It's called CCLP  so that's been helping me a lot with my leadership skills.|Interviewer: Excellent. Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think you should hire me because I have the necessary background experience. Um  from my past summers at  uh  Wells Fargo and also because I can get work done. I will work well on a team  but at the end of the day if things aren't getting done  I will over-compensate and do it myself. So  you can count on me to meet the deadlines necessary at your firm.
p37,Interviewer: How are you doing today? |Interviewee: Huh  pretty well  how are you?|Interviewer: Me too. tell me about yourself. |Interviewee: Um i am a junior in course 18 which is applied math. Uh  Obviously I go to MIT  uhm. whoops sorry.|Interviewee: I'm also probably going to major in management science uhm  as well as I'm really interested in minoring in economics. Um outsie of academics I do a lot of sports  I play water polo  I rock clmb a lot  uhm I run and bike a lot and uh I'm involved in lots of random clubs at MIT so I like to keep busy. |Interviewer: Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership|Interviewee: Uhm well I've been swimming  well I was a varsity swimmer in hs as well as college   uhm  so I swam competitively for 15 years. Uhm  so I was the captain of my high school as well as my summer club swim team. Uhm  leadership wise I guess the summer swim team was where I felt like I had  had the most influential leadership position. Uhm   just because I was on the same team for 14 years. Uhm and so I really got to develop my relationships with all of the younger swimmers  uhm  even before I was in an official captain position|Interviewer: Great  can you give me an idea of like  how you...|Interviewee: Oh  um  so I did a lot of uh  uh  coaching of younger kids  uhm  a lot of team management as in like setting up events  setting up meets  heping meets and everything running smoothly  uhm  as well as just leading   you know  cheers  helping people stay focus and stay organized at practices. |Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem. |Interviewee: Hm well I was on the financial metrics team  in my internship last summer which was basically just the quantitative analysis team. Uhm  and so we had a problem in one of our like  quantitative analysis programs that was running and non one really knew where it was coming from. So as a team we uh  like divide and conquer  broke down uh individual sections of the program to look at and uh  correlated those with each persons expertise  so I analyzed mainly the R portion whereas um  my teammate  my coworker and lets me lead my sequel portion of the code and broke it up that way  I guess. |Interviewer: Great  and you guys found the problem?|Interviewee: Yeah  eventually|Interviewer: Great|Interviewee: With help from the uh  finance expert|Interviewer: Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it? |Interviewee: Uhm  Hm. I would say one of my weaknesses is that I don't always push myself hard enough  uhm as far as academically. I like to be challenged but I don't always seek those out. Um  so to overcome that I have done a lot of searching through the MIT coursework to  uhm  find classes that look interesting as well as challenging and to sign up for a lot of classes that are outside just the minimum major requirements so that I could get a bit more of a challenge instead of just doing the bare minimum.|Interviewer: And why should we hire you? |Interviewee:  Uhm  because I'm a very fast learner. Um  I'm dedicated and I know how to work hard  because it's something that I've done for my entire life and  uh  I like being busy and I like working hard.  So if I'm given a task I'll work hard until its done well|Interviewer: Great.
p4,Interviewer: So  how are you doin'?|Interviewee: Pretty good.|Interviewer: Mmhmm. So  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Uhh  so I'm a junior uhh studying aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. |Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: Umm  so right now I'm currently in the middle of my junior year. I'm looking for a summer internship company and uhh-|Interviewer: Mmhmm. Tell me a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: OK. Umm  so for example last year umm when we were working on a class project where we were uhh trying to design a G- uhh sorry a jet engine for GE. |Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: Umm I had to work with a group of 4 people umm and to try to optimize certain uhh certain parameters for this engine. Uhh- that we would have to present at uhh something to present to GE engineers. Umm during that time one of my team members uhh actually got really sick and he actually had to uhh go medical for a couple days and he wasn't really able to do much. And uhh another person ended up uhh sh- wasn't showing up very much so during that time I sort of basically had to facilitate uhh the people who weren't sick uhh and basically help them communicate  talk to each other  and set up meetings. Uhh  I sort of took the helm on uhh towards uhh towards the end on a lot of that and basically got everybody together to to complete this project.|Interviewer: Mmhmm. Tell me about a time when you were working on a team and were faced with a different challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Umm uhh umm so over the summer I was working at at Auburn University.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: Um I was doing uhh UAV collision avoidance algorithms.|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: So like uhh programming things to allow to allow a whole bunch of UAVs flying in the same airspace uhh to basically get to their directives without crashing into each other. Umm I was working with a partner  but in a larger context of umm a dozen students. Umm as it turns out umm the challenge in this case was that although it was sort of like a programming AI sort of aeronautics umm sort of project  uhh my partner came from a chemical engineering background and did not really have any programming experience nor she had she had experience with umm with sort of UAV design. Umm so that became a bit of an issue  umm but umm I think basically what ended up happening was I worked with umm a grad student there and like all the people to basically bring her up to speed. Basically sort of teach her programming from the ground up  up to a level where she might be able to help with programming like in a uhh a uhh for UAV. And umm in that case I drew upon a lot of resources that were available there. Umm you know there were grad students who were helping helping us  the professor who was in charge of the ex- uhh the project as well as with other students in the program.|Interviewer: Tell me about one of your weaknesses and how you plan to overcome it.|Interviewee: Ummm  so I think one of my weaknesses is that umm I have a tendency to to show up uhh to things kind to things kind of late. Umm this is actually probably after I'm used to after I'm used to going to a certain place umm because I have a tendency to think that  and especially in the mornings because I have a tendency to think oh I can get to a certain place uhh by biking uhh at a certain speed. So  I think uhh what I tend to do uhh what I'm trying to do nowadays to try to overcome that is basically get to somewhere before hand and then basically uhh do work there as opposed to try to do work umm away from a place where I need to be and like sort of try to make it there in the nick of time. It's something that I've tried to implement over the past couple weeks.|Interviewer: Now  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Umm I think you should hire me  because umm basically I've demonstrated over the past couple years umm a fair amount of research experience  a fair amount of experience in and out umm in and out of the classroom in both umm sort of an academic setting and in a research and development setting uhh such that I think I would be an asset to your company. Umm I think that my past experience with both uhh software and hardwares in aeronautics makes it so that uhh I have a good balance that would be useful to you.|Interviewer: Oh  thank-
p42,Interviewer: So  Jay  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  so I'm a junior at MIT. I'm in aerospace engineering. Um  I'm thinking of doing more of the  the aeronautics side rather than the astronautics side  although I don't have to decide until later. Um  I'm in ROTC and  you know  in the Air Force portion. I'm hoping to become a pilot. Uh  I applied pretty recently and I'll find out maybe in February or March of next year. Um  I'm also in Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Our house is on the East campus across the river and I've been living there since I was a sophomore. Um  that's  that's basically me.|Interviewer: Excellent. So uh  tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  so  probably the biggest chance I got to demonstrate leadership so far in my life has been this past summer when I went to pretty much ROTC's version of boot camp. It's called field training and it's about a month long and it's in Alabama. And it's pretty much a test to see what you'd do in really stressful situations. So  uh  they'd give us pretty big things like we'd have to be in charge of 40 or 50 people and we'd have to make sure they got to this place at the right time and then do um  I guess the correct action when we get there. And make sure nobody's going astray or making sure that like all the obstacles the instructors set up  uh  we can overcome them. So  being in charge of people for a good two or three days when everything is just so high stress is probably um  the most challenging leadership experience I've ever had.|Interviewer: Hm. That's all very interesting. So  can you tell me about a time when you were working on a team and you were faced with a challenge. How did you solve the problem.|Interviewee: Um  hm  to give I guess a non-ROTC-related example  um  as we have a decent amount of projects in um  Core 16 like Unified is  a lot  is very project based in the second semester and  um  one of the biggest problems we had in our specific group was the way that um  I guess  the work was being allocated. So at first  it was supposed to be um  very evenly divided so each person on the four-person team would do a quarter of the work. But  um  some people started doing a little bit less and some people started doing a little bit more. And by the middle of the semester  it was very unequal. And so  it was kind of getting  you know  under everyone's skin. So  as a group  after we um  we realized that it just wouldn't  it was really a detriment to our productivity  we all had a group meeting and said  listen  this is what we have to do. We have to reallocate the certain things that are um  are the parts of the project that um  we had  we wanted to originally and um  it just kind of went astray. So  we did that  and we became a lot better.|Interviewer: Excellent. So  um  can you tell me about a time when you were working on a team and you were faced with a challenge. How did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: Um  working on a team  faced with a challenge. Um  hm. I can think of um  try to not um  hit the same categories. So um  in SAE  in the fraternity that I'm in  last semester I was the recruitment chair. So  the  the job for the recruitment chair is essentially to plan Rush. Like  plan our events for CPW  plan our events for fall rush  plan our events for spring rush for a full calendar year  or for a full school year  excuse me. Um  and  the question was challenges in a group  right?|Interviewer: Um  this was  tell me about when you were  tell me about a time when you were working on a team and were faced with a challenge. |Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: How you solved the problem. So it's challenges and teamwork.|Interviewee: So  challenges and teamwork. So  rush is very team-oriented because you're trying to work with your brothers to um  really see I guess  which freshmen uh  are the most compatible with your fraternity. And that you'd probably have the best time with. So  the way I set it up was we actually did work in small teams of about 4 or 5 brothers and we'd go out and you know  do fun things and meet freshmen. I would say the biggest problem with that during rush is that some teams were a lot more active than others. And the team that I was in  uh  was a little bit less active and  of course as being rush chair  I didn't want that to be the case. I wanted to change that. So  um  especially in situations where you don't have um  you don't have like hard  given  not given  but like outlined powers. Like you're not someone's boss. You're just like another brother in the fraternity. Um  the best kind of way to convince people to do something that you want to do is through positive motivation. So that's what I ended up using a lot to get for a while as rush chair to get people to go out. So it was all  always being like very excited to do it and like knowing that you're passionate about it and telling them  or and like having them realize that oh  this is a really good thing that we should be doing. And it will really help us out and it will be fun. So that's how I solved that problem.|Interviewer: Uh  very good. So  can you tell me about your greatest weakness and what you're doing to improve upon it?|Interviewee: So  my greatest weakness. I normally would probably have to think a lot more about. But  I actually had a similar conversation with um one of my bosses in ROTC about a month and a half ago. So  I would say my greatest weakness is when I get put in really stressful situations  I will tend to jump to a decision or a conclusion too quickly and won't necessarily think about  or  I think through the whole process um  like to fruition. I'll kind of like hurry up and want to get to something so  um  so the situation can be like  I guess resolved. So what I'm working on is just being able to like even in a stressful situation and I know it is a problem to kind of slow down and take a step back and really like at things kind of from a higher altitude. |Interviewer: That's very good. And so  think about a job that you'd like later. Why do you think we should hire you for this position?|Interviewee: Um  I'm a really hard worker. I absolutely will devote myself to um  this company. I  I think as a team member  I'm very cooperative. Uh  if the goal we have as a team  if I agree with it  and for the most part I will. And if I won't then I'll voice  and like I'll voice my concerns and try to make it something everyone can agree on. And if I agree on it  um  then I am or I'll definitely be able to participate in the team in a very productive manner. I'll be a very good follower and if  um  if it's needed I can be a very good leader as well.|Interviewer: Thank you Jay  I appreciate you coming.|Interviewee: All right.
p43,Interviewer: So  can you tell me about yourself?|Interviewee: Sure  so I'm a senior at MIT in management and computer science. Uhm  I'm really interested in the intersection of the two. So  you know  not just  uhm  you know  how computers can  you know  you know  how  like the best algorithms to do about computers? like you know inventing the next algorithm  the next compression algorithm  not really something that I'm interested in doing. But uh really finding how computers can help apply to peoples lives and make new businesses or improve existing businesses. |Interviewer: Excellent. Let me open my questions up here. So  uhm  can you tell of a time where you demonstrate leadership?|Interviewee: Sure  so  uhm  I guess I'd say earlier this year. So I'm actually the president of Baker house and earlier in the beginning of the year in MIT we had this process called REX; Residence Exploration where all the dorms try and throw events and somehow  you know  recruit or retain the freshmen that they have. Uhm  and  the REX Event that we had uh  we threw a bunch of events  had about ten workers that we had  were able to give early arrival to. So free housing. Uh  so we ran about five or six events the largest of which was a party where we had over seven-hundred people attend. |Interviewer: Wow. So can you tell me about a time where you're working on a team and face a challenge? how did you go about resolving it?|Interviewee: Sure. So I think there's  you know  always been challenges. So last summer when I was at Disney  uhm  there were  there was some disagreement about uh  how we should  when we should schedule  the  uh  what week we should schedule the  uh  trial for. Uhm  and there was some disagreement about whether we should have it later because of uhm  uh  dates for when the program would be ready but if we had it passed a certain date then we'd have to have the app also consider time zone issues. So basically just discussed with all the stake holders and let them know that  you know  by changing this date  pushing it back  we're adding scope to the app and we're going to have to make additional development changes and see if they would be able to be flexible to change it back. |Interviewer: Ahh  that makes sense.|Interviewee: Yep.|Interviewer: Uhm  so  uh  tell me about your greatest weakness and what you've done to over come it. |Interviewee: Sure. So I think the  the problem  uhm  that I have the most is  uh  in delegating task to people. So  uhm  I want to make sure that things are done properly so I tend to overly control on things. So basically I've been thinking to myself alright is this something core that I really have to do? no. I think let's. you know  lets get someone else to do it  and that way also they also they learn it so  you know  when I graduate they're able to take on that role. |Interviewer: Mhmm. Uhm. Thanks. So I guess thinking  uhm  about a job that you like to apply for.|Interviewee: Sure.|Interviewer: Uh  Why should we hire you for this position?|Interviewee: Sure. I think uhm  I combine  you know  technical expertise with uh  business expertise and product expertise. So  hiring me as a product manager for your mobile app I think is  uh  would be optimal because I have expertise in all these areas and I've worked in all these areas in the past  uhm  and I'm able to bring that expertise to your organization in a way that I think few other candidates  uhm  have. |Interviewer: Ah  well thank you for coming.|Interviewee: Thank you for having me.
p44,Interviewer: Um  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Okay  um  my name's Evan  Evan Muray  I'm a junior here at MIT in computer science. I'm originally from Louisville Kentucky. And  uh  yeah I currently live across the river. I heard about this study through e-mail. So  thought I'd check it out.|Interviewer: So  I lived in Louisville.|Interviewee: You did?|Interviewer: Yeah.|Interviewee: Nice.|Interviewer: Anyway. So can you tell me about a time when you served as a leader?|Interviewee: A leader? Uh sure. Um. A good example of that would be uh some of my extra curricular work  activities  so I'm involved in uh two activities in general that showcase my leadership skills. One is Camp Kesem MIT which is a student organization here on campus at MIT uh each summer the organization puts on a summer camp for children who's parents have or have had cancer. Um  and I serve on the coordinator board for this organization. Um  in the past I was in charge of handling applications and contacting families of campers who'd would come to our camp and being in contact with them throughout the year  send them newsletters  send them updates  plan reunions for them. Uh this year I am in charge of asking the students on campus and getting students to apply to become counselors for our camp and (inaudible) with students  so I work as a coordinator I actually have a co-coordinator  we usually work in tandem. The other activity is dance troop. It's another student organization here at MIT  where we put on a show each year and dance  have some fun  it's a dance show  and I'm a choreography for that organization as well. I lead a dance  teach people some dance moves for some fun.|Interviewer: Oh  that's all very excellent.|Interviewee: Thanks.|Interviewer: So  can you tell me a time when you were working on a team and you faced a challenge  how did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: Sure  uh  I think a great example of that would be this past January  I participated in a web design competition here on campus  6470  I was on a team with my girlfriend and a mutual friend of ours. It's always different working in a group with your friends as opposed to just hanging out with them. There was a bit of conflict about how we wanted the website to go. We had different visions for how we wanted it to look  and I think for me the best way that I handled that was to sort of be willing to compromise because I think it's a very important skill and also just listening  active listening. I was listening to why she wanted to make certain changes to the website. And by doing that  um  I was able to uh figure out uh sort of like a common ground that we could work towards  I think we eventually did hit um and were able to move forward with this one conflict that I definitely remember because it was pretty big at the time but  I mean  we needed to get through it.|Interviewer: So tell me one of your greatest weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: My greatest weakness... Hm. Okay. Uh. I'd say my  one of my bigger weaknesses is  uh  I'd say  probably uh  self-starting  actually. It's something I've been working  it's like my goal for this year  to work on. In the past I would do my classes  take my classes  and really just kind of do my schoolwork significantly outside of classes. If there's one thing I learned from being around all these amazing people here at MIT  is if you have an idea just go for it. It's very easy  especially here  there's resources to do so  and  it's something that I want to work on  I have some ideas for projects I want to start on my own. It's always been an issue for me to actually start on things and come up with ideas and really get started on certain projects. But  this  I plan on starting my own website and doing some ideas with that  and hopefully I will gain some more experience in computer sciences.|Interviewer: Excellent. So uh think of a job you'd like to get hired for  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Uh  I think one of my best qualities is the ability to really quickly  coming to MIT for example  I came to MIT with very little experience in the field computer science. Many of my past internships  I've been going to  I don't have much experience  but I pride myself in the sort of grasp ideas quickly and uh build on top of those and use those to build solutions to problems. I find that  uh  after doing some examples of a certain problem  or just playing around with it for a little bit  I can get to work on using that sort of technology. In the past couple internships  I've had to deal with new languages  new framework  and I think that definitely more then compensates for any experience I'm lacking.|Interviewer: Excellent. Thanks again for coming again.|Interviewee: No problem  thank you for having me.|Interviewer: Of course!
p45,Interviewer: So how are you?|Interviewee: Pretty good  how are you?|Interviewer: Doing well. So can you please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: So uh my name's Bonnie. I'm a junior at MIT. I'm in core six which if you don't know is in computer science. I'm minoring in economics umm also mathematics. So I'm interested in you know application of data and quantitative reasoning to any sort of like interesting fields so  that includes like economics  finance  biology. So a vary wide array of interests. And I'm here today because well I was uh  told it would be a good time here with the behavior study.|Interviewer: Excellent. I went to MIT myself.|Interviewee: Oh what year were you?|Interviewer: 0-6. |Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: Anyway  I'd like to ask you about your leadership experiences. Can you tell me about a time when you served as a leader?|Interviewee: Okay  so I'd say one fairly informal instance actually was over this last spring break. A couple friends and I  four of us actually  so a fairly small group  um  we biked from Philadelphia to Boston over spring break because we thought that would be a good idea. What it actually was  huh  there were some amazing ups  some amazing downs. umm  Definitely a very memorable experience. And there were just some points over the course of the trip when it was 45 degrees except your biking on the state highways  it's raining  and like ??? so we felt like giving up a little bit  just heading back up  taking the train. And I really riled people up in terms of reminding us why we were doing this and reminding us of the fact that we were already 60% of the way through we might as well push on all the way to the end of our journey. Just like I guess evoking everyone's different motivation because everyone you know wants to do something awesome  but everyone has a slightly different motivation for why they join a team in the first place. And I guess providing like individualized reasons and individualized motivations to uh you know different parts of our team as to why they came on in the first place and why that's still something that resonates with them. And using that you know I was able to get the group back together and we did bike all the way back up here. So that was a very rewarding experience.|Interviewer: Excellent. So you can about a time when you were working on a team and faced another challenge  how did you resolve it?|Interviewee: Sorry  a what challenge?|Interviewer: Another challenge  just not that particular one.|Interviewee: Oh  oh  another challenge. |Interviewer: Yes.|Interviewee: Okay. Um  well let's see  most of the challenges I've seen coming in any sort of team work right involve either internal challenges  something that's coming from within the team  or an external challenge. So I guess if we were to talk about an external challenge  umm  something not involving you know lack of motivation  uhh  it would  uh  let's see. So uh  so my  my freshman year I was involved  uh  I was involved in this organization called tech fair where we basically organized a um a tech expo at the beginning of the uh  beginning of the school year. And I was  again I was  I was able to motivate people towards the end when there was a lot of work happening  a lot of twelve-hour days to get the logistics down before the event. And I guess again there it uh it does come down to really motivating people  um and speaking to their individual you know passions to get them to you know do things which they might not want to and short cut.|Interviewer: Excellent. Can you tell me about your greatest weakness and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Um  my greatest weakness I've noticed can be a uh lack of  lack of focus. Especially if I have like a large number of tasks  it's very easy to instead of you know caching away all my other tasks somewhere and focusing on one at a time. It's very easy for me to you know pop one but still have you know like subtasks and the other things I have to do running in my mind. Um  so of late  I've been trying to basically get more organized. I've you know had this hypothesis that by using a Google calendar  Google this  Google that  all these other products to try you know serve as fairly intelligent places where I can hash away my uh  my other tasks. It will provide me with something which is very trustworthy that I will trust enough to not what worry about those tasks. Because what usually happens  right  I just write it down on a piece of paper. Um I don't trust that I'll be able to find and the risk of forgetting to do something important is  is pretty great to bear. So that  that's been pretty useful so far. I've noticed that I've had an urge sometimes to think about other things I have to do  but I just remind myself that wait wait you wrote that down there. You probably knew what you were doing  so don't worry about that. There's a supervisor which is yourself taking care of your other tasks.|Interviewer: Ah  that makes sense. So uh think about a job you would like to have  why should we hire you for this job?|Interviewee: So I think that one thing um I do retain in addition to well like  like I said I've had what used to be a problem in terms of being able to focus on a task but it does come with the added benefit of being able to juggle lots of tasks at the same time. I know lots of people who do focus on one task  it often becomes one task  one project going on for you know a couple months uh becomes the forefront of their thought  their imagination  becomes what they can handle. However  having been accustomed to juggling lots of stuff in the past  I think one great skill I can bring to the table is umm provide a very  very agile agile member to the team who can juggle lots of different projects and bring insight to all of them without  with my newfound organizational abilities  getting too uhh too caught up in the mix.|Interviewer: Excellent  well thank you again for coming.|Interviewee: Thank you very much for uhh talking to me.
p47,Interviewee: Good  How are you doing?|Interviewer: I'm well  Thanks for coming. So please tell me about yourself?|Interviewee: Uhh  So my name is Skylar Shieto  I'm a junior currently here at MIT. I'm studying course 18 mathematics  uhmm  currently enjoying it alot  uhmm  classes I'm currently taking not so much.|Interviewer: Mhmm|Interviewee: Uhmm  I don't know  Is there anything in particular you want to know?|Interviewer: That's good.|Interviewee: Ok. |Interviewer: Thanks. So  I'm gonna ask you some questions I'd like to ask.|Interviewee: Ok.|Interviewer: So  tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Uhmm  ok  so I was over at Ip I did book reports.|Interviewer: Mhmm|Interviewee: Uhmm  I kind of assumed like a project mangerish role  particularly because I wasn't really familiar with Python too much  which is the coding language that they used to test.|Interviewer: Mhmm|Interviewee: Uhmm  so I assumed more of a director kind of doing the math for it and kind of instructing people to do the mathematical thinking for that kind of thing.|Interviewer: uh-huh  excellent. So tell me about a time that you were working in a team and were faced with a challenge. How did you go about solving the problem?|Interviewee: Uhmm  Let me see  I usually take this particular example. One of the tough things is you having to explain things that are sort of  something that is very familiar to you to someone who doesn't have familiarity with that and  especially in a really short time. Uhh  can be extremely difficult. Uhmm  It's how to deal with that. Uhh  sort of just by giving a crash course  uhm  kind of asking other friends to also help  so it's uhmm  kind of give some information and ask for feedback  that sort of thing.|Interviewer: Excellent. uhm  so uhh  tell me about one of your weaknesses  and what you're doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: ok  uhh  let's see  one of my weaknesses uhhm  technical writing  uhmm  and what I'm doing to overcome that. Actually not very much  I'm taking a math writing class.|Interviewer: Ah  interesting.|Interviewee: Uh  so that's been really helpful. It's in a subject that I really enjoy   and I actually have a paper due this Friday so hopefully I show so improvement and that would help.|Interviewer: Mhmm  so now thinking of a job that you'd like to have  you got one in mind?|Interviewee: Uhmm  not particularly. Sorry.|Interviewer: No? Well just think of something. Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Uhmm  soo  I would like a job which is sort of very open  uhmm  sort of open in a sense that it's open to new ideas  open to uhmm  the ability to uh  work on different stuff. Sort of like whatever you want. Uhm  Also  in like a sense that you can go in and wear whatever you want you don't have to wear a suit and tie everyday  uhm  yeah.|(Sirens in background)|Interviewer: So are you thinking of being a mathematician. (laughs)|Interviewee: uh  wouldn't be too bad. (laughs)|Interviewer: Fair enough  well cool. |Interviewee: I think this is also the sort of place where I can do things that are in my interest  uhmm  like statistics or computer science.Those sort of things.|Interviewer: Ah  excellent. Well thanks for coming in today.
p48,Interviewer:  How are you|Interviewee:  I'm doing well|Interviewer:  Excellent.  So  uh  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee:  Uh  I'm a student  I study computer science.  Uh  I'm in my last year so when I graduate in May I'm going to be working on computer science stuff|Interviewer:  Mhm.  Now I'm going to ask you a series of questions  um  starting out with tell me a time where you demonstrate leadership|Interviewee:  I demonstrate leadership on the track team  I was senior pole vaulter on the team so uh right now were doing uh the conditioning and stuff like that and all through the preseason a lot freshmen come and its important to get them up to speed so the uh  seniors on the team myself included uh   lead them though the workouts and stuff like that and its important to be able to...to stand up and let them know how the tradition is and stuff like that.|Interviewer:  Tell me a time where you were working on a team and you were faced with a challenge.  How did you end up solving the problem|Interviewee:  Hm... in my living group we uh we had a problem that the rent was getting too expensive because we didn’t have quite enough people living there but we still had a set amount of rent we had to pay as a group.  So the prices were going up to the point that people had to get kicked out.  So that was pretty rough  but this happened like a year ago.  So like one of my close friends was like I cant afford these prices  like there's just no way. And like then it dominoes  which was a huge problem.  |Interviewer:  Hm|Interviewee:  And a lot of people suggested a lot of different...a lot of different solutions.  Most of them were like motivated from anger.|Interviewer:  Hm|Interviewee:  So uh  some people were like everybody who moves out should have to pay and other people were like oh no if I'm if not living there I shouldn’t have to do anything so  so it was like pretty contentious.|Interviewer:  mm|Interviewee:  But  but we worked it out to a... it was like a variation of a plan that I suggested which was that we would uh  we would change the rent based on room size and how many people were living in the room.  So we'd allow people to have more space themselves and pay more  but people who would have otherwise been forced out could uh  could have other people crammed into a room and saved a lot of money.  So  so we kept some of the people we kicked out.|Interviewer:  Oh good.|Interviewee:  Yeah but it was pretty rough to get that motion passed.|Interviewer:  Mhm  so uh  can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to improve upon it.  |Interviewee:  Uh  I'm the opposite of type A so I can be pretty disorganized.  My lab notebooks like a lot of the time I make a lot of scribbles in at and when I write code the documentation like tends to be on the shaky side.  Um  so  so  it makes it kinda hard for other people to follow when doing ?  I never really thought it was a problem though until the most recent project that I've been on that I had to leave  uh  the project for a short amount of time and my partner like picked up where I left off and had no idea what was going on and I was like this is actually a problem the teachers like don't just tell you to document just to aggravate you.  So  I worked uh  so like since then like I've been working on like documenting what I do just like more diligently but also to check back up on it.  So that like there’s some kind of like review before like I show other people or before I let it out to a point that other people might rely on it.  So just to like read my documentation that and which I've never done before until this most recent project had that problem|Interviewer:  Well that's always a good practice.  |Interviewee:  Yeah|Interviewer:  So now  thinking about a job that you’d like to have  do you have one in mind?|Interviewee:  Sure  yeah|Interviewer:  So now  why should we hire you?|Interviewee:  Mostly because uh  results.  I'm  I just like get things done.  And there’s a like  there's a lot of things I know how to do  especially the job I'm thinking of is like a programming job like a startup.  My background  my degree is actually nuclear engineering.  SO  so like I don't have like the background the internships the stuff like that.  A lot of the coding interview questions they tend to ask I don't know  which is pretty rough  but uh I  I think that I would be  I should be hired because I would be resourceful and I'd do what it takes to get things done which is like working longer  being more resourceful  and stuff like that.  So like  I   I feel like I could get more results then somebody who has the same  or somebody who has a better background|Interviewer:  Ah  excellent.  Well thanks for coming today.
p49,Interviewer: So  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: So my name is Fernando Iber  I am a junior here  I come from Puerto Rico  and I am currently studying biological engineering. Uh  I’m considering doing pre-medicine  maybe going into either an MD  and  let’s say  apply to some schools as an MD  or go into an MD-PHD program. Um  my main interest is basically oncology  but  like  I  over the past few years I’m doing a couple of research programs  I did an internship  and it basically  like  gave me a view that I could tackle that problem in a lot of ways. So not just being a clinician  but being a researcher  a medical researcher.|Interviewer: Oh  yes.|Interviewee: So that’s how I got interested into the whole MD-PHD thing  and  like  I’ve gotten a hold of some programs that I viewed  and there’s a lot out there. I couldn’t have imagined that if I stayed home. It’s amazing what people do here. |Interviewer: Most definitely. So can you tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: So I’m  I’m pretty involved in  in campus groups. Uh  I was the first founder of  of their restructuring of Beta Theta Pi  so I’m currently  you would say  chapter president. Uh  so I’m leading the whole  the whole cavalry of recruitment right here on campus  and we’re getting a lot of results. Um  I’m also in the Board of Puerto Rican students  I serve as social chair  and I am also pretty involved in dorm government  especially rec-CBW planning  so I just like to get around. So any  anything that gives me that type of opportunity to just explore  any guise is all pretty good for me. Uh  I was also considering something for soccer  uh  in terms of being team treasurer  but unfortunately I had a bit of an accident with my leg  so I got out of soccer. |Interviewer: Sorry to hear that. So  can you tell me about a time when you were working on a team  and you faced a challenge  how did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: So  I actually have a really humbling experience. Last semester I took a class about mechanics. A lot of people in that class were juniors and I was a sophomore. So everybody there was much more experienced than me  so I was the only sophomore in my group  there were two ones that were juniors  and it was the final project. And when we sat down and started talking about things to do  I basically had almost no knowledge of the things they were planning  ‘cause they already took cell biology  and they took really advanced courses in fluid dynamics  and they were trying to do some tissue modeling. Like  even though it was a class about mechanics  and I could understand some of the things  I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. And they just put me there  and one of them was really helpful  and actually guided me through the initial process  but the other one was not available at all  at any time. So I basically had to sit down  I actually met with the professor a couple of times  just to  like  talk and chat  and we took the professor out for  for a lunch  so we could just  like  talk about stuff  and I actually had to find out my own way through everything  with a little help of the only junior friend that was actually available to me. And it was humbling because normally when I worked on teams  we were all pretty equal  equal minded  or it was in a humanities class. ‘Cause normally technical classes here don’t have much to do with team projects in sophomore year. Normally laboratories and final design project classes are for older students  so it was a surprise for me where it came  like  I’m a sophomore  and I’m already doing final presentations for bio-mechanics. And it just caught me pretty off guard. And the only way…we ended up doing an extremely awesome project  but it took lots of coffee  Red Bull  and Wikipedia. That’s my strategy for now  ‘cause it was completely new territory right there  compared to humanities or any other classes where you’re  everybody has the same mindset. So that was my group trauma. |Interviewer: So  uh  tell me about one of your weaknesses and what you’ve done to overcome it. |Interviewee: So I didn’t have any actually trouble self-recognizing trouble about  so stemming off of  from the inexperience type of situation  that was actually the first group project I had where that experience happened  and I feel like if I get into something that I don’t  basically  know  I have a really hard time finding stuff out for myself. So if I don’t come prepared to do something  it takes me a while to get to a pace to actually start absorbing material and actually contributing  which is kind of a handicap  because some students are already up to speed and they already expect some things from me. And I  I  I obviously would like to give them my all and hand out everything they want on a silver platter  but it’s hard for me. So I’ve been trying  so basically  like  the solution for me was basically studying more  putting much more effort from my part  but it’s still a big  a big minus in my  in my turf. It’s  uh  it takes me a while to dominate things that  that I don’t have an up-to-speed inclination to that. And that has caused  like  mishaps that  well  through hard work you can overcome them  but a lot of work  compared to your regular person. |Interviewer: Excellent  thank you. Um  so I guess my last question is  thinking of a job that you’d like to have- do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: So now  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: So I feel like  even though I’ve gone through many obstacles  I’ve always tried and found a way to excel  exert myself to bigger than I’d previously thought. So I might sometimes feel that I don’t have that knowledge on me  but I will go out and get it  even if it takes a lot of coffee or a lot of effort  because there’s also a sense of satisfaction in actually giving it more than you can  but seeing that actually succeed. You know what I mean? It’s  uh  it’s like what MIT does to you  you’re humbled by an immense amount of work  you’re humbled by  by extremely hard classes that you had no idea that they were going to come and blast you with pieces  homework  and exams that you are overwhelmed. But you sit down  you think about stuff. I sit down and I think about stuff  and I get a plan there. That  the good thing about the plan  it takes some time to devise a plan  because it  it’s not as efficient  it’s not efficient to go randomly guessing what to do  but  but  having  like an educated guess  you remember the SAT’s  where it’s like “you may not always know the answer  but you can make an educated guess as to what the answer may be.” So that’s how I approach things when I have no idea what I’m doing  but after some effort it will actually get me to a place where I can say “hey  I’m here  let’s get crackin’.” Um  that’s sort of  like  the general mindset I have for many problems  be it the life sciences  you have to do an essay  if I have to come up with elucidating a mechanism that does this to breast cancer cells  or if I go by  the walks of life can take you anywhere  if I end up being a consultant for a  for Johnson and Johnson  let's say  a company for random purposes  and  it's the same way you tackle every problem. You get up and you find out what you have a hard time doing  then you sit down and do it. Uh  sometimes it's frustrating  because results don't come out like this  um  but I feel like once you get the hang of it  you can start  your productivity increases by x-fold  x be a number  much higher than one  let's talk MIT here. Yeah  I feel that's the  that's at least my way of tackling things and it's gotten me through a lot  and it's actually helped me wear down the walls of MIT and have a better experience at it  so I feel it's the same way I should attack all the problems that come to me. |Interviewer: Oh  well thank you. I appreciate your coming today.
p5,Interviewer: So please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Myself  um  I'm a junior majoring in computer science at MIT I'm very interested in product design and not just how products are designed but how the business side of it how they affect the users and how he can use the technology to affect the masses.  I want to pursue (?) everyone.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: A time when I demonstrated leadership was  um  I was programs chair of the MIT Minority Business Association and it was my responsibility to plan our annual New York City Trip.  And  um  some of the challenges were bringing in sponsors and delegating tasks to all the members and managing people essentially.  And by  um  by delegating tasks according to interest and making sure that understanding people  what was going on in people's lives and helping them understand why we were able to complete a task on time  we were able to have a successful trip.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge.  How did you solve the problem.|Interviewee: Um  a time when I was working on a team was in my Elemental Sulfur? Construction class and I faced not people problems but a technical problem.  And it was a project in which we were trying to implement and the way we solved it was just by brainstorming and making sure we didn't deny anyone's idea off the bat  we just tried to be as creative as we could be.  And then we presented some of our solutions to a TA and through that we were able to solve the technical problem.|Interviewer: Tell me about one of your weaknesses.  What do you plan to do to overcome it?|Interviewee:  One of my weaknesses is actually I learned from my internship last summer is that usually when I work on a project or have an idea I wait until the idea is fully fleshed out or partially implemented before I share with others and get their opinion.  But it's  I find it's a better and more agile approach to share ideas as soon as possible and to integrate as quickly as possible.  So fail fast  essentially.  That what I would do to accomplish this in the future to seek opinion early on when I have an idea working on a project. |Interviewer: Now  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Why I think you should hire me.  I think you should hire me because I'm very  I have a strong willingness to learn and I go beyond that and try to really get into why things are the way they are and why they work.  I break it down to small steps and try to build it back up to similar success.|Interviewer: Well  thank you.
p50,Interviewer: So please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: myself umm I don’t know how much you know from any sort of registration or anything I am Young. I am Junior right now. I am in my third year. I am I guess I talk about what I am majoring umm I am majoring in mathematics and physics. I am also doubling in core six computer science. and umm I think I am getting minor in French and French literature. grew up in the states in northern virginia. Growing up I guess I was interested in I played a lot of competitive chess. I was also interested in recreationally tennis and soccer. and um other forms of|Interviewer: excellent. so tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: umm at high school I was at my junior and senior years I was captain of umm chess team of my high school and umm we participated in something. people thinks of chess as an individual sport. but umm we participated in quite a few team events. through the states which means one every year. which we have been winning every year every year. umm and also at the nationals. and before I went there they were little bit out of leadership. They used to get may be fifth or so. but when I was there I was umm managed to lead us to almost the first. We came in second in three years in a row. We came first in blitz which is speed chess. under my leadership. and to be fair the people coming in were talented to begin with. but perhaps had they not had that environment wouldn’t have done as well|Interviewer: Tell me a time when you worked in a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: challenge umm there are countless examples when umm in group projects in high school. umm there was one time when umm freshman year in high school. We were working on a umm we had something we called ibet integrated biology electronics and umm biology english technology we had a group project. Four persons in the group. and a few days before the presentation we found the person who had done a decent bit of data analysis had done it incorrectly. and he was not available. he was out of town at the time. again we didn’t fully know what had gone wrong but he had come up with some results which were clearly umm could not be explained by experimental error. clearly he had done something incorrectly. So we had rush to fix what had gone wrong and to redo many of the tests which was a big challenge given the time constraint. We had to redivision the work in addition to what each of the remaining members had to do anyway and compile the final presentation|Interviewer: Interesting|Interviewee: of course it’s not a life threatening challenge|Interviewer: So can you tell me one of your weaknesses? and what are you doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: weaknesses umm I guess one weakness would be being very honest with myself in terms of trying to determine what I want to do and focusing all my faculty on that. Rather than keeping ones options open which I think a good thing. but I think umm sometimes it can be an excuse for not taking risks. this is important because where I went to high school. The culture was very pervasive of trying to do everything and in great part it causes you not to commit to any one thing. which in one way could be good in terms of keeping your options open. but on the other hand if you knew if you had known what you want to do specifically and devoted all your resources to that specifically of course you could do better than that. and in the end you probably go to pick something. I think one weakness is to be honest with myself about what specifically I want to do and devote resources to that. umm what I am trying to do to address that. it may seem at the beginning umm somewhat paradoxical. but what I’ve been doing is trying out wide variety of things so I can’t use the excuse. there are bunch of things I don’t know yet. I’ll keep my options open. I’ll try them out and if I don’t like them I’ll drop. that’s a way to decide what’s left to do that I’d like.|Interviewer: Now think about a job that you would like to have. Why should we hire you?|Interviewee: alright so it’s still early in terms of job search but one job that I would like that I am considering is trading umm trading or some sort of quantitative finance. and umm I think I’d be a strong candidate because I have an extremely strong quantitative background in mathematics and modeling umm computer science work I’ve done physics as well. and umm I have history of being competitive both in academic environment and in chess and in other sports. I have always known. especially if we the role we are talking about a trader trading I have always been interested in strategy games such as chess poker etc. trying to find an optimal strategy and use it to win the game. and that I think the kind of skillset that is necessary for this kind of job.
p52,Interviewer: How are you?|Interviewee: Fine|Interviewer: So  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Uh  I’m Daniel. I’m a Freshman.|Interviewer: Hm|Interviewee: I’m from  uh  Fort Lauderdale  Florida. Thinking about course AN61 here. I  uh  actually  uh  I was here for running  but I realized it wasn’t me  so  um  I decided to drop early and am pursuing travelon. So  um  yeah  classes I am doing fine. Looking for a job now. That’s about it.|Interviewer:  Excellent. So  uh  tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Uh  I’d say  probably  I’d say rowing in high school was probably my best demonstration. I was  um  senior in my  in the junior varsity boat after some little qualms with sea-re-sing? I’d really  like  thought it showed them that  like  even though I wasn’t put in the best situation  like  I performed indiscriminately. And  I think  in a way I showed them that we would still be able to compete against a varsity eight and there was times where like we were always even  like  half the season we were always like around the same time. And  we ended up  uh  medaling at states. And I’d say that  um  a good part of that is by leading by example by the older  um  upper classmen  so I feel like maybe that was the point where I was demonstrating leadership.|Interviewer: Excellent. So  it sounds like you have worked on a lot of teams. Tell me about a time when you were working on a team and you faced a challenge. How did you go about solving it?|Interviewee: Well  there was a lot of issues with my coach in in rowing. So um  if it wasn’t  I think  um I went through a lot of issues like that with my assistant coach at came for a year  and she helped me sort things a lot. She showed that I did have  um  proper technique. It was more of like  like a discriminating issue of my coach wanting certain people on the boat just because he thought it would move better. I realized that  um  as long as I kept on pursuing the sport  like  that’s all that really mattered. That’s all  like  my own efforts will fruit in something that will take me somewhere  that will help me get into MIT. So  I feel like  um  this  this like seeing things in my own way  right  and being distraught by other people effecting me helped. |Interviewer: Ah  that’s  uh  very good. So  uh  tell me about one of your weaknesses  and what you’ve done to overcome it.|Interviewee: I think one of my weaknesses has to be  um  the fact that  I’m a little  um  delinquent with my work. And  uh  um  I’m lazy at times. I definitely procrastinate. It was a pursuing thing through high school. And  uh  it’s still a little now because of a passing record. One of my combating is goal setting. I learned it from one of my  uh  from one of these  one of an upperclassmen that I know in  uh  at MIT. He  uh  told me  like  to write out  like  weekly goals and write out long term goals. Like  long terms goals meaning  like  the end of MIT  after MIT  what you want to do after the MIT experience  and short term goals  which is  like  get stuff done now. So  in a way that kind of put me things  put things in perspective for me. Realize that I shouldn’t be burning too much time messing around. By  I mean  certainly I should be messing around a little bit just because it’s  it’s a good time to have fun and relax. But  at the same time  I shouldn’t do it in excess. So  I guess that’s helped me a little bit. |Interviewer: That makes since. So  uh  uh  think about the job you’d like to have. Might be a rep or something else. Do you have something in mind? |Interviewee: Um  actually  yeah  um. I’ve never had lab experience before  so I really want a role  which is why-|Interviewer: O good  yeah  OK.. So now  why do you think we should give you this job?|Interviewee: Uh  well  for starters  um  I don’t have any experience  so I feel like  um  it’s a good place for me to start. And I’m really willing to do whatever it takes to make time for it. Um  I see how  um  I’m not taking too many classes this semester cuz I’m a course advantage. I’ll be making sure I’ll have enough time to make classes  uh  more manageable. I should be able to commit hours on it. I’m really interested in the job I’m doing  so  hopefully that interest will inspire me  uh  inspire me to work hard.|Interviewer: Ah  well  thank you for your time. I appreciate you coming in and interviewing today.
p53,Interviewer: Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  well  I was born in Nigeria.  Um  and I moved to the United States at the age of eight  um and lived here  um  in Boston actually ever since.  Um  and um  for as long as I remember umm I've always wanted to go into the medical field. Umm I've always wanted to be a doctor  and just recently actually discovered that I wanted to be a pediatrician umm after working with kids and doing a lot of babysitting in high school and have actually umm shadowed a neonatologist and I feel like that was when it clicked that I actually really want to be a pediatrician.  Umm and I've tutored a lot  umm middle school and high school  and that's really like affirmed the fact that I do like my career.  I want it to be something where I work with kids.|Interviewer: That's great. So  tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: A time I've demonstrated leadership. Umm I guess one obvious one is the student groups that I work with. Umm my primary umm student group is the black students union. I'm currently a coach here. Umm and I've been active with the group since I've been at MIT. Umm currently as a coach here I plan all events for umm the group umm as well as kind of represent the group umm in front of administration as far as like what our members want  what they need  umm if they have any concerns or anything like that. And we have several meetings with administration on a regular basis just to communicate what's going on  what we're doing  and what our membership needs and what how they can help us with that.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge.  How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Team...faced a challenge. Umm. Okay  umm I guess back to the student group. Umm so this is the second time I've actually been on the executive board. Umm the first  umm  last year the executive board ran really smoothly. We worked well together but this year we...we're kind of having problems 'cause it's a new set of people so it's kind of hard adjusting umm to the people I'm working with. Umm so you know  we all have different viewpoints  different ways of approaching things. Umm  so we had a lot of loss of communication  which kind of hindered umm our uh progress this year umm but in the past few weeks we've been able to kind of figure out that  you know  there's been a loss of communication  and we should definitely  like  you know  we need to figure out how to stop that barrier and learn more to communicate more in order to get the things that we want accomplished done.|Interviewer: Okay. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: My weaknesses...umm. I think my biggest weakness is not knowing when to say no. I'm the kind of person that  if someone asks me to do something even if I feel like it's impossible I always say yes. Umm and I've always...I think I realized that problem when I came at MIT and I've been working on that ever since my sophomore year umm and I'm a junior right now. Umm and what I've been doing to overcome it is kind of schedule myself. Umm I have my calendar. I live by my calendar  and I know if it doesn't fit on my calendar  if it's overlapping with something  then absolutely no  I can't do it. So I live by my calendar now and it's definitely helping me say no to things when people ask me to do things for them.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think we should hire you? What it is [??] medical school?|Interviewee: [laughs] Umm. I think that I am a good asset. Umm  one  because MIT experience has definitely prepared me for  I would say  the worst  umm because of the experience as an MIT student. So  it's a unique experience  umm but I've also umm gained a lot of umm a broad range of academic skills  umm not just in  in the life sciences but also in engineering field and political science field umm that I think I can bring into the medical field umm with the help of the knowledge that I gain in medical school to kind of help the world  which is want I want to do  ultimately. So I think umm I would be a good asset for the medical field.|Interviewer: Great.
p55,Interviewer: So tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Umm so I'm a junior at MIT  i'm a math major  umm i have experience in both the economic side of thing's and uhh cs  simple coding   umm interested in going into probably analytic's or trading in the future.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Umm so I'm involved in the undergraduate study of Women in Math and one of the most recent activities we've been doing involves kind of an outreach project  umm for middle school and high school girl's where we can bring them together and have them all do a collaborative math event as opposed to normal competition math  so i kind of experimented in the project to umm do that.  It was originally aimed for just  ya know  local umm Boston girl's  so we did all the publicizing for that  I mean I know  get it a lot more publicity than we expected  people in from like California and stuff  so.|Interviewer: Oh  wow.|Interviewee: Yup.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge.  How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Okay  umm so I guess I'm also a member of China Development Initiative  and so a lot of times  umm  when were in events most of them are within our own group so were brainstorming for like service leadership programs and stuff like that.  But umm we also try to do some events where we bring in professors and other speakers. So some of the big challenges we face include umm actually finding these speakers  getting them to really correspond with us.  Like sometimes they'll respond and be like oh  were interested  but then they just don't follow up  so going after them  kinda looking for that response.|Interviewer: Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what your doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: okay  umm I would say I'm generally more of a passive person  when someone gives me a task I'll do it I won't really  like if i get stuck I'll kind of try to keep working on it myself instead of asking for help.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Umm so I've been trying to umm  i guess talk to more higher ups  if i run into issues  or ask more questions i guess.|Interviewer: Great.  Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Umm we being?|Interviewer: This company that does analytic's?|Interviewee: Okay. Umm I think i would bring a lot to the team in terms of  umm  teamwork in addition to the qualifications i have academically speaking  umm  I guess i would say that I have a lot of experience working with teams  umm a lot of experience in the analytic side of thing's as well  umm as well as a pretty interdisciplinary background in general.  So i would be able to bring a lot more  umm  i guess  umm directions to the team.
p56,Interviewer: OK. Good. Tell me about yourself. |Interviewee: Um  well  my name's Ann. I'm currently a Junior in [??] Biology. I'm originally from San Francisco. Um  I am interested in going to medical school. And  I didn't really come to this decision until  like  around Au-  August or September of this year.|Interviewer: Oh.|Interviewee: I was deciding  like  I mean  I always had it  like  in the back of my mind . . .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . 'cuz my dad is a doctor.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Um  but  and I knew coming into college I wanted to study Biology. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do  um  like  research or  um  medical school. So  um  I had a year off  or I still have a year off. And of course [??] and I really liked it. But I felt like research is something  uh  you have to be  like  self driven . . ..|Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: . . . to do. And  I kept getting  like  frustrated because a lot of my experiments  they wouldn't work  and I felt really bad. [??] And then  uh  I also  like  volunteer at a hospital just to  like  gain experience and see what it's like. And  uh  I enjoy helping people. So  I think  decided for sure now [??] school.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  I guess leadership can be  like  defined in a lot of ways  I guess. One of my main activities that I've been doing at [??] is  um  working in a student group called ESP  or the Educational Studies Program.|Interviewer: Oh  OK.|Interviewee: And  um  so I teach an AP biology class on the weekends to the high school students in the area. And I guess that's kind of like being a leader because you have to  like  stay in control of the class and organize everything.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Tell me about a time you were working on a team and face a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Um  I guess  um  the experience that's  like  most  like  strongest in my mind is actually from high school.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.| |Interviewee: So I used to be on  uh  my high school's robotics team. And  uh  none of us really  like  knew much about engineering or  like  building robots when we first started.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So it required a lot of  like  teamwork and working together. Um  I remember communication was one of our main issues because we would divide into sub-teams and then each sub-team would  like  work on a part of the robot. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: But then sometimes we forgot to  like  communicate clearly with each other  and then that result in major problems down the road. So . . . |Interviewer: Yeah. How did you resolve that problem?|Interviewee: Um  so I guess for us it was like a spe-  special situation because  um  um  we were all  like  my friends and I  were all sophomores.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And then  there were no upperclassmen above us . . .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . on our robotics team. So  our  like  very first years that we were the leaders of our team we really struggled because we didn't  we had no  like  prior experience . . . |Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: . . . in how to organize a team. So  like  after our first year  like  our sophomore year together  we  like  like  had a  like a sit down discussion afterwards . . .  |Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: . . . and  like  talked about what went wrong  like  what could've been better.|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: So the next year we  we have  like  uh  we implemented  like  uh  daily meetings. So  like  before we would  like  split up for the day and  like  work on our  uh  work on our robot. We would  like  outline a plan and then  like  show it to everyone . . . |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . and  like  discuss with everyone. So that really helped. they discuss |Interviewer: Great. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: Um  one of my weaknesses is I'm really shy. Like  I think when I was younger I go-  I didn't like to  like  talk to strangers . . .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . or talk in  in front of a large group of people. So  um  when I came to college I thought that  uh  I should try to improve that. So  um  I think the main thing I tried to do was the teaching activity I talked about before. Um  requires me to  you know  stand in front of a group of high school students and talk for  like  three hours at a time. So  I think  uh  I'm becoming a lot more comfortable  like  talking in front of people I don't really know that well.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm  that's great. Um  why do you think you should get into medical school?|Interviewee: Um  I think I have  like  the passion to help people. Um  I  I had a lot of  like  volunteer activities  but I really enjoy helping people  especially  like  um  children.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So I used to  I used to tutor  like  young children at the Cambridge Community Center and teach them how to read. Um  and I'm currently doing the  like  tutoring  I mean  not tutoring  the AP [??] teaching. You know  um  so I'm  like  motivated to help people. Um  and I think that  like  as  especially as the world becomes  like  bigger  or the population gets greater  more and more people  like  will need medical help. So  I think being a doctor would be a good  good way to help people. |Interviewer: Great.
p57,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm doing very well  thanks. How are you?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: I'm currently a junior  pursuing a degree in both computer science and business and what's really drawn me to both of these is the fact that they involve a lot of problem solving and a lot of interpersonal dynamics. A lot of interesting questions come up where it’s a lot of actually thinking innovatively and that’s why I’ve chose to major in both of these and  actually  that’s why I’m interesting in consulting is because it’s a good application of the problem solving that I’m doing in both of those.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time you’ve demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Umm  recently  I was in a group project where each of us kind of had our own task to do and it was a very straightforward class project  however  umm  these was  I noticed a lack of communication  a lack of set deadlines  so  umm  in that case  I kind of stepped up. I organized communication between all of us. I really got us on the same page and pushed us to a strict deadline and  you know  it’s a good thing I started when I did because otherwise we would have missed the deadline. Umm  I’ve also had a lot of leadership positions if you want something a little bit more structured.|Uh huh.|Would you like me to tell you about one of those?|Interviewer: Yeah  that’d be great.|Interviewee: Okay. Umm  last semester I was an event director for my sorority and what I had to do for that  the biggest event  especially logistically  fell under my responsibilities  so I  with a $2 200 budget  organized a dinner event for 200 people at restaurants across Boston  so this involved  umm  finding places  making all food allergies were taken care of  really finding out what everyone in my sorority needed and wanted with their evening  and this also involved a lot of delegation because  you know  there were about 20 restaurants involved and I couldn’t personally be in charge of all of those  so I had to delegate out to a committee  make sure that they knew what was happening  manage the risk aspect of it by keeping track of who had left  who hadn’t gone as yet  everyone knew their reservations  how to get there  how to get back. So  in that case  it was kind of a different style of leadership with more of delegation and things like that.|Interviewer: Great. And tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Umm  let me see. I guess the first thing that comes to mind is that same item I was just talking about where we weren’t all on the same page and not communicating.|Mmm. Uh huh.|Umm  I can also try to think of something else if you don’t mind giving me just a minute.|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: Umm  so I guess  in one of my classes last year  we had a team project where certain elements of it were things that none of three of us on the team knew how to do or were particularly interested in learning how  umm  and the way we kind of resolved that issue  because clearly  as an aspect  it needed to get done  we resolved that by making sure the person who took that had less responsibilities elsewhere to kind of balance it out. So the girl who took that was happy because her main priority was spending less time  whereas for the rest of us  we were more interested in the actual material  so we found a mutually agreeable solution.|Interviewer: Great. Tell…Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you’re doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Yes. Umm  I think one of my weaknesses is that I tend to get very excited about everything I’m doing  you know  that  like  I’m a double major because I started in computer science and then I went oh  management really excites me too  I want to do that as well  which  in the past  has led me to kind of overextend myself a little bit  which  as a result  when you’re really excited about everything  but then you try to do everything  the amount of commitment you give to each one is reducing  but I’m conscious of this year. I cut down a little bit on my extracurriculars and…especially because last year  while doing all of those  I wasn’t sleeping as much  which  you know  while I was still there and pulling my share and everything  you know  it was harder to be a full present member of anything if you’re tired. So this year I kind of focused in on the things that were most important to me and I’m aware of that  so when I feel myself reaching my limit  I’ll actually try to prioritize more.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: As I mentioned before  what I’m studying in school is very applicable to consulting  but  in addition to that  I’m really excited about the work that consultants do  especially  as I mentioned  I’m very interested in a wide range of fields and with you consulting you really get to explore a lot of those  delve into them  and in consulting I’d get to apply my favorite aspects of computer science and management both  which is  again  the problem solving  the thinking innovatively. These are all things that are very important to a consulting company and that is exactly what I love to do  so I think I would have that passion and drive that makes every member of your company that I’ve spoken to really engaging and it seems  from all of my previous conversations with them  that they’re really excited about this  which is  you know  exactly what I would hope to bring as well.
p58,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Good.|Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: I'm a junior at MIT studying Ocean Engineering. And I'm really interested in working with big ships. I love being on boats and by the water. I am on the sailing team. I spent the summer building underwater robots.|Interviewer: Wow  great! Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  this last year  um  I restarted the section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers at MIT. We had one about five years ago when Ocean Engineering was Course 13  but now it's merged with the Mechanical Engineering Department and when that happened the organization fell apart. But I knew that me and some of the other Ocean Engineers wanted to really have our own society. So I started it and I went to this meeting to how to get it all setup and got a professor to sponsor us.|Interviewer: So you basically restarted the whole thing?|Interviewee: Mmhmm|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time when you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: This last January I was working with my team in robotics team. And we  there was a big conflict in the team because we thought we were going to build a six foot long glider  which is pretty huge. The parts are so large and so heavy we couldn't machine anything ourselves we had to get it all done in a machine shop externally. But we had to have a glider that size to like accomplish the goals for the glider which were look for oil. Um  so like  but then were were also working on a smaller version of the glider that didn't have all the sensors we needed  but otherwise had the same capabilities. And it was more easier and more fun because we could machine everything. And um  it was easier to understand the small piece. But there was an awkward moment in January when half the team was working on the big glider and half the team was working on the small glider and we didn't know if we wanted to trash the big glider and work on the small one. And so I was part of the team that decided that we should focus on the small glider. So we took the design from the big glider and took as much as we could to put on the small glider and assigned people to work on the small glider.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: One of my weaknesses is  I think  being aware of the energy that I bring into a room. So when I am at meetings I really try to put positive energy into the room. Even if one day I'm really feeling quiet I make an effort to say things or make an effort to react to say things.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Haha|Interviewer: Something along the lines of something relevant to what you'd want to hear.|Interviewee: You should hire me because  um  I can bring good energy to a team and engineering experience  especially related to the ocean and ships related to the ocean and underwater vehicles. And I have experience working on teams.|Interviewer: Great.
p59,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Great [laughs] tired.|Interviewer: Good  me too. Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  alright  I go to MIT  course ten and seven. Um  I want to be a doctor. I'm an EMT. What else is there? A little sister. Hmm  I grew up here in Florida  but I was born in Toronto. |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: Uh  yeah [laughs]|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  probably when I worked as an EMT. You know  you're there to support your colleagues. And  you know  people have to trust you  if there're going to want to call you. And that's the whole of this service  is that we want people to trust us  and  you know  taking on the extra work load and working  'cus I'm an MIT student  and  you know  taking nightshifts or working in between classes and. Pretty great responsibility  so.|Interviewer: Tell me about the time you're on a team and faced a challenge. And how did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Um  I rode for six years  so  you know  it's obviously a team requirement  so. Basically every time you show up to a race  that's a challenge  right? And  I have a quote that hangs on my wall  and it's training is the opposite of hoping. So  it's just working really hard to  sort of  prepare  for  you know  trying to achieve your goal. Because I think all the training  you know  that's how you make your own fate or  preparing  you know  preparing for a test  whatever.|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: And to work for it  you know  things don't come very easy  so.|Interviewer: Great. And can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: I am a huge perfectionist. So  you know  you [inaudible] into trivial things that  you know  you know  I shouldn't waste so much time perfecting and I- I will  so. That's- that's probably the worst thing. My boyfriend tells me all the time  he's like You have to stop expecting everything to be perfect I'm like I know  so. Uh  just trying to  like  put things in perspective I guess  so.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: Definitely became harder to do at MIT. You know  you can't be perfect because  you know  everyone here essentially is  so. Everyone's very good at doing stuff  so.|Interviewer: And why do you think you should get into medical school?|Interviewee: Um  I mean  because I work really hard. I love it. I don't see myself doing anything else with my life. It's weird [inaudible] Why are you doing that?  I don't know you know  I thought it was this thing  but. I don't see myself  you know  sitting in a cubicle or behind a computer being like a code monkey. Um  I need a career  I'm up on my feet and. I love interacting with people. I love the science behind medicine. And  um  you know  being able to change someone's life. I know it's probably a pretty cliched answer  but it's the only thing that like  I can see myself doing. You know  adding productively into society  so.
p6,Interviewer: So  how are you doing?|Interviewee: I’m doing good. How are you?Thank you. |Interviewer: So  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Well  um  my name is Jeff  um. I was born in Japan. I lived there for seven years before I moved to the  uh  US. First  to Michigan for two years and then to Maryland. Um  and it was when I was in high school  or I’m sorry  middle school that I was exposed to um  a lot of different math  uh  science  advanced science courses. Um  it was where  um  I was exposed to a lot of um math competitions and computer science competitions. And  it was around my uh  junior year in high school. It was around my junior year in school because of peer and parental pressures I decided to do pre-med. I decided to pursue  uh  a career in medicine. Um  so it was in high school that I decided start taking biology classes  physics  physiology  and  um  when I got here to MIT I decided to major in Course 20. Um  and  after about four lab positions  two of the (inaudible) and two of chemistry that I realized  um  the Course 20  the medicine track wasn’t for me. Um  mainly because it wasn’t quantitative enough or competitive enough  or fast paced enough for me. But  with my last internship in the biotech industry  I had the privilege of talking to talk with several site directors. Um  it was because of and through that meeting I realized that I might really like finance  and that it might be more suitable for me. Um  and afterwards I started talking to some colleagues. Um  some finance majors. And  that’s why I’m here. |Interviewer: Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership. |Interviewee: Um  I would say it was during high school. There was this one group sophomore year. We had to do this mission  this project called Mission Impossible where we had to design a rover that would uh  traverse  a uh  a uh  platform with quantum data. The problem with the group was there was supposed to be a leader  but nobody really took an responsibility to do what they had to do. That was partly due to the fact that nobody really individuals were assigned anything. So  that was when I had to  I decided to take the initiative a couple of days before it was due. Actually  with the whole project  to uh  become the leader. The unofficial itself leader. As a leader I  uh  assigned a tasks to people. Politely  I asked them to do this because this was a very um (coughs)  multi- prospective project that um. It required programming construction and educating. And  yeah  I decided to be leader and assign tasks. And  I would say it was pretty successful the robot got in time it was due. |Interviewer: Tell me about a time you were working a team and you faced a challenge. How did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: Ok  well I would like to talk about my past at my most recent internship at a biotech company. Um  and the problem was that I was working as an individual group. It was because I was working with cells. And  cells  the way cells work  is that um  that you culture them  like on say day 1. And  you let them grow like four or five or six  and then you let them grow until you collect  data. And  the problem is you’re not even can’t collect the data on day one  you have to collect on day six. And  if anything happens on day 3 or day four or something or sometime between day one and day five  the data will make no sense. You would have to re-start the experiment. And  I was on a tight schedule and this was a ten week project. And  in the first two weeks  I contaminated the cells. Um  both weeks  um. And  so my data had to be re-done  my experiment had to be re-done. The problem was that this was a ten week project and I had eight weeks to do. One thing I learned about internships is to not panic when situations like such as this arise. And  uh  what I did was  I went to people for help. Um  and I definitely spent more hours. I talked to the HR department  I talked to my managers to increase my hours from 40 to 60 hours. Uh  so instead I went Saturdays and Sundays too. In fact  there was this one point where I worked 23 days in a row  um. And  uh  successfully  I think finished it. In fact  after my data analysis and data compiling  uh  I presented my data to the site director. He told me I had the most impressive presentation out of all the 21 other interns there. Um  So  Yeah  it was during challenges like that  because of challenges like that that I’ve learned to not panic in a stressful situation and to definitely branch out for help. |Interviewer: Tell me about one of your weaknesses and how you plan to overcome it?|Interviewee: I think one of my weaknesses is that I don’t have a formal education in finance. Um  I decided to be Course 20  and um  uh  and I decided to pursue pre-med. And  I was  I agree  uh  that it was a very sudden transition to math Course 18. I think make up for that at least partially by  uh going to workshops  uh going to reading books  um. I definitely have been networking with colleagues. So  in terms of the financial models  uh  the mental math skills and the preliminary skills that I mean to  I believe I have a very strong grasp of those. |Interviewer: Now  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Well  I think  um  that compared to the rest of the competition  no one shows more initiative than I do. And  in fact  I don’t anyone has the technical skills or the willingness to work such long hours. Um  I think one of my strengths is that I don’t have any problems with high expectations because I had to do such a sudden transition in career. I had to do a lot research to convince myself that I won’t have to do this transition again. Like I said  I’ve networked  I’ve done tons of research  I’ve read books  I’ve done tons and tons of research. And you know  out to site directors  you know even out to first year analysts. And  I know exactly what my job is. And  I know that the long hours are tough and anyone else who says they like the long hours would be lying to you. And  I know the exact skill sets required  and I believe I have those skill sets. |Interviewer: Well  thank you again for coming.|Interviewee: Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity. |Interviewer: Yes  it was great to meet you.
p60,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interveiwee: Good  how are you?|Interviewer: Gooood  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: So  umm I'm from Chicago... and I'm a junior here at MIT  umm when I came here I was pretty sure I wanted to do health related work  so I guess I came in as a biology major. And my dad is also a MDHP really interested - or really involved in research|Interviewer: Mhm.|Interviewee: Um  and so sort of that influenced me a lot. So then I realized  after doing biology for two years essentially  that I wasn't really enjoying it (laughs). And so  I decided to try out computer science. Because this is MIT after all and if I did want to do biology in the future  which it's not that I don't like biology  it's that I didn't feel like I was learning skills that would contribute to the field I guess. And so  um yeah.|Interviewer: Great.|Interviewee: So then I decided to do computer science. That's a very small part of me (laughs). That's a very broad question.|Interviewer: So tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  so I am the co-president of an organization at MIT called Glo-Met  and what we do is  we're partnered with a non-profit gratitude organization abroad  so our group is basically non profit. We work with HIV health care work in Togo  and so I guess an example of leadership would be this whole semester I suppose  it's been a work in progress  it's the first time I've ever been like in a president's role in a group of about 30 people. And all the records are new this year  its a new organization. So it's sort of like realizing  you know there's so many aspects of leadership  it's not just like  not only the objectives your group needs to get done but also the camaraderie you have in a group and we can show that's being maintained properly. Um and we had a lot of really troublesome leadership experiences last year with this group. Um so I guess I've been learning a lot. Do you have specific questions about that?|Interviewer: No  I want to hear about your experience.|Interviewee: Okay. So yea in terms of like leading a group of people that are like you know  my age  umm and we're all like new at it  it's definitely a work in progress. But we do a number of things in terms of umm  we fund raise for... so we hold campaigns and we fund raise  in order to basically fund our projects abroad in Togo  so we are trying.. our main project right now is to improve the technological efficiencies of the clinic that we're partnered with in Togo  so we... it's hard sometimes motivating a group of people when your partner is abroad  it's not like  we haven't met them yet  and it's a new partnership  so we're traveling there this summer but since it's new its kind of as a leader I think it takes a lot of like  not only vision and fore planning but like also like you have to be able to step back and allow other leaders in your group to step up. You can't just do everything yourself.|Interviewer: Mhm.|Interviewee: Even if that seems easier. Umm and then also like  maintaining the motivation among a group of people that are like really busy with other things in their lives. So that's the biggest challenge I think  but.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you're working on a team a face a challenge  how do you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Umm... so I guess the same organization  we had a lot of umm  problems. Um  so  we are a team as an organization. So last year I was like a director on the exec board  but not umm one of the co-presidents  and the biggest challenge we've had as a team was that our co presidents were not motivated  had very poor communication  and we didn't have  we just didn't really get anything done. Umm so a challenge on my part was not really  I wasn't sure  I knew what needed to get done and I knew things like we needed to be more efficient and take more initiative and you know  motivate our staff  because it's not like  it's not just about us  we obviously  there are people that like depend on us.. and umm  the problem was like not stepping on their toes at the same time  while trying to.. trying to get them motivated but you know  telling  and I think a challenge was that they felt it was  they felt personally attacked when people criticize them. Or when people try to make suggestions for better things to do umm so I think solving that problem was more just stepping back and being like you can't do everything  if that person is the president you just have to let them do what they're gonna do and wait til your ends do your job right  but don't try to push  like you can't always push through things  sometimes you gotta just like go.|Interviewer: Mhm.|Interviewee: And like... and I guess that's... that did kind of solve the problem. I mean  I didn't solve the problem of like  things not getting done. But like I think realizing that actually helps a lot. Because it was just like banging your head against the wall. So.. yeah! (Laughs)|Interviewer: Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what your doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: That's like also a weakness I guess.. I guess a weakness of mine would be that I am pretty umm.. Knowing how to step back and not umm.. basically not trying to do everything myself when it's definitely supposed to be a team effort  and that involves a lot of like trust in other people and their competency. So umm... definitely giving people the chance to do the job right. And sometimes you make second chances. So I think that's.. I might have a bad temper sometimes. That can be part of it (laughs). So yeah.|Interviewer: Okay. And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think because I'm very motivated. And I have a lot of self initiative and I'm hard on myself  so that sometimes I expect highly of other people in the same way  and that can  I mean that is part of both the challenge and the weakness question that you've asked about  but I think that is umm good in  when you have a team of people and like you need somebody that umm is very meticulous about delegating things properly and making sure things are done at the right time. And somebody who really takes like  self responsibility for things. So.. I think if it's for like a project for example  like a small group project its like good to have someone that isn't shy to speak up in a group. And somebody that can sort of like organize the group to  to coordinate the group better. Like vocally. (Laughs)
p61,Interviewer:  Tell me about yourself|Interviewee:  I am in aerospace and engineering  and a  |Junior  uhm I’m in naval ROTC  and I’m trying to be a naval  |Aviator.  |Interviewer:  Ready?  Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee:  well with ROTC you get a lot of  |different opportunities each semester  uhm  depending  |On hold old you are  ah  you will be a squad leader  |Which is where you lead about 6 different people  ah  |now that I’m a jra I’m ah admino  which is basically  |where i do a lot of paper work and i help shape the  |background planning for the entire battalion.|Interviewer: mm wow ok tell me about a time when working on a team and facing a challenge  how did you solve that problem?||Interviewee: ah in unified last year  uhm we had the  |airplane challenge uhm and different people had  |different personalities some wanting and more  |controlling than others  ultimately we ended up ah  |dividing it for who had the better strengths ah and  |ultimately  we do really hope that the project was good |Interviewer: ok and can you tell me one of your weaknesses that hopefully will never come in?||Interviewee: One of my big weaknesses would be ah  |speeches in front of a lot of people||Interviewer: and what are you doing to overcome it?||Interviewee: well ROTC is kinda forcing me into  |positions to just practice all the time i feel that  |ultimately that will help||Interviewer: and why do you think we should hire you|Interviewee: (slight laugh)|Interviewer: (finishes sentence) in the meaning|Interviewee: ah because I'm physically qualified and  |trained very well and i feel my battalion has set me  |up to do well in the future||Interviewer: great
p62,Interviewer: Ok. Alright  Ready to go?|Interviewee: Mmm  hmmm|Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I’m good  |Interviewer: Good|Interviewee: How are you?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself|Interviewee: Umm  So my name is Juliann  ok  uhh  just hold up  so what  what exactly would this interview?|Interviewer: You can say background|Interviewee: Ok|Interviewer: It’s a behavioral  short behavioral interview for I guess for Med School|Interviewee: Ok  |Interviewer: Ok?|Interviewee: So I’m Juliann  I go to MIT  I’m currently a junior  I’m hoping to attend your  the medical school that I’m applying to  |Interviewer: Mmm  hmmm|Interviewee: Umm yeah I’m studying computer science and biology  which is a pretty new umm course here at MIT  and currently I’m taking mostly biology classes  I’m also doing research in the hematology lab  and umm  yeah so a little bit about myself umm I guess if you want to know a little bit about my background before college  I was born in Tai… I was born in California… in Irvine  umm and my parents and I moved back to Taiwan when I was about 10  so I went to International school there  umm but yeah  most of my friends were pretty bilingual. They spoke both English and Chinese so I would say that I’m pretty you know fluent at both languages. And yeah really look to both California and Taiwan as my homes.|Interviewer: Great  Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Ok  umm let’s see… So I as I said I’m from Taiwan and I’m  I’m part of a student group here at MIT  called the association of Taiwanese students  and what I actually was  was a cultural chair uh  for a year  and one of our main events is to create a night market  so umm  yeah  so instead of you know the outdoors night markets that you see in cities in Asia  uhh we actually took it inside into our student center  so we had to work with umm the leadership from a bunch of different other clubs  so this included like the Chinese students club  umm  the association of  sorry the Asian American Association  as well some other umm cultural clubs in order to create this event  and so what my partner and I were in charge of was the food  and what we thought  we thought that this was you know  one of the umm biggest points of the event in the first place  so umm  yeah I think that you know ha… getting everyone umm as a group to really sit down and look at you know how much money we had to allocate here and how much umm  you know time everybody needed to set up  umm and we  yeah so my partner and I were in charge of that  and I thought that that was one time where we really showed our leadership and made something  umm  you know  arise out of that.|Interviewer: Great  and tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge  how did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: A team  umm  lets see  ok so over the summer umm  I actually  this last summer before my junior year  umm  I went to Taiwan and China. Taiwan and Hong Kong specifically to teach…|Interviewer: Mmm hmmm|Interviewee: And this was in groups of three  so there were two other MIT students and I umm teaching in a group…|Interviewer: Mmm hmmm|Interviewee: And so what this conflict arose  umm where we had two weeks of umm teaching and we weren’t sure because there were  there was also another group  another group of three teaching at the same time and we weren’t sure if the students really wanted us to like switch classes so that they could get umm more  more time with all of the six instructors  umm or if we just wanted to stick with the same grup of students for a complete two weeks…|Interviewer: Mmmm|Interviewee: And so you know kind of a conflict arose out of that umm it was pretty much you know  three versus three  like three of us wanted  we thought that it would be a good idea to switch and umm the other three thought that you know they wanted to have a more personal relationship with their students. And umm  yeah eventually what you know we we sat down at first it was pretty heated  umm  like so two of uhh  my colleagues  like one person from my team  and someone from the other  umm had you know really strong  strong ideas about umm what they wanted to do. So  you know what I said was  hey  everybody like let’s sit down and calm down  and you know think this through and talk it through  and you know I  I felt like I was one of the mediators in that  you know I didn’t let myself get you know too involved at first  and I didn’t let you know start screaming or anything like that  and I was really the one that said hey everybody sit down  umm  let’s talk this through  and so we really just you know calmly and logically thought it through  talked it through  and you know we were like oh what would be the advantages of of switching and what would be the disadvantages? And in the end we felt like umm the students were there to get breath and not necessarily depth  Since it was only two weeks anyway  and so we felt like it would be a lot better for them to umm have more exposure to all of the MIT instructors from all different backgrounds.|Interviewer: Ok. Ok  tell me one of your weaknesses and what you’re doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Ok. I feel like one of my greatest weaknesses is uhh  self confidence. I  you know  I’m not naturally somebody who really wants to take a center stage to everything|Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: Umm  and you know there are people  like some of my friends are very much so people who are in the center of attention a lot. And I think that that’s something that I have been working on and will strive to work on umm in the future as well.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think you should get into this medical school?|Interviewee: Well I think that  you know  I (laughs) I I’ve demonstrated a lot of umm I have a lot of experience in the medical field  umm as a college student umm I do research in as I said in the hematology lab and I actually also work as an EMT. |Interviewer: Mmmmm|Interviewee: So that’s been a very  very large  big part of my life since umm last January. Umm  when I got my EMT  EMS umm license  and yeah so I actually work here at MIT umm as a Emergency Medical Technician  Uhh  I work probably 15 hours a week on that. Umm  but moreso beyond my experience I really have a passion for the medical field. Umm  and I you know want to see help both the research that I do that you know  hopefully  in the future uhh  some clinical  the clinical work that I do will effect medical field.
p63,Interviewer: So uh  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Pretty good  how are you?|Interviewer: I'm well. Um  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: All right. Um  I guess  to start with the basics  I'm uh  a junior at MIT right now. I'm studying course six three  it's computer science. And uh  I guess I didn't really get into computer science until last year. And um  that's after I transferred here from the University of Michigan. And then uh  since then pretty much everything I do has been computer science. |Interviewer: No  awesome. Our courses department is pretty excellent here.|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: So uh  tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: All right  um  so this past um  this past summer um  I uh  got  well I guess last year  I got involved with an organization on campus called Camp Kasim.|Interviewer: Uh-hmm.|Interviewee: And so  Camp Kasim runs a camp for the children of cancer patients. And it's um  it's kind of a therapeutic camp  so the aim is for kids to just have fun. And  anyway  we have various units that we break the kids up into to  that are divided up by age. And um  I wasn't the unit leader for my unit but uh  there was a time when our unit leader had to go off and uh  it was either his break or he had to uh  go off and take care of some other stuff. And so  uh  I was kind of given control of the unit. And so um  it was an interesting experience  because we were dealing with kids. But um  obviously the counselors were adults and college students  my peers.|So um  there's this kind of flip flopping between interacting with my peers and like  making sure they were on top of their um  you know  their jobs as counselors. Watching the kids and making sure the kids are having fun. Also  like  playing around with the kids and making sure the kids are like  not thinking about anything  but having  but having a good time. So um  this kind of  I just like  should that answer the question?|Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah  I think so  it's always import to help the problem. Uh  so tell me about a time when you were on a team and you faced a challenge. How did you overcome the problem?|Interviewee: All right um  so in  I guess  the last time I can really remember being part of uh  really intense team experience was um  in high school  I was on the year book as a photographer. So um  we  I  my friend and I were both the head photographers. So we  organized all the photos. And so  we would coordinate with the editors. And um  in that they would tell us what sort of content we needed  like what events needed to have photos taken of them  or what teams needed photos. And  we would go about organizing the actual um  like the sending of the photographers to go to these events or to get the team photos. And  so um  there we times when  like just getting  making sure that our photographers got to events uh  and like  and end up getting a decent amount of good photos um  was  could be very challenging. Because  I mean  because we were all very busy students. And so um  one  like just  I guess one challenge we faced was just getting people to like  really commit to their job and follow through on that. And so  part of what we did was just try to build a really strong like  team culture. And  a sense of like  comradery among the photographers themselves. |Interviewer: Ah  yes. |Interviewee: Um  you know  try to get people to um  like try to get people to go to event  even though  and they weren't assigned. Just out of  like the eagerness to take photos and photography. And so  um  we kind of approached this challenge and motivated  it was like it was sort of a challenge in motivating our  our um  peers. And so  um  or like incentivizing these photos. And  we approached by trying to  like build a sense of community and uh  like  like  and like and ambition in terms of like taking photos. Um  it was  it ended up playing out very well  but there's still a couple photographers who just  you know. |Interviewer: Yeah. |Interviewee: They just didn't want to do the job  sometimes. I mean  they  they usually had like  valid  some what valid excuses  but. |Interviewer: That inevitable. |Interviewee: Yeah  but yeah this job still need to get done. So uh  yeah  I mean  that was uh  pretty interesting team experience. |Interviewer: That went well. So  can you tell me about one of your weaknesses and what your doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Sure  um  yes. Let's see  um  maybe one of my  I'd say one of my weaknesses is communicating my thoughts clearly. Uh  at times I struggle to uh  I struggle to quickly come up with a sentence or phrase to describe what I'm thinking. And so  I like  I find myself kind of slowly articulating a sentence. And um  there's some situations were  just like that those pauses and that slow thinking or slow articulation is uh  can be problematic. And in other  in other situations  like the slow thinking ends up being some what useful  because I've  you know  I don't say anything  I don't tend to say anything rash. And so  um  it has it's merits. But usually  its just in general  it's nicer just to have a faster pace so  in kind of like conveying thoughts. |Interviewer: So  now thinking back to the job that we talked about  now why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um  um  so I'd say that I'm committed  hard working  uh  person. And  in terms of this job I guess  uh  and my edge  can I describe what it is?|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: All right  so in my head it's a software engineering position and so  I believe as um  I can contribute a lot to this  with the skills that I've gained here at uh  MIT. And  then also  I believe that I can gain a lot from the company  in terms of learning um  about what they do and how they do it. And  I think it would be a good partnership. |Interviewer: Well  thank you. For coming to your interview today.
p64,Interviewer: Please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: So  umm I was wandering  umm I'm actually from Russia. I grew up in Tulun  though  and I normally go to Cambridge University-|Interviewer: Really?|Interviewee: -which is  which is where I study. Here I am  uhh a foreign exchange student uhh with MIT. Uhh I study course six umm mainly I focus my interest  split them more like uhh between umm the afternoon where I focus more on devices look like  nano electronics uhh processing methods umm circuits and also stuff that has to do with uhh I think it has to do with AI control machine loading umm so what I'm interested in. I've been taking courses to that uhh goal  so things like 6034  6052  6017  umm in those same areas I've done several projects umm like something Cambridge over summer  I did a I wrote a uhh simulator umm the simulator basically simulates a landing on Mars and has to take in account physics umm graphics  planetary rotation umm and I have to write an AI which accounts for all that and is able to land and launch umm in a space craft. Umm similarly  I've also been participating in a robotics uhh competition in Cambridge. Umm it was similar to MIT's Mass Lab umm and I was on the software team again uhh although I have done a little bit of electronics and the goal of that project was to  in a team of six  create a robot which is able to navigate a black uh sorry a white grid on a black table umm and be able to pick up a cylinder thing with a magnet or without a magnet based on whether uhh it was magnetic or not take it into a certain box  and I programmed the uh AI for that. So that's the most experience I've had. Umm in Cambridge here uhh I've considered participating in uhh umm Battlecode or Mass Lab perhaps. Umm there's been some quite interesting projects going on umm in class; those should be quite interesting. |Interviewer: Excellent. That was  that was a wonderful experience.|Interviewee: Yeah  yeah it was good  pretty good.|Interviewer: So umm tell me a time when you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Umm  so umm again  in the robotics project uhh competition at Cambridge umm in in our team of six I had to  in some ways  help out and direct the design choices in our  umm  for the competition. Uhh some things include deciding which sensors to be placed and where and kind of the overall idea was basically because I am running the AI  I have to umm have a clear idea of what the robot has to do  what its components are and I was the one to be the go-to guy in case somebody had to make the decision up based on that. And I made decisions uhh just based on rationality where umm if something was  the idea was that something has to be umm only as complicated as it needs to be and no more complicated because any more complications make problems  stuff doesn't work  breaks  umm so yeah. And I also helped out with the electronics and sometimes the woodshure which umm sensors to hook up to which control lines and stuff like that and I had to blast them on umm well what I wanted to be done for the AI to work properly. Umm another case of leadership  I guess  was I did military service in Finland uh uhh as a citizen-|Interviewer: Yeah.|Interviewee: -and  umm  so we had this  at the end of the service near to the end  there was a umm a anti air camp where all the anti air regiments and battalions were coming together at this one big training camp and as a member of the communication squad  umm we had to go and set up some things for the light fly exercises and because our sergeant was away doing some things  umm I really didn't know what he was doing  but I-I had to take charge of the squad and make sure that the cables were done right and had to delegate tasks to certain people that  you know  these two guys  you know  do this cable and these guys set up the radio  I'll do this and so yeah it was quite alright I guess that way.|Interviewer: Hmm. Uhh that's all the license. Umm so I guess we can go over some of the details. Can you tell me a time when you worked on a team and faced a challenge  how did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: Umm well with the with the six people uhh we split each ourselves in three teams  three sub teams. One was mechanical  one was electrical  and one was uhh AI. Now because my programming experience was much bigger than the programming experience of the other guy on my team  umm we said that it'd be better if he was to help out with the mechanics 'cause there was umm a lot of hand work to be done uhh a lot of design work there and the AI is easily written by me  when umm I just kind of have a clear idea it was much faster then splitting with other people  it was rather simple AI I guess. Umm now  with the mechanics it's much more important they get all this stuff done  leave some time in the workshop work so it was a decision we had to make umm to get more of that kind of get more of that hand work to the mechanical team  more man power to the mechanical team. Uhh with the electrical team umm we decided that we wanted the meaning doing most of the design work for the electronics 'cause you get a better idea and they also gonna be doing most of the soldering of electronic parts 'cause so we got uhh some basic components we we got this controller block umm with with a CPU inside but it had to be wired to sensors and controllers and other controllers and all that so we had to do all those circuits. Umm so one of the guys  Oscar  umm was much more into that so he took charge into design and uhh Calvin did much more the soldering and stuff. I kind of helped out when they needed some help. Umm so yeah we just needed to have a clear delegation of tasks and just do a bit of try if somebody needs something done we'd be able to produce a kind of working-ish result-|Interviewer: Ahh.|Interviewee: -so that we could get stuff out. So as an example  I-I made a control system which uhh follows the lines way before I wrote any of the code for picking up stuff or testing what it is and how to choose where it goes. The idea was that I am able to follow the line and turn umm which kind of tricky actually  so the way the sensors set up and the motors weren't properly balanced and such. Umm so the mechanic guys managed to work together umm at a quick rate with just some of the basic plates they didn't they didn't cut them or anything. They just got a plate  put some motors on  uhh hooked up the motors into the CPU  and did that and it worked. I was able to make the AI which follows the lines which was pretty good. Umm also that that that did mean that the umm the Oscar who made the sensor connectors umm he had to kind of work faster and make those particular circuits work before he made any other control circuits. But delegating those things that way it  well will do a step by step  and do it gradually.|Interviewer: Umm so tell me what are your weaknesses and you're going about to improving them.|Interviewee: Umm I guess one of my weaknesses is that I often get carried away umm I guess somewhat arrogantly. Umm when I'm working with something  and I think I have a really good idea of what I am doing  umm something is better than other umm I have a better idea of wondering than therefore try to tell them maybe they're doing it slightly wrong be sort of somewhat more self-absorbed in what resources need to be allocated because I'm doing a lot of stuff and they might be doing it more slowly so I can use this for longer or something. Umm not not to the point of insulting people but more sort of center of attention kind thing  I guess. Umm I'm trying to kind of be more mindful of what other people are doing and sometimes that even though I think I have an idea of what I'm doing  I don't actually or that I might be mistaken. So I kind of try to be more kind of chilled and laid back just yeah so yeah  but it's a work in progress.|Interviewer: Umm so now finally  think of the job you'd like to have. So now why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Umm well you should hire me because I am capable of uhh pretty good verbal communication umm I don't really stress out much  I think  so I'm quite relaxed that way. I'm able to speak three languages  so I'm able to communicate quite well  umm Norwich  Finnish  and English. Umm and I tend to be quite good at being able to delegate tasks to people so I'd be good for like a project lead  I guess because I have a pretty good technical background and I understand the tech and I quite enjoy working with the tech and I also like being with a team environment where I can delegate tasks and work on umm different things. On on some things we can accomplish by ourselves on a larger project working on a team is quite fun if it works out right.|Interviewer: Well thank you for coming.
p65,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Yeah  pretty good. Um  don't feel particularly different from any other day.|Interviewer: [laughs] Uh  so  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  so I'm from Nearbell Fosten [SP]  Northern Ireland. I have three younger brothers  um  so  I think they have kind of influenced me as much as I probably have influenced them. Like  Mark  the next one down  he's only a year younger than me  so he was always a lot sportier. Uh  coming up through school he was always playing rugby and cricket and because of that  I got into those sports. Um  and then Ian  the next one down after him  is a lot more artsy and stuff  so I think because of his influence I'm kind of a bit more appreciative of things that I would have maybe just kind of  like  disregarded before. Um  Like  um  when we was down in New York there we went to MOMA and there was like  um  the Scream by Munch or Moonch . . .|Interviewer: Yeah.|Interviewee: . . . whatever  which was there  and some Van Gogh Starry Night and some lilies by Monet. So I [??] with that. But you know what? He will probably want to hear about this so I'll go and I'll take some photos for him. Um  and then Harry is the youngest one  he's kind of like just gets away with everything  being the youngest. But  um  should be pretty good to go back around Christmas and catch it with them and stuff. Um  probably not get back over to Cambridge in the UK over Christmas break but I try to keep in contact with friends from there  through like Facebook and stuff. Um  and yeah  just really enjoying my time here at the moment. That's a little bit of background on me and my family. |Interviewer: Uh  excellent. So tell me a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Uh  so  this  I'm here on my third year  what you call junior year  my first two years in Cambridge I was part of like the Student Council for the college there while I was in college. So as part of that we do have like  we call it Thrashers Week  where as you kind of call it Freshman Rush  dorm exploration or whatever  um  so we had a big kind of end to that week  finale event that kind of took over college  like  multiple music stages and the legal drinking age in the UK is 18  so everyone at university could drink  so there were different promotions on different  um  bars all over the place in the college  different attractions and stuff. So  um  just kind of planning that  deciding what the theme would be  um  how we were going to decorate up the colours to tie in with that  and getting music acts  um  getting promotions on the main bar  and just making sure we were covered health and safety wise in terms of enough canisters  fire extinguisher points  emergency plans and obviously working as part of a committee on that and being responsible for individual sections  particularly  [??] being responsible for a particular area  I think that's quite a practical hands-on  time when I've been given leadership and I think I done well with it. |Interviewer: Uh  excellent. Sounds like a fun time. |Interviewee: It was  yeah.|Interviewer: So  uh  tell me about a time you worked in a team and you faced a challenge. How did you go about solving it?|Interviewee: Right. So  um  again going thinking back to Cambridge in the UK  um  we  one of the things that Cambridge is known quite well for is Rowing  so I got to Cambridge and I was like  ah  I've never tried rowing before  I'll take this up. So  um  in my first year there was me and a few of my friends took it up and we continued it into our second year  but one of friends then decided he didn't have time for it and just kin- kinda dropped it to the wayside  but we had the big kind of races that are towards the end of the summer there  they're called the Maybumps [SP]. And obviously any kind of sport team work is important  but in rowing so much of it is just getting in time with each other  working as one  and it takes like the whole year to build up this. So him deciding to [??]  was really going to be massively detrimental  'cause you can get someone to sub in and fill his seat but it's not the same. Um  so  convincing him to stay on  as part of the team and kind of rallying like getting a good  like  boat spirit  that we weren't just here guys that kind of rowed  but we all got along well and we actually wanted to row for each other. And because I had been given responsibility as Boat Captain  no like the overall boat club captain  but that boat. So  um  doing things like havin'  um  pre-race meetings together  and watching  like  video clips before  like kind of motivation Rocky style stuff. Um  and just making sure like we were training hard but people were enjoying training and it was the right kind of balance between  yeah we need to train at this level to be good  but we don't need to go absolutely overboard  and we can gauge when people just need time off  or need time to unwind or de-stress. Um  so kind of implementing that and it came round to the actual Bumps races  he hadn't quit and um  we managed to do a lot better than the previous term  previous term being a bit of a disaster  then this term we actually the best boat from the college. So that was pretty satisfying. Um  like  again it just kind of shows  like  the races are painful and tough but you work together to get through them  you feel good after. So that was like a pretty obvious sporting example of teamwork.    |Interviewer: So  tell me about one of your weaknesses and how you plan to overcome them. |Interviewee: Um  I think overall I'm quite  like  confident and happy to talk to people and stuff  but maybe a weakness could be that sometimes I do dive into things a little too eagerly  like  um  it could almost be that I could become better at these kind of interviews by just having the  that extra confidence to just sit there quietly for 20-30 seconds  think what the question actually specifically asked and answer it  rather than thinking  okay  they've stopped talking  I better start  and just diving in with an answer. And I'm coming across then as  perhaps  a bit frantic or not completely focused. So I think some of that is just going to be practice   like do interviews  get comfortable with sitting with a little bit of silence while I compose my thoughts and going into a well structured answer rather than just diving straight in with an answer as I've kind of been doing  I think  so far.  |Interviewer: [laugh] Um  Actually you've done surprisingly good so far. Uh  so now think of a job that you'd like to have. So why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um  I think that obviously to hire someone they need to have the qualifications that are gonna allow them to do well in the job  but  like  almost any job  um  in today's world isn't going to be specifically tied down to one individuals sector. It's going to require skills that cross a variety of disciplines and I think that  like  I've used my university time so far in the UK and in America  really broadening the experience that I've got. Uh  broadening my  uh  ex- exposure to different fields of engineering.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And also using the really quite amusing house program you have here to broaden my exposure to even  like  artsy stuff. Um  I also think that through like projects  lab work  and things of that nature  I have the skills to work in a team. Be that  having the  uh  kind of humility to accept  okay  there's someone more experiences  more knowledgeable than me in this  I'll take the lead from them or I'll start realizing when it's an appropriate time I'll take the lead here because no one else is really going to  or I'm the best qualified to really take command.  |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So  like  in terms of working with others  that's a strength that I have  um  and I think in terms of contributing to like  the overall atmosphere in the company  I'm quite a pleasant  optimistic person. I like to think that I'm someone that others would be happy to work around  so not only would I be working well  but others would be working well  um  through my being there. Um  I'm not saying like I'm going to suddenly make the company  like  200% more profitable  but I do think that I'll feedback in as much benefit as I'll get out of a job that I genuinely enjoy.|Interviewer: Well thanks for coming today.|Interviewee: OK. Thank you.
p66,Interviewer: So how are you?|Interviewee: I'm doing pretty good|Interviewer: Oh good.|Interviewee: How about you?|Interviewer: I'm pretty well.|Interviewee: Yeah  it's kinda shitty outside haha.|Interviewer: Well  I brought an umbrella so it's not too bad |Interviewee: Gotcha. Yeah I thought it was going to snow but I'll take like drizzle over that.|Interviewer: Yeah. So uhm... Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Uhm.. So I'm a junior obviously here at MIT. I'm studying chemical  biological engineering and minoring in economics. Uhm  I live in Cap Sigma which is one of the fraternities on campus. I'm from Chicago. Uhm  actually I was just home recently for Thanksgiving. Uhm  and then  here on campus I obviously go to class and when I'm not in class I do the like getting involved in my fraternity as well as  uhm  I try to help with Habitat for Humanity so I do a lot with them and some community service stuff that we have as well.|Interviewer: Oh cool. I'm from Chicago too.|Interviewee: Oh cool. Where?|Interviewer: Uh  Wilmeka.|Interviewee: Okay  I'm from Siokee.|Interviewer: Oh cool. So  uh  tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.||Interviewee: Uhm  so  if I had to give I guess an example of leadership..uhm.. recently this semester I'd probably talk about uhm working with Habitat for Humanity like I mentioned before  uhm  I'm currently the president of the club and uhm so we do a couple of different things on campus here  both on and off campus  uhm  related to like international organization and so one of the big things we do on campus is we  uhm  have what we call the Beaverdash. And its a 5k run around the West end of campus.||Interviewer: Uh huh||Interviewee: And we've done it about 5 of them now. So this year has since I was in charge of the club I had to organize it  uhm  and it was kind of a unique situation because uhm...||Interviewer: Hm.||Interviewee: We were working with the President's office. Uh combining with President Griphes inauguration night. Actually they contacted me||Interviewer: Oh wow.||Interviewee: Uh  which was awesome because  like  they have a ton of money|Interviewer: *laughs*|Interviewee: And resources that I normally wouldn't have. So I uh was able to work with that. but I think it was a very interesting leadership posi- uh  position because I was networking with my own execs which is 10 of my own students that I work with. As well as the greater club which is about 100 kids that actively participate. But then also in conjunction with the President's office which is a couple people in uh staff  uhm. With like  uh  the Z center and things like that. So we were all working together to organize this larger than normal event in conjunction with other activities going on that weekend. So it definitely took like going to meetings with like staff and more important people in the world of MIT. And like relaying messages and working with like my own board and getting stuff done. And selling tickets and actually running the event and coordinating the volunteers and things like that. So I think it was a really good leadership opportunity and I worked with a lot of interesting people.|Interviewer: Ah excellent. So tell me about a time you were working on a team. You faced a challenge. How did you go about solving it?|Interviewee: Uhm  lets think of a good challenge. Uhm.. Okay so  uhm  more recently  I was working on well I'm involved with my fraternity. One of my objectives was to plan a little retreated that we have  like going camping.|Interviewer: Uh huh.|Interviewee: So as part of that I work with a team of people  some of them are freshmen which is who the retreat is meant for. Some of the are my friend  well everyone's my friend  but so its like an interesting dynamic because you're working with your friends but you have to kinda be managing them and stuff like that. So that was like challenge number one. But then the real challenge was to coordinate essentially like we had 60 people and we wanted to go camping somewhere. The real challenge we had was getting people to commit and to count accurate numbers and stuff like that. So I was really able to like in the context of the team organize people to go and personally talk to like all 60 people. So we could get a feel for like who was actually coming. Because an issue we had in the past 50 people would say they wanted to come but only 40 people would show up. Those 10 people are actually like hundreds of dollars wasting. and so its really important to get an accurate count and finding out who has dietary restrictions who had certain. Traditionally it is really nice to use like email to talk to people but here we've been really utilizing  uhm  actually going in person and having meetings together and breaking out and talking to individuals  and then  like  doing allocation of like  who  was going to call the various utilities whether it be car rental or food purchase or stuff like that. Uhm so there's a lot of different allocation of  uh  tasks  and then  like individual talking to people and so those kinda overcame those different challenges.|Interviewer: Ah excellent. So  tell me about your greatest weakness and what you're doing to overcome it.||Interviewee: Yeah. So  uhm  my greatest weakness currently  uhm  the best way I guess to phrase it would be|Interviewer: Uh huh.|Interviewee: I guess I feel like I need to be very involved in things I do whether they be like if I'm doing a project or leading an activity I feel like I need to be very on top of whats going on - which is of course a good thing you obviously if your in charge of something you want to be aware of whats happening. But I think its my weakness because it allows me to not allocate enough to other people and it cop me to stress myself out and possibly not have as good as a final project because I've taken too much on for myself. So that's obviously a kind of weakness and uhm what I've kinda been currently doing to counter it.. is uhm  really working on finding like friends to kinda like overview what I'm doing especially if I'm involved in. Very specifically delligating stuff to them and working on kinda like not doing as much and trusting others to do stuff and get the job done and let someone work without checking in to really promote like letting them to go do their own thing and not concern myself with it obviously responsibly but also at the same time to not over burden myself.||Interviewer: Hm  oh that makes a lot of sense. So  I'd like you to think of a job that you'd like to have.|Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: Got it?|Interviewee: Uhhhmmm  sure.|Interviewer: Okay  so  why do you think we should hire you for this job?|Interviewee: Uhm  so I think I bring a lot to the table by having been here for 2 and a half years here at MIT. I've gained a lot of technical skills  of course  I've taken a lot of classes and done a lot of laboratory research. I've done a lot of projects through those classes. And so I think I have a lot of technical skills and  uhm  I  in this position at this company would really have the ability to take these skills and combine them and applying them with the other skills I've picked up here which are leadership and communication skills. Uhm  cause right now they've kinda been in separate realms where I do a lot of activities on campus where I've had the opportunity to plan events and I've kinda been able to take those skills and apply them towards like a technical related problem on which I would be able to do at this company and hone both of those together which I think would be very advantageous for me and very advantageous for you as a company  Uhm  and really allow me to show off the abilities I've learned here.|Interviewer: Ah  well  thank you for coming.|Interviewee: Yeah  of course.
p67,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I’m actually doing pretty well. I’m just  uh  I would say  well  let’s see. It’s the end of the semester  right after Thanksgiving break. So  I have a bunch of time to relax and that sort of thing. This is the first time I didn’t get home though.|Interviewer: Really?|Interviewee: Um  so I spent a bunch of time actually with my friends from my fraternity. And  we had Thanksgiving dinner together. The turkey  the whole shebang. Um  most people around this time have all sort of exams  that sort of thing. But  all things considered compared to like freshman  sophomore  junior year  um I’m actually taking an extra semester to technically still a junior.|Interviewer: Oh  ok.|Interviewee: Um  it’s pretty relaxed. Things are good.|Interviewer: Ok  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Well  to start  um  I guess to start. The three things I’m doing right now: I’m president of my fraternity  SAE  which I also helped start up.|Interviewer: Oh  yeah?|Interviewee: It’s just one of the new fraternities that just you know came out of nowhere. We were back on campus awhile ago  but that’s history  um. I’m a late grower  and I’m also a chemical engineer. Most people have to say Course 10 for their major that sort of thing  uh. And  I’m part of the growing engineer leadership program. So  uh  all things considered  I would say that the the things that I’ve come to learn the most since coming to MIT are leadership skills  being confident  being able to go in front of people  and  uh  sort of create a vision. Helping people follow that vision. I have had issues in the past of time management. But  I spent a long time doing  like freshman  sophomore year learning the importance of sleep. Bunch of things like that. I’ve gone through the whole  all the trials and tribulations. But  all things considered  I’d say pretty much right now  I’m smooth  like in a groove  doing my own kind of thing. Things that I want to do. And  having a good time. |Interviewer: So  um  back to leadership. Tell me a time when you acted as a leader. |Interviewee: Well  just like this whole semester. Um  since I’ve been like the president of my fraternity there have been situations with people who are called brothers. Where  they  for some reason  they have these issues that they can’t talk about. I’m the kind of person that I can tell when someone is having. I sort of like pry  not pry  but press a little bit until they either like to decided to like tell me more or tell me what’s going on. There was one case  in the sense that mattered  but there was a person that  um  that became a pledge of our fraternity  he came from the previous president. It’s called rush (talking over each other). Basically  what happened is this guy came in  and very few people knew him when he came in  but once they got to know him over the summer they didn’t like him at all. So  I had to deal with the situation of trying to find out what to do. Like  do we let him stay? Or let him go through the program and see if he improves? Or do we sort of like nip it in the bud right there? Uh  it brought  first off  I didn’t even want to bring that information up until I’d talked to a bunch of people. So  I talked to a bunch of people individually  got a feel for it. Then  I sort of predicted how the conversation was going to go. Ultimately  what ended up happening  was uh  We had to find a really nice way of letting the guy go. It was sort of touchy feely sensitive stuff. I really had to let  to make sure I talked to everyone before that happened. |Interviewer: That’s an excellent example of leadership. So  this is a similar question  but related. Tell me about a time when you worked on a team and you faced a challenge. Not this time  a different one. |Interviewee: Course 10. Chemical engineering. ICE. You are given a challenge in a team. Most people  you can actually choose your team. Most people throughout there are  there fun people  good at working with (inaudible) that sort of thing. Uh  but by the time I went to choose my team most of my friends had been swooped up. So  I was working with kind of a random group of people. Which kind of worked out. It turned out pretty well. The project itself. You have to design a chemical engineering plant. So  you have to do the reactors  you have to do the flow  the mass flow  the distribution com center  etc. And then there’s a big report. There’s all sorts of stuff. In general breakdown  there’s one person who sort of becomes like the expert for the program  the Aspen program. And  then there’s another person whose more like working on the actual write up  and then there’s another person that sort of integrates the two. What  what as the question? Working in a team?|Interviewer: Faced a challenge  how did you solve it?|Interviewee: Ok  um  I guess the biggest issue that came up in that project was the deadline. Two and three days before the actual deadline  the final project was due  the main issue came up  the kiln wasn’t working  the project wasn’t working. So  it’s a pretty typical MIT scenario. The main thing that was the issue was that the guy that was responsible for doing the coding was a really silent guy. So  he was like the silent coder that was off doing his own work  when you’re trying to integrate it into the rest of the project  um  we should have collaborating a lot  but this other guy was sort of off in his own world. So  when we needed his part of the project  it was sort of difficult to do. So  what we had to do was we had to sit down all three of us together and go play by play with this guy to sort of get the medium that they left. To  sort of get the project together. Um  and I would say the hardest part was just interacting with this man because he was very quiet. He did get a lot of quality work done  but looking back  what I would have tried to do better was noticed he was a quieter person  and really tried to get him to be more  uh  evocative. You know  sharing the thoughts and stuff that he was doing during like the feed. The project we ended up delivering on time up to spec  but it would have been better if we had started with the issue at the beginning.|Interviewer:|Interviewee: Yeah. |Interviewer: That makes a lot of sense. So  tell me about one of your greatest weaknesses and what you’ve done to overcome them. |Interviewee: At the end of every single  like group that I’m with  everyone gets to the sort of critique phase where they see what they’ve done well and what they haven’t done as well. I can sort of like come of as being a little bit  well  gregarious is one thing. Um  but also sometimes I can sort of dominate a conversation. Um  so that’s one thing I learned from the Growing Engineer leadership program. And  the identify each of your skills  and find out that you’re bad at it. And  the thing that I’m really trying to work on is not dominating the conversation. I’ve been working on it over the years. And  the main ways I try to do that  is first off  don’t be the guy who always takes the leadership role right from the get go. What I do is instead if there's a little bit of  if some one is having a hard time  I’ll start giving suggestions. And then people can start jumping on to those suggestions. And  if I notice there is a person who is really good at  like engaged  who really wants to take this forward. I’ll find a way to make it so they become the leader. And  so instead of me directing everyone and sort of imposing  I really ask for everyones input. And make it so everyone feels involved. So  this is more of not a one example  but a change that’s in progress. I think  how I was at the beginning  just sort of loud mouth asking a lot of questions  like sort of this is how we are going to do everything. Now  it’s like I volley around ideas and try to get other peoples input instead. |Interviewer: That makes a lot of sense. So  think about a job you would like to have. Do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: Yeah  I’ve been thinking about that for awhile.|Interviewer: So  tell me why do you think you should have this job?|Interviewee: Well  the thing about consulting  is that the main reason why it’s intriguing me right now is because it’s the kind of job where everything is fast paced. But  two it’s the critical factor is teamwork. Working with other people who are a variety of ages. Being able to extract information and essentially be able to do a project that has a very short timeline. It has a timeline  it has a scope  got a budget. Being able to do find different resources  make connections  and building relationships with new people. Which I think is one of the most important things  building relationships with people is critical. And then being able to sort of patent those new projects while also being  find out  or getting a breadth  or a feel for so many different fields. I thought about semi-conductors and decide to not do semi-conductors because of the class I’m taking right now. I think team work is the most critical part of the matter. |Interviewer: I think your personality matches that. Well  this concludes the formal part of the interview.
p69,Interviewer: So  tell me about yourself. |Interviewee: Uh  so I'm uh  I guess I was born in DC.  I lived in Maryland until I was seven.  Then my parents decided it would be a good idea to move to Nigeria which is where we're from.  And I lived the next seven years of my life there and I came back to America for Junior and Senior year of college  of high school.  Once I did that  um  in Sag (?).  But like during that period I sort of I found an interest in kind of engineering so I decided to apply at MIT  you know it's the best engineering school.  And I uh  I got accepted there.  And I'm here right now in Junior year.  Uh  yeah.  That's all.|Interviewer: So can you tell me about a time when you acted as a leader.|Interviewee: Acted as a leader  um  well  in my  one of my classes I was taking this semester  it's  uh  212  Intro to Robotics  and it was  uh  like  the lab portion of the class is a group project and so there are four people and there has to be a team leader to get everyone organized and get everyone on the same page.  Everyone know what's going on.  Um  and I sort of volunteered myself uh  as a leader and it's been  it's actually been much harder than I thought. Working with different people who want do to different things I guess for this project and so just organizing everyone and sort of focusing everyone has been an interesting challenge.  |Interviewer: Can you tell me about a time when you worked on a team and you faced a challenge.  So  perhaps  the challenge you're talking about.  How did you go about resolving it?|Interviewee: Uh  uh  uh  I guess for my another class Im taking this semester which is Design and Manufacturing there's a group of eight people and we're tasked with designing and manufacturing a hundred helios (sp)  um  yeah  and so  I guess the  the  the prerequisite to the class was  uh  Design and Manufacturing 1 where we had to make one robot.  And sort of  that was more individual  but here we're tasked with the  the big thing here is manufacturing and so I  it's easy for everyone to want to decide to design this helio but you have to consider the manufacturing aspect  like how easy would it be to make if you're making a ton of them.  And so this was a challenge getting everyone to agree on sort of one design idea and I sort of  I brought up  I made it  I made sure to let everyone know it wasn't just the design that we're worrying about  it's also  and more so  the manufacturing aspects.|Interviewer: Interesting.  So  can you tell me about one of your greatest weaknesses and what you're doing to sort of improve on that.|Interviewee: Uh  so I'm not  I say I like public speaking but I'm not very good at it.  I say that's one of my greatest weaknesses  um  and sort of working on it hasn't been hard just because it's something I like doing.  Um  and so  like  given opportunities I try to be the leader of a certain group.  That way I talk to  I'm talking to the whole group a lot.  That sort of helps my speaking.  And just like in class projects  particularly humanities  I try to focus on taking ones where there's public speaking involved  not just writing essays.|Interviewer: Well cool.  A lot of fun courses here.  So then I'd like you to think of a job you'd like to have.|Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: Do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: Yeah  sure.|Interviewer:  Good  okay.  So now  why do you think you should have this job?|Interviewee: Uh  because I am as I'm a junior at MIT and um  this is a good place to find sort of the best engineers  some of the best engineers in the world and student  sort of  interns and I'd do  I'd do a great job interning at this company sort of because of the experience I have previously and the knowledge  combine that with the knowledge I'm getting here at a world class institute.  I think that'd make me well-qualified.|Interviewer: Ah.
p7,Interviewer: So hi  I'm Dr. Powell.|Interviewee: Hi  I'm Jacob.  Pleased to meet you.|Interviewer: So  how are you doing?|Interviewee: Good.  How are you?|Interviewer: I'm well  thank you.  So  uh  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: I'm a junior at MIT studying math and science and Im looking for a summer internship at your company this summer.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: So  I'm actually currently president of two student groups on campus.  The Educational studies program  which runs uh  large scale educational programs for middle and high school students where they take classes taught by MIT students.  And the MIT Mystery Hunt   which is a one weekend event in January with thousands of MIT students and other community members come to participate in a large multi-day sort of puzzle competition.  I'd be happy to go into detail about either of those but I have plenty of stories to tell|Interviewer: Tell me about a time when you were working in a team and you faced a challenge.  How did you solve the problem.|Interviewee: Okay.  So one thing that comes to mind is a couple months ago I was in a robotics competition at MIT called Mass Lab.  So  it's an autonomous robotics competition where you have to design  build  program the robot from scratch.  And I was in charge of programming the robot for the team.  We ran into several problems with the vision libraries we were trying to use in order to try to track the balls and field elements  just weren't working for us.  We spent probably the first half of the month trying to get these to work for the team and  um  eventually just decided that it would be easier for us to start from scratch and  uh  write everything ourselves.  Sort of by  you know  throwing out the assumption that we should work with the code we were given and starting from (?) principles we were able to actually  um  get our vision to |be at a level above most of the other teams because we could sort of custom write the code to be specific to the task at hand rather than trying to adapt general libraries.|Interviewer: Tell me one of your weaknesses and how you plan to overcome it.  |Interviewee:  Okay.  Um  I guess one of the weaknesses I've found is that I tend not to know when to ask for help.  So  for instance at my internship last summer this is something that my mentor pointed out to me several times.  If I got stuck on a problem I would just see what I could do about it  you know  Google around for the solution  see if anyone else had encountered the problem and then only after a couple of days of trying to work around it then talk to someone.  Whereas  you know  if I just asked someone for help the first day they could say  Oh  I ran into this problem last month.  This is how you fix it and avoid me sort of this hassle of trying to Google and figure it out on my own.  So  I um  I definitely started to become more aware of this over the summer and made a conscious effort to  when I was having a problem  you know  look at my watch and figure out how much time I was wasting trying to solve it.  If it got to me more than half an hour on my own I would just poke someone next to me and ask them.  I think just sort of continuing that and trying to make sure that I'm keeping up the habit of ensuring that I'm not getting stuck on my own should help.|Interviewer: And now  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee:  Okay.  That's an interesting question.  Um  I think  I think so a lot of the candidates you've seen probably  um  come in with similar abilities.  You know  students at schools like MIT tend to be very top  at the top of their class.  Um  so  I wouldn't say there's much that differentiates me there.  But I would say that I think I would get along well with your company. Um  I  people who have worked with me before have told me that I'm just sort of a fun person to be on a team with. Um  so  if you sort of look out to other aspects beyond just the numbers or GPA  or what's on my resume  you know  try to maybe you know  if you want me to hang around at  have  hang out at the office for a couple of days and  you know  work with you guys  we can see how that goes I'm confident that uh  you'd think I  you would conclude that I would be a good fit here. |Interviewer: Well thank you for coming.  |Interviewee: Any other questions?
p70,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good  how about you?|Interviewer: Good. So  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Uh  so I'm a junior majoring in biology at MIT. Um  I'm interested in approaching graduate school in biological oceanography. Um  I'm also doing a minor in chemistry. I currently work in the Thompson Lab here at MIT.|r: Mmhmm. Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  I would say  so uh I'm the vice president of Campus Outreach here at MIT's teenage beauty. Um  yeah so we're in charge of generally reaching out to the student population here at MIT. Um  so what I've done is basically try and form partnerships with maybe clinics in the Boston area  like Fenway Health and try to get them to maybe set up screenings here at MIT. |Interviewer: Okay  tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Um  I would say probably in my previous lab  this past summer I worked in Israel and we were having a lot of trouble with just  um  figuring out a protocol for how to um culture the bacteria that we were trying to do. So  it was generally  just like getting input from everybody and um trying not to get heated because we were kind of like  pressed for results. |Interviewer: Okay. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Uh  I would say one weakness is probably that I don't  um  speak up very much  or I would prefer not to speak up maybe  so that probably maybe leaves opportunities or maybe give less input than I would in certain situations. So um  what I'm doing to overcome that is probably more of  maybe not concrete things really  but hopefully just trying to get more experience so that I can maybe feel more confident about myself. |Interviewer: And why do you think you should get into graduate school?|Interviewee: I think because I really have a passion for this field. I cannot imagine myself doing anything other than research. It is definitely what I want to do for the rest of my life and I think I would be a good candidate for academia.
p71,Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Uh  I'm an MIT undergraduate junior studying mechanical engineering. And  I'm doing the flexible course which allows me to concentrate  um  in an area other than mechanical engineering. I chose building technology and I'm hoping to get a double minor in energy and architecture as well.|Interviewer: You're busy.|Interviewee: I'm sorry?|Interviewer: You're busy.|Interviewee: Yes.|Interviewer: Uh  tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um  I have taken on several leadership roles in my sorority. Um  one of the most recent roles was a CPW chair so  um  our university  uh  holds a weekend  uh  to invite prospective students who have been accepted but have not decided to come to MIT yet.|Interviewer: M'hmm.|Interviewee: And it's an important time to show them how great MIT is but also to give them a taste of different activities on campus. Um  so I organized a dinner at our house with a co-chair and then this year I'm planning all of our outer-social events. So there are basically three large  um  formal events... Um.|Interviewer: Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: So in high school I was really involved on the robotics team. Um  there  I had  three other teammates. And it was very difficult to narrow down ideas  everyone had  like  different views  different opinions about how we should do things. Um  and I think that communication was the most important thing  making sure that like that we were putting our ideas on the table but also listening to each other. |Interviewer: M'hmm.|Interviewee: I thought that was one of the most important  um  factors in our success. We ended up doing pretty well as a group.|Interviewer: Good!|Interviewee: Yeah...|Interviewer: Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: One of my weaknesses is  kind of  um  going out of my comfort zone as far as what I'm studying. So I think that  uh  in high school because I was so involved in robotics I didn't really look outside of mechanical engineering. And then my parents are also architects  which is where that came from. So  there are two things that I'm really passionate about  but I feel that  especially being at MIT there are so many other areas I am kind of neglecting. Particularly the arts  I just don't really feel  um  I feel its important to have a bounds and not really achieving that right now.|Interviewer: Why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um  I believe that I have a very strong educational background in the field. Um  I  I'm really passionate about the subject. It's something that I've been exposed to in the past because my parents are architects. Um  but  at the same time  I think it's something that I think is very important for the future  um  in terms of like energy consumption. Um  I wasn't sur... I knew I wanted to go into some sort of like energy field at MIT and I think I finally found one that I really enjoy. (Laughs)|Interviewer: Good!
p72,Interviewer: How are you doing today? |Interviewee: Uh  good  how are you?|Interviewer: Good! Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  uh  so I'm Rebecca. I'm a junior  uh  studying linguistics. Um  and I think I'm interested in doing linguistic research after undergrad.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership. |Interviewee: Um  let's see  uh  so I did a  um  RA  I was an RA in my dorm  and we were in charge of leading the group of freshman  um  in advising them for academic reasons and  also in doing that- organizing events around the dorm  so I would occasionally be in the  uh  in the leadership position for that.|Interviewer: Great. And tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Um  let's see  uh  for a linguistics project we had to do  I was working on  um  a team  or a group project. And-|Interviewer: Uh-huh.|Interviewee: And  uh  there was a problem. One of the members  uh  wasn't contributing their work on time |and so  we had to resolve that. So  um  we- the members who had been working together  uh  got together and we decided that call that person in and  just sort of discussed it with them and said that it was holding everyone back. And  uh  we were able to resolve it.|Interviewer: 'kay  tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: Uh  one of my weaknesses would probably be shyness. Um  or fear of like talking in front of people  I guess. Um  but- so I've been doing more projects. A lot of times in linguistics we have to give presentations so  um  I've been doing more of that. And I actually  uh  volunteered to teach a splash class this fall  so that involves getting up in front of a lot of people and teaching something. And that was actually really fun  so I feel like doing things- that was sort of a way or- and I enjoyed what I was teaching about  so it seemed less intimidating. And I hope that doing things like that will get me over my fear of talking to people  so.|Interviewer: Great  and why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um  I think I have  uh  pretty strong credentials and  uh  doing well in my classes  and  um. I really enjoy research and linguistics. And I think I would  um  I think I work well with others and would be able to take on leadership roles if necessary. And  um  I think I would just have a lot to offer.|Interviewer: Great.
p73,Interviewer: Here you go. How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good  how are you? |Interviewer: Good  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: I'm Amanda  I'm a freshman at MIT. So.|Interviewer: Mmhmmm.|Interviewee: I'm currently looking into too courses six and eighteen.|Interviewer: Mmmhmmm|Interviewee: So.|Interviewer: Computer Science and Math.|Interviewee: And I play cello in the orchestra and I'm a part of Sigma Kappa.|Interviewer: OK.  So tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Yeah one time in High School I was the President of our youth board for United Way which is a non profit that raises money and awareness for social and economic problems. And then we build and try to change them. And so my senior year as part of the youth board we ended up fundraising and starting a new fundraiser.  And it was hockey game between our hockey team and a private schools hockey team. Which wasn't really a fair game  but that's okay.|Interviewer: mmmmmmm|Interviewee: And it was very down to the wire which we weren't aware of.  I mean planning an event around winter break is never really easy schedule wise and stuff.  But it was definitely a challenge for us  but it was  it ended up being successful and we raised over $4000 for us.| |Interviewer: oh|Interviewee: Yea.  The organization is definitely one of my favorite  um  it let's students  um  like have a way to give back to the community which was a big deal for us since actually that year we lost three kids to suicides via train in a few months.  And so it was really nice for us to have a way to like actually give back to our community instead of just thinking about it and wishing we could do something so  it worked out really nicely for us to like really make a difference.|Interviewer: OK.  So tell me about a time when you were working on a team and you faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: I mean in school we get a lot of projects that are group projects.|Interviewer:  mmhmm|Interviewee: And I have noticed that a tend to be a person who when the slack doesn't  you know the slack starts to happen  is kind of do it  and after a while it gets very taxing to pick up for everyone and so I remember senior year we just had this project  um  in Math.  And it was just so frustrating to do it by myself  and so I set every one and I was like I can't do this on my own anymore  and I really need your help.  And it was really nice because they were my friends  and they didn't realize they were doing it.  And so we like made up a new plan and re divied the work and it worked out in the end.|Interviewer: Good.   And can you tell me a weakness?   One of your weaknesses and what you are doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: Yea.  I'm kind of a perfectionist and I like everything to work out well.  Which means that when I'm starting something new sometimes I can't look over the little details that I don't see that will work.   And I don't get how you can just look past that to see a bigger picture and come with a big idea and then work on the small details later and kind of more detail oriented and then work for the bigger goal.  So that's definitely been one of my problems and I have been working on getting over that.  But just thinking about it in the future and just you know you can get there and you look at the bigger goal and then if you divvy it up into smaller tasks its a lot easier to overcome and deal with everything so.|Interviewer: Good.  Baby steps.   And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think you should hire me because I have had a lot of experience dealing with other people and communicating and making sure that coming up  like to come up with the best solution that everyone can hopefully agree with. And you know of course not everyone can get their way but it's important to try and get everyone's ideas into one if you can so.|Interviewer: Mmmmhmmm.
p74,Interviewer: Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee:  Okay  I'm a computer science major  um  I'm a  senior at MIT and I'm hoping to stay in the area next year.  I'm looking for a job here.  And I grew up in South Dakota and little bit in Cambodia  grew up on a farm.  I really enjoy playing music and cooking.  Probably my two biggest hobbies.|Interviewer: Okay.  Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee:  Well  when I was in high school I was the leader of my 4-H club and that involved leading meetings.  There were a lot of younger kids were involved and I helped them get involved in sewing competitions for example and  um  things where they could learn about nutrition.  Um  and showing their animals and learning about how to raise an animal well.  So that was a big leadership role and it was kind of difficult but I definitely learned a lot from it.|Interviewer: And tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge.  How did you solve it?|Interviewee: Um  I play music with some of my friends in some social settings.  We've played for a couple of weddings and it's sometimes difficult to coordinate|what we would like to play and how we'd like to practice and the styles of music that we'd like to play  um  and to do that properly you just need to communicate a lot  um  and you need to be willing to sometimes do the things that you really don't want to do.|Interviewer: And can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it.|Interviewee:  One of my weaknesses is probably procrastination  same as a ton of people  I'm sure.  To overcome that I am trying to structure my time and I have a schedule so that Ill do one thing for an hour and one thing for the next hour so if I procrastinate for the whole hour then I feel bad.  So  the idea is to avoid that.  |Interviewer: Okay.  And why do you think we should hire you.|Interviewee:  I think that I am a strong  strong learner  definitely at whatever new skills since in web development there's always new technologies coming along.  I am quick at learning those and I really enjoy learning new things.  And I have a good base with my computer science degree from MIT so I know in general how to think about programming.
p76,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm doing well. Thanks.|Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself. |Interviewee: Well  I'm Zainab Lasisi|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: I'm a junior majoring in chemical engineering. I was originally born in Nigeria. Which is in West Africa. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And I grew up in England and Jamaica before coming to MIT. |Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership. |Interviewee: A time I demonstrated leadership. I'd probably say  at the moment  um  in my position as the Vice President of the African Students Association at MIT. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm. |Interviewee: So as the vice president I have to be bas-  I have to basically support the president. And whenever the president of the association is not there step in. And actually be the leader for the association. |Interviewer: Mm. Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So the African Student's Association is about an organization of  uhh  that consists of. That comprises of about 80 Africans at MIT. And  it's just all undergraduates. And it's all about just keep the African community alive. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And just  so that people know that they have a support system. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Within  uh  MIT. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm. |Interviewee: Cause most of them are  like  international students. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So they're very far away from home. So it's like having a home away from home...|Interviewer: Yeah.|Interviewee: ...for them. Yeah.|Interviewer: Great. And tell me a time about when you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: I'd probably say my past internship with BP. |Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: Um  I was working on a team. I was a process engineer intern. And the challenge I had was that I was given a project that  they didn't really know what. They hadn't  the project hadn't been done before. It's just something  like  they had ideas about what they wanted. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: But they had no clear cut visions...|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: ...or anything. We just knew the  I guess  the skill set. And the types of things they want from my project. So for me  just to go about delivering a  a tool that's of use to the entire team. It is about working with people  communicating  asking them questions...|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: ...about what exactly it is they what me to do. And then doing. Then I did  like  a few modeling things. And then I'll show them and then they'll give me feedback  and then I'll do some more. So that was more about it cause I don't think they had an idea about what they wanted...|Interviewer: Right.|Interviewee: ...in the first place. They just knew  okay  we want this model to do this and do that  and do that. We're not too sure how it's going to do it  but  you know  just come up with some things. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: It was all on me to use my creativity and just pick people's brains and just come up with. Deliver something that's of use to the team. |Interviewer: Great. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses  and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: I think on of my weaknesses is that  um. I'd say I'm a very independent worker. So  sometimes...|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: ...I try  like  I don't  I-  I work too much by myself. Whereas in  I do work well in teams  but I just need to be more forth-. Because when I'm given a project I'm like  okay  I can do this. I'll just try to sort it out. So  I guess one of my weaknesses is  like  approaching other people...|Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: ...especially people that I'm not  I don't really know. And  like  asking them questions and things like that. So  yeah. Something I need to  to develop my communication skills a little better. So. |Interviewer: Okay. And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think that  I am-. I have a wonderful personality. I'm great to work with. I will do anything that is asked of me...|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: ...with a smile on my face. I'll always try my best. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm. |Interviewee: And  I'll be a team player. |Interviewer: Okay.
p77,Interviewer: Ready?|Interviewee: Mmhmm.|Interviewer: How are you doing today? |Interviewee: I'm goo.. I'm doing well  how are you?|Interviewer: Good. I'm doing well  as well. Please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  so I  my background is in mechanical engineering. What I really enjoy doing though  um is  leadership type rolls. So I like talking with people but I also like doing technical problems. So I'm looking for a position that really combines those two things. Uh where I can use my communications skills with people as well as my technical background in a roll that's kinda combin.. involves decision making  uh and different business factors. |Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership. |Interviewee: Uh so  recently umm I'm the leader of our  of a group project that I'm working on. Basically what we have to do is design a speech system and with the system  uh  as leader of our team I do a lot of organizing delegating tasks  uh different types of conflict management  making sure people are talking  understanding whatever everybody's wanting  uh different type of  just general making sure I'm aware of all the group dynamics that are going on. |Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you were working on a team  and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem? |Interviewee: Okay  uhh so I was on a team  uhh  it was actually just two people  uh but it was to design and build a robot at the end of last semester  and uhh my partner and I have very different working styles  which I didn't expect. I was kinda have projected my own tendencies on him in assuming that if I was going to finish something he would do the same way or work the same way as I  as I was going to. Uh but it didn't end up being true and so we ended up at the very end  uh  not having our final product ready  not having everything together and what I ended up doing was just making sure that I used all the resources I had  so friends outside of the project who um were willing to help with what was going on  uh to try to pull something together  made sure I was going to contact my professor and then try to communicate with him as much as possible  uh  to collaborate with what was going on in order to get um like uh somewhat finished final project  ther... that was  our professor said was acceptable and done by the end  about the time we had finished.. wait  the time that we had to finish. |Interviewer: Mmm.. okay. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're doing to overcome it. |Interviewee: Uh I think one of my main weaknesses is  uh  taking on too many little things. Umm so sometimes not realizing  uh  what the little things are that I can let go for a little bit  and prioritizing  uh  large period of times of saying yes to too many things. Uh and what I'm mainly trying to do to change that is just keeping track of exactly how I spend my time. So recently Ive been really trying to focus in on  how long am I really wasting on little tasks  and how long I'm actually spending on larger tasks  um and I  and seeing that is very helpful  uh  in changing how I prioritize things|Interviewer: Great. And why should we hire you?|Interviewee: I'm very dependable. I'm responsible. I will get things done when they need to be done. Uh and I like to communicate with people  overcome challenges  uh  I have been use to working with people with very diverse backgrounds and I'm not afraid of a challenge. Um  I'm also I'm use to being a team player. I've worked on lots of team and know people so uhh  I'm also very excited about the vision of the company and whats going on and I think overall uh what I've learned here about the culture would fit me well. |Interviewer: Great.
p78,Interviewer: Um  tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um  I'm a junior in computer science.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: What sort of things do you want to know about me?|Interviewer: Just Anything.|Interviewee: I like programming in python.  I haven't been in computer science that long because I used to be a chemistry major. |Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: But I've been taking computer science classes for the past year and a half.|Interviewer: Great...so tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: I'm the president of my acapella group so I have to organize publicity things like when we have a performance I have to make sure that everyone knows about the performance  so we have an audience. I organize details like the reception and the getting a room reserved.|Interviewer: OK...Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Hmm m...a time when I was working with a team...I guess if I could count my acapella group as a team. cause I guess it is.|Interviewer: Mmhumm.|Interviewee: There are times when we've had conflicts about weather we wanted to sing a specific song |Interviewer: Mmmm|Interviewee: For instance often times there would be a song that we really liked but it would take like up a lot of rehearsal time. So we didn't think it was worth it or anything cause we had limited time. So we had to resolve the conflict by discussing different options. I think we finally ended up deciding to sing the song in a future semester. Later we would still be able to sing it but it wouldn't compromise the rest of our repertoire.|Interviewer: OK can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what your doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Hmm m...haha...um mm...can't really think of things that where weaknesses...um mm...laugh..|Interviewer: Its fine.|Interviewee: I guess that I have trouble being criticized because I've always been sensitive and |Interviewer: Mmmhmmm.|Interviewee: When I get criticized by people who aren't as sensitive I  I react more strongly to their criticism than they intend me to. so I have to learn to realize that some people who aren't as sensitive will criticize harsh  more harshly.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.  And why should we hire you?|Interviewee: Because I'm excited to work at facebook.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: And because I'm motivated to do things in computer science because I find it really fun.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.
p79,Interviewer: So how are you doing today ?|Interviewee: I'm good |Interviewer: Good . Tell me about yourself .|Interviewee: Um I'm from Mumbai . I'm a junior in core six . When I applied to ITU I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do |Interviewer: Mm|Interviewee: Um I thought I would do chemical engineering . That um that got me super interested in a bunch stuff and um finally decided core six um|Interviewer: Mm-hmm|Interviewee: But then I visit to the media lab before . Um now I'm working at the over in um |Interviewer: Mm-hmm |Interviewee: So that's and engines I have been involved with engines here and um a bunch of other um clubs like Energy Club |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: and organizing the Energy Conference and and |Interviewer: Oh wow|Interviewee: other workshops . So um and in general I'm super interested in um hardware show and um computer science like certain aspects of computer science really interests me too so . Yeah I'm interested you know to learn |Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um sure . So well this is the most recent example|Interviewer: Mm-hmm|Interviewee: I can think of . But I um was a freshman . I was I mean I still am pretty excited about international developments|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So I joined um um as it was it was it was . It wasn't formally ? in the USA but we decided to take it on . . .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . we wanted so we were willing um sort of ?? low cost easy to setup showers we use in Kenya |Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: Um and it was basically something that I've never done before |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: computer science people you you know trying ??|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: But their view was . . .|Interviewer: Uh-huh.|Interviewee: . . . it's not . So um that was a great thing for me to get involved with . And um that summer I went and traveled with them to Kenya|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Um and that was a great experience. So coming back um I was uh elected as |Interviewer: Mm. |Interviewee: That was um that was a great thing cuz one it's it's important to kind of realize that you might not have all the answers but that's fine .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: You know you can learn . You knew wanna be teens etc. But it was like despite not knowing anything about mechanical engineering I was able to sort of understand and learn um sort of graduate to eventually becoming um . . .|Interviewer: OK.|Interviewee: taking on a leadership within that community|Interviewer: Great. And tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Yeah. Um so we had this uh we had this asphalt called which is basically um you do you make them overlap. And you sort of um pretend as if it's something that you're actually making for industry.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And um there were four people on the team to program. Whereas there was me who was kind of like I know how to do it but you know I I could do with more instruction.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: There was someone who was just starting. She wa- she was a freshman that year. Um but she was great.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And uh we decided to make this app with um when you have two iPhones uh you can swipe like you can bump them and uh whatever's on one phone the other one.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: could split them. It was something that you know we we hadn't done before. Not a ton of people have done it.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And um at the media lab there was this technology that of I don't know discovered ?? um called Swipe. And they just swipe from one to the other and we we thought that would be great. And it someone like a student like us who had done it.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Um we but we we didn't realize that it was not production ready and then . . .|Interviewer: Uh.|Interviewee: And you know we have all these bugs and stuff. And we have no documentation to go to. But there was this one person on the team you know being you know the awesome programmer he is insisted on going that way when . . .|Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: Like when we met the founder of Swipe he was saying you know what just don't use it it's not optimized for the stuff that you guys are sending . . .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . across like the data. And um so we have the sort of tiff when you know the rest of the team wanted to move on to do the same project using the VPI.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Which was kind of standard . . .|Interviewer: Right. Right. Right.|Interviewee: . . . ??|Interviewer: Right. Right. Right.|Interviewee: And whereas we infinitely could deduce fiber we just didn't the resources at the time.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So um you know he was re- he was really experienced and he can't even say you know you don't what you are doing.|Interviewer: Right. Right. Right.|Interviewee: Because he . . .|Interviewer: Right. Right. Right.|Interviewee: . . . didn't know . . .|Interviewer: Right. Right. right.|Interviewee: . . . what he doing. So eventually we were able to convince him that we should probably go with whatever we wanted . . .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . um as a team instead of you know|Interviewer: Right.|Interviewee: . . . etc. Um so that was that was definitely a challenging situation cuz he's great. He's smart.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And he's super nice and you don't wanna offend anyone.|Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: Especially when they're your friends.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: You you have to get the work done.|Interviewer: Right. Right. Right. OK. Can tell what your weakness is and what you're doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Is this a technical weakness or . . .|Interviewer: Any weakness.|Interviewee: OK. Um a lot of times this is just something that Cody just taught me.|Interviewer: You didn't learn?|Interviewee: That I haven't quite learned um is that whenever you're you know whenever you're in doubt you should just go ahead and do stuff.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: But for me I like to like think about it how exactly I'm gonna lose one . . .|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: . . . if ?? coding. Which which which is a problem because sometimes like new solutions come along the way but you can like I do it fast. Um and it's OK if stuff work the first time. Cuz I kind of wanted to research everything before . . .|Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: . . . I start doing stuff. Um that's sometimes an issue because then I can't do it as fast.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: If especially if that's something new. But um on the other hand sometimes if it works like it works really well cuz I've done my you know homework. Right?|Interviewer: Right. Right. Right. Right.|Interviewee: But uh in general I like if you just just get my hands dirty and then do stuff. Yeah.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: Um well because a year ago I didn't know how to code at all. And now like like next semester I'm gonna finish up my degree.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Um as a junior. And then I'll probably do math or something else. But it that just kind of shows you that I'm willing to learn.|Interviewer: Mm.|Interviewee: And I'm not afraid of trying new stuff. And with this technology will always change. And sure if I don't PHP today right now you can use it tomorrow.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: But um I think what's really important is that I'm willing to learn um and I work well with within a team. And I also like working by myself. So there's like a good balance of what um stuff is ?? yeah I just like hanging with great people and doing great work.|Interviewer: Great.
p8,Interviewer: So  how are you doing?|Interviewee: I'm doing great  how are you?|Interviewer: I'm well  thank you.So  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Uh  so I'm an undergraduate uh in the third year  at uh  here at MIT and I'm studying computer science. Um  I am really interested in um applying for a software job.Um  I want to get more experience in web development and software development and also get some exposure into data science and machine learning. And uh see how that plays out in uh the industry setting uh since I've done some research|Interviewer:  Mhmm. Tell me how you demonstrate leadership.|Interviewee: Uhm  leadership? So currently I'm on uh the South Asian American Students Exec Board. So  that's uh basically uh the Indian Cultural club uh for undergrads. And uh I'm secretary and community service chair. Um So I'm currently organizing um reaching out to groups in the Boston area um and uh groups that work overseas in India with um for charity and community service opportunities that I can connect to uh undergrads here.Um And uh I'm also involved in other activities that SAS  the group  uh is involved in like setting up and planning like uh study breaks. Our recent uh garba  which is an Indian dance festival. And also in I'm in Phi Kappa Theta fraternity and uh I've held leadership positions there  uh  in my freshman year in our pledge class when I was the community service chair for that  as well. Uh and  led my class of uh 15 in um going out into the community and we went down into different places in Boston and helped clean up streets  etc. |Interviewer: So please tell me about a time when you were working in a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve the problem?|Interviewee: Uh so  with this community service  uh  that my pledge class did for my fraternity. Um  one glaring problem was getting everybody to respond  communicate well  and show up. Uh  a class of 15 isn't too big but when we're all MIT students  we're all just getting settled  it's kind of hard to keep everybody on task. Um so  what I did to solve this problem was uh I- once I set up- One thing I did was set up a group text um that I would uh that would basically keep us on touch and um would facilitate making sure that everybody stayed involved and it would be easier to keep track also  of who was actually responding. Um because people check texts better than emails and that's what we'd been using previously.I also tried to um unsuccessfully  but um  propose uh like a point system  basically. Uh to reward those who would show up and penalize those who didn't. So  we also- we have chores basically in our house to keep the house looking clean- house works and crews- and um basically if you accumulated a certain number of um points- points are bad-uh you would have to do extra crews or house works  depending on when you didn't show up for an event during our pledge process.|Interviewer: Tell me about one of your weaknesses and uh how you plan to overcome it.|Interviewee: I think probably my biggest weakness is uh staying focused on tasks. Um  when I am working on a task and I am focused I am able to work really efficiently and I come up with good ideas. Uh but I frequently get distracted. However  I've been um well on my way to overcoming this uh through friends- working studying with friends who have like trained me to stay more on task. Uh Done things like finding better places to work and study with back to school work.Um and uh also  sleep schedules are frequently a major problem for undergrads in terms of how that affects your study habits. And so uh I've been working on that to help stay fresher and more focused when I do my work.|Interviewer: Now  why do you think we should hire you?|Interviewee: I think you should hire me because I have a lot of ideas I'm really good at coming up with ideas between table  especially in terms of um software development. I um projects for school and one or two of my own independent projects I've been working on by myself and with friends. I've uh  been good at optimization  um of software and coming up with good ideas um on the user end. So  uh  I'm able to look at a project from different stand points and think about what all parties would want. What-what would be easiest for the development team as well as the end users.|Interviewer: Thank you for coming.|Interviewee: Thank you.
p80,Interviewer: Ready?|Interviewee: Mhmm.|Interviewer: So how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Awesome. How about yourself?|Interviewer: Good. Tell about yourself?|Interviewee: Well  I grew up in Berkley  California.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And I've been interested in medicine my whole life. Um  my dad worked for UCSF...|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: as a researcher  but not as a doctor. And I would visit him at work and I was always attracted to the hospital side...|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: It's much the loud side. I want to do research as well.|Interviewer: Great. So tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Well in high school I was captain of golf team. And that was a blast.  Golf  girl’s golf is not super competitive...|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: to say the least. It's very...haphazard and it's usually been one extreme or another. Very bimodal. Um  you've either got these like super serious girls  who are parents on the course with them and they're going to be all PGA.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Or you just girls that are not that athletic just goofing off with golf clubs...|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: and doing whatever. And Berkeley High is definitely the ladder of that.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: So I uh  you know  coordinated this group of motley girls along with my coach and we had a lot of competitions where candy was the reward.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: We played a lot of games--we had really a great time.|Interviewer: Great.|Interviewee: But a big part of it is like... you know there was like a leadership aspect? We had to like stay organized. Especially because no one else was.|Interviewer: Mmm.|Interviewee: And  so like making sure we made it to meets and like...organizing snacks  making sure people showed up.|Interviewer: Mmm  okay. Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge? How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Well  I mean I can continue the same example because I didn't start off as captain.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And it's different  you know? When you’re the head versus like part of the group. Um  it's more important when you're a part of the group to be a cohesive part and not like the leader.|Interviewer: Right  right  right.|Interviewee: To be able to like understand directions and like...I mean if there is an issue like...work it out  but to be able to take  you know  instructions and think about it and work with other people and encourage them to do the same. |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So  uh this is one time we've encountered an issue. So we were going to a meet  and you have to travel a lot for golf...|Interviewer: Mmm.|Interviewee: because golf courses are big and not very common. Compared to something like a soccer field.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So we were going out into the [xx?] of California...|Interviewer: Mhmm|Interviewee: and our car broke down.|Interviewer: Oh goodness.|Interviewee: And it was earrrly in the morning. No one had no sleep. It was just girls...teenage girls  no caffeine  not enough sugar  not enough breakfast. And we were in a really old car...|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: and my coach was like 30 minutes ahead and we were going to be late. We blew a tire actually. So we called triple A  but it was stressful...|Interviewer: Uh huh.|Interviewee: but  we ended playing games and I like led a yoga session in the...highway... |Interviewer: Alright.|Interviewee: which was  you know  hilarious. And we're there in these ridiculous outfits. We're wearing like we... at Berkeley High we wore like stupid outfits...|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: on purpose; knee high argyles|Interviewer: Mmmm.|Interviewee: and like polos. It was so funny. You can only imagine how we looked.|Interviewer: Alright. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you're trying to overcome it?|Interviewee: Um  yeah. So I'm not super great with being organized. Like  I'm alright  but especially with administrative things like paperwork and...uhm  I...I'm good with deadlines  but only if I had set reminders. So like even for example  trying to get into this building today was an adventure or remembering to fill out all the forms for...like my [xx?] and everything is...it can be sometimes sort of a struggle.|Interviewer: Mmm  okay. And why do you think you should get into medical school?|Interviewee: Well  I love helping people and I'm going to be a great doctor. I have good dexterity. I like to study. I find medicine fascinating...fascinating.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And I feel like I could really make the most impact that way I can utilize...utilize my skills the best way possible.|Interviewer: Great.
p81,Interviewee: -ology in order to learn more about like the pharmaceutical aspect of the rain.  Um  and so that’s- I’m trying to get myself towards patent law.  In pharmaceuticals I guess.|Interviewer: So tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Well  um  last semester I was  ah  a part of the Mentor Core for a student organization on one of MIT’s campus called Amphibious Achievement.  One of the things  as part of the Mentor Core you have a small group of students that you one on one tutor as their mentor and tutor and you meet with them once a week for a five hour study session and they’re inner city High School students who - they don’t have access to the best basic math and reading skills.  So we meet once a week to go over what we’re going to teach them and we teach them the next day  on a Sunday.  Uhm  and so that’s leadership in itself  but I took the initiative to plan a sponsorship banquet to thank our very generous donors and so me and another member of the Mentor Core planned  uh  a sponsorship banquet that I was told went very well.  So  I’m very proud of that.|Interviewer: So tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge.  How did you solve that problem?|Interviewee: Well  I guess the one thing that I’ve learned  uhm  working on several teams throughout my life is  uh  that communication is necessary  um  so  uh  in High School I worked on a team and we had received a grant in order to build an alternative energy  um  device.  Um  and there was a lot of issues amongst the different committees  like so there was an electrical component and there were people trying to build the flotation aspect of it because it was - it was supposed to be in water and there was the water proofing committee.  And so  in terms of communicating deadlines and expectations I think there was a  sometimes there could be a breakdown in that because everyone’s busy.  And you see that here and I saw that a lot back in High School.  Um  and so I was kind of moderating everyone  um and so just being able to communicate the expectations  um  to make it really apparent  ‘cause I think we running a lot of high achieving people a lot of the time  so as long as they know what they need to do and what’s expected of them  I think  um  at least for me as a high achieving person  I - once I know what I need to do I can do it.  And as long as that’s communicated and clear I think that’s necessary to resolve a lot of problems.|Interviewer: Great.  So  tell me one of your weaknesses and what you’re doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: I’d say one of my weaknesses can definitely be in terms of organization.  So if there’s something I know that I need to do  um  I will definitely get it done  but in terms of parsing out the appropriate amount of time sufficiently before hand  sometimes that can be lacking to where there can be times I’m scrambling at the last second.  I always get it done  but it’s just in terms of personal stress and maybe stress of people who want to see results over time versus at the end  um  but I have  I’ve gotten a lot better at that  especially at MIT  because you really can’t mess around with that kind of  uh  weakness.  Just with  knowing my schedule the month before versus the week before hand.  And investing in a planner and a calendar has definitely helped me a lot.|Interviewer: Great.  And why do you think you should go to law school?|Interviewee: I think because  you know  I’ve wanted to do it since I was twelve and I think I have a lot that I can give  coming from Mit have a back-like the mind set the science and engineering  um  as and adding that into like the sphere of law I think it would introduce a unique problem solving set and I could have a lot to offer to  uh  the community of lawyers across the nation.
p83,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Umm  I'm good  I'm good.|Interviewer: Good. Tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Umm  so  I'm a junior at MIT. I'm studying brain and cognitive science. I'm interested in studying cognitive neuroscience in the future. Probably systems level.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Ok. Umm  well  this past summer I was in China. And  umm  I was helping out with this cognitive learning program. And what they do  is they try take principles  umm  learned through research  and apply those in the classroom. And so-|Interviewer: OK.|Interviewee:- we were applying those  umm  to students who were in sixth grade  trying to teach them English. And  it was  it was great. So  I got to actually  like  umm  go there and teach a class of sixth graders for the whole summer. So  umm  and they let me develop some of their curriculum  which was very cool. And  umm and it was a great experience overall.|Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem.|Interviewee: Ok. Umm  well  actually  a part of the same program  uh  we were trying to put up videos of the teaching to give  umm  examples for other people. And  uh  none of us knew how to program or anything like that  and we were  we were in China  so it was  umm  both a language barrier and also  you know like  overcoming that  like  knowledge gap of not knowing how to program. So  what we ended up doing was  like  trying to find a Chinese student who was studying computer science  and  umm  in Beijing  and  the language thing did come in to play  but  umm  but eventually  we were able to  like  sort of  get through that. It was a challenge all the way through.|Interviewer: Mmhm. Great. And can you tell me one of your weakness and what you are doing to overcome it.|Interviewee: Yea  umm  so  I have trouble public spe-  like  getting up in front of people and talking.-|Interviewer: Mmhm.|Interviewee: Umm  which is part of why I came in to this interview. Umm  but also this semester  I joined the debate team. Umm  which has been great  so far. Umm  basically  we go around to different colleges for tournaments and  umm  we get up and we just speak for  for an hour. And  umm  and that's  that's really helped out so far.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think you should get into graduate school?|Interviewee: Umm  because  I  I want to make a difference in this field. Umm I'm very  very committed to this [??]  I mean  I know this is what I want to do. I mean  there's really nothing else I can see myself in the future doing. I mean  I love it  I'm fully committed  and  umm  I'd  I'd like to make a difference here.
p84,Interviewer: So  how are you doing today? |Interviewee: I'm well thank you. | |Interviewer: Good. |Interviewee: How about yourself? |Interviewer: Pretty Good.|Interviewer: Tell me about yourself? Alright|Interviewee: Um  well as you probably know  I'm a Junior in MIT  ah material science and engineering  and i've spent a bit of time doing some research in material science  but i've also recently declared a maj-  ah  minor in course two. Which is  sorry  its mechanical engineering. Umm  so  I'm looking for a bit of practice in industry. Now that I've had some research experience  I've a lot of range of classes in engineering. |Interviewer: Mhmm |Interviewee:  And I'm hoping to  ah  to kind of try out what it's like to engineer  um   combine the two basically  mechanical and materials engineering. |Interviewer: Great. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership? |Interviewee: Ok  um  I could give you an example of a club I'm in?|Interviewer: Sure. |Interviewee: Um  in  at MIT I'm in Amnesty International  which is a student human rights organization-|Interviewer: Mhmm. |Interviewee: And it's very  um  decentralized  it's very student owned  and  uh  we kinda make it what ever we wanna make it-|Interviewer: Sure. |Interviewee: at any given time  so it takes a lot of initiative to-|Interviewer: Mmm.| |Interviewee: really hold the club together  and  uh  we were trying to pull together a big event last semester which involved Professor N-|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: and we had to talk about Arab spring and we were hosting it in a huge lecture hall  um  so big venue  hoping  expecting a lot of people.|Interviewer: Mhmm. |Interviewee: Um  but it took a lot of work-|Interviewer: Right. |Interviewee: And none of us had really pulled such a huge event before-|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So  um  I'd say it took  it took a lot of initiative that I hadn't taken before in pulling that event together. I came to meetings and made sure everyone was on task  made sure |Interviewer: Mmm.|Interviewee: that everybody had an awareness of what could go wrong as well as what could  um  what kind of repercussions we might be expecting if things did fall out of hand with the high  high profile speakers-|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee:  as well as some  you know  some contentious issues-|Interviewer: Sure. ||Interviewee: being discussed  so  um  yeah I did my best  to really pull the team together as best as I could. |Interviewer: Great. |Interviewee: Um  I didn't have an official leadership role-|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So  my participation was ambiguously defined  but  um  it was fun having  uh  having a role.|Interviewer: Great. And tell me about a time you were working on a team a faced a challenge. How did you solve that problem? |Interviewee: Um  that's a good question. Um  so I was on the orientation group  I was an orientation leader this- |Interviewer: Mhmm. |Interviewee: this  the beginning of this year  and so  we paired off into different groups  uh  we were the brown team  and we had a few problems with getting energy with the team  and  uh  all of these freshman we knew that they were excited to be there- |Interviewer: Of course. |Interviewee: We knew that they wanted to get to know each other and MIT  but there was just  there was something blocking them from talking and from getting out of orientation what they should have  so  we  uh  we pulled together as a bit of a brown group team  we had a group discussion  after I think it was the second day  and  we took this  um  we took a few tries to pull together some new ice breakers that hadn't been in the booklet that they prepared us for  and just  uh  whipped that out the next day  started yelling  got the kids off their feet and jumping  and um  my  one of my other co-orientation leaders and I were yelling different questions at them and they had to pair up or group up based on the question that we asked them  and   it didn't really work necessarily  um  everybody participated though and it got them  got the blood moving  and it go them kind of talking to new people  so even though the game didn't have a point  it ended up being kind of fun  it was a good  good way of getting to know my teammates a well. |Interviewer: That's great.  |Interviewee: So we worked together really well on that. |Interviewer: Alright. Can you tell me one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to over come it? |Interviewee: Yes. Um  so I have a weakness for over-committing sometimes  and  uh  what I have been doing in the last year or so  well since I came to MIT  but particularly this year is cutting back on things that don't mean much to me. Cutting back on things that are  that have always just been interest that I never see myself progressing in. So  um  for example  I was  uh  I took a small leadership role in my sorority  like  my  my freshman year  but I wasn't  I don't see myself going very far in leadership in my sorority  so I cut that kind of thing out and I've been focusing on classes  sailing  I'm on the sailing team  and  uh  Amnesty International  and those are my three main focus things  so although  I do do other things. Like I was and orientation leader  um  when I have time I give tours  from  thats my job campus tour guiding  but  um  I've been getting better  I've been staying more on track with classes this way  and  um  having sailing has definitely helped  so a bit of self-discipline-|Interviewer: Right. |Interviewee: And  uh  cutting back on things has  helping me  uh  not overcommit. |Interviewer: Good. And  why do you think we should hire you? |Interviewee: Um  because I've researched into your country  sorry into your company  and  um  I think  uh  I think it's  I see a lot of  I see a lot it in the experience that I've had  in  I've had international experience in companies of a scales similar to yours  although  it was in the research department  um  and  I think I cold bring that  coo-  that  um  international perspective  I've lived in several countries as well  uh  and I have  besides being and engineer  I have a lot practice with team work and with leadership roles in my community and my student groups  even in my p-set groups  um  doing homework. We have to pull together a lot of presentations and a lot of  uh  group reports where the materials signs major here  and  I've really  uh  I've developed a lot of skills that I think will really help your company.  |Interviewer: Great.
p85,Interviewer: So please tell me about yourself|Interviewee: Okay so I’m a junior here at MIT  I’m [???]  um and I guess so it’s an interesting combo but engineering and ECS and I think I just came to MIT thinking I’d do bioengineering and then I guess I took a program class for the first time my freshman year over IP and I guess I just really fell in love with the logic. I worked in a couple of biology labs and I guess the one frustrating thing is that like experiments take weeks or months to set up sometimes things just go wrong and you don’t really know why. And then I think I like the instantaneous feedback of like [???] so last year I decided to double major and this year I’m really checking out the more computer science side of things.|Interviewer: Excellent. Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Okay um so I think I’m on my class council  so one of the things we have to do was to seven people elected every year our job was to plan events for the class for event unity  just like study breaks but sometimes it goes beyond that. And I guess through that role often times I’ve um just like seen an idea from inception all the way to it’s now in planning to like delegating tasks to day of  to day of execution and just following that entirely through. So I guess that just involved first just coming out brainstorming some ideas so like for example this past week on Tuesday  since it’s a hell week for many people at MIT we decided to have instead of like a big study break where people had to go on campus  we rented out a cookie monster truck from Boston and then just drove around. We had six stops on campus to like it was all the dorms and even across the river to bring the study break to them so people didn’t have to spend that much time just cookies and hot cocoa. So I guess my role is well I thought of the idea and then just coordinate the people and made shifts to people and designed the stops and then just made sure publicity was good and everything came together in the end.|Interviewer: It’s a very smart idea. I like it. So tell me a time you were working on a team and faced a challenge. How did you go about resolving it?|Interviewee: Okay. So I guess I’m in a fraternity and then one of the things we have like a lot of officers and I guess one of the things is that sometimes people obviously it’s MIT people get very busy and I guess one of the things is people maybe they have an ambitious goal and then it just happens that they get busy or like they lose track of things and then uh they get side tracked and it’s always challenging to try to keep them engaged into that officer position and like because for a couple of reasons: one like do you want to make it rewarding for then  two you want to see them follow their goals  and three they’re like setting an example for say like younger students or other people that may be interesting. So I guess the challenge then is to overcome this so I’m usually following up with them individually seeing  like  maybe like  hey like what’s up are you no longer interested in this are you just busy? And then I think it depends on like a case by case basis. Like are they just maybe a little bit absent minded then maybe like setting like weekly just like deliverables or like milestones or goals to like get it done piece by piece is one way. If they’re not interested anymore maybe you try to think of like some other idea that they may be interested in or willing to plan to maybe they can work in a group with someone else so someone else can keep them on track. So I guess it’s just tailoring to the solution to the individual problem.|Interviewer: Yes  that’s always the best approach. So unh tell me about one of your weakness and how you plan to overcome it.|Interviewee: Okay um I think sometimes I can be um a little like  uh like unsure of myself or like doubting when making a very large decision so I guess usually in leadership roles I prefer something like second in command since I do like making sure things get done and like following up to make sure but I always like the fall back of having someone else to consult with to talk about uh my thought process and things like that. And I guess generally I try just to overcome that by basically reaching out to other people like other people on the team or someone else you would maybe not [???] but has experience in the field just to maybe illustrate my thought process  see if they see any flaws  see if they see maybe  a perspective I didn’t think about and then just generally trying to get more viewpoints so that I feel more confident in my own decision or like I reevaluate it to account for things that maybe I didn’t think of before.|Interviewer: Ah yes  that’s always a good strategy. So now I’d like you to think of a job that you’d like to have. Do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: Um so actually that’s one of the things like I’m hoping to figure out …|Interviewer: Okay that wasn’t the question. I want you to picture one that you’d like to have.|Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: For an interview situation. Now tell me why you should have this job.|Interviewee: Okay so I guess the job I picked was just to listing like Richard Keppel? Where like they listen to a lot of pitches and they decide like what to fund and I think the reason why I want to  should I say why I should or why I want to have that job?|Interviewer: Why should we hire you?|Interviewee: Okay so why I should have the job is I think at MIT I’ve gotten a lot of exposure to a lot of different things one is through the breadth of my coursework I guess I’m in two very different fields. Another is just through my interaction with people on campus like being on class council  being involved in a fraternity   I guess I um I’ve seen like a lot of different groups of people. And um I guess I’m just constantly around lots of awesome people with awesome ideas and I really enjoy just listening to them. And then a lot of the times I’ve helped people to develop maybe they’ve got a gold mine of a plan and I’ve helped them work through  especially like sophomores or freshman in the fraternity  putting that plan in action. SO I think that I would be a good candidate because I’ve had experience listening to ideas  I can identify problem areas just because I have a lot of experience executing those ideas. So I can both see what might be a good idea technically as well as to see if there’s a good plan to set forth an action and get it done.|Interviewer: Excellent well thanks for coming in with us today.|Interviewee: Thank you.
p86,Interviewer: So  please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Umm  like where I'm from  that type of stuff? Okay  umm  I'm Junior  M.I.T.. I come from South Florida  born and raised  so cold weather's kind of rough for a guy like me but that's alright. It's kind of a nice break from the heat of South Florida. Umm  I've been playing music ever since I was four  so that's kind of been a big part of my life. Umm  but music tech  I mean  technology honestly also  so umm. Course two here  which is Mechanical Engineering  um  but I'm also dabbling in Electrical  looking along for sides of control that type of stuff. Robotics  if you will. And just had one of my  my second or third robot finished last week  which was a freakin' nightmare. But you know  it's ok  it's done  it was  it was a good time  so  yeah. That's  that's what I do. Yeah  umm  I guess that's...|Interviewer: That's good for you! That's good  that's good.|Interviewee: Yeah  alright.|Interviewer: Uh  excellent. Robot building is always a fun pastime. |Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: So  can you tell me about a time where you demonstrated leadership?|Interviewee: Leadership? Um  Well I guess I'm  uh  usually pretty calm and collected  so  if I ever notice  like  in a group setting if someone's like  you know  there's  there's disagreement between the two  like in my robotics group  for example. The two guys  they're best buds  but they often  like  just get really heated  like  you know  I  eff you  why  why don't we just do this  and that type of stuff. So...|Interviewer: Yeah. |Interviewee: ... In order to  like  keep it going and being productive  someone has to be like you know  just  guys  just calm down and keep doing it  so that's  that's like  just  here and there. Not really super-like I'm in control  you know  at least saying guys  we need to calm down and take a step forward. I feel like that's a little  minor leadership role I've got to take there. Um  other leadership roles  um  I  I play in a group  like a band  jazz group  so I often  you know  we all got to get together  and like  kind of talk. Any  any group setting in which I'm often in  I have to  like  somebody has to take control  and I don't often take control initially  but  you know  if something is not going in a certain direction  or the right direction  I often feel like maybe I can push it there very subtly. So  leadership in a very subtle way  but not in a  like  a bam  I'm telling you what to do.|Interviewer: Anyway. |Interviewee: That's  that's what I like doing.|Interviewer: Ah  that make's sense. So uh  tell me a time when you worked on a team and you faced a challenge. How did you go about solving it?|Interviewee: Um  okay  so  for example  the robotics group  um  we worked very last minute  and just having to be one of those things where we were all busy with other things  and we didn't really think about the scheduling  like when it was actually  when the project was actually going to be due. So  um  basically we all had to work really hard  last minute  and  of course  you know  things don't always go according to plan  so we  like  we tried to build one thing  and machine something  and it ended up not being perfect the first time  so we have to go back and redesign it  or re-machine it  so uh  we had to re-machine a few things a couple times. And  you know  it's like  six in the morning  and you've been working in the lab for like  thirteen hours and you've got to keep going  so  you've got to stay positive and keep  and  you know  even though you may not finish  or like  you know  you kind of  you can't really think about not finishing. You just have to go for it  keep finishing  keep working  eventually you're good  with the mind set that you are going to finish. So that's  uh  adversity in that way. Just  you know  always stay positive  and keep looking towards the future  keep working.|Interviewer: Yes. So  can you tell me about one of your weaknesses  and what you've done to try and overcome it?|Interviewee: So um  time-management  um  is one of my weaknesses  which is not always the best to admit in an interview  but you know  whatever  uh  that's alright. What I've been doing to get better about it  is  you know  sometimes you've got to look like  even a week in advance  I've discovered  especially at M.I.T.  isn't as far as you need to go. So  like this  this week for instance  I had  like  three  like  a final robot project  another presentation I had to take care of  and  you know  a lab  a couple P-sets. Like  you just  I didn't realize how much work was coming up until like  last Thursday or something like that  which is when I started working  but even then  you know  I didn't have enough time. I really should have started working  you know  Monday  on it  when I was just relaxing  and was like Oh  you know. I've got P-sets to do this week  but I can really relax and it will be all right. So  uh  in terms of improving that  just I  you know  got to work  write up a schedule  and look  really far in advance  make sure I really see what's coming. Yeah  so I've been trying  I've been being better. It started off  I started college  like  I didn't see things for like  three days in advance  two days in advance. Now it's kind of like  a week  week and a half I'm looking in advance. I'm getting there  slowly but surely. Yeah.|Interviewer: And  now think of a job you'd like to have.|Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: You have one in mind? |Interviewee: Uh  yeah sure.|Interviewer: So why should we hire you? |Interviewee: For that job  you mean?|Interviewer: Yeah. |Interviewee: Umm  I feel like I know what I'm doing now. Um  I'll say there was a point in time where I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing  and I've been one of those guys that  like  you know  you can apply to a job  and say  you know  yeah  there's no harm in applying  which I've kind of figured out  eventually  yeah there is no harm in applying  I agree. But  at the same time  I feel like there's kind of  like a  an obligation to actually know what you're doing for that job  and right now I feel like I know what I'm doing. At least  a lot more so than I did last year  or even last semester  so at the rate I'm going  I feel like  you know  another semester of classes that I'm taking  I'll really know what I'm doing  and then some more time in the field  or at the job  it'll piece together and I'll actually feel pretty confident. So  that's...|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: ... That's why  I guess.|Interviewer: Well thank you.|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: I appreciate you coming today.
p89,Interviewer: Please tell me about yourself.|Interviewee: Um so I’m a junior at MIT here and um I’m a physics major and I uh  yeah  besides classes  I’m involved in the juggling club and uh let’s see and I’m from Pensacola  Florida and I’ve lived there uh ever since I  I was born there  grew up there and I um yeah  lived there and moved up here. Yeah I’m in Zeta Psy fraternity and uh yeah so  yeah  right above Chicago Pizza. And uh yeah do you want me to go into more detail  or just general? Yeah  um yeah so I uh I don’t too much as far as extra-curricular but I was involved with Frisbee freshman year for a little bit and played the club team  there’s not a varsity team here. I was pretty good  liked that a lot. And uh I’m not sure as far as career wise what I want to go into but as a physics major I’m looking into something technical probably electrical engineering related. Uh and yeah but I’m trying to size that up right now. Junior’s a pretty pivotal year for you know deciding long term things. Yeah so brief summary of me.|Interviewer: Good so tell me a time when you demonstrated leadership.|Interviewee: Um well high school uh senior year probably the best time. I helped organize a math competition um so there was no major middle school math competition in Pensacola  Florida and so I just teamed up with a few people with my year in high school and we helped organize a competition. It’s been going on for the past three years and uh hopefully it’ll go further. That was one of the most stressful things but the most rewarding as well and yeah so as far as leadership goes. I mean more recently I guess juggling club has been my main leadership thing  we organize different gigs and perform various places so.|Interviewer: So uh tell a time when you were working in a team and you faced a challenge. How did you go about solving it?|Interviewee: Um so that would most commonly have been this past semester  I took junior lab which is the physics lab class. Lots of challenges frequently. It was me and a partner who worked on three different experiments and um specifically I guess let me think because yeah we had three major experiments and the second experiment was very hands on which was cool but it also means there was a lot of faulty equipment. I guess just a general thing we both learned to kind of talk it through because it’s so easy to I don’t know get like get in your head and you’re working with somebody so they’ll be thinking one thing and you’ll be thinking another. Yeah I guess that’s not very specific but I mean yeah that’s the first thing that came to mind so.|Interviewer: Thank you. Can you tell me about one of your weaknesses and what you’re doing to overcome it?|Interviewee: Yeah weakness? I guess I uh as far as this is kind of a general thing that I’ve kind of come to the realization of recently. I need to um I don’t know I’ve been kind of getting along with my undergraduate career and you know what I’ll do after. Self-advocacy is like a huge thing and I haven’t really gotten too much into that but I feel like a major thing for like taking the next step like after graduation is like self-advocacy. Whether it’s like having your own website or just like general networking. I don’t know that’s something that I realize that I need to kind of work on.|Interviewer: Okay thank you that was important. So now think about a job that you’d like to have. Okay do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: Um yeah.|Interviewer: Good okay  so now why do you think you should have this job?|Interviewee: Why do I think I should have this job?|Interviewer: Yes.|Interviewee: Um I feel like I’m a pretty creative person and you know having a bit of technical background here and a good work ethic I feel like I really do have those strengths. Yeah I feel like I communicate pretty well for um  I’m not saying you know general physics majors can’t communicate well  just in general I feel like especially this past semester I’ve taken a lab classes I’ve been able to give a lot of oral presentations and um I kind of found a strength there and so I think kind of bringing a solid communication element to a technical field is pretty important. So um yeah I feel I’m pretty qualified there.|Interviewer: Thank you.
pp1,Interviewer: So please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: Umm  so I’m a computer science and biology major here at MIT.  I’m a junior and I’m expecting to graduate in June 2014.  Ahm  I’m interested in kinda doing both research and  as well as practical application of some type of biological research with computational engineering involved.  Sorry  would you like to know more or is that alright?|Interviewer: I’m more interested in how long you can talk as long as you like.  For instance if you turn these around 180 that’s one of the reasons giving you a funny look.  Do you think you’re a leader?  Tell me why.|Interviewee: Uhm  I do  I would say that when situations present themselves I step up to the occasion.  I’m not afraid to take the lead on a project or like.  For example I guess  um  for one of my computer science projects that we were working on a group together one of our teammates wasn’t working well  I wasn’t afraid to kind of step up and take the lead  and be like “hey we gotta get this done.”  And  um  it’s kind of happened multiple times before I guess.  |Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player?  Give me an example where there’s a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: Um  so one of the other organizations I do is Camp Kesem and I’m actually on their exec board. And so a lot of what we do is we plan out the summer camp for our kids whose parents have cancer.  And a lot of times we’re just debating simply like how exactly we want to get  uh  or how we want the whole camp to you know  uh  kinda go day by day we need plan out the whole schedule.  So we have a lot of conflict because everyone has all these different ideas and this is a very team oriented board and although it’s got the normal hierarchal structure  uh  we do a lot of things like just simply by like mapping them out on the board and visualizing the day and schedules and planning between us and what the teens have to do where we’re able to come up with a solution together.  So I would say that it’s a good example of me being one of a team and coming up with a solution together.|Interviewer: If you were given an option to change one thing about yourself what would that be?|Interviewee: Um  I think I’d like to be more interested in academia and even research.  Uh  I enjoy what I do  but I’ve seen some awesome things that you can do if you-I don’t fault them for pursing a career in peer research  which is why I think it’s kind of interesting why I’d admire myself more if I were more interested in that field  but -|Interviewer: Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Ah  I think I’m qualified and I think I’ll bring a lot to the company  I-I fit in well with the environment here.  And  uh  it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.|Interviewer: Well  thank you.  I appreciate you coming today.|Interviewee: Alright.
pp10,Interviewer: 	So  tell me about your background.|Interviewee: 	Um  so  um  I’m a third-year student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology  uh  my major is aerospace engineering; and I  um… my  my background is primarily in fluid mechanics and control  and so that’s why I’m interviewing for this position. Um  and  um  the applications I’m primarily interested in are in rotorcraft  uh  design  and  uh  analysis. And uh  um  and I’m really excited about what your company is doing.|Interviewer: 	Excellent. So do you think you’re a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: 	Um  so  yes. I think I  I think that I… I don’t think that a leader is the first adjective I’d pull out to describe myself. Um  but I think it’s something that I definitely  a role I definitely step into  um  when  when the need arises or when  um  I think that it’s appropriate. Um  whether I seek that out  I think really depends on the context  but  um  I definitely see myself as someone who can act independently  uh  can make decisions independently  can act on those decisions  and  uh  can manage people in order  um  to get sort of positive results. |Interviewer: 	Do you think of yourself as a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: 	Mm-hmm. OK  um  so  um… so when I worked for  um  the computer science and artificial intelligence lab in freshman year  I  um  had  had an issue  um  with one of the students I was working with  um  um  and we had a disagreement about how to handle some part of the project. Um  it was  it was more of a mechanical issue about what direction we should take  um  and without getting too into details  I think  um  going back to the leadership issue  um  the way I  the way I handled this issue was  um  to sit down and address the issue very directly  um  and to have a frank conversation about what we both wanted  evaluate where we both were  and  uh  talk through the options and make a decision right there. Not letting an issue linger; um  I think that’s generally my style. |Interviewer: 	That makes a lot of sense. So  uh  if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: 	Um  that’s not a question I’ve been asked a lot. I think there are a few things. Um  one that comes to mind immediately is my written communication skills. Um  I definitely know that’s something that I need to work on and  um  would love the opportunity to improve on that.|Interviewer: 	Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: 	So from what I’ve seen so far in the interview and visiting  um  I’m really excited about this position I think this is somewhere I would fit  where I would fit in a lot. Um  I’m really excited about what I would be doing and the people I would be working with  and  um  I would just love to sort of get my hands dirty. And  um  I think I’m pretty well-equipped to do so and to contribute in doing so. Um  so I’d love that opportunity.|Interviewer: 	Well  thank you.| |Interviewee: 	Yeah. Thank you.|Interviewer: 	I appreciate your time interviewing  the…
pp11,Interviewer: So  tell me a little bit about your background.|Interviewee: Um so I am a student here at MIT. I'm a junior studying biology and management. Um  I am very interested in finance  specifically investment banking or consulting. Uh  I've taken a bunch of different management finance classes  as well as interned in business management... uh I've also done laboratory research and I'm working in a small consulting firm part time. As  as of now  so.|Interviewer: Ok. Thank you. Do you think you're a leader  and why?|Interviewee: Um  I think I'm a leader  I think I know how to command respect in certain situations. Um  I know how to work together on a team  I think that's very important  uh  especially in the positions that I'm working at I think working with a group of people  being able to encourage them  uh  to work towards a certain goal  uh  shows my leadership characteristics.|Interviewer: Ok. And  do you consider yourself a team player? And can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict in your team and you resolved it.|Interviewee: Um I defiantly consider myself a team player. I think a lot of the different internships and experiences I've had have forced me to work on a team. Um  specifically  uh  in the class that I'm taking right now  uh 5279 which is management communication  we are working on a team project together and we... when deciding on our topic uh for the team project  we had a lot of different disagreements  a lot of people had different ideas  uh and I think I kind of forced people to look at what they were saying  versus just like splurting out ideas  focusing on how their idea would actually turn out in a presentation. Um  and so trying to get people to compromise  um  and in the end we ended up picking my idea  so...|Interviewer: Great. Ok. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Uh  well  I think I'd like to be taller  that kind of thing (laughs) ... but other than that  uh  I think I wish I was more outgoing in certain situations. Um  I think sometimes I'm more reserved  or in class  I'm a little hesitant to participate if I'm not sure I'm a hundred percent correct. I think its kind of a MIT mentality  everyone likes to be right all the time. So I think  uh  I have less reser... er  if I had less reservations  about like  answering questions  that would be great.|Interviewer: Ok. And... why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um  I think with my academic experience  as well as my internship experiences I have enough uh  past um  data now assessing quantitative work as well as communication skills and leadership experience  um  and I have a nice balance of skills going into the position. And  I am a fast learner. I'm willing to learn on the job  so I think the combination of all that would be good.|Interviewer: Great
pp12,Interviewer: So tell me a little bit more about your background.|Interviewee: Yea so  Im a member clinical engineering student at MIT  I'm a Junior  um my main focus is in robotics and product design so I'm real interested in personal robotics and robotic side helps people on a daily basis.|Interviewer:  oh ok  great.  Um do you think you're a leader? Tell me why|Interviewee: Um yea  I do think I'm a leader  um...why I'm a leader  um I think that I'm very good at communicating with people and allowing people to be able to do something as a group together so somewhat facilitate in communication between others as well as communicating myself to others um and that way and also being able to motivate people and make sure they are on track with whatever they need to do in that way  um I think to some extent um people can look up to me in terms of you know  what I've done in the past with education or other  other things like that|Interviewer: Great!  Do you consider yourself a team player and can you give an example of a time you were on a team and there was a problem and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: Ok yea  so I do consider myself a team player  I'm currently in a robotics class right now that's a team project based and its me and 3 other students and we recently had to decide on a design for a robot and there is a little bit of not  not like total  you know  people not agreeing but there we had to decide between 2 main  2 different designs and there's a little bit of friction between 2 people versus 2 people of the 4 person team and we need to decide on the majority so um being a team player we were able to kind of mix the 2 designs to a certain extent so that we can all agree on one and i think by being a team leader or team player um  excuse me  I was able to compromise to some extent or give my ideas on how we can combine the two.|Interviewer: Great! And if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: Ah  I think if I could change one thing about myself...in terms like personality I assume you mean  um I probably...that's a hard questions...I probably change the fact that I feel like I need to be constantly doing everything at once so I think sometimes I need to focus on one thing other than another cause I do have a really large variety of interest and I wish I had some way to not so I'd get rid of those interests  but recognize that I do need to focus out on one thing or one task at one time instead of doing everything at once.|Interviewer: Great! And last question.  Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Ah  I think I could be really a beneficial part of adding to your company and it would give me a good opportunity to learn from the people that you guys have currently employed um so  if I was given that opportunity both learn from them but also that I'd give benefit to what you guys are doing I think would be great|Interviewer: Great!
pp13,Interviewer: So  can you tell me a little bit more about your background?|Interviewee: Um  I'm a junior at MIT studying electrical engineering and computer science.|Interviewer: Okay.|Um  I first became interested in engineering in high school when I did a summer internship at a lab at materials science lab at UC Berkley  and since then I've taken  uh  several courses related to circuits and other eletrical engineering topics. And worked at  uh  electrical engineering labs at Standford and MIT. And  I've also worked in places like Promex Industries  which is a chip packaging company in the Silicon Valley.|Interviewer: Okay. So. Do you think you're a leader and tell me why?|Interviewee: Uh  yes. I've had several experiences where I've had to innovate and work with  take charge of a project and work with other people. For instance  I'm part of the MIT SAE team  and basically it's a club that builds a race car every year.|Interviewer: Oh wow  okay.|Interviewee: Um  and  as of  so  we need a lot of money for sponsorship. But  as of the end of last year  the website was pretty much defunct. So  I decided to take over as webmaster and one of my  and  over the summer and the beginning of the school year. I set up a new one that's nicely designed  and to get it up  I had to work with most of the other sub-team leaders to get information that I needed. For instance  the specs of the car  pictures of the car  different events for PR and things like that. And  it's done now  so it's online now.|Interviewer: Great. Alright. Do you consider yourself a team player  and can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict in your team that you had to resolve.|Interviewee: Um. So. Ah yes because. Uh  for instance  I'm also on the (inaudible). And  um  while I was working on designing the website I talked to several other people including the public relations chair about how to design and present ourselves on the website. And  we disagreed about certain  uh  about the layout and things like that. So to resolve the issue  we basically looked at websites of several other successful teams and tried to  we basically both compromised to try to emulate things that seemed to work well for other people. And  we also got opinions from several other team members.|Interviewer: Okay. If you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Um  one thing right now is that  I get hung up on small details on a project. And  that could be an issue when I'm working on a big project  it can take too much time to focus on little things that don't matter too much in the big picture. But  I'm working on changing that so since I've come to MIT I've been involved in a lot of activities and a lot of classes  and this is forcing me to manage my time well so I've gotten better at focusing on the big picture of the project rather than small details that don't matter very much.|Interviewer: Great. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I have the quantitative and qualitative skills to solve problems and get things done  and  I'm really interested in this position and I think I can learn and grow from it.|Interviewer: Great.
pp14,Interviewer: So  please tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Sure. Uh. I'm a computer science student here and I'm currently a junior  but I'm planning on graduating early. |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So  uhm  I'm right now looking into either getting my master's degree or looking at full time jobs as well and balancing that. |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Uh  in terms of what I enjoy in computer science  I really like front end stuff. I've done a lot of web development. I worked at Google last Summer |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: On Google+ photos  the front end for that. And  uh  yeah. So I really like  eh  c-consumer facing products.|Interviewer: Great. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Uh  well  I think I have a pretty engaging personality. So I'm very expressive and I'm good at communicating things.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So I think  y'know  just that qualification in itself really lends m- my  uh  myself to leadership.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: But I think also  uh  as a technical person it's  it's e- especially useful to have those skills because they are more rare. So in that sense I do think I'm a leader  because I possess both  you know  technical skills and then also the ability to communicate really well. So the pairing of that really does lend itself well to leadership roles.|Interviewer: Great. And do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it. |Interviewee: Sure. So  eh  what's so great about MIT is that we actually do a lot of group projects that really encourage teamwork. So  you know  a lot of the issues that maybe I didn't work out in high school  in terms of working on a team  I've gotten the chance to flesh out here and I do think that I've been able to grow  uhm  as someone working on a team. So for example  in one of my classes  it's a software design class  and we basically had to split up the work so that we could get this huge project done. And one of the people on my team was just really not pulling her weight. And so me and this other person noticed this and we were concerned. But we all discussed it. We sat down and discussed it and we realized just that the way we were allocating the work wasn't playing to her strengths. |Interviewer: Mmmm.|Interviewee: So we adjusted how we were allocating the work and then things worked out a lot better. We were able to  you know  accomplish our goals and also more evenly divide the- the work.|Interviewer: Great. Okay. And if you were given an option to change on thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Uhm  that's a hard question. Haha!|Interviewer: Haha!|Interviewee: Cuz I'm a pretty confident person so there's not a lot of things. I don't often think about this. I guess... ... I wish that  uhm... ... I wish I had the ability to  uh  I guess stop and enjoy the moment a little bit more. |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: I think because I am very ambitious and I really enjoy life  I'm always going and moving and doing things  and I think there's times where it is better to just relax and enjoy whatever's happening in your life. Uh  but  you know  I'm young  so I like to try a lot of new things. And that's a consequence of that. |Interviewer: Alright. Okay. And last question: |Interviewee: Mhmm.|Interviewer: Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Uh  so I mentioned this before  but I think I'm qualified in a lot of respects  both technically and in my communication skills. So that's just a balance that you don't see a lot  uh  especially in the computer science field. So I think I can bring a lot to the table in terms of that  uh  in terms of just leadership skills and my ability to talk to people  but also my ability to understand  uh  technical concepts. And especially working in a technical company that's incredibly important.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: So I think I have a good balance of that and you're not going to find a lot of candidates like that.|Interviewer: Great.
pp15,Interviewer: Please tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: More about my background? Uh are we assuming that--|Interviewer: I haven't done that yet.|Interviewee: Okay. Okay. Um all right. Um  so I guess I'll start out with uh I decided to go to MIT as my undergrad school. |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: Because I wanted a strong education in science and math. And um MIT I found would be one of the best places to develop my problem-solving skills and my uh quant--my quantitative skills  which is really valuable  I feel um for employers nowadays  and so I can certainly say that [laugh] it's I have definitely got a lot better at  like  learning how to solve problems working with others  um and it's also given me like a lot of opportunity  MIT has given me a lot of opportunity to  you know  test out my leadership skills by having so many different student groups. |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: Um in particular um  I've like  I feel that um my position as the 2014 treasurer my freshman year was uh really critical in helping me develop um  you know  time management skills  interpersonal skills--|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: --and communicating with like not only your like not only with like um people who are at  you know  adults who are older than you  and working with people in different offices  but also with  like  your peers.|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: Um similarly  um in training students club  I've found um that where I've taken a leadership role as a cultural chair that  unlike in say  high school  you need to really spearhead um efforts to like throw large events yourself  and that's like it's really given me um a feel of what it's like to sort of  you know  take on the responsibility of like organizing an event.|Interviewer: Great!|Interviewee: Mm-hm. |Interviewer: Um do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I think I def-- um. I'm sorry. I think that I am definitely a leader. As I've  I've shared with you previously  I um have taken um positions with great responsibility in the student groups I'm involved in  and as well in my major  I uh am I am inv-- uh  I'm in biological engineering  and I think that I've taken a lot of initiative in finding  you know  ways to like test out the concepts I learn in class outside of class by finding uh research positions and later lab um where the weekly lab meetings has really helped me  you know  improve my communication skills with presenting information to an audience. |Interviewer: Great!|Interviewee: Mm-hm.|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? And can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict in your team  and you had to solve it.|Interviewee: Okay. Um I think probably the best example um I definitely consider myself a team player.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: I had to work in teams--in everything I've had to do so far  from academics to my work experience. Um in my start-up internship my freshman year um and my corporate internship my sophomore year. Um everything was I had to learn how to um not only do the task that was given to me  but to also sort of be able to  you know  delegate tasks to who I was working with and carry out what was  what was asked of me  as well. Um last summer  I was a year  um I did an international year off in Thailand  and my lab partner um was a graduate student who was older than me  but I was  we were partners on the project--|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: --but we found that our levels of technical skill were really different. It was her first time working in any sort of lab--|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: --whereas I was more experienced. So  that sort of created a strange dynamic between us  um because I had to  like  take the lead even though she was given more responsibility because more was expected from her  so I had to sort of help her out and get her up to speed with  with the project. Um  and I needed to do that in a way that didn't hurt our personal relationship--|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: --because we also did have to  like  live together. |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: Being Americans abroad  we really stayed together for most of it  so I felt that being just like really honest and transparent with her was um the best way um just to like say  what about you know say  you know  just like speak up about our frustrations  but also like to  to compliment on  like  the things that are done well. I think that's what really helped. |Interviewer: Great! Okay. If you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Um so  one thing I wish I was better at was um you know speaking well when put on the spot. [Laugh] I tend to  when I'm nervous  I tend to  you know  not really focus on what I'm saying  because I'm trying not to mess up--|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: --and in order to hide that  I also  you know  channel the stress in different ways  such as like looking around  perhaps a lot of intrusive movement with my hands or my body  um and also speaking  being long-winded and speaking too much in order to cover that up. So  I think that just being more comfortable with speaking um in the higher pressure situation  such as public speaking  or in an interview! [Laughs]|Interviewer: [Laughs]|Interviewee: Um is something that I would like to improve.|Interviewer: Okay. And  last question. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Okay. Um so I think that I can bring like with the the my skills and experience is um someone who is really can work well under stress. I may not talk well under stress-- [laughs]|Interviewer: [Laughs]|Interviewee: --but I can work well under stress. Um I think my academic being um you know having the rigorous undergraduate curriculum at MIT has made me really hone my time management skills. Um the other week I had to juggle um um  you know  throwing together a large event for a student's club  um and have meetings with cultural chairs of the other clubs. Um I've also had to  at the same time there was a big event that my sorority was organizing that I also have to help contribute to. |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: And  like  uh my  I had a friend who's also going through a tough time  so I had to  like  help her out. That  and then complete school work. And also  um  you know  just keep on the lookout  now that I'm a junior  there's a lot of like  you know  opportunities and needs  such as like fellowships  and then  like  programs of like IP  over the summer  that have  like  application deadlines coming up--|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: --and just being able to balance all of that. Um and so far um I think that  like  my experiences um that I was able to be on top of all of those deadlines. Not only now  but  like  in the past  and I think that says a lot about um my ability to  you know  work hard and also  you know  balance out my lifestyle.|Interviewer: Great!|Interviewee: So um I think that this would be a huge asset at your company.
pp16,Interviewer:  Please tell me a little bit more about your background.|Interviewee:  Umm  so I'm a Junior at MIT  umm studying economics  umm and planning on minoring in biology  perhaps concentrating in anthropology.  Umm  I'm interested in pursuing a degree in Public Health after  right after MIT  umm and either waiting to do an MD  or combining those two at the same time.  Umm  what I'm really interested is health care disparities  umm especially in  in the field of international health  umm specifically kind of doing uh cost evaluation of different health projects  umm working towards  uh figuring out how resources can best be allocated  and best be used to maximize efficiency.  Umm  and then here at MIT I'm also involved in an organization called Glommid  umm and we  what we do is we're partnered with an organization in Togo  umm and they work with HIV/AIDS patients there and they are the primary HIV/AID care provider  umm  outside of the public health system there.  Umm  and so what we do is we fundraise for them throughout the year and then in the summer we go and implement a project there.|Interviewer:  Oh  ok great.  And do you think you are a leader?  Tell me more.|Interviewee:  Umm  I think that definitely over the MIT  my MIT career  I've evolved more as a leader.|Interviewer: Ok.|Interviewee:  Umm  of the  umm actually the co-president of Glommid  umm last year  so the club started last year  uh  but the presidents were not very invested in the club  umm  and what I learned from that was I guess  the experience was  taught me some things what leaders shouldn't be  but I think really I've learned whats effective as a leader so far  by doing things differently this semester.  Um  some of the things like even just the really little basic things seem to really have an impact  so for example  for our staff meetings which is the whole general body meeting  umm we're sending  we send out a little doodle form beforehand and it kinda just has  you know what concerns do you have  umm do you feel like you're really involved  like umm  and there's also just a little section  like kudos to someone for doing a great job this week.  And just having that  like interaction and then also we like follow up on any concerns  umm I think the members really have liked that  and so far compared to last year everyone like even the people who are just general body members not even like an exec are much more invested than some of the exec members last year and I think thats because we realized last year what we really were lacking  umm  like my current co-president realized that what we were lacking was really a sense of community and in order to be effective and to really establish a strong relationship with our partner and to fundraise and really come up with a strong project  we need to focus within ourselves first.  Umm  so that experience definitely has taught me a lot about leadership.|Interviewer:  Great  ok.  Do you consider yourself a team player  and can you give me an example of when there was a conflict within your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee:  Umm  yea ok.  So  conflict.  Umm  well i guess I'll use an example from last year for Glommid.  Umm  so we were partnered with a different organization last year  and we  what  how it works is a national organization  theres fifty chapters  umm and we had a partner in Laos  and all of a sudden last minute  they said we could no longer go and implement the project.  So I was the person in charge of organizing the trip  that my role on exec  so that was really hard for me because I felt kind of betrayed kind of by the co-presidents and by nationals umm  because the reason was because the Laotian government would see us volunteer tourism and they could get their NGO status revoked since Laos just started having NGO's.  So that was something I kind of was unsure about like are we sure we can go here  like Laos is very not welcoming towards Americans because of  past.  And so  I felt really kind of let down by umm  by them.  And I think everyone on the Glommid team also felt really let down  because it was February  we had been fundraising all year  planning campaigns  umm and this  so what we did I think  umm  like I switched over to campaigns coordinator and I still like tried to keep everyone invested and excited for our campaign to still fundraise for them  because it wasn't because they were a bad organization that we couldn't go  it was because that the government wouldn't allow it  and we didn't want to risk them losing their NGO status for a project.  Umm  so what  I  went through the campaign  I tried to get people to focus more  just remember what our partner does  why we are doing this  umm and not focus so much on kind of the miscommunication that happened between nationals and the partner organization.  Umm  and then through this summer  and through this fall i've been trying to keep in contact with our partner  our old partner  although we are repartnered now  umm  to see how our  the money we raised like how that project is going and to try and keep people informed about what's going on  so that it doesn't feel like last year was a complete failure.|Interviewer:  Ok.  |Interviewee:  Yea.|Interviewer:  Great.  And if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee:  Oh  thats a tough question.  Umm  I think sometimes i can lack a bit of confidence in bigger group settings.  Umm  and it usually takes me a little bit to get comfortable with the situation  so I think  I've definitely  and this is something i've been working on to be more proactive and in larger group situations  but for example like big lectures  asking questions or things like that I usually try and avoid  but I've been trying to push myself to become more vocal.|Interviewer:  Great.  And last question  why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee:  Uh  I think I should get the job because I think what my assets are I combine Econ and health  which is kind of rare to have as an undergraduate to have this combination.  And I've done  I've taken a lot of classes  I'm involved in a national development  both from the technical side of Econ  the anthropological and the health side.  And also my involvement in Glommid has also taught me a lot about the realities of international health and international development that I don't think necessarily come through a class.|Interviewer:  Great!
pp17,Interviewer: How have you been?|Interviewee: Been all right. School’s uh  you know  it’s always that time in the middle of the semester. Yeah it’s nuts.|Interviewer: All right so can you tell me a little bit more about your background|Interviewee: Um yes so I am a junior here at MIT in Computer Science and Engineering um and most of my experience here has been actually at the Game Lab on campus so I’ve worked there for the past few years and I’ve worked on many different kinds of projects in various languages and with different people. Um and uh also uh I’ve taken courses here in algorithms  uh in graphics  uh also software construction. But I’ve really found algorithms to be something that I’m really interested in  I think they’re really beautiful and elegant  they can accomplish a lot. And in my spare time I like to um do yoga  I’m not very good at it  and I love food so finding hidden gems in the city is really fun.|Interviewer: Great and do you think you’re a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Uh yes I am. So um last semester here at MIT I took  as I mentioned  a software construction class and um in this class we had you know quite a few projects and some of these were group projects. So the first group project that we had in the class  um I was working with uh two of my peers. They seemed um like nice people and all but we were having issues um you know actually getting things done. Getting a time when we could all meet and um you know that sort of thing. So uh it looked like no one was really stepping up so I decided to step up and um I made sure to contact everyone in the group and um you know got us working together um and we met up. And you know I made sure that we were always on task and took notes on what we were doing um so that when it came to actually implementing our ideas that we actually had some sort of structure and our project turned out really great uh at the end. There was a bit of a time crunch but all in all I think we worked together really well and I’m very pleased with how it turned out.|Interviewer: Great okay. Do you consider yourself a team player and can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: I do consider myself a team player. Um worked on many teams. So in this same software construction class ironically the second group project which was our final project for the course did not go quite as planned. So I was working with two other people and uh in this case I tried to get us working together and tried to do my part for our project but uh they were not having it and um they actually ended up overwriting my code multiple times instead of you know allowing me to contribute to the project um even after I spoke to them about it and told them there were tools um that could help resolve conflicts in the code and they just weren’t cooperating. Um and so I ended up having to go talk to my TA and talking to my course administrator here and also to the student support services to see you know what  how I could resolves the situation because I had done everything that I thought I could. Um so that turned out okay at the end but sometimes things are out of your control and I think those are the hardest problems to confront but um you know uh it’s okay to ask for help sometimes I think that it ended up okay in the end.|Interviewer: Great. Um if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Ooh  that’s a toughie. Hmm I think  if I had one thing I could change it would probably be being more aggressive  which aggressive is a scary word perhaps so um perhaps being more assertive. I’ve always been a pretty quiet person um even when I was growing up and this is something that like in elementary school my teachers would say that  “Oh” you know on my progress reports  “[Stephie?] Is a very quiet and sweet girl” but they didn’t really have anything else to say because I was so quiet. Um and you know even now sometimes being around people can make me nervous and this is something that I’ve been working on um you know over you know since I can remember I guess. And as of late I’ve been trying to take a more active role in you know overcoming my fear of people. Uh I uh a few years ago worked at a Starbucks for about a year. Yeah back in  this was in downtown Boston in the financial district  so of all the customers you could possibly have at a Starbucks  these were the probably the most challenging ones that you could have. So after working there and dealing with these people I feel like I can pretty much you know  I can deal with anyone even if it makes me sort of nervous. Um you know I’ve been there so I can sort of take my experiences form there and apply them to what I encounter nowadays.|Interviewer: Great okay last question. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Hm  well uh I have a lot of experience uh working at the Game Lab here and that coupled with you know what I’ve learned in classes I think makes me a really good fit for this job. I have  um so when I was working at the Game Lab I worked on many  many projects so pretty much one project a semester and these projects varied widely. They were in different languages  the topics were different. Some were more technical  some weren’t’. Some were more fully specified than others. And so given that I’ve touched upon such a wide range of things  I think that I’m very adaptable. Uh and also um at this Game Lab  I’ve worked in lots of teams  so I feel like I have a strong grasp of teamwork and having worked at that Starbucks  I’ve really learned to deal with all sorts of people so I feel like that’s a good asset to have for this job.|Interviewer: Great!
pp20,Interviewer: Tell me a little more about your life.|Interviewee: OK  um... this is separate from the other time  right?|Interviewer: Yes.|Interviewee: OK (laughs)  um  I'm a junior  um  at MIT studying environmental engineering. Um  I'm originally from Minnesota. Um  I'm taking classes this semester in hydrology and environmental transport and I found them really interesting. |Interviewer: Great|Interviewee: And I thought that they would apply to this job. |Interviewer: Mmmmhmm.|Interviewee: Um  yeah. (Laughs)|Interviewer: Great. So  do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  yeah  I think I've stepped up to a lot of leaderslip  -ship positions since I came to college. I'm president of my living group  um   I'm also on the rowing team and I feel like I've  um  played a leadership role there  um...|Interviewer: OK. Could you be a little bit more specific?|Interviewee: Um  so  as president of my living group  um  I lead house meetings every other week |Interviewer: Oh  OK.|Interviewee: and I also am involved in resolving problems between people  um  so there's like several different conditions in the house which control  like  say for instance  like  buying food  or like  maintaining the house and I help coordinate everybody and make sure they can work together. |Interviewer: Right. OK. Do you consider yourself a team player?|Interviewee: Mmmhmm.|Interviewer: And can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Umm... yeah. Umm  let me think. I guess something that's come up in my living group  I was house manager last semester  and so  as part of our living group  people have to do  like  weekly house jobs...|Interviewer: Mmmhmm|Interviewee: So like  kind of chores  and so we've definitely had conflicts over  like  people who aren't pulling their weight in the house  and there were times I had to step in and take the person aside and let them know that they were adversely affecting the group and that there were  like  consequences if they didn't  um   end up  you know  pulling more weight  and I definitely had success with that and  um  one particular instance I talked to someone and she came back to the next house meeting and apologized to the group  and...|Interviewer: Oh|Interviewee: ... definitely started to change her behavior.|Interviewer: Oh  that's great. Ok  so  if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Um... I don't... I don't think there's anything I would necessarily change about myself. I feel like the experiences I've had have  like  taught me different things...|Interviewer: Mmmhmm.|Interviewee: And  um  there's definitely things I'm working on growing in...|Interviewer: OK.|Interviewee: But they're things that  like  I don't think they're things I would expect to change overnight  necessarily.|Interviewer: Mmmhmm. Can you give me an idea of what those are?|Interviewee: Um  I'm working on being more outgoing  so  like I said  I've stepped up  both on the crew team and as part of my living group...|Interviewer: Mmmhmm.|Interviewee: ... into leadership roles  and so I think that's changed a lot in the last couple of years and is still changing. |Interviewer: Great. And... why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee: Um  I think I have a lot of experience  um  with the classes I've taken and with previous internship opportunities. Um  I did an internship at an environment restoration company after my freshman year...|Interviewer: Mmmhmm.|Interviewee: ..which I think helped prepare me. Um  I'm also really excited about going into this field  um  I haven't  b-  had the chance to apply the things I've learned in my classes yet and I think this would be a really good opportunity for me to apply those things  so... I think I would be able to help the company out in that way.|Interviewer: Great!
pp21,Interviewer: So uh please tell me a little more about your background.|Interviewee: Okay!So uh I grew up in Tampa  Florida uhm from paretns of Chinese-American decent or they're from China and I'm Chinese American and uhm thoughout my uhm high school career I actually uh taking biology classes cuz I had a really good teacher who like really made uh this subject material engaging uhm and then here in MIT I uhm I first started out as Course 20 which us uh biological engineering and then I took my first programming class and I really liked it  its like uhm I think it sort of matches uhm how I think like telling a computer how to uh do things in a precise way and so thats why I switched to uh Course 67.|Interviewer: oh ok.|Interviewee: hmmm mmm.|Interviewer: Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why?|Interviewee: uhm I think that I'm a leader in the sense that like oh let's say that there's a thing that needs to get done then I will make sure that it does get done like uh for example at uh the TAC which is MIT student newspaper uhm every week uhm you have to uh of course like edit things and when the previous uhm campus life editor wanted to move on to a different department I stepped up and got it done uhm yeah.|Interviewer: okay. Do you consider yourself a team player and can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict in your team and how you resolved it?|Interviewee: uhm so I guess when uhm I havent had a super large amount of time to uh experience doing like really large team projects I imagine I'll get more experience in that as I get into like more project based classes uhm I guess I would uh I'm okay with working with other people as long as uh there's like clear communication and like people are responsible like uhm doing the task that they're supposed to be doing. I guess I would be good working with a team other like responsible people that make sure like you're doing your portion of the job because I would want to make sure I am also doing my portion of the job and like if everybody like does their part then I think that I would be happy working with them.|Interviewer: Good!And if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: hmmm well actually statistically I think that I would like to be a little but taller because actually it's true I believe that like taller people are more like uhm they get better like jobs and like they're statistically more likely to succeed just because you're more impressed by a taller person so it's like well sure why not? It would I think it would make it might have some percentage chance of making my life better. Also if I maybe there's like another second thing changing my last name to something that starts with A because thats also showing statistically increase your chances of success.|Interviewer: okay! And last question  why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: uhm same company okay uhm so I think I hope that uh I have so I would obviously really love working for Google and I would and uhm my skills as being responsible  communicating clearly  my uh computer science skills I learned at MIT I hope will bring uh a lot of value to this position and I also really uh would I hope to embody Google's principles of like uh making really innovative software and like to build to delivering really good customer experiences uhm and I hope that uh they will uh I hope you will also find my contributions you can find my uh contributions useful.|Interviewer: Great!
pp22,Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about you  okay?|Interviewee: I'm a Junior in Aerospace Engineering. I'm originally from Kansas City  born in Maryland. And I'm interested in consulting because I'm currently trying to decide between going into Aerospace Engineering and going into consulting. And one of the things that appeals to me about consulting is that I like the idea of working on different projects and not being stuck doing the same thing all the time and that's something that is very prevalent in engineering and is very traditional about the engineering field. And  as far as hobbies that I enjoy I am interested in global development  international development and poverty related issues as well as music. I play cello and am involved with the chamber music society at MIT.|Interviewer: Great! So  do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yes  I definitely do think I'm a leader. Um  one of the global poverty - er - one of the organizations I'm involved with on campus is the Global Poverty Initiative and I'm currently their Director of Action. And what that means is I'm leading a student group of about twenty people and - um - under the Action branch of the whole organization - and what we do is - in the Action branch - is work on projects on a global scale. So  we have projects currently in India and projects in mexico. And my job is to coordinate these projects and work on what communities we want to go work in and what types of technology related projects we'd like to pursue. And I've been involved with this organization for two and a half years now  and have been the director of Action for the past two years.|Interviewer: Well okay. Great! Do you consider yourself a team player  and can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: I definitely do consider myself a team player. Um  one time that we experienced some conflict in one of the teams I was working on was actually in one of my Aerospace Engineering classes. In this team  our job was to build an RC airplane - design  build and fly it. And we hit some conflicts within our team because - it was mostly everyone was very busy  everyone was very stressed. It was towards the end of the year when everyone's preparing for finals and it was just a very high-strung environment  and the projects was very involved. It involved machining  it involved design work  and coordination between a team of four. And what ended up happening was  well  we needed to get in and find the time to actually work on our airplane and build it. Whereas all of us were involved in student groups and had a very heavy courseload. And conflict did arise. And how we ended up solving this was we - we all decided that something needed to change. And we realized that we weren't putting together quality work when we were doing two people at a time or two people coming in or someone cancelling at the last minute - things like that. We ended up just having to sit down  lay it all out  discuss whatever we needed to do to make sure that we're all here - we're all committing the right amount of time towards this project. And  honestly it was just very much a group effort and we all sat down and individually realized that we needed to prioritize. And I needed to put my classes above some of my interests and my hobbies. And that was something that we all decided to do as a group.|Interviewer: Great  okay. Um  so if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: One thing about myself... being more on top of my work. Something that I definitely need for myself is a deadline and I've always been like that. If you don't give me a deadline sometimes I'll end up dragging my feet  and things get done at the last minute and it's just... disorganization. And so I've been trying to deal with that by making my own small deadlines - personal deadlines - writing them down  making lists and making sure that I prioritize things in advance. But that's something that has taken me probably two years at MIT to learn how to do - and I'm finally getting it.|Interviewer: Good! Okay  and why do you think should get the job?|Interviewee: I think I should get the job because I have a very interesting background  and I believe that I have very unique experiences that could add a lot to your organization. As someone with an engineering background but - as well as a management background because I am minoring in management at MIT. And I think that combination adds a lot to the environment that you would like to have at your company. I think putting a lot of people together in one environment trying to work on the same projects with the same background is something that is very limiting. And I believe that I could add quite a bit of diversity and unique perspective to your team.
pp24,Interviewer: Can you tell me a little bit more about your background?|Interviewee: Sure  so I'm currently a junior at MIT. I grew up outside of the city in a suburb called Naydec.|Interviewee: I've danced my whole life and continued to do so at MIT and I'm studying biology currently and for my humanities concentration  concentrating on Spanish.|Interviewer: Oh  great! So do you think you are a leader?|Interviewee: I would say definitely in various aspects of my life I try to step up as a leader. I'm currently involved in an internship through HELLO at MIT and so the point of the internship is to act as a peer network engagement intern. So basically  reaching out to other Jewish students at MIT  who may not be looking for a very religious atmosphere. But would just like to know that there are other Jewish students that they could connect with. And so my role as the leader of the situation is to connect various students who have similar interests either in community service or things like that and sort of set up a network for them. |Interviewer: Great! So do you consider yourself a team player? And can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Sure  I definitely hope that I'm a team player.|Interviewer: Okay.|Interviewee: I think. It's definitely important to have leadership qualities but also to be able to mesh well within a group. I think this comes out a lot in lab settings where everyone from undergraduate students to PhD candidates and post Docs really have to work together on similar projects. And so being able to voice your opinions or your concerns about experiments while still taking the feedback from others  and making it more of a group effort than a hierarchy  I would say would be crucial.|Interviewer: Okay. So if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: I think  if I could change one thing it would probably be to have a little bit more self confidence. I think I externally try to project a calm and outgoing personality  but inside I can tend to be a little bit shyer. And so I think just being able to walk into any kind of either social or business related situation and really have that confidence without having to second guess myself would help move along both career wise and just with relationships with other people. ||Interviewer: And last question. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think coming with a background from MIT would definitely help me out in this job. The biology department at MIT is really unique in its focus on research. And so I think coming into this lab setting with that background would make a strong candidate.
pp25,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good  how are you?|Interviewer: Good! Can you tell me some more about your background?|Interviewee: Um  yeah. I am  wait sorry  am I ..|[crosstalk]|Interviewee: Ok  um I'm Kathleen  I'm a Core 16 major here at MITU  that's um aeronautical and astronautical engineering  if you're not familiar with our numbering system. Um  so I've been taking a lot of classes in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. Including some um propulsion classes  um uh principals of automatic control  um dynamics  aerodynamics  um computer engineering  so I am familiar with job and mat lab  Um  and then also within those classes I've done some lab work. Um  including work on um a remote control airplane. Um  which we did for a competition last spring. Um  it was in teams of three. Um  my team  and the the goal is to maximize the ratio of the um the turn rate times the pay turn rate squared times the pay load.|Interviewer: Mmm Hmm|Interviewee: Um  my team worked really hard on that um and uh we ended up coming in second  um.|Interviewer: That's great.|Interviewee: Which was exciting  a little bit disappointing but [laughter] still it was still a really fun project that we worked on. Um  and then also done internships with  um my most recent one was with NASA Glenn Research Center  um and I worked on two projects for that. Um  one was a Venus rover conceptual design. Um  which was where we were trying to basically just figure out what the fees-ability would be for a small low cost rover on Venus  um that would be able to fit within the budget of a discovery class mission. Um  and then  so that one was mostly  um there was a lot of research  a lot of um  pulling the other information from different areas  kind of because it's not really a thing that people have looked at very closely before. There's not a lot of information on the topic of how things perform in uh 450 degrees C in 90 atmospheres of pressure. It's kind of a specific thing.|Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: Um  so it was um a lot of just like trying to figure out  like what would work  what wouldn't work. Um  a lot of flexibility in the designs since it was in early stages  um and a lot of  um there's some  some mat lab you know and analysis and um coding involved with that to. Um  then the second project that we worked on for that internship was um an autonomous navigation system for small payloads um and that was an intern team project. There was totally designed and run by me and a group of seven other interns. Um  so that was outside of work hours. We were putting together  um it was uh steerable [inaudible] parachute. |Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: Um  attached to a payload of about two or three pounds  um and I was in charge of testing and designing the  the parachute for that  um so that was  that was the second main project that we worked on.|Interviewer: That's great. Alright. You think you're a leader?  Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  yes I do think I'm a leader.|Interviewer: Good.|Interviewee: Um  and I think that I've shown that through my work on my projects. Um  being willing to  to make decisions  take chances with something um that may or may not work  but it's wi ...  it's important to be able to try things to figure out if that's gonna be the case or not.|Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: Um and I think that  uh especially like in the  the Venus rover and um also with the dropson project  um since those were two projects where there weren't a lot of uh specific design constraints imposed on us from the start |Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: It was really important to just  um to just take an idea and run with it. Run the equations  um drop it off a building  in the case of the dropson  [laughter] um and just see what happened  um.|Interviewer: Ok.|Interviewee: So that was something that I got to be pretty comfortable with doing.|Interviewer: Great. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where you had a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Uh  yes and yes. [laughter] Um  I need a  so especially with the intern team project  when there were eight of us involved in this team  um and that was a kind of unique experience in that there was really no like hierarchy of um control or anything it was just eight interns and we were all on equal footing. All had pretty equal experience and backgrounds  um so there wasn't really anyone who was specifically in charge of that project  um and that involved a lot of give and take. Um and so  I think one of the biggest uh conflicts we faced as a team was when we were just deciding  at the very beginning what our project was going to be. |Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: Um and this was going to be something that was gonna uh be a pretty significant part of the next ten weeks of our summer. So it was pretty important for us to choose something that was gonna  was gonna go well. Um  so the it ended up being a uh fairly difficult decision between the uh a design project for uh a small re-entry vehicle versus the autonomous navigation system that we did. Um  and how we handled it um was we just kind of  we all came together and had um a round table sort of a discussion. Um  we implemented hand raising uh rules|Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: and um so as to make sure that people had equal talking time. Um  and then we  after we had talked for several hours  um making sure that most of the important things that needed to be said would get said |Interviewer: Mmm hmm|Interviewee: Um we  we just voted on it um with secret ballet  wrote down what our decision  what decision we wanted  um we counted up the votes and then we just went with that decision. Um and I think that um  for me and for the other interns on the team as well  it was really important that everyone recognize that whatever the outcome of the vote was  was that's what we were gonna do um and we would all get on board with that project right away. Um and that's what happened  um and there wasn't any like uh  real I don't know bitterness or resentment about doing the project that we did. I think it pretty well.|Interviewer: That's great. Ok. If you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Um I would make it so that I was more organized. I often struggle to meet deadlines  when I have a lot of them piled together. Not because the work is hard  but because I just forget that the deadlines are coming.|Interviewer: Mmm Hmm|Interviewee: Um  so I think that that's something that I could really work on um and I have been working on that [laughter] um by keeping notebooks and writing down uh schedules of important dates  um asking friends to help me out if I know that there's something we're working on together and it's at the deadline or just an assignment that we both have and there's a deadline. Asking for a reminder um from my more talented friends  um and keeping my Google calendar up to date as well has been helping with that.|Interviewer: Great and why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um I think I should get this job because I am uh I am well qualified for it. I've done projects that are um  they are in the same type of area and I think that my experiences from them will really carry over so I can contribute to this job. Um and uh I think that I can also  um I mean I've also shown that I'm  I am a team player and a leader so I think that as well as my technical expertise  I think that uh my personality fits in well with this job and I really like the environment as well that I've seen. Um um um  employees it seems like there's a lot of enthusiasm for work|Intrviewer: Mmm Hmm|Interviewee: um and I think that I would fit in well with that.
pp27,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm doing well  thank you.|Interviewer: Good. Tell me more about your background. |Interviewee: Um so I'm a jun--wait...sorry  I don't-- I'm sorry i just  uh I'm just confused about  like  are we--are we going like the same thing last time or do I need to introduce myself again? ...like...|Interviewer: Yea  yea  introduce yourself again. You don't have to worry about...|Interviewee: Okay  okay  I got confused 'cause you said tell me more.|Interviewer: No  I know  I know  I know. I don't know why it's worded like that.|Interviewee: Okay  sorry  okay  I was like wait..Am I supposed to...okay  sorry. Um so I am a junior at MIT studying chemistry and biology. I'm primarily interested in how small molecules interact with biological systems such as um the effects of drugs or uh toxins or other uh metabolites on the body and its cells. |Interviewer: MMmm-hmmm. |Interviewee: I've done research since uh like coming to MIT at in the lab of professor [sounds like] Jonessiben in chemistry and biological engineering. I've been looking at the mechanism of a drug that is currently in phase two clinical trials...|Interviewer: Oh  wow. |Interviewee: ...um for treatment of HIV. Umm in addition I have also done organic synthesis to develop um spacers for drug delivery um at the Curie Institute in Paris. |Interviewer: Okay  Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why. |Interviewee: I think I am a leader. I've done work in my dorm house government as dining chair and environmental chair to take a leadership role um and help residents to um express their concerns with the dining plan ||Interviewer: Mmm-hmmm|Interviewee: Um and to make changes to help make the residential experience um better for them. |Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it? |Interviewee: I definitely consider myself a team player. I've uh done a lot of work in teams in my chemistry and undergraduate labs.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmmm|Interviewee: Uh  we were often working in groups of like two or three. Um  there have been conflicts in those situations where um it's difficult..like if a team member uh messes up something or even uh before that if team members come to the team with different lab experience due to their research background or classes they've taken before. |Interviewer: Mmm-hmmm|Interviewee: Trying to figure out how to balance it so everyone gets to ex--um do the lab and have hands on experience while at the same time making sure that things go smoothly and that we work in an efficient manor. Um so it's..it can be difficult to balance these things such that everyone gets a fai-um a fair chance at doing the hands-on component but we generally resolve this by taking turns and the people who are more experienced kind of uh  you know  supervise in almost a mentor-like way the person who has less experience. |Interviewer: Great. If you were given the offer to change one thing about yourself  what would it be? |Interviewee: I would-if I could change one thing about myself- it would be to l..uh to be able to let go of things that have happened and like negative things that have happened more easily because I find that sometimes I can dwell on negative things that have happened and it causes me to worry a lot about the future and become very anxious or to hinder what I want to do in the future like being concerned..you kn...being so worried about performance in a class after not doing well on an exam that I get stressed out for the next exam.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmmm mm-hmmm. |Interviewee: And that can create like a negative cycle so if I could change one thing it would be learning how to put bad things behind me and move ahead. It's something I've definitely been working on  and having to work on since I can to MIT where you get used to  you know  a lot of things |Interviewer: Mmm-hmm mmm-hmmm mmm-hmm |Interviewee: Not have negative things happen but learning to push through that. |Interviewer: Great. Why do you think you should get the job? |Interviewee: I think I should get the job because I have experience from my--from my course work which is very rigorous at MIT in addition to my practical experience with research which has taught me what the research process is like  how to ask questions  how to work independently  and to pre--uh to present results and interpret them. Umm and that's good skills  I think for the work place. |Interviewer: Good.
pp29,Interviewer: How are you doing today? |Interviewee: I'm doing pretty well  how are you?|Interviewer: Good! Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Um  so as far as my technical experience background goes; um I've worked in three different labs. Um the summer after my freshman year I worked in a lab through um through MGH and located in Charleston. I worked with a Harvard graduate student on her PH.D Thesis which involved a lot of genetics and I did a lot of like very routine lab work. Um and that was just for the summer  and then the next  um my soft-more year I worked in a lab here at MIT  um the Engelward laboratory that works with DNA damage and I worked on an essay that quantified DNA damage using um electrophoresis. Which was nice because I got to learn a lot of um different laboratory techniques and because I'm still currently working there. I've had the time to delve into the project a little bit more have a deeper understanding than I was initially. Um and it also incorporates um components of coding like we use the math lab area um to um generate our data  so it's been really interesting for me. Um and also this past summer I worked in a laboratory in Israel  which was really interesting they worked with all sorts of bio-sensors um so it's a pretty broad um field that they worked in; and I got to work on my own project. I've never had that type of independent freedom which was really exciting for me. Um and I think what I got more out of that was that just getting used to such a different work place and being able to acclimate myself and um be productive in that sort of environment  so.|Interviewer: Great  okay. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I think I'm definitely a leader  I am willing to take charge of a situation um in a group of people. I'm not afraid to stand  out or have my opinions heard; um and on the flip-side I'm not afraid to suffer consequences if uh there's any sort of negative outcome or negative or positive outcome I'm willing to handle um the results.|Interviewer: Great. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example when there was a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Um  I think I'm a team player because  I'm willing to agree to others peoples um ideas um the question was a  what was  sorry could you repeat the |Interviewer: Conflict on your team|Interviewee: Conflict in my team okay. Um so I in my sorority I'm on the executive board there's 10 of us and we're lke in charge of the chapter; and so um we've just all been newly elected to or positions so we're kind of going through the process of working out exactly what our goal is. And recently one of the topics have been like how to handle um judiciary issues like within our chapter and I have like very strong feelings on the subject as do other of my sisters. And so being able to kind of handle that and be very professional and try to be unbiased because um I have like close relations with like other sisters in the chapter has been um a challenge. And I think being able to remove myself emotionally from the situation and kind of listen to what the other people are saying and acknowledge that has been really  one of the like  biggest steps I've taken into kind of overcoming those kinds of challenges.|Interviewer: Great. If you were given an offer to change one thing about yourself  what would it be? |Interviewee: Um  think  all I can think is like superficial things like the ability to sing or something like that. Um  I would like to be able to think a little bit faster on my feet  as I took a very long time to answer that question. Um I think I've given time I think I can come up with like good ideas and good responses and like handle issues in a good way. Um and I think that just being able to think of something a little bit quicker I know that sometimes there's like  times of crisis and it takes me a little bit longer than I would like to be able to um come up with the like ideal solution. So that would be one of my things I'd like to change. I think I'm able to combat it pretty well by  taking steps to you know mitigate the situation like handle it but ultimately that would be one thing I'd like to improve on.|Interviewer: Great; and why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um  I think I should get the job because I'm a very hard worker and in whatever position I am in I will do it to the best of my ability. Um I have experience in a lot of different areas um as I mentioned in my lab experience and I think the aspect that makes me unique from other people looking for this position  is my perspective; um I'm able to see a problem pretty unbiasedly  and judge what would be the best um solution and also see potential obstacles on the way there and potential outcomes; and so I think that my general overview overview of problems gives me an advantage over other people.|Interviewer: Great.
pp3,Interviewer: So uh.. please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: Hah.. uh yeah..so.. uhm I'm chase and I guess uh. Aww man okay so  i've done web development for a long time  I started in abotu 8th grade and actually started making a few sites just back then and for the heck of it and uhm just started making some money through them sold a website through them which was great. Uhm and through all fo this I got an internship for my sophmore year of high school  which was awesome. It was through a job search website called indeed and over there I did a ton of different stuff and from internationalization  I was one of the first people to start the internationalization forum for indeed  and so they've now expanded to four countries and I think  the international traffic revenue is like 30% of their company now. They also just got sold for like a billion dollars uh I believe..about three weeks ago or something which was really cool. But at the same time I don't really want to work there anymore  because they have been sold and I don't really know the owner anymore where as I did previously and that was great where I don't know  otherwise  coming to MITF you know had aphenomenal blast up there. I had been studying computer science..uhm really enjoyed it and spent a lot of time on a lot of various side projects and just ahnging out with people so like  I don't know  making really cool robotics stuff... uhm like  cool educational software.. uhm some kinnect tax and different things like this.|Interviewer: That sounds really interesting. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Uhm..I would I..I would go this.. I I would say there is kind of uhm from two standpoints both from high school and from college  in high school I was the captain of our ultimate frisbee team..uhm and so I started it in my junior year and just got all my friends  because we used to play frisbee all with each other and I said hey  why don't we start competing and make this happen liek three times a week or soemthing and so we went ahead and did this and uhm.. uh started practicing enough and I had to make sure that everything was coordinated and that people actually came to practices  I mean you like had to have everyone come and everything otherwise no one is going to wanna play or there is going to be no ability to play basically.. so uhm we  played enough so that we were actually able to get 3rd in uhm well actually 3rd in my senior year  5th my junior year and uh in the state of texas in frisbee which is uh impressive without a coach. Uh  otherwise I was also the captain of the crosscountry team and uhm  uh captain of uhm uh the track team as well  so uhm that um roles been more minimal  more of an inspirational role like make sure you come to practice sort of thing. of stuff and uhm in college here I've been working with a group called saftey fp and uh  which promotes student wellness around campus  sounds like you've heard of it. uhm and yeah  so just making sure we have awesome events that happen  I just recently read an event called super smash bros turned in which was really great  uhm..I don't know anything about super smash bros  so... I had to actually go get the the other people that knew a lot about it and made sure they told all their friends about it  and got them to actually figure out the whole thing the whole logistics and that wa sme just getting them excited about it  and and convinced them to get a lot of people to come.|Interviewer: So uhm thinking about all those teams  and where you were a team player. Tell me about a time when there was conflict in your team and you had to resolve it. |Interviewee: Uhm okay definitely I enjoy teams like no other  I'm at MIT specifically  I go out of my way to like  working in teams and in any different aspect and for the most part  I've had really great teams in general  but uhm just this semester  I'm actually working on a start up with a friend  so he's been working on it a while and he's just such an awesome guy  that I was just like Oh  i want to build stuff for you so  I am kind of doing contract work for him  we are just hacking together all the time  really just like  there are no conflicts there frankly but I find but otherwise for my year off  for my reasearch that I'm doing here for MIT  uhm i had previously uh a research postion  at uh my freshman year  uhm but I did not really like it that much because  I had to do it by myself because it was an android thing  I mean I don't know I feel like I can always do stuff by myself  it does not have to be in a group  but now actually i just tell all my friends  if they hear about an opp they should just invite me to do it with you  because I would just love to do a year off with someone because like  I'd love to have someone that I like to working with and to work on the same product would make everything so much better  so like my friend does this cool photography and I just do the tech thing  it is fun  but in terms of conflicts I've had  uhm I feel like conflicts are a general minimal for the uhm the most part that I have found  it's most like  who is going to do what  uhm and in these cases uhm and for the most part and uhm i'm pretty flexible basically  that's how I just go around stuff and just try and explain everything very well  to everyone just to make sure everyone knows exactly what is going on and just reinterating all this to everyone so that  *cough cough* at least then so everyone is on the same page. Because for the most part people generally care to be fair but you just have to describe to everyone how they understand things.|Interviewer: Interesting  some of that is interesting  so if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: Uhm  okay so I would   something I woudl change about myself  okay so that's interesting  uhm oh okay I would almost  uhm  heh  uhm..the dumb answer to this would be that I woudl like to be a bit taller  i think that would always help. Uhm but I think I can also interpret this question on what would I like to work on..or what am I working on.|Interviewer: Fair enough.|Interviewee: And like in thsi case  i would definitely go for uhm actually my ability to  speak ah hah and uhm just in general and uh like I find for now for example  like how I kind of seem like I understand what I'm tlaking about for exmample  for the most part  I  *mumbles* everynow and then but uhm what I'm actually thinking about harder problems and I'm trying to explain myself where I just worked on a hard problem I only looked at once so I don't fully understand everything  for the most part I get it in my head but when I try and explain it to someone  i it's actually pretty hard to me. And to uhm..everything in an uhm I guess interesting manner  well almost and kind of say it once instead of say something and then which is what I do freqently and then I say oh wait that does not make sense  let me try another avenue. I just keep trying different avanues until the other person gets it  but I would love to be able to just give it that first time  I can just think for a second and say okay this is exactly what I need to say. Use the vocabulary words I need to use  which frankly I'm not that good at  and in terms of expanding my vocabulary and expanding my words for whatever like dictionary or see I don't even know the word  like my expanse of the vocabulary that exists in my head and uh on an given and at any given time  not as large as it should be. |Interviewer: So uh  give about all we talked about today  thanks again for sharing   why do you think  why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee: Uhm  So I know  I.. I would say it just comes down to the passion for the most part  I just really enjoy anything that I am working on  if I am ever going to pck something to work on  i bascially just go at it full force  I always tlak to my friends about it  it's always on my mind in the shower  it's like always in the top of my mind  I am working on a problem and I have to get that problem finished  and I basically  I never really feel like suffer from burn out  that may be because I haven't worked on soemthing enough uhm but uhm  for the msot part  i really enjoy working on stuff and I just  it's my passion and my passion is actually just like working  when i get tired of working  i work on something else  it's actually a relaxing state  like if I am working here for example  I do hard in all my classes  I just start programming. I feel in a great place  I'm either working out or working on soemthing  I I I I think your company woudl love to see someone like that.|Interviewer: Thanks Chase  I apprec.
pp30,Interviewer:  How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I’m doing well|Interviewer: Can you tell me more about your background?|Interviewee: I’m a student of computer science at MIT. I’m in my Junior year. I’ve been studying the whole time.I’ve been teaching last summer in the field. It was a start up in Venice Beach  California and I enjoyed it quite a bit.|Interviewer:  Great do you think you’re a leader? Tell me why?|Interviewee: I think that I ca be a leader. I am definitely not one that tends to lead. I am perfectly happy to play a more supportive role  because in my experience especially here there are plenty of people who like to lead and leaders are not needed. That said if there’s something that needs to be done and nobody is stepping up to do it that is something that I can and will adapt to|Interviewer: Great  do you consider yourself a team player and can you give me an example of where you were on a team and there was a conflict and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: I would absolutely consider myself a team player. I care more about people than basically anything else. Conflict? I’m sorry I am trying to think of a story.|Interviewer: That’s all right  a class project or anything like that?|Interviewee: So to be honest I haven’t experienced major conflicts in general. Honestly I think it is best to keep open terms of communication I that makes it so that you can’t have a disaster happen. There can be minor disagreements but they never turn into big conflicts.|Interviewer: Okay and if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: I’d be smarter  yeah obviously but  I think I would like to have a better capability to understand those sides of things. Sorry that sounds really weird. In general I do but for computer science or science specifically there’s the part that I am really good at which is everything that has to do with languages and puzzle solving that’s great. That’s fun. I like it a lot. But then there is also the side that is a little bit more mathematical and that is something that I struggle with. They are definitely different things people are typically good at either one or the other but being good at both is a little less common and that would be really awesome.|Interviewer: Okay  and why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Because I think I would do a great job for you guys. I care a lot about my work especially when it affects other people and I really like what this company is doing. It is something that I believe in.
pp31,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I’m good  how are you?|Interviewer: I’m good. Tell me a little more about your background.|Interviewee: Uh  so I’m a junior in computer science and math at MIT. Uh  I’m personally interested in [] systems uh and uh [] tolerance those are slightly more my research interests then my applied interests so when it comes to applied things  which you’re probably more interested in um  I tend to prefer parallel computing. Um I have some experience in that from classes  um both including performance engineering and parallel computing as well as from my internship with Amazon where we actually pushed a product that I made.|Interviewer: Really?|Interviewee: You can see it I if you look online uh author rank was my intern product. |Interviewer: That’s great. [laugh] ok  you think you’re a leader  tell me why.|Interviewee: Um… I have some leadership experience but I think that so in my teens for 6172  which is a project based live class … it’s been a lot of work. Um I tend to be the person who does some of the organizing of team meetings but mostly within a given meeting I tend to be  like  for a non-trivial portion of the work.  The person who is leading the discussions of what’s the next technical step we should do  you know  should we take approach A or   should we take approach A or B based on time  work  you know  man hours we have  due dates  uh points  etcetera. Um  and so I  you know  perform leadership skills in a technical capacity more than a managerial one. |Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: In a sense that I don’t do so much of the organizing of meeting times.|Interviewer: And do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give an example of when there was a conflict with your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Um  I do think I’m a team player  um so  can I ask what kind of flavor of conflict you’re looking for? Like a technical disagreement or…|Interviewer: Anything where there was a problem that you had to solve.|Interviewee: Ok  um  well while I was working at Amazon  um we had many times the problem that the business decision would change or um become apparent slowly over time as we continued designing because actually the design process started getting [] over the internship and the product shipped shortly after my internship []|Interviewer: Mmmhmm.|Interviewee: So that was kind of crazy  um and you may expect with a project like that I ended up not working on the front end because it was way too much work for one intern to do for the summer  um  but  negotiating with the business team and with other technical people about what parts of the product we were going to ship was a challenge. As an example  Amazon often has uh  like  you know  lots of features like any company  like to employ and some of these are like change over time features. And as it turns out  given the way we were implementing everything  change over time features  where it looked that longer periods of time would be much more computationally intensive and like also programmer time intensive  um both of which weren’t going to work for what we were trying to do for our deadline because we couldn’t order more computational power within the time period and we only had so many man hours.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: And um trying to decide what things would be worked on and what wouldn’t was a conflict of the team um and I did my best  um  you know I was an intern  um but I did my best to like present the technical issues  present my understanding of how long things would take  um  and try to you know  encourage people to take the direction they wanted but in the case that a choice was made that wasn’t you know  what I wanted  uh you know I would go along with it.  I wasn’t you know going to be petulant or continue trying to you know argue my way and not do their way  like if the team decided this was the best thing like I went ahead and did it.|Interviewer: Alright. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: Uh  Smarter.|[both laugh]|Interviewee: Um  I’m going to respond to this question by answering what I would change about myself that’s sort of something I could just spend more time on um to change.|Interviewer: Mhmm|Interviewee: And I can tell you something that I’m currently working on.|Interviewer: Ok.|Interviewee: Which is that when I’m stressed and tired  I notice that  I become snippy  is one word for it.|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Uh  and while people who have worked with me and you know work on psats until 4 am or you know working on these intense projects  you know claim that I tend to be pretty reasonable like  it does decrease team unity and happiness .|Interviewer: Right right right.|Interviewee: When it’s like getting to be 4am and I respond shortly as opposed to you know sounding nice and happy about it.|Interviewer: Right.|Interviewee: Um so something I’m working on is like removing the sounds of frustration from my voice  especially in time of frustration because it more important then when everybody’s frustrated and tired to like not escalate situations.|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: Um and even if I’m not responding with anger and just responding in like a voice that portrays frustration you can worry that like it’ll make other people more frustrated. 	|Interviewer: Right  good. And what  why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um I’m technically competent  I think my uh the classes I’ve taken and how well I’ve done in them as well as you know  any of the people you contact like Amazon will say positive things about me uh  I get along well with people  um and so whatever team you put me on will likely enjoy my company.|[Laughs]|Interviewee: Um  and I think most importantly  computer science is a huge part of my life and what I do and I fully and legitimately enjoy my job  especially if you give interesting technical problems Um and I’m sure that’s what your company will do right?|[Laughs]|Interviewee: So I’m not going to be just like sitting around  biding my time waiting for the work day to end and I’m actually going be here on time  and I’m going to leave and go home and do other things and like come back and be excited to be coming back to work and continue to work on these problems.|Interviewer: Great.
pp32,Interviewer: How are you today?|Interviewee: I'm good how are you? |Interviewer: Good! You seem a little out of breath.|Interviewee: Yeah  I paced here hahaha|Interviewer: Um  so tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Ok I am a junior at MIT currently  uh working on my bachelor's degree in biology and I've been heavily involved in student groups so far and during my time here I've been at  uh I'm currently the president of the MIT armenian society  the editor in chief of the MIT undergraduate research journal and uh um also executive team of the Biology Students Association uh and I that's why I'm sort of trying to get into healthcare industry and consulting cuz I don't have a lot of experience in the life sciences so far.|Interviewer: Great. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: I do think I'm a leader. Um  I so- always end up taking the lead on uh when there's a big group and someo-someone has to start ha  taking the wheel and uh getting people started working. Um  I've been really involved in the groups that I've -heheh  joined since my freshman year and uh so far I've done some pretty crazy things such as organizing a hundred plus networking event for the armenian society where I definitely had to um  you know uh work with uh the team and get them motivated enough to help me with this like big task  a lot of people-a lot of kids on my team don't really like the whole social um event planning part of things  but um I had to kind of engage them and uh that was an interesting thing for me to learn actually how to tap into what makes people take and what gets them motivated so how to give them initiative to do things on their own so. |Interviewer: Great|Interviewee: Yeah|Interviewer: Ok  do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee:  Yeah uh definitely  I-I-I would say that I'm a team player and um one thing I can say is that uh last year at the MIT  MIT undergraduate research role we uh had to publish an issue uh in the fall where it became late and we had to uh work together as a team to get that done. uh one  one thing that may  I may have done wrong on my part was maybe I-I-I didn't um get my department to uh work hard enough to get the deadline  make the deadline so um in the spring semester when we were trying to uh make it make uh make the deadline in the spring semester to publish uh in the first week of the spring semester I had to do the same thing that I did with our (research?) I-or was get everyone to be motivated and have initiative to do things on their own and really like work hard to get t-ah that deadline so yeah.|Interviewer: Ok|Interviewee: mhmm|Interviewer: Karen  given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: Interesting question. Uh I would change my lack of willingness that sometimes to approach new people and you know put myself into new situations that I'm not comfortable with. Um I-I definitely have the-the whatever I am comfortable with I feel very confident and I come off as confident at the moment heh  but  um  I sometimes I'm-I-whenever I approach those new situations I'm pretty  I'm pretty shy and I-I don't I don't feel comfortable so one thing I would like to change my- about myself is being more adventurous and being more of a risk-taker and I-I feel like I'm too controlled at times but that has gotten me also a-ha very far but it's always good to be a balanced person.|Interviewer: Good.|Interviewee: Hahahaha|Interviewer: And uh  why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: K So I'm a good leader  as I uh said I uh organize a team of around 10 people to organize 100+ networking event people networking event  Um I have this ability to understand people where like I which I have to do when I uh have to uh get people to be motivated and like realize what made them take and what made them have initiative on their own so I have a good sense of understanding people um and third  I like I said I'm very controlling  like y-know not controlling but  wrong word  controlled  haha I-I like to uh really get organized and really um put alot of effort into sort of you know um I guess I guess perfecting every aspect of the-a project that I'm working on whether it be an event  a-a-a homework assignment  whatever so uh I have that ability as well.|Interviewer: Great.|Interviewee: Yep.
pp33,Interviewer:  How are you doing today?|Interviewee:  Good  how are you?|Interviewer:  Good.  Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee:  So  my background is primarily in energy work.  So  I'm a chemical engineering student and I'm very interested in not only alternative energy but the optimization of our traditional energy resources.  Um  so that's  that's where my  uh  background in  well in gas comes in.  Um  but also some of my research interests are you know  kind of scientific ideas.||Interviewer:  Great.  Um  do you think you're a leader.  Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I definitely think I am.  Uh  partially because even when I'm not the designated leader somehow it turns into me leading the team.  But I really enjoy that.  I think that one of the most satisfying feelings is having your team tel you that you're doing a great job or that they think that um that success can be highly attributed to you.  So  I think that in terms of my leadership style I always want to bring out the strengths of  the team members.  So I think that's really how my position as a leader really works.  I try to figure out what would maximize the potential of this team member or that team member.  And how can we bring all of those together.||Interviewer:  Great.  Do you consider yourself a team player.  Can you give me an example of where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: Um  yeah  so  I definitely consider myself a team player.  It's tough to be a good leader without being a good team player.  Ah  but one instance where I was both the leader and also a team player um  was in the Society of Women Engineers banquet.  So  when we planned it  it was...I'm the vice president of corporate relations and I have six people who work with me and we planned a banquet for about 200 people  both company representatives and students.  And um  and it's a very collaborative effort.  Like  I may be the VP but we're all you know  pulling a lot of the weight.  And so during the actual event  we had four company representatives for two different companies show up to the event without RSVP-ing or anything.  Uh  it was  the selection for the companies was pretty extensive and the selection for the students was pretty extensive.  So what we were trying to do was get a good range of industries and then match students with their interests.  So it's not something where you can be like  Oh yeah  sit right down but  so  in terms of being a team player  they approached one of the other members of the team.  She didn't really know what to do um  kind of bounced it to a few different people but I knew that that was something that wouldn't look good.  So I definitely helped her out  out of that awkward situation and kind of took the blame on myself essentially because these representatives were pretty angry that  Oh  you don't have our name tags  you don't have our seats?  What's going on?  And so I  you know  part of being a team player is knowing when it's best to take the blame on yourself.  And in the end we found places for them to sit.  So  we had some no-show students  you know  among like a hundred whatever students you definitely have people that don't show up.  So they didn't get to sit with like exactly the right students or anything but we found them a place and fed them dinner.  So  that helped.||Interviewer:  Great.  If you had the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee:  I wish I was more patient.  Um  I think I  a lot of times and very eager to start a task.  This especially comes out  uh  we're in a lab group right now.  Or  I'm in a lab class and I work with a lab group  um  in that class and we are all  we kind of have this trait of  um  oh as soon as the chemicals are out on the bench  oh let's mix this  let's do this  let's do this.  But a lot of time we end up finishing a little bit later than other groups because we have to  we problem solve.  We get all the problems first  you know  other people not having necessarily tried this we find that this doesn't work at all.  So  we face all those hurdles first whereas if we had  if we could take a few minutes wait  think it out  uh  maybe let somebody else try something first for a change  um  I think that would helps us be a little bit more effective.  And I think in other situations too it's kind of strategic and advantageous to wait but it's sometimes hard for me to see those opportunities.  So I definitely  that's definitely something that I've been working on  is  you know  when  when is that also a viable option to just sit back for a few days and just think about it. ||Interviewer:  Okay.  And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think that I would bring a great deal of enthusiasm.  In addition to the skills and background that I have  I think that I'm so excited  um  for the work that your company is doing and to kind of play off the other members of the team as well.  Um  so not just stick to my own project but also be contributing to the other projects that are going on and try to find synergies within our team.
pp34,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Doing pretty good.|Interviewer: Good!...Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: So I am a  uh  mechanical engineer at MIT. Umm  I am a junior  and I'm really interested in product design. So I've been taking a lot of classes in design and manufacturing  and it's something I've really fallen in love with...Like last semester  um  especially  I took this class called...[0:25 unclear] Product Design  and it's really got me introduced to solid works and using machine tools  and it's something that I'd love to do in  um  for the rest of my life in a professional fashion.|Interviewer: Great... Do you think you're a leader? And tell me why.|Interviewee: Uh  I would say that I am. I do enjoy being in a position where I can really guide a group  um  towards some forward direction  uh... So  this past year  I was philanthropy chair of my sorority  and we put on this big event called Cat Walk. It's this charity fashion show. Um  and it's  it's so much fun  but it took tons of planning  and...|Interviewer: Oh  wow...|Interviewee: Yeah  coordination between  like  throughout the entire sorority  which has one-hundred forty girls in it...|Interviewer: Mmm...|Interviewee: Um  and everyone had to play a role  so it's...really difficult sometimes 'cause people aren't really sure what's going on  and there's a lot of...|Interviewer: mmm...|Interviewee: ...miscommunication and things... Umm  but I feel like it ran really smoothly  um  because I had two co-chairs  and we all really worked together to keep things very organized  um  regimented to  like  keep after people...especially in the summer when everyone's all over the country  all over the world. Right? And you have to just keep emailing them  calling them if you can  um  checking up on them  but  you know? Finding a balance  you have to learn to trust the people that are under you  right? Um  and just make sure they have a good idea of what's going on  and they feel like they're playing an important role  because they are... Um  so that happened actually two weeks ago... the event...|Interviewer: Oh wow...|Interviewee: It was so much fun! It was a little bit stressful as we got closer to the event...|Interviewer: mmhmm...|Interviewee: ...You know  things go wrong  and things go missing. Um... but I feel like I was able to stay very calm  and just  like  help people find alternatives if they...If  I don't know  if  like  a rehearsal time didn't work  or a designer wasn't showing up. Um  it was just best to find a very efficient  logical way to proceed.|Interviewer: Great... Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team  and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Uh  I would say that I'm a team player. Again  like even when in a leadership role  you're not just the one person doing the...|Interviewer: mmhmm.|Interviewee: ...thing. Um  I would say that being a team player applied to Cat Walk as well  but  um  for a different example  perhaps... I might return to  to product design  where we had to work in a smaller team of about  uh  there were five students and two mentors. Um  and we all came from different backgrounds  and none of us knew each other beforehand. We all had very different skill sets and very different personalities...|Interviewer: Mmhmm...|Interviewee: Um  so in the beginning  especially  we all had ideas that really clashed  and for the class  in a way that was good  because then we could come up with all these different ideas  and it's great...|Interviewer: Mmm...|Interviewee: ...But then  when it came down to deciding on one or figuring out how you wanted to move forward  who would take on which responsibilities  it was  um  quite tense (laughs) for our team  I would say... Um  so  as the oldest two on the team  myself and one other teammate  we... I feel like we really stepped it up in terms of being  um  very methodical and very  like...|Interviewer: Okay...|Interviewee: ...Fair  I guess? In the way that we tried to distribute things? And when things got too heated  um  I feel like I especially served as kind of a mediator  calming people down and just  like  having them think about  y'know  what's practical  what are you actually able to get done? Um  what do you want to get done? 'Cause you want to make sure that people work on things that they're passionate about  um  so they can do their best work. Um  I feel like that's just a role that I play in a lot of team situations? Um  helping our team to find a balance so that we can work together most effectively...|Interviewer: Right...If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Uh  for me  I would definitely try to (laughs) raise my own confidence level? Um  or my ability to be more assertive. I think that when I'm in a team situation where there are very strong personalities  I tend to...I don't mind sharing my ideas  but then  as soon as I do  if it receives like a lot of criticism or...|Interviewer: Mmhmm...|Interviewee: ...Some sort of  um  opposition  I'll tend to back down  um  and just kind of let it go and move forward on something else  but then sometimes those ideas  they turn out to be good ones  in the end and it's just like we kind of...|Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: ...wasted time. Um  if only I had more solid arguments to go off of... So... I try to do a lot more planning on my own time. Um  so that I do have a solid foundation to go off if I don't get really scared or feel like the ideas I come up with are worthless  and I can't defend them...|Interviewer: Mmhmm...Well  why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think I should get the job because...This position just sounds so ideal for me  um  it seems like a place  like a very collaborative environment? Where I can really call on different  uh  team members in the office itself  um  to just help me further my own ideas... And I have a lot of room for creative freedom in this product design position...Um  because from what I've found out through research and talking to  uh  [5:41 unclear] or company members  um...|Interviewer: Mmhmm...|Interviewee: ...is just that we're often given a challenge that's very dynamic  and there's always problems to be solved and  um  things to innovate on...|Interviewer: Mmhmm...|Interviewee: And...they basically just say Go do it. Um  and I think that's really exciting to me because I don't...I'm not a big fan of  of just doing things very rotely  like  Here's how I want you to do it... Um  just  like  build exactly what these directions tell you to do.|Interviewer: Mmhmm...|Interviewee: Um  not quite what I'm looking for  and so I think this company  um  this position just really  really excites me.|Interviewer: Great.
pp35,Interviewer: Hi  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Fine  thanks  how are you? |Interviewer: Good  tell me about your background. |Interviewee: Well I'm a junior at MIT and currently I'm majoring in Computer Science and molecular biology with a minor in Management. Um  my work background  I've done a year op at uh  in Boyden's Lab  uh which is in neurobiology lab and I really like that  but I'm interested in maybe pursuing Finance as a career. So  the past two summers  um  I've worked in financial services. Um  my freshman summer I worked at Standard & Poor's  and last summer I worked at Wells Fargo.  |Interviewer: Great... Do you think you are a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Uh  I definitely think I'm a leader because  uh  currently I'm on a lot of planning boards for different things  uh  I'm actually on the Executive Board on Smart Women's Securities which is a finance club  and I've really helped it grow from a very small group of about ten members to now we have like 30 or 40 students attending each of our seminar series so its been great being in a marketing role for that club  uh  because I've been able to pub on campus and get people to come out to our events.|Interviewer: Great...Do you consider yourself a team player  and can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: Uh  yes  I think I'm a team player um  one time  this was for one of my classes  we had a project  uh it was in a class called software programming in Java. So  the project was actually centered after Spring Break|Interviewer: mmhmm|Interviewee: and it was due on that Wednesday. |Interviewer: OK. |Interviewee: However  one of my friends  who was supposed to be in charge of another part of the project  was gone the entire Spring Break  on a bike trip  and didn't bring his computer. So he came back to school and said  guys  sorry I haven't done anything  and well  that was a very bad conflict for our team  so I kind of took charge and said  Look  okay  I'll finish the parser  and you write  just test cases for the entire program instead since  obviously  you haven't even started looking at it. |Interviewer: Mmhmm|Interviewee: So  yeah  we ended up getting an A on that project  thankfully  but it was a marathon sprint to the finish. |Interviewer: And  if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: This is a very loaded question. Um  I think one thing  I might change about myself is being a little bit more proactive in everything I do  sometimes I'm a little too passive  but  yeah  I think that's the main thing I would change about myself. |Interviewer: Okay - |Interviewee: I would try to make myself take more initiatives.|Interviewer: Okay...and  why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think I should get the job because I'm a very strong candidate in this industry and I have a lot of prior experience in Finance  so... Also  I'm very motivated and I'll get work done
pp37,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Little cold. Pretty well. How are you?|Interviewer: Good  I am doing well. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: I have some quantity and analytical experience from Qua work on financial team last summer in terms’ of working experience a in terms of academic experience I have a apply a math major probably double major with course fifteen which is management so I taken a lot of probability statistics classes.|Interviewer: Do you think you are a leader? Tell me why?|Interviewee: Ah  I think I am a leader mainly because I take a leadership positions  I can be very effective in guiding the group whatever it is toward our goal. If it is team in the class on the research project even if there is a like assign leadership role I usually end up organizing things between people stuff like that. So I do feel like I am a little bet a natural leader|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player and give me a example when you were on the team and there was conflict and you have to resolve.|Interviewee: A  when I was in competitive swimming summer for fifteen years pretty much my whole life and so I had lots of different experiences being on the swim team specially on (??) I did for two years specialty on m rely team there is only four slots on the rely and we are usually very competitive on the national level so last year we had lots of conflict  a because one of my best fiends really wonted to be on the rely but then you know she is getting bit up by a teammates and there is all that drama over that and it put me in a tough position because was my best friend but then was also you know you wont to put together the fastest rely to be competitive so really all of was wont to stay out of it and let the coaches deal with that but I did learn a lot about how to interact with people on all sides of the situation because I steel had to get along with all my teammates and support my best friend and try to help her.|Interviewer: If you were given a option to change one thing about yourself what would that be?|Interviewee: I think I would like to be better in asking for help not that I necessarily needed a lot but I think it would be useful for me and like branch out and learn from different people so I am really interested in math and management so I get really into those types of classes I guess I wish I would branch out little bet more in to different areas because I can learn from people there. Si I am trying to take some different classes now that I ma done with all of my math and stuff like that. That’s probably what I should change.|Interviewer: OK. Why you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think  I should get the job because I am really qualified. I have the qua experience as well some of the financial background. I am also just a hard worker really excited to learn more in the job and since this is a such learning internship I think I could really thrive in that environment.
pp4,Interviewer: So please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: Sure  uh  my names Isaiah I'm an MIT student I am currently a junior in the department of aeronautics and astronautics.  um  and so I  I'm mainly focusing on the information systems behind uhh  aeronautics and  uhh  aeronautical and astronautical flight systems.  umm  my course work basically has included a fair amount of the basics of aeronautics and astronautics that's covered at MIT.  Uhh  in addition to that I've covered a lot of programming and programming work.  umm  both in and out of school  umm  so that has included  uhh  basically building a UAV from scratch  as well as umm  working on UAV programming for the department of defense  umm  which has  uhh  been done for collision avoidance for a lot of the UAV's now flying in the air.  |Interviewer: Do you think you're a leader? tell me why.|Interviewee: So  yeah  I do think I'm a leader  umm  so for example  uhh right now I'm actually holding several different leadership positions.  uhh  first of all I am the residential director for a group called [medlinks?] in my dorm  uhh  what we do is we provide students  uhh  health care support  basically.  uhh  we are authorized to give out over the counter medicines to other students  uhh  in our dorm  and as well  as well as elsewhere.  uhh we're certified first aid and some basic emergency care  and we're also there for  uhh  basically student health counseling  um  so  in my position as residential director  umm  I basically talk to the dorm executive board as well as the medlinks executive board  and uhh  we basically work together  I work as the Liason between the groups  um  and I basically help plan events  um  I work with them to resolve whatever issues are coming up  I [xx] meetings for them  umm  basically to help support basically the people who support our dorm.  umm  in addition to that  I kind of have like a quirky side leadership position which is umm as president of the MIT tapioca club  umm  we make and distribute large quantities of tapioca  so every once in a while  umm  we will  I will be organizing a whole bunch of students getting together maybe like a night or two of crazy cooking  umm  you know  ha ha|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Umm  sure  so  uhh  yes I do consider myself a team player  I've had to work in a whole bunch of different teams  for example  one time there was a bit of a conflict  umm  well it was basically when last year I was working on a  uhh  one of my assignments for an engineering class  uh  we had a problem  in which basically one of the students wouldn't show up  one of the other students  [xx] let me get this straight  one of the students had trouble showing up for basically the team meetings  and another one of them kind of basically got [xx] at that.  So the way I helped umm sort of resolve this conflict and basically bring everybody together to try to work out the project was I basically took it upon myself to help the person to figure out why the person who wasn't showing up wasn't showing up  umm  and I basically helped him work through some of the stuff that he had issues with  mainly he wasn't showing up mainly because he felt he didn't like wasn't able to contribute enough  didn't know enough about the programs we were working with  so I basically sat there and talked him through it  helped him basically develop some of the skills necessary to work with it  so in that way he basically showed up a lot more  he was much more productive and useful to the team  and that also um basically helped resolve the conflict we had in which we had you know we avoided losing a team member basically  and we avoided another problem of umm  basically  an annoyed team member having to deal with a person who he felt wasn't doing his job.|Interviewer: If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?  |Interviewee: Um  so this is actually something that I am actively working on  I feel that I should be more compassionate  um  this is actually something that um  so during my medlinks training  something that actually appeared  um  basically what we were doing  we were doing a bit of an exercise  um  in which we were presented with a couple of different cases  to basically  umm  illustrate  how it might be for a person to go through some very  very difficult  uh  I guess  difficult times or difficult trials  um  and so we were basic  we were given scenarios to imagine sort of  like umm  maybe the loss of a loved one or the loss of a secure place to be  uh  loss of some sort of  you know  a whole bunch of different losing things  and  um  I guess I wasn't  I wasn't as moved as other students were  primarily because I've been through all of the examples that they gave  so  I don't know  I guess on one hand that's a good thing on the other hand that's a bad thing  but umm  what that pointed out to me was that like I wasn't perhaps able to empathize as well as the others were  um  despite  I don't know  either despite  or specifically because  I had been through that  and um  part of the reason that I joined medlinks and am now currently actually trying to join the [MITEMS?]  umm  not because I want to pursue medicine as a career  but one  because I want to develop those skills  and two because I want to sort of develop and exercise more compassion.|Interviewer: Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um  so I think I should get the job basically because of one  my past experiences  which have prepared me fairly well for the kind of employee that your looking for  a person with good strong aerospace and science background  as well as strong coding skills that are necessary for the umm basically kind of projects that I know you are working on.  additionally  I feel that I am a very reliable person  um  I have demonstrated that through my leadership positions  through the things that I have  initia-  um  sort of taken the initiative to engage in  such as the various programs I mentioned  and you know  the things I am trying to do right now  because of that I feel that I would be a valuable asset to your team.|Interviewer: Thank you  so I'm curious  what's the tapioca club? This is off the interview|Interviewee: It's what it sounds like.  We try to make it more than boba tea  umm  currently we have primarily made boba tea  so its like  I think we've done like two or three events  and basically every time its like ok I'm gonna go to china town  get like twenty to thirty pounds of tapioca  bring it back  and then like well spend like basically a night or two cooking  making large quantities of tea|Interviewer: We tried to sell boba tea here  it was not a profitable operation but it was a fun activity|Interviewee: I think what we're trying to do right now is kind of actually get enough funds to get a cup sealing machine  that way the club will be self sustainable  'cause like right now its MIT funded  but its so new that they won't give it consistent funding  we have to apply for new grants. so we're like  oh you know  we're paying MIT all this money to be here  why not make them give us money for food?|Interviewer: Fair enough  so thank you again for interviewing.
pp42,Interviewer: So  uh please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: My background is I grew up in Japan and wanted to go to M.I.T. to study aerospace engineering  wanted to fly for a very long time now. I am in Sigma Alpha Epsilon  a fraternity on campus. And I am also a member of Air Force ROTC. |Interviewer: Interesting. So  do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: I do think I'm a leader. I have had many opportunities to lead. Um  both in a  in a range of environments where it's  it's pure leadership and also areas it's very clear that I'm the one in charge  and that people should be listening to me. And I've also had a good amount of theoretical education on this  and most of those opportunities and the education's been through ROTC. But I have also had a decent amount of chances to lead through things  like student government in high school and through my fraternity in college. |Interviewer: So  uh do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict on a team that you were on and how you worked to resolve it?|Interviewee: I do think I'm a team player. I like to be on part of a team where the mission is something I agree with  and if I am then I'll work my absolute hardest and try to make sacrifices for the team. In terms of a team that had conflict that I was um  I was apart of  uh hmm let me think of examples I didn't use the first time. [pause] I have to go back to high school. Um  so student government was a really big thing for me in high school. It was probably my favorite activity  my favorite non-athletic activity that I did  and it was a little bit difficult to get participation  especially during busier times for school  because people would have so many other commitments to go to. So  in some of the committees we had  inside student government Junior  Senior year  there would just be not enough people for not even a quorum to be reached. So-|Interviewer: [laughs]|Interviewee: The way I tried to change that was just making the events we do more fun and having people specifically agree on those things that were on the committee beforehand. So then they-  we knew that everybody had kind of an investment in it.|Interviewer: Mhmm. That makes sense. So if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: One thing about myself  hmm. [laughs] Well kind of as a joke right now  one thing definitely have a leg that's healed. |Interviewer: [laughs] |Interviewee: Um  but- |Interviewer: Sorry to hear that.|Interviewee: I guess-|Interviewer: A little more changeable note.|Interviewee: [laughs] Personality traits are something of that nature. [pause] Um  I think i can be a little bit more agr-  or not a little bit  a decently am-  a decent more-  a decent amount more agreeable. Sometimes  I certainly can have an opinion on a stance and once it's developed it's quite hard to change. I can dig my heels in when someone's kind of trying to argue the Congress. So  if I could be just a little more open minded and certainly more agreeable I think that would help me out in the long run.|Interviewer: That's always very useful. So  uh  lastly  uh  now imagine you are applying for a job that you want  and you're-  maybe in the military maybe [?]. Why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee: I think that I should be able to get this job because I have a lot to contribute to the company. I learn so much in my undergrad  and I've been wanting to apply that to a real-  to a tough problem  that has real uh  repercussions to the general public. And I've learned a lot of uh  theoretical knowledge on  on how to solve these problems. I've also learned a lot of practical things by being in projects  and working in groups  and  and learning how to handle a range-  or a multitude of different dynamics. |Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: Um  I-  if-  if the team is working towards a goal  which I agree on  and this company certainly is-|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: I-  I'll put absolutely a hundred percent of effort into it  and work late  and-  and really try to get that goal  um  or really try to work towards that goal.|Interviewer: Hmm. Ah  very good.
pp43,Interviewer: So uh  please tell me about your background. |Interviewee: Sure. So I am match-making computer science double major at MIT.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmmm|Interviewee: I worked in the product-tech and business space before umm doing both uh front end web development  for example  at Next Job and product management  for example  at Douche Ban  the German railway and Disney Parks and Resorts online.|Interviewer: Mmm-hmmm. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why. |Interviewee: Sure. I think I..I am. Umm one example of that is I'm the president of Baker House-it's a dorm at MIT.|Interviewer: Oh  yes. |Interviewee: Umm and as part of that I--there's about twenty members of the executive committee um and we run um events during the year- about a fifty thousand dollar budget. Um so making sure all of those run run smoothly um  that there aren't conflicts between members of the team  that the umm other business of Baker House gets done and gets done in an efficient way and a way that's good for the residents that are there.|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time you faced a challenge while you were on a team and how you went about resolving it. |Interviewee: Sure  so this sem-or this past summer at Disney uh we had a challenge once with the time zones um and how they would be uh and how the app would be able to use time zones. So  we uh spent some time to got everyone on the phone together on a conference call and talked about umm what the app would have to do in order to support time zones. |Interviewer: Okay. Umm if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be? |Interviewee: Sure. I think the..the one thing that I um you know  maybe I..I...maybe it's..it's a false sort of sense of of what umm of something but at MIT it always seems like some people get the answers to some questions faster than I do and umm you know  it's it's probably just you know  their particular field that they are good in but you know some magical way of of you know  being able to do that would be good. |Interviewer: Well thank you. Umm so I guess my final question is think of that one job..|Interviewee: Uhh huh...|Interviewer: That you would like to have...|Interviewee: Yep..|Interviewer: Doing what? |Interviewee: Mmm-hmm |Interviewer: Good  okay. So  why do you think we should give you this job?|Interviewee: Absolutely. Umm you know  I think it's something that I've...I've certainly done before  something that I'm able to pick up quickly and uh really customize it you know  to this particular company umm and I think that's you know  there's there's few other candidates that have had this sort of graph of experience that I've had.|Interviewer: Ah  well thank you for coming. |Interviewee: Yep.|Interviewer: Appreciate you coming for the interview. |Interviewee: No problem. |Interviewer: Now uh...
pp44,Interviewer:  So  uh  please tell me about your background.  I’d like to I know a little bit about your background.  |Interviewee:  Sure  um  [clears throat] sorry.  Uh  I am a junior in Computer Science here at MIT.|Interviewer:  Mm-hm.|Interviewee:  I’m from [??]  Kentucky.  Uh  particularly interesting in  uh  consumer [??] products  um  front end development.  Um  I’ve had some experience doing both web development and some  uh  internal metrics testing and QA type of jobs.  So  that’s a little bit about my technical background.|Interviewer: Uh  thank you.  You think you’re a leader.  Tell me why.|Interviewee: I do think I’m a leader.  I think one of the biggest qualities a leader needs to have is dealing with people.|Interviewer:  Mm-hm.|Interviewee:  Uh  people skills are very important.  I’ve been involved in many situations that  uh  involve both conflict resolution with people  involve organizing people towards a certain  a certain purpose or goal  which I think is  uh  very important  uh  quality of being a leader.  For example  um  previous  uh  work  uh  I’ve done with one of [??] organizations on campus  called Camp [??] of MIT  uh  we had a committee that  my  myself and my co-coordinator had a committee which we  we used to organize the unions for campers and  um  newsletters for  uh  families.  Uh  to give you more context with that  uh  my job in that organization was to be a liaison between organization  which was a student camp  a student run camp for kids whose parents have or had had cancer –|Interviewer:  Mm.|Interviewee: - and being a liaison for the organization in the families who go to that camp.  So  that was my whole last year and I believe I was able to organize  uh  I believe pretty effectively.  Right now  I’m  uh  also a member of the MIT dance troupe  which  uh  is a dance group on campus.  And I’ve  uh  I’m choreog -   I’m a choreographer.  So  I’m organizing people there and definitely making sure we meet our deadlines on time for the big show that we hold every semester.  So  I think I can  uh  organize people pretty effectively and  uh  have a really good [??].|Interviewer:  Do you consider yourself a team player?  A team player.  Can you tell me a time when you were on a team and you faced a challenge  how did you go about resolving it?|Interviewee:  Sure  okay.  Um  I think  dealing with  doing these…  Let’s go with  so  uh  the same organization  Camp [??] organization  last year as the coordinator for the  uh  families.  A big challenge for us was  uh  organizing our data.  Um  so  how that  so  essentially  what I mean by that is each  uh  family had to apply  uh  with their camper’s applications  but the applications itself are pretty  pretty heavy and require a lot of information  doctor’s records  medical records  and so people would send in their applications at different parts –|Interviewer:  Hm.|Interviewee: - uh  during the year.  Um  so they would never usually send in a full application.  So  keeping track of that  um  proved to be pretty  pretty challenging in itself.  Um  there were about three of us that they would send different parts to  uh  and there were about ninety campers or about a hundred campers who ended up sending in documents.  So  uh  making sure that  uh  my team was communicating was important  very  very important.  In order to get through that –|Interviewer:  Mm.|Interviewee: - um  we decided to develop a  uh  sort of tool for  uh  organizing.  In the sense that – |Interviewer:  Hm.|Interviewee: - uh  whoever received that piece of the application would enter it in to this sort of database we decided to construct.|Interviewer:  Mm-hm.|Interviewee:  Uh  fill in the application and contact the family saying what they were missing and what they have turned in.  ‘Cause sometimes there was a little bit of a lasp [sic] in communication about who was to tell the parents about what they were missing and things of that nature.  Uh  I think it worked pretty well.  Uh  it was definitely a system which could be used in future years.  Um –|Interviewer:  Hmm.|Interviewee: - unfortunately  they switch to a different system  an online system  this year  so we don’t implement anymore.  That was a pretty solid system.  |Interviewer:  Well  that’s always good to hear.|Interviewee:  Yeah.|Interviewer:  Um  if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee:  ‘K.  I think for me – |Interviewer:  Mm-hm.|Interviewee:  - um  wrist-taking.  Risk-taking is probably something I could  uh  work on.  Now  I don’t mean by risk-taking  taking risks just for the sake of risks  but being more open to  uh  trying something I’m not  uh  particularly  uh  familiar with or  uh  don’t know exactly what the outcome is going to be.  Uh  it’s definitely something I could  uh  give more thought towards.  I’m generally a conservative person when making decisions and trying to go with  um  solutions that I can definitely plan out and foresee  but I understand that  especially in the real world there are times when  uh  you just don’t know what’s going to happen with  uh  later down the line and decisions have to be made.  So  keeping that in mind  um  knowing when to take risk and definitely being more open to alternative ways of  uh  going down a certain path to a solution is something I could  uh  I’d  uh  I’d like to change about myself.  |Interviewer:  Mm.  Certainly true for many people.  So  uh  think about the job you’d like to have –|Interviewee:  Mm.|Interviewer: - why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee:  So  uh  I think that the biggest  one of the biggest qualities in me  for me  is  uh  being able to  uh  being eager and able to learn very quickly.  I’m a very eager  um  to learn individual.  I’ve  uh  come into internships before not knowing much about the sort of technology and frameworks they use.  For example  this past summer  at my internship at this small company  uh  I had never used Ruby or many of the JavaScript frameworks they had used before  uh  and many of the testing frameworks.  And I just have to hit the ground running  but I think I have a very  uh  big enthusiasm for learning new things and it’s one of  uh  the greatest joys in the world to me is to  like  go in and just learn  uh  a new technology and put it into practice.  So  I think that  uh  what I may lack for in experience I more than make up for in  uh  very eager  um  to learn  uh  attitude and ability to pick up things pretty quickly in practice.|Interviewer:  Ah.  Well  thanks for sharing this all with me. |Interviewee:  No problem.  Thanks for having me.  |Interviewer:  Of course  it was great to meet -
pp45,Interviewer: So  umm  tell me a little about your background.|Interviewee: OK  so I'm a student here at MIT  and I love to study electrical engineering and computer science. Umm  you know  very quantitatively minded. I'm also minoring in mathematics and economics  and I'm interested in a variety of applications of math and computer science to  you know  any sort of field that has interesting problems that can bring together a practical application and a use of my technical skill set.|Interviewer: Alright. So uhh  you think you're a leader. Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yeah  I think so  I think  I think I have umm  I have a talent for being able to identify what motivates people  and in organizations it's very easy to  you know  get caught up in what's perceived to be  you know? Everyone's common motive that the companies supposed to be about. And although the ideal framework would be nice if everyone was working indeed towards the same goal  in reality  sometimes  you know different agents  different people in the company  different people in the group have different  you know  slightly different goals for they're in the game in the first place. And I think by being able to recognize these individual motives and being able to marshal them  instead of being a destructive force towards the company  being able to marshal everyone's individual talents or desires  umm  as a force that can be used to benefit the company  I think this sort of  you know  deeper  deeper attention to what people want is what  we- wha- wha- what basically makes me be able to be a  you know  a good leader by being able to take all the resources that are provided by the team and use the parts to make a good whole sum.|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time when you were on a team and there was a conflict you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: I think yeah  I uhh  yeah  I am a team player  umm  within reason of course. As long as I don't think some ridiculous demand is being made of me. Which is demeaning or it's just  not useful in terms of  it  if there's a demand being made of me that's not fulfilled by me and my skill set  then I will  you know  defer to someone else on the team. But  given that it is a demand or a request that's made that will tailor itself to my skill set  I  I think that I'm a team player. Umm  you know  for example  I'm more skilled at quantitative analysis than people from maybe other backgrounds  and there have been many times  you know  working on group projects and interdisciplinary crafts   where I would be asked to take on some extra role  for data analysis  just simply because I have more experience in the field. And  it would be  just more beneficial to the entire to team to have someone who already has more experience. To not have to enter the learning curve at the steepest point  umm  but instead to be able to produce  you know  good work pretty quickly.|Interviewer: If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: If I were to change one- one thing about myself it would umm  it would probably have to be... I guess  being umm  being more mindful of my time and being a little more meticulous to make sure that all those  you know  unaccounted for minutes that past by over the course of the day  uhh  don't add up  you know? Into large chunks of time that are being unused. I wish I had a better sense of realizing quickly when my time is not being used optimally  and freedom to actually correct that.|Interviewer: So now think of a job that you would like to have. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: So  I  I think that for most jobs and this one as well in a very quantitative field  which does also involve  you know  leading a team of different people from various backgrounds  I think that I would be  you know  uniquely skilled for this job  because I do have a strong technical background while I can also take different parts of a team  and bring together people with  you know  they have different motives initially  into a coherent unit to get a job done.|Interviewer: Well thanks for coming by.|Interviewee: Thank you very much.
pp47,Interviewer: So  uh  please tell me a bit about your background.|Interviewee: So  I'm a math major at MIT. I'm a junior. Um  specifically study  uh  Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. Uh  I have a focus on statistics and algorithms.|Interviewer: Ah  thank you. Uh  do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I think of myself sometimes as a leader. Um  definitely able to organize things and get things done when they need to be done. Um  ahem  I'm not the most organized person. Uh  so in some regard  I have doubt. But  uh  I think I've been pretty successful in getting groups to acheive goals and that kind of thing.|Interviewer: OK  so let's talk a bit more about those groups. Uh  do you think you're a team player? Can you tell me about a time when you were on a team and you experienced a challenge. How did you resolve it?|Interviewee: Um  so I  I think I am a team player. Um  I have a pretty diverse background as far as  um  CS and math-related kinda things go and so  um  I'm pretty good at working with different  uh  people from different backgrounds. Specifically in those fields  uh  also in other fields. Um  I think the particular challenge with that is being able to communicate to  uh  team members your  your ideas if  uh  they're not exactly familiar with them.|Interviewer: Uh  thank you. So  can you tell me one thing that you would change about yourself if you could? If you had an option to change one thing?|Interviewee: Sure. So  I think one thing that I certainly don't like is that I tend to be very nervous. Um  especially when speaking in front of  uh  large groups of people. And  I think definitely if I could avoid that problem  it's certainly be good. Um  one of the things because you're always given the opportunity to talk in front of people and it's  uh  whether you're presenting work or you're socializing or something  meeting new people. It's always something that you have to deal with and  you know  being being very sociable or being around a lot of people is certainly very helpful.|Interviewer: Uh  thank you. And  uh  why do think you should get this job? Just think of a job you'd like to have.|Interviewee: Um  so  I think one of the reasons is that I enjoy a good challenge. Um  and I enjoy very challenging problems which I know that your company certainly offers. Um  another reason is the  my  my interests are very aligned with the company's interests  and I think that  um  both could benefit from learning  uh  especially myself  from your company and the people I work with.|Interviewer: Hmm. Well  thank you.
pp48,Interviewer: So uh  please tell me about your background. |Interviewee: Uh  well  I go to MIT. I'm a senior right now. |Interviewer: Uh-huh. |Interviewee: And I'll be graduating [??]|Interviewer: Uh-huh. Do you think you're a leader?|Interviewee: Yeah. |Interviewer: Tell me why.|Interviewee: Uh  to me a leader is somebody who takes initiative  and like creates a vision when they're given a blank slate. Uh  when  when I think somebody is a leader they  they don't have to be told what's done  or what needs to get done. And they form the infinite choices and possibilities can quickly pick up two or three  and make a decision. And also like get other people excited about it and organized.|Interviewer: Very good. Uh  do you think you're a team player? Give me an example of a time you were on a team  and you faced a challenge. How did you overcome that?|Interviewee: Hum  Oh yeah. Obviously I do think I'm a team player. I'm trying to think of an example. One specific challenge. The uh  for the [??] project you do as a senior. |Interviewer: Uh-huh. |Interviewee: We had to ah  my group was in charge of analysing the materials  and we  of the section that I got asigned was  was ah  within our team we did like a self ah  splitting it up. And I got like a way way heavy load  and somebodies got to really like move. So it was like pretty  I didn't know if I should talk to somebody else about it or something like that. And I decided like if we were going to do it as a team. Then we're going to have to be on the same page. So at some of my meeting we made sure to split it up a little more evenly. |Interviewer: That's very good. So uh  if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: To never have to sleep. Like realistically? Is this like ah...|Interviewer: Yeah something  something that you need to improve upon. I vote to not being able to sleep as well  but unfortunately...|Interviewee: Not going to answer things like that. |Interviewer: Uh  I would like to teleport as well  but uh...|Interviewee: Uh  definitely to be more organized. So a lot of time I'll get like  my notes will get messy  and stuff like that. Organization. I've been working on it  but it's not where it needs to be.|Interviewer: Very good. That's a problem that afflicts us all. |Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: Uh  so do you have a job you'd like to have? Do you have in mind?|Interviewee: I do.|Interviewer: Okay. So can you tell us why you deserve this job?|Interviewee: Uh  cause I work well with other groups  and this job requires like small groups to work together to accomplish things. |Interviewer: Uh-huh. |Interviewee: And a small group is like the perfect environment for me to do work that is collaborative  but it's not like bureaucratic. |Interviewer: Hum. |Interviewee: So  so this is like the perfect environment  and uh  and I have like some experience in the area. But more importantly like I  I figure things out and get them done. Like as they need to be  so people don't have to tell me what to do  or watch over me and stuff like that. Like it's  if I want something to be accomplished like we'll work with a team to get it done. Without like somebody telling you or watching you whatever. |Interviewer: Oh well thank you. I appreciate you coming here today for this interview.|Interviewee: Yup.
pp49,Interviewer: How are you?|Interviewee: Good.|Interviewer: Well good.|Interviewee: It's been a tough week.|Interviewer: Ahaha  I understand. So  uh  please tell me a bit about your background.|Interviewee: Uhm  my name is <inaudible> I am Junior in course 20. Which is Biological Engineering. I come from Puerto Rico. And... I've been learning a bit more this past year about what I actually want to do in life. Right now my main goals are set more towards the medicine side of Bioengineering. So medical devices  biomaterials  tissue engineering  drug delivery  it's what  it's what interests me right now. Uh... it's not set right now that's why I am also tending to go to different research opportunities and different uh... pharmaceutical internships and we'll see what happens from there on. And I'll be able to focus on one actual path per say. |Interviewer: Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: So... I think I am leader because I like planning things. I like to gather all the information I have  all the resources I have  and all the uh... basically either group uh... all the group <inaudible> or each contribution from each person  gather them all up and come up with an efficient plan to tackle said problem  or homework  or project  or presentation. Whichever may be the case. I tend to make people give more than... I make them give more than 100% of what the  they  they  the bar that they set themselves at. So I feel if I feel that somebody has potential I can notice it and at the same time work with a person to basically exploit that potential to a new maximum. At the same way I feel that I am very open to constructive criticism  if somebody feels that I am not doing a great job I am very happy just to sit with them and learn from that experience because it's gonna make me more efficient in the future. So I feel that just having a set plan from the start to tackle problems  and at the same way editing it and adapting it to every new situation or the feelings of the people you are basically  uh overseeing then that's  uh  a very good approach to everything that we do. |Interviewer: Mhm. Very good. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you tell me about a time of you were on a team and you faced a challenge  how did you go about resolving that challenge?|Interviewee: So  uh  teams have been uh very large aspect of my life. Ever since High School I've been a part of the Soccer team. I continue to do that now. I've been part of the debate team  and Honor Society which had it's own team for competitions. But I feel that the biggest challenge right now has been when I am with a team of people that are seniors to me. So they  they are better prepared  much better informed  and have an arsenal of skills that I have yet to acquire because I just don't have the same level of experience that they have. So if I am Sophomore  and I've been grouped with Seniors and Juniors of my subject of Engineering class  the difference is very noticeable. The difference of level and performance is very noticeable. And I try to  basically  give what I can  but I also want to excel at what I can actually move forward to. So if I feel that I can actually contribute much more than what they're expecting of me  because if I don't have that level of experience what I want to do is get to that level. So I gotta work harder  push through and get to this level that's basically at the same level as the rest of the group. So I'll try to work with people  and I'll try to find someone who mentor me through that process. And step by step  because the biggest challenge for me  is being alone and tackling it straight  I'll use the other group members  I'll readily approach them and ask for help because that's what the group is for. The team succeeds together all the way. So... that's I go.|Interviewer: If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: I would say  doubting. Doubting myself  doubting the things I do  doubting the decisions I make. I would like to have absolutely no regrets  or if I have them learn something from them. I am sometimes am fairly a safe player  so I calculate the risks before I see the return. So I'm not a great fan of plunging in into something that I don't know  that's high risk  high return. I like to play it safe  and have a thing to fall back on. The same way it works for problems  it works for personal life  it works for basically everything that's surrounds me. I feel that it's been changing  with every new experience I've been passing through. Leaving home  college outside of Puerto Rico  but I still feel that I'll rarely benefit of just letting go  and taking more of a risk than I normally do.|Interviewer: That's an interesting thought  thank you. So now  uh  think of a job that you'd like to have. Do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: The first one that pops right into mind is... Bioengineering.|Interviewer: Okay  so  why do you think we should hire you for this job?|Interviewee: So I've always been naturally curious about things. I've always had  a drive behind everything I do  so I got into Bioengineering right after I saw that I had this opportunity coming to MIT  and coming from a family that has been effected by a lot of cancer  I found that doing this I could actually benefit my family  benefit other people's families that have been effected by it. I've been going through some really tough times with grandmothers  and other family members that have survived and succumbed to it. And from there my motivation has been always to push forward no matter what the challenge. So when I step into a lab  I see what I have in front of me  the ultimate goal might be the farthest goal in my life  I may never reach it but rest assured that I will do my best to contribute to its forward movement. I will always try and leave it at a better place than it was before  and if I am not the one to reach it  another person will but I will be sure that I actually contributed to it.|Interviewer: Mhm. Well thank you.
pp5,Interviewer: So  please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: Alright so  my background  I'm a junior at MIT studying computer science and  umm  I've also done research in the computer science field. Umm  I interned  er  I researched with a group at MIT and what we did was we made an interactive game to  uh  to teach. And I've also had some experience  uh  internship at  uh  at Google.|Interviewer: Oh  that's all very cool. Thank you. So  uh  do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: I think I'm a leader. I do believe I have leadership  uh  qualities and that  and I can support this because I've been in leadership positions in organizations here on campus. And when I have had the responsibilities I've carried them out  uh  very well and I've been able to overcome challenges such as umm  one of the groups I'm  uh  on the executive board of expedited access to standard education. Umm one of the our tasks this semester was to come up with an idea for a presentation and to carry it out at a control show from another group. And I took complete ownership of that and it came out pretty well and we were able to raise more money than we have in the past.|Interviewer: Ah  that's excellent. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Oh  well I definitely would consider myself a team player and an example would be from uh  my participation in my team in are student association|Interviewer: Mhmm.|Interviewee: And for one of the tasks where we were trying to accomplish  I was in charge and I thought I'd give some tasks to other members and a lot of tasks were not getting completed by the deadline that I set  so  um  as leader to be responsible for that task  I tried to figure out what was going on in the other students' lives because I was getting context and uh  understanding why they were missing deadlines when we didn't have a lot of tests or homework that week. And through that  ahem  through that understanding I was able to  um  help motivate them to complete the tasks and resolve that conflict.|Interviewer: Ah  that's all very good. Uh  if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself what would that be?|Interviewee: One thing about myself. Interesting. If I was given the option to change one thing about myself  yes?|Interviewer: Mhmm. Yes.|Interviewee: What I would change is to  uh  I guess  uh  just generally have a lot more knowledge in my field than I  than a person at my level would  you know  at this kind of level  and that's umm  that's something that would be nice. You know I feel like I would be able to be uh  much further along in my career than I am now.|Interviewer: There's always more that we can learn.|Interviewee: Uh huh  yeah.|Interviewer: Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Well I think I should get the job because I  um  have the skills necessary to complete the  the task that I'll be assigned. Um I'm very motivated  I'm always willing to learn and I  I'm very passionate about learning and uh  I think I'll be able to learn a lot through the position  as well as contribute to the position and be able to  um  influence the people that I work directly with or that are shareholders in my project.|Interviewer: Well thank you!
pp50,Interviewer: How are ya?|Interviewee: Very well  thanks.|Interviewer: Ah  good. So  please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: My background...uh  I have a fiarly technical background. I went to a fairly technical high school. Um  I have mainly a mathematics and physics background with also some computer science. Uh  I also  I have been involved in leadership  uh  outside of  outside of academics. So then in high school I was  uh  captain of my chess team  and I also served as president of a couple of clubs in high school. So I have some  some experience in that regard. Like I said  mainly I have a pretty quantitative technical background and  uh  with some sprinkling of other stuff as well.|Interviewer: Excellent. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yes  I think so  because I typically think using my own mind and I act on those decisions rather than listening to what...uh  I mean  of course  I take into account what... I think it was Lincoln who said that  uh  you should take into account what people tell you but then make your own decision. He said it more elaborately  but those are the essence of what he was saying  and I try to  I try to  to use that in every day life and in  also in  like important projects. I would say that  and I  I usually have  I'm usually pretty successful in convincing people that my way is right when it is.|Interviewer: Hmm  that makes sense. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example when there was a conflict in a team that you were on  and how you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Um  yeah  I think so. Uh  when its a matter of ideology I don't like to make compromises  but when it's a matter of  uh  getting stuff done  I think that I  I think that I am a team player. I think that uh  usually I'm   I'm willing to  to make sacrifices if necessary for the ultimate goal. And so  for example  uh  one time in high school  uh  we had a group project  and one of the member  I mean  it was more complicated than I'm making it  but the gist of it was that one of the members who was responsible for our data analysis  he fell short  he  uh  he  we found out pretty late  uh  just a few days before the presentation  that he had misdone most of the data analysis  and as a result  the rest of us  but especially me  because it was a group of four  and we were kind of divided into two  him and me  and then subdivided into ones. So he and I were kind of a subgroup of a larger group. And so I was more responsible for what he had done than the other two were. So it was mainly me  with some help from the other two. We had to put in a lot of work in those last few days  especially me. I had to fix that and try to get it  you know  get it functional before the presentation was due.|Interviewer: Ah  very good. So uh  if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself   what would that be? And why?|Interviewee: (One thing about myself...) I guess maybe being  uh  being more decisive on incomplete information. I have a tendency to try to make  to try to get almost perfect information before I commit a hundred percent to a decision  and  of course  that's never  that's not always possible.  And so I do  I mean I do  of course  make decisions based on imperfect information every day. You have to  otherwise you wouldn't survive. But I feel that  you know  if there is a spectrum of  of how decisive you're willing to be based on a certain amount of information  I think the ideal place that I would like to be is a little further toward the  the decisive on incomplete information end than where I am right now.  So  I would shift that a little bit.|Interviewer: That makes a lot of sense. So  uh  now think of a job that you'd like to have.|Interviewee: ok|Interviewer: Do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: Umm  I mean  let's go with quantitative trading  trading.|Interviewer: Cool. So  uh  why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee: Well I think I have the necessary skill set  and the  and the  not the personality  maybe well personality  but more the  uh  so in terms of skill set  you know  it takes a very quantitative mathematical background with the ability to implement stuff  uh  to program and so on  and I have all of that. It takes a lot of modelling skills. I have that  mathematical modelling and what not. It also requires you to be A   very competitive  which I have been  and B  to be willing to  you know  to go through hell for  for certain periods of time when you're either up next to a deadline or something unexpected happens and... So it requires you to be able to  to vary the amount of time you put in  usually I'll opt for the higher  uh for an increased amount of time  a significant bit from the average  so I  and I think I have a lot of experience doing that and its something that I've shown I can handle.|Interviewer: Well thank you for coming. I appreciate you coming for this interview.
pp52,Interviewer:  Please tell me a bit about your background.|Interviewee: Um  well Im from Florida.  I was born in Miami.  My  uh  parents are from...I'm  uh  South Korean by ethnicity.  I'd say I'm more American by heritage but uh  my  um  parents came around here in the 80s and they settled down.  And around  I was born  like around 90s I was born here in Florida.  I had all my schooling in Florida.  I went to home school until 7th grade then private school until I graduated.  That's a brief synopsis of my background.|Interviewer: Okay.  Welcome.  So  uh  do you think you're a leader.  Tell me why.|Interviewee: I think I am  uh  just because  um  I have seniority maybe through sports or if it's from...I feel like it's hard for people not to be leaders especially when you're um  assigned to do group work or you're assigned to do goal setting.  I feel like if you're in any  uh  situation where you're doing goal setting you're being a leader by putting out what tasks you should do and how to execute them.  And how you tell  like  you're telling yourself  How am I gonna get this done.  So like  basically you're self leading.  I believe.  Um  maybe I'd say through sports I was probably a leader.  By  um  me being the upperclassman  I led my teammates on.  So I'd say  yeah  I've been a leader.|Interviewer: Very good.  Do you consider yourself a team player?  Can you give me an example of a conflict that you experienced on a team and how you resolved it?|Interviewee:  Uh  yes  um.  SO  seeing how I rowed four years  I think the biggest conflict was um  when  um  Junior year I was rowing for Junior Eight for nationals where we were in the grand finals.  ANd the last  pentameter of the terameter (sp) race my oar popped out and we ended up actually going from third place to dead last in the grand finals. That was possibly the most hard experience because it made me really reevaluate what it meant for me to be rowing  especially because that's something I spent four hours a day  six days a week on for my entire senior  um  high school career and that twas something I was going to carry over through to college.  And what really um  made me realize was that yes  like  that was a big mistake  it was just  honestly it could have happened to anyone but if it weren't for some people  if it weren't for just me  just being  just taking and it and just maturing from it  I think that's like  what it takes.  If you go through something really bad but you can get stronger from it.  You can still push something onto the table.  Like  um  last  last (?) year and still work hard to  to really fight through it.  You can really become great.  And um  I feel like that's what I was really working to change my view on that and um  in the end we  um  we medaled  we  uh  were runner ups in states.  We medaled.  So  I think that was a  good  good conflict that I resolved.|Interviewer: Good.  I imagine that would have been a very difficult situation.  |Interviewer: It was pretty tough.|Interviewer: If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: I wish  I wish...If I could change one thing about myself I think it would be me being  I think  more proactive to do something.  I'd say  I wish I was more...I wish I was could  I wish I was a little bit more volatile in things I chose  actually.  Because I feel like um  I stuck to just doing crew in high school and I thought that was great but I was wondering  like  I wondered what would happen to me if I tried different  more than one thing.  I know  I know like it's good for people to stick just to one thing and just grow in that field.  But I always wondered  I always wondered like  what would happen if I pursued more toward research or more towards um  club activities.  That way I could have like  a more well-rounded high school experience.|Interviewer:  So  now thinking about a job you'd like to have.  Okay  you have one in mind?|Interviewee: One right now or just...|Interviewer: The one you interview for.  So  why do you think you should have this job?|Interviewee: Well  I think I should have this job mainly because I find that I'm well with groups  I work very well with groups.  At the same time when you push me to do tasks myself I'm able to do the same amount  be just as productive.  I feel like  um  as an applicant being subject to group work and individual work  um  there should be no difference in how I should produce something in group work in individual work.  I should be just as creative and innovative if I was working myself or if I was spending time working with a group of people.  So  I feel like if I was going to get this job  um  it would help greatly for the people I'd be working with and for myself.  |Interviewer: Well thank you.  Appreciate your coming in to interview today.
pp53,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm fine How are you ?|Interviewer: Good  tell me more about your backround.|Interviewee: Uhmm  so  I was born in uh  Nigeria uh  and I actually came  over to the united states when I was 8 years old.|uhmm and uhm basically like most of my family members are actually not in the medical field so  it was kind like  I actually don't know what got my initial interest in the medical field.|Interviewer: mhmm.|Interviewee: But uh  I remember science  math  math and science were always my best subjects. Uhm and I really enjoy anatomy  human anatomy. Uhm  so I think that's when i started thinking about medical field.|Uhm  and uhm after being able to shadow uhm a neonatologist in high school  I think that's when I kind of figured  this  like i want to work in pediatrics  and plus I love kids as well. That's when I really figured out that's |what I wanted to do. |Interviewer: mmhm. That's great. Could I get you to scoot over a little bit? |Interviewee: Left-right? |Interviewer: left  there you go. Uhm  Do you think you're a leader? tell me why.|Interviewee: I do beleive I'm a leader. Uhm  I do beleive I take initiative a lot. Uhm  one example that is uhm one of the student groups that I work with  I work with several actually  but one of uhm  an example from one  the one that I work| with is our black women alliance. Uhm  I'm on the executive board. But my role is pretty uh  It's kind of almost in the shadows. Uh I'm on the social committee. So I'm the representative for my class.| uhm  and uhm  I tend to kind of like  I guess because I'm more of an upperclassmen I can tend to just throw ideas and get people thinking uhm rather then you know  I guess direct people. I think I'm more of like an |Initiator uhm   then I let people ya know just do what they want with whatever it is they throw out there. Yes  I do believe I am a leader.|Interviewer: Okay  and do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of when there was a conflict in your team and you resolved it?|Interviewee: Um  yes i do beleive I'm a team player. Uh  another student that I work with  I work with several that I can mention. Uhm  are black student union and I'm on the executive board of  for the second time this year  uhm|and Im co-chair uhm this year and uhm  our executive board is pretty unique. Uhm even though I havent titled in co-chair  uhm  every member on the e-board has a really even role.|So it's really even split as far as like what we have  uhm  our responsibilities are  and how much our opinions weigh. uhm  and um  actually this current executive voard we had some rocky start at the beginning of the year. uhm  there was a lot of loss of communication  uhm things weren't getting done in a timely fashion. We weren't really making progress. uhm   collectively. Individually we were fine but collectively we weren't really moving forward. Uhm  But Uhm  we  A few of us noticed that fact that |we werent communicating and uhm  we actually thought it would be a good idea to kind of have like a  like a  de-breifing session where we kind of express  you know  what is wrong exactlly. Uhm  and how we can move forward and|we found out that ya know that we have to find a way to kind of communicate more even if its just sending a breif text every now and then saying what you are doing. Uhm  We should definitely communicate more often then we were doing. And|uh yes  we've been able to communicate more  more then some  we definitely  we definitely have a  long way to go but we're increasing communication uh  right now and uh  we're doing much better. And we're making a lot of progress now.|Interviewer: that's uh. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: If I was given one option to change one thing about myself  Uh  I think it would be my hesitation. Uhm  Im pretty hesitant uhm about you know uhm  first ideas or initial thoughts that I have. Uhm I like always have to seek like a second opinion.| Or  I'll have to talk it out with someone or  sometimes I don't even talk about it all because um  I get maybe shy. I wouldn't exactly call myself shy but I guess when it comes to some opinions I might have i'm really |hesitant about sharing. Uhm  and that's one thing I'd definitely like to change because some  most of the time people say oh your idea was actually really cool. And I'm just like 'wow really'? So I guess I kind of doubt myself a lot.  | I think that's something that I'd really like to change. Because it hinders me a lot. Uhm I would really  I think it's something I need to work on. And I guess uhm  A way to improve that would again  doing more of the talking to people about how they feel about my idea. They think it's a good idea uhm and it has helped a little bit in the past but I need to work on that some more.|Interviewer: Great  and why do you think you should get into medical school?|Interviewee: I think I should get into medical school  uhm  because I do believe that I will make a good doctor. um  I'm a people person I love helping people. um  and I love kids um I love seeing um I guess their resilience when it comes to |their health. Um how they can just um  ya know  get better so quickly compared to adults. um and I want to I guess   um bring the knowledge that i gained from MIT um into the medical fiwld. Um |whether it's through  ya know  drugs  different drug discoveries and things like that and drug trials. Or um  even if it's just ya know  um kind of like the collaborative spirit we have at MIT campus  bringing it to a hospital setting.. setting  uhm because I know a lot of hospitals have just like a barrier between uh doctors and nurses  or doctors and patients  so uhm I feel like that's an attribute that I bring take around the world  kind of  and into a hosptial setting to alleviate situations like that.
pp55,Interviewer: Ready?|Interviewee: Yeah  sure.|Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Ummm  I'm great. Thank you.|Interviewer: OK Tell me a bit about your background|Interviewee: OK well I am a math major  but I have a lot of background in kind of different areas. So freshman year I did some work  um  at the Department of Energy  um  working the CFO's office so I'm getting kind of a feel for the budget um also risk matrices. Then I kinda branched more towards CS aspects  so  I did a bit of coding here and there in most research aspects and also  um  for companies.|Interviewer: Great. And do you think you are a leader  and why?|Interviewee: Ummm  definitely. So I'm president of The Undergrad Society of Learner Math and this basically gives me a great opportunity to  um  kind of help underclassmen and  also  younger girls  so those in highschool  middle school and kind of get them to become more active in the math community um participate in more events  even networking things  so  uh  anything with companies but also research with professors. It's a great way to kind of help other people who haven't really seen those opportunities yet.|Interviewer: And do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give an example of when there was a conflict in your team and you resolved it?|Interviewee: Yeah  soum  last winter I was working in the Boston area at Autotegrity which is like a online marketing start up. um   I don't know how much familiarity you have with  um  coding like repository systems  but  basically if someone  um  uploads like their work to the server and it doesn't work basically everyone elses stuff doesn't work either. So there's like a little column button type thing in rebuild which is called the blame button so you could kind of blame people. So every once in a while it would occur where someone would screw up the code and that would make everyone's work stop instead of you know blaming the one person telling them to fix the code we would all kind of look at where it went wrong and how we could improve upon that further instead of just fixing one persons code. So it was kind of a group effort to see how much we could all improve from the one mistake. |Interviewer: And if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: I guess I would probably try to ask more questions. Um  in general if I get directions which are really broad where I don't know where to start searching um instead of asking my higher up i would probably just automatically start looking at everything and start floating around. I guess it would be good to get more like to the point.|Interviewer: And why do you think you should get the job|Interviewee: Um like I mentioned before i think I have a good combination of leadership skills as well as um team player abilities. In addition to this I am pretty qualified I believe in terms of my academic classes that I have taken and also my extracurriculars have demonstrated I have a deep passion for math. And aside from that  I have many internships which have honed my skills in the work place.
pp56,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|  |Interviewee: I'm good  how are you?|Interviewer: I'm doing well  um  tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Um  I'm currently a junior at MIT studying Biology. I'm interested in going to medical school  so I'm hoping to apply to medical school my senior year  and then matriculate the next year. Um  yeah.|Interviewer: Okay. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I think I'm a leader. I have a lot of leadership positions  so  currently I am the President of the student group at MIT called the American Medical Student Association. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So  uh  I help organize a lot of events for pre-meds at MIT  um  so as a pre-med I feel there aren't very many resources  um  for pre-meds. We have a pre-med advising office  but  um  most students at MIT end up going into like  Engineering or Research  not very many go into medicine. So  um  we provide a lot of  um  outside activities for pre-meds. Uh  our main one is  um  lecture series  so we often ask Doctors from nearby hospitals to come speak about  like  what they do.|Interviewer: Alright. And do you consider a team player? Can you give me an example if there was a conflict in your team  and your aim to resolve it?|Interviewee: Sure  um  so  um  as part of the 'American Medical Student Association'  uh  last year we started a brand new event  um  it was a 5k run to benefit the Austins Childrens Hospital. And since it was our first time planning such a large event we had a lot of trouble  um  like  communicating between team members and distributing um  what  like clearly stating what each person should do  and what their responsibilities were. Um  to fix that I think we had to like  I had to call  like  an Executive meeting. So  we have an Exec Board and then  uh  I made sure that everyone knew clearly what they were supposed to do  and made sure they finished what they had to do by a certain date.|Interviewer: Okay. And if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Hmm  that's tough. (Laughter) Um  I think the main thing I would try to change is  um  getting nervous in front of strangers or being shy  um  I used to  um  get really shy when  like  public speaking for example  speaking in front of a lot of people  and I've been trying to improve that. Um  but  I think it would be nice if I could be more  but like  there is still room for improvement.|Interviewer: I see. And why do you think you should get into Medical School?|Interviewee: Uh  my passion is helping people. So  I have a lot of  I've been doing a lot of volunteer activities  um  I've been volunteering at hospitals  I've been volunteering at Brooks  I bring them to the Womens Hospital in Boston  and MEPS General Hospital. I've also been volunteering through the Cambridge Community Centers  I used to tutor young children how to read  and I'm currently an AP Biology Teacher for  um  students in the Boston area  who want to take AP Biology  but can't. Um  so  I really enjoy helping people  uh  and I think medicine is one of the best ways to help people because everyone gets sick and  uh  I mean once your health is gone you can't really do anything  so...
pp57,Interviewer: How you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm doing very well today.  Thanks.  How are you?|Interviewer: Good.  Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: I'm currently a Junior here at MIT and I'm pursing a double major in Computer Science and Management um the reason for that is that I actually fell in love with um the merging of computer science with a lot of other fields and I found that management is a way to take computer science and the theories of algorithms and problem solving and taking it to a wider field which is exactly why I'm interested in consulting is again its the idea of taking problem solving and algorithms and applying it to a lot of different problems and always trying new things and I'm very excited about that and that's where I'm coming from|Interviewer:  Great! Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee:  I do.  Um  I'm actually a part of the Gordan Engineering leadership program here at MIT  which students are chosen through an application  process to be a part of this program  and in this program um  we work on engineering leadership labs which is um  they give us scenarios which we might encounter in the real world and we take the position of a leader and kind of get to step through it  and I've gotten very positive feedback from my group every time about how I've handled those.  In addition  in um various activities I'm involved in on campus I have had a leadership role in many of those and again I've gotten very positive feedback from the people I've worked with so I think those put together mean not only have I had the experience to be a leader but I've also had positive feedback that I am succeeding at that.|Interviewer: Great!  Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Definitely!  Um  I was on the committee that designed our class ring so at MIT each year there's a new class ring designed specifically for that year and the idea is that it enco..encompasses aspects of all different fractions of student life so this committee is made up of a very diverse group of people.  And um  there were some features on the ring which we would become very divided on and there few ah divisions within campus which kind of became clear on our team  so people would kind of polarize based on which side of the campus fraction they lived on and then it would kind of get a little bit hostile  and people would say this is relevant  no it's not relevant  um and I kind of became the peace keeper um where I would kind of go between those sides try to find the mutually agreeable thing maybe like if someone really wanted something on the ring and someone else didn't I would suggest maybe we could make it smaller or have it somewhere else so if it was on the ring but not so blatantly obvious that the people who didn't relate to it thought it was too focal  so I became kind of the unofficial go between who would hear both sides kind of impartially and put things together...and I had about 2 to 3 people afterwards tell me that we wouldn't have gotten to where we did without my peacekeeping.|Interviewer: That's great  alright!  If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee:  I think I would know my limits a little bit better. Um  in that sense I  like I mentioned with the computer science and management I get excited in a lot of different areas and I really want to try doing everything that excites me and I really give it my all  but as a result being involved with a lot of different things means that at times I very tired because I'm trying to do a lot so I think I would recognize when I'm hitting that point and scale back a little bit um that said  I've been trying to work on that a bit this year and kind of pick my top activities and cut down to those so it is something I'm working on.|Interviewer: Okay.  Why do you think you should get the job?  |Interviewee: I think aside from my background which is as I mentioned very ah relevant to consulting with the library and gym applications  um as we've talked about I'm very much a team player  I'm very excited about the work that you do um  I absolutely love all the different aspects  I've talked to a lot of people in the company and I've really liked what they've said about the company culture  it makes me very excited and those are all values I struggle and relate to  so in addition to the expertise I think I would be a great fit.
pp58,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Good.|Interviewer: Good.  Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: I study ocean engineering at MIT.  I’m a junior and I’m really interested in building robots to use in the ocean.  Like  this summer I worked on an underwater vehicle to look at sea ice in Antarctica.  |Interviewer: Great.  Um  do you think you’re a leader?  Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yes  I believe I’m a leader.  Right now  um  one of my main leadership initiatives is restarting the Society of Naval Architects Submarine Engineers at MIT.  And that’s a group of all the ocean engineers studying at MIT including undergrads and grad-students.  And  um  I’m working with other students to organize dinners with professors and outings with  with students interested in engineering from other schools and departments.|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player?  Can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict on your team that you had to resolve?|Interviewee: Yes  I’d say I’m a team player.  Uhm  this  this term I’m working on a team for one of my classes. A team of about seven people and we’re building  er  manufacturing a hundred yo-yos together and  um  it’s actually complicated to manufacture one yo-yo if you’re doing everything from scratch like the molds  the plastic  the process times  you figuring out which missions you want to use.  And  um  we’ve done a yo-yo  we decided to divide our team into  um  groups of two people and each set of two people works on one part of the yo-yo so we have four parts.  And we were having a problem just last week when we needed to fill out a report about our yo-yos but two teams hadn’t finished their part yet because they couldn’t  um  get time in the mission shop  so we decided to resolve that by  we talked to the professor  I was the person who talked to the professor and asked for an extension on the report and told him what was happening.  Uhm  we got the extention  and anyway  if we wrote the report except missing the information from those two parts and then  the team working on those two parts is going to fill it in this week.|Interviewer: Okay. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: Let’s see.  Sometimes  I would like to be more comfortable with my voice.  Like speaking louder and more confidently.  |Interviewer: Mmm.|Interviewee: Sometimes  like when I go back home I pick up this southern accent again.  My family lives in D.C.  but a lot are from the south and they speak with the twang so when I came home for Thanksgiving I had this southern twang.  Oh  it sounded different and people were a little bit confused and then I went into this middle stage  now I’m back to where I am now.  Maybe speaking a little bit more quieter  but without the accent.  So I need to find out where my voice is.  |Interviewer: Okay.  So  why do you think you should get the job?  |Interviewee: Uhm  I am a really hard worker  I’m very organized  I’m comfortable working with teams.  I’m also on a sealing team which is another part of a team that I’m involved on.  Um  I’m passionate about what I do and I can bring a lot of engineering expertise and knowledge into the group.
pp59,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Great  hahaha.|Interviewer: Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: More about my backround  well... I'm from Canada  but I grew up in South Florida because  you know  one day my parents just decided that it was too cold *interviewer laughs* so they literally just decided to pick up and move. Uhh  so I basically lived there my whole life until I decided to come here for school  and  you know  since then I've just been going through MIT... I'm trying to do a lot of pre-med things. I like to volunteer. Uhhh  you know  strong family values  things like that. So...|Interviewer: Great! Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yes. Because  umm  everything I try to do  I  you know  always try to do the best that I can  and  even if I'm not the best at it  that-- the effort  like that alone should be enough to sort of inspire somebody  even if they're better at it than I am  you know. I find that's inspiring  you know  seeing someone try  you know  and trying their hardest. And maybe they're not the best at it but  you know  the effort that they put into something  is sort of something to be looked high upon  so...|Interviewer: Okay  okay  and do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: *hushed laughter* Umm  sure. Sooo  basically almost every night when you go home to problem set... You know  problems sets here are sort of designed to be group efforts  at least in chemical engineering they are  and often you and your group are working and you come to a crossroads  you know  part of the group thinks you should go one wan and part of the gorup things we should go another way. And  you know  kind of something that I've learned is that you can't shut down other people's ideas... Umm  so  I think something really important to do is... WE end up trying both ways  and maybe it takes us a little blt more effot  and maybe it takes us a little bit longer  but then we know for sure  like  you know  Okay  this way definitely didn't work  and you know maybe this way is the better way to go... but at least we didn't just  you know  diverge one way  and think like Oh  maybe we should have done it another way  so I think that's pretty important.| |Interviewer: If you were given the opportunity to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Umm  hmmm. I wish I was taller *both laugh*. You know  sometimes  I guess I always think that  you know  I'm right  and  you know  it takes people some convincing and I--I know I'm definitely not right all the time but I think that's kind of  you know  like  human nature  like  no-one ever wants to think that they're wrong   but  uhh  you know something I've learned here is |you're not always right  and everyone here is pretty smart  and they also have some really good ideas  and  it's really important to sort of take into account what others are thinking and  you know  that's just sort of the best way to progress  at least in our work here  it's... No-one could ever finish something  for example  the problem sets like I was talking about before  you can't finish a problem set by yourself. You need to get input from other people  and like  becoming open-minded was definitely  like  a challenge for me  but it's something that I've been working on  and something I think I've definitely got a lot better at since coming to MIT  at least  so...|Interviewer: And  why do you think you should get into medical school?|Interviewee: Heh  ha  because I've been working my but off *both laugh* Umm  you know  it's just something that I'm very passionate about. I'm really  not... I would do it for free  like I'm  you know people say they want to do medicine for the money  or you know  'cause it's a high-power career  but you know   it's the only type of thing... and... that I see myself being satisfied with in a long-term career. It's... I love being part of  like  the medical community right now  you know  if it's my work between being an EMT  working at the hospital... you know  working as a tech... These are all things that I would love and I would do. I'm happy to wake up in the morning and go do these things  and  you know  I wanna say it's like my burning passion like  it is  you know  my drive and  you know  I think that's probably the most important thing when you're looking for a candidate for medical school or for a job. Umm  it's knowing that  you know  they're not gonna  you know  one day decide that they don't wanna do this anymore  and they're not kind of like Yeah  I'm not sure if I wanna go to med school. It's like  no  I've been wanting to do this since I was like  nine years old  and every single thing I've done to work my way towards it... it's just made me fall in love with it even more.|Interviewer: Okay.
pp6,Interviewer: So please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: Um  so  I was born in Japan  um  where I lived for seven years. After that  I moved to uh the U.S. when I was around seven or eight years old. Uh  first to Michigan for a couple of years  from two to three  and then to Maryland um and it was in Maryland that I started middle school. And  it was through middle school and high school that I was exposed to above average and advanced courses in science  math  and uh programming. I was competing with I think the best in the state  and probably best in the nation  taking math competitions  just doing a lot of science competitions in general. Um  junior year of high school  uh  because of peer and parental pressures  I decided to go into premed. And I decided to take  consequently decided to take some bio classes  uh  a lot of cell physiology  genetics  psychology. And when I got here at MIT  uh well logically I decided to major in course twenty  bio engineering. Um  and to just to follow that track I decided to take a couple  decided to do a couple internships in labs  four labs actually  two in academia here at MIT actually and I realized that uh the positions weren't fast paced and weren't competitive enough or quantitative enough for that matter  so I decided to go into industry hoping that would satisfy my requirements  I guess. And again it was fun  I learned a lot  but it was just uh it didn't have the skill set requirements that I wanted. Uh but it was um my last internship I had the opportunity to talk with several directors  managers  people on the business side  I realized that could be something that I want to do. That could be more appropriate for me  for my career. Um  afterward I talked to a lot of my finance colleagues  started taking finance classes  went to workshops  started networking  and I realized  you know  this is most likely what I want to do. I talked to several people who wanted to go into trading and they gave me some interview questions and I said you know what  that's exactly the kind of questions that I want to tackle on a daily basis. And so that's why I'm here.|Interviewer: Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Do I think I'm a leader? I believe so. And this is  I say so because of several reasons. One is from  just from personal experience in the past. I've uh worked in teams  Ive met teams  a few in high school and a few in college  and I think I work well with others. But not only that  people trust me. I am able to divide up a huge project  break it down into small sub-projects and uh give  assign these tasks to different people without uh any complaints  without too much complaints. I think I have some leaderships skills  uh as you can see from my resume if (inaudible mumbling).|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: I do consider myself a team player. I'd like to give a good example. In my sophomore year in high school  I worked with this project called Mission Impossible  or Mission Possible  sorry  and the goal of the project was to design a rover from scratch  that would traverse a platform and record data  send it over to the computer  and the computer will create a 3D graph  a 3D replica of the terrain. And we were graded on how precise and accurate  how similar the 3D terrain was to the actual terrain. And there were many parts to the project  one was the construction of the actual rover. The other was the programming. Making us write the source code. Third one was making the terrain. The forth one was integrating everything together. There were five group members  there were only four tasks. I was picked to be  I guess the group leader  so I assigned the tasks. I made sure everything integrated correctly. And  it's not a small task  but uh  it definitely gave me some experience. I think one of the problems was  because this was a four week long project  this was a four week long project  but we didn't get much done until the third or forth week  because things just didn't integrate correctly. There weren't communications  there weren't assigned tasks  there just wasn't teamwork. There just wasn't the synergy that was required for us in order for us to finish this project. And during the third week I was appointed the captain  I gave tasks. I made sure every part was compatible. I made sure that everybody knew what everybody else was doing  and in the end we completed the project successfully.|Interviewer: If you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what woud you change and why?|Interviewee: Well  as you can see from my resume  my biggest weakness I think is my lack of formal training in finance. Uh  I'm not a course fifteen finance or management major  or a course fourteen economics major. I don't have any form of work experience  I don't work in a big bank or investment company or a proprietary trading firm. But  I can tell you  that I have taken more initiative  I've been more proactive in the last year in terms of looking for ways to combat  to overcome my weakness. I've gone to network sessions  I've actually set up to quit my sports team so I could go to these network sections  info sessions  workshops  because unfortunately team practice was always between five and seven and that was also the period in which info sessions were held. I did my research  I've gone online and went to your company website  I know exactly who you guys and what you're looking for  I know exactly what my role will be. I don't have any false expectations about my job. And  after knowing everything  I am still very very very interested in the position.|Interviewer: Why do you think we should hire you? Why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee: Well  I  I think my answer to the past question about uh how I overcame at my weakness how one of my strength is  my quantitative competitive and fast paced abilities  and the fact that I don't have any false expectations  I know exactly what I want to do  I know exactly what you want from me. And  those are very good reasons  like they apply to this. And I would also like to compare myself with the rest competition and tell you that I have more  I don't think there's anybody else with the same kind of technical strength  technical expertise that I have  um  even uh most students here at MIT.|Interviewer: Well thank you.
pp60,Interviewer: Okay  how are you doing today?|Interviewee: Good! How are you?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Um  so  I'm a junior at MIT studying computer science and molecular biology. Um  most of my background is in biology. I did research for about a year and a half at a lab here at MIT  in just basic molecular biology. Um  but  I'm also involved in a couple student groups on campus. One of them  I was previously involved in MIT Fighting World Hunger  so we did a lot of charity work with local and international hunger issues and trying to learn more about the issues. And  right now I've devoted all of my time to a different organization called GlobeMed at MIT  and we basically  our partner is a nonprofit organization abroad and we do work to improve HIV healthcare services in Togo  which is in Africa. Most people don't know where that is  so.|Interviewer: Do you think you're a leader and tell me why.|Interviewee: I think  uh  if I'm not now I think I have the potential to be one. Um  I still consider myself immature as in  I'm still a student  but  I think I have been given a couple of leadership positions that I've grown a lot from  um  and I think if I was given  if I was put in a different situation I could adapt to it. Um  would you like an example of a...|Interviewer: That would be great.|Interviewee: Um  so  uh  I'm co-president of the organization I just mentioned  GlobeMed at MIT. And  we  uh  basically are in charge  me and my fellow co-president are in charge of about 30 other members. Um  and this involves a lot of coordination among teams that we have split. We've organized our organization into different teams and we've got like campaigns  which is like fundraising team  and we've got communications  is like publicity  finances  and community building  and these are all like split up  at the same time we also have to maintain contact with our partner organization abroad in Togo. Um  so we do a lot with like non-profit business as well as marketing but also sort of try to appeal to the undergraduate population in terms of fundraising but also awareness. So it's kind of  pretty multi faceted  I think I've done a lot in terms of building up this organization  it started from scratch essentially  so. And  if you wanted examples of leaderships I guess I could... the only objective thing would be like what we've accomplished so far  would that be interesting to you?|Interviewer: Mhm.|Interviewee: Um  so  uh  so we started this year essentially  and we were able to secure a lot of sponsorships from different companies such as City Sports  Dunkin Donuts  Copy Tech  as well as MIT sponsorships like the public service center  where they would give us about $3000 to do our project in January in Togo. And  an MIT office donated 62 laptops just this last week. So I think  like  we've been definitely doing well like getting our name out there and also  um  achieving what we've set out to do  which is improve healthcare. Um  well  the project hasn't essentially started but our mission was to provide technology to improve clinical efficiency there. So  um  having our first step sort of been made by securing these donations I think is a good step of us showing that we have been succeeding objectively  but  but yeah.|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Um  yes  so  I do think I've definitely learned a lot from this experiment  experience  to become more of a team player. And I think I  uh  I know what it takes to be a good team player  by seeing what doesn't work  what does work  qualities that I don't think work in other members in interactions that I've had. So  an example would be  uh  last year  when GlobeMed first started  I wasn't the co-president  but we had a set of co-presidents who were also starting out. So  to be fair  it was a totally new concept  new organization  and it's  their downfall is they weren't that motivated. They didn't really seem to care that much about the outcome of our organization. And for me and other members that really devoted ourselves to it  it really frustrated us  um  but we had to learn how to be team players in the sense that we couldn't just go out and do everything ourselves and risk stepping on their toes. We had to respect their position as our bosses essentially. And this definitely was difficult in a lot of ways  I think I learned that you have to know your bounds and know that you can't achieve everything. You can't always just brute force your way through things. I think that  um  it's always the best way  if you ever feel like any conflict is about to arise or if you feel uncomfortable at something  like  immediately schedule a time to meet with that person  just talk it out  completely respectfully  without approaching a bunch of people and asking what they think. It's just probably better to meet face to face with that person and settle it from the start. And then you know if things don't improve after that  there may be other things you can do involving other members  but I think it's best  just face to face  yeah  so much of our world is like by e-mail nowadays  so yeah.|Interviewer: Alright. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: In terms of leadership? Or  anything?|Interviewer: In terms of anything.|Interviewee: Oh. Hm. Well  my joke would be I wish I was taller  but  hahaha. Well  I wish I was more  I guess I would change  my  like  time management skills. Because I think I definitely am not as efficient as I'd like to be right now  especially as a student. Um  I think I spend a lot of time on Facebook. I do a lot of networking  which I think I justify to myself like 'Oh that's good for future endeavors ' but I really think I  like  I could be more efficient in terms of like  you know my free time in the summer  like  learn a new programming language. Like  that could be  that's always something I wanted to do but never end up doing. So  so yeah  I would probably change that.|Interviewer: Okay. And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Uh  I think I'm very like motivated. I think because I know how to act as a leader of a group. I may not be the most experienced in software development since I just started the major. I think I can direct a team of people very diverse from me and working very different from me because I think I'm a very vocal person. I think I communicate well  uh  with people  or attemptfully. And I think that can be useful when it's a team. And  I think software development  like a lot of people think  like  it's just one person in a group programming  but I think it really involves a lot of coordination among the team. I think I can contribute that way.
pp61,Interviewer: So how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I’m doing well  thank you.|Interviewer: Good. Umm  tell me more about your background. We never met before.|Interviewee: “Laughs” O ok. Umm. My name is Victoria Mcray (sp) and I’m an Aerospace Engineer at MIT. I am a Junior and I’m in NRTC (sp) witch is a Naval training program that you take during college to commission as an officer. |Interviewer: Alright. Umm. Do you think you’re a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: I would say I am a leader in training at this moment. Umm through ROTC I am put in leadership rolls reach semester. Which help  ahh  build the skills towards becoming a leader. |Interviewer: “quite white noise” Great. And do you consider yourself a team player. Can you give me an example when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Umm  last semester I was a squad leader in ROTC…|Interviewer: umm’hua|Interviewee: … which is where you lead about “coughs” six to eight people  umm  and you all have to work as a unit to earn  ahh  honor squad at the end of semester. |Interviewer: umm’hua|Interviewee: Which is dependent on upon  umm  our PT scores which we have competitive… PT being Physical Training  umm…|Interviewer: umm’hua|Interviewee: …we have different physical competitions each week. We also have  Naval Knowledge quizzes  etcetera  in working together. Umm  and we had  sometimes  the freshman are a little  umm  getting use to it a little slower  in to getting to the…|Interviewer: umm’hua|Interviewee: …swing of things. Umm  and  we have this one who is having issues with PT  so I helped have extra sessions  to help  umm  do more physical fitness and…|Interviewer: umm’hua|Interviewee: …ended up doing a lot better towards the end.| |Interviewer: O that’s great. Ok. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: My command presence. Meaning  umm  sometimes I’m more quite  and its something I think it over and not be as shy about when I talk to others and to feel confident when I know something. Umm  in order to fix this I often put myself out there and try and “coughs” not hide in the corner. |Interviewer: Great. And… why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: “laughs” umm  I’ve wanted to be a naval fighter pilot for a very  very long time and I have been taking steps to go beyond  umm. I’m going to be taking ground school next semester  and aerospace engineering  umm  and I’ve gone flying a few times  and I think that through ROTC and my own experiences I will be a good candidate for a fighter pilot in the Navy.
pp62,Interviewer: So how are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good.|Interviewer: Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Okay so I was born in Irvine  California  um where I lived for about ten years. And um my parents and I actually moved back to Taiwan um at that point. So I went to an international school there. Um. It was mostly English speaking  but outside of school I would often speak Mandarin also with a couple of friends  um  as well as  you know  just getting by in the outside world.|Interviewer: Right.|Interviewee: Yeah  and so  yeah  so when I was after high school  I decided to apply to colleges in the U.S. Um just because I was more interested in living here and working here in the future.|Interviewer: Mmmhmm.|Interviewee: So  yep  applied to a couple of different schools. Um. Choosing  ending up choosing MIT.|Interviewer: Okay. Do you think you are a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um I would say that in terms of leadership style I would not consider myself a like a born leader. Um that said  I do think that I am um my leadership style comes mostly from mediating things. Um I tend to be very you know I am really good at stepping back um and looking at a situation um as a big picture. I think using that while I don't necessarily you know take the center stage all the time and you know and stand up and you know order people around or anything like that. In that respect  I feel like I can I can usually end up managing um different groups of people very well in a very um mediatory kind of manner.|Interviewer: Okay. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me a example of a time where there was a conflict in your team and you had to solve it? |Interviewee: Absolutely  yeah  I definitely do consider myself a team player. And um an example I can tell you about is I actually work as an EMT um so an Emergency Medical Technician here on campus. And we have different um ranks within our crew so currently I am a second rider which means that there's there's usually somebody above me and as well as somebody below me in a single crew. And so one case was we were dispatched to a patient who had chest pains. And so we didn't know anything about this patient until we got there. Um. But when we did  um mostly the crew chief  the person above me  and I were discussing you know what could potentially be the underlying problem. And you know we kind of disagreed on that initially um because my crew chief um talked about mentioned that you know it could be a cardio problem.|Um. But I think  whereas um I didn't necessarily think it was that. And so you know we took a couple of minutes just to stand back and kind of you know   consider all of the possibilities. And um we ended up having to ask the patient like a couple of other questions. Um. And what we ultimately found out was that he had a history of anxiety.|Interviewer: Oh. Okay.|Interviewee: So that um I think was was the was the root cause of the problem. And um I think that that was something that you know was something very important because um to to the care of the patient as we went down the line.|Interviewer: Great. If you had the option to change on thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Um. If I had the option to change one thing about myself. Um. I think that I would definitely choose to make myself more confident. Um. Mostly as a speaker  I tend to be I tend to get um pretty nervous as yeah when I have to speak in front of large groups of people. Um and I have worked on that. Um. Both as an EMT  you know  you have to really work on your confidence so that you know your patients trust you a little bit more. Um and also as leaders of different groups on campus. Um such as I'm leader of MIT Met Life as well as the Association of Taiwanese Students. So you know in the various uh clubs and groups that I am involved in across campus  I've definitely had to I've definitely been using those opportunities to work on um you know giving myself opportunities to speak onstage in front of large groups of people.|Yeah and I think that ultimately that would help a great deal as for me as a doctor in the future.|Interviewer: Okay. And why do you think you should get into medical school?|Interviewee: Okay. There are a couple of reasons I think I should get into medical school. Number one  I have a great deal of experience um in clinical fields as well as research. I work in a hematology lab here on campus. Um. I've been working here for about a year already. Um and yeah I really really enjoy the process of you know going through the scientific investigation process as well as you know it gives you a lot of a lot of joy when you figure out..|Interviewer: Right.|Interviewee: Um. Whether or not something works. And um so I mentioned before also that I work as an EMT so I so beyond having the scientific background  I also have a little bit of clinical background.|Interviewer: Mmhmm.|Interviewee: Um. You know being able to manage patients and to talk to them. And I think that's that's you know  a crucial component of being a doctor as well. But lastly I have a great deal of passion for the medical field. And um I hope that what I what I ultimately learn in medical school will give me I think the you know the opportunity to make a great difference in the medical field.
pp63,Interviewee: Pretty good  how was yours?|Interviewer: Ok!  It's nice to walk in from the <unintelligible>.|Interviewee: Yeah it's  uh  it's been rather pleasant.  I thought it was gonna snow today.|Interviewer: Yeah  same here!  So  uh  why don't you tell me a little bit about your background?|Interviewee: Sure! Uh  so I am an MIT Junior.  Originally  I was  uh  a freshman at Michigan  and then I transferred to  uh  MIT for my sophomore year.|Interviewer: Oh  great!|Interviewee: Um  thank you  I'm studying  uh  Computer Science and  uh  I guess I didn't really get into computer science until last year  um  or last summer  er  the summer before my sophomore year  and then  um  ever since I've more or less committed to it wholly and every minute to.|Interviewer: Huh.  Well good!  Do you think you're a leader?  Tell me why!|Interviewee: Um  I think  in some respects I can be a leader  but I wouldn't say like  in everything I do I'm a leader  so  um  in certain activities that I take part in  I definitely step up to a leadership position in certain situations  but I don't tend to try to be a leader all the time--|Interviewer: Hm.|Interviewee: --because I do like to listen to feedback and I like more of a group contribution as opposed to  like  a single person leading all tasks  but  like  I remember doing a team exercise once where  uh  like lowering a Hula Hoop down with everyone's hands  um. when you have a group of people in a circle  and we realized that you needed to have someone sort of spearhead the  the operation there otherwise  like  everyone's trying to do their own thing  and so there are  it's mainly in those situations that I'll try to step up  but most of the time I  I don't like to be too controlling.|Interviewer: That makes sense.  Sometimes you lead  sometimes you follow.  Do you consider yourself a team player?|Interviewee: Oh  definitely! Um|Interviewer: Could you give me an example of a time you were on a team and you faced a challenge?|Interviewee: Sure  um|Interviewer: And you solved it|Interviewee: So  uh  I guess that was one example of a challenge  uh  that we handle as a team  but um  let's see...Ok  so um  last year I was pledging at my fraternity  and we  one of the activities we do as a pledge  or as pledges  is  um  organize the formal for in the Fall  so uh  we're just given a budget and general guidelines for what a formal should consist of  and then we  we're tasked with setting up everything.  So  um  in this situation  like all the 21 pledges uh  we got together and we allocated tasks and  um  obviously when you have a large event like this with so many people where they get together to bring in  to make it happen  you need to  sort of  uh  there are certain people who won't do their jobs  and so  um  part of what we did was  just  have this sort of setup of accountability where  you know  more or less one pledge would check on another group of pledges to make sure that they were getting their task done  and if they needed to help them out  and so  and this way we try to have somewhat decentralized leadership  but still  um  manage to pull off  yeah.|Interviewer: Ah  that's good to hear.  So  if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: Um  let's see  if I could change one thing?|Interviewer: Mhm!|Interviewee: I would probably make myself slightly less of a procrastinator.  I  um  I have a tendency to  like when I have a lot of free time  uh  to  to work on something  I don't get started  I don't make as much headway initially as I probably could or should.  Um  and tend  um  in that respect  leave it  it's more like  my work is more weighted towards the latter half of the deadline  and so  um  I think just in terms of meeting my own goals like  uh  organizations that I get involved with  projects  it  it would just be more productive to  to be working  uh  full speed the entire time.|Interviewer: So think of a job that you'd like to have.|Interviewee: Sure.|Interviewer: So why do you think you should have the job?|Interviewee: Um  ok so  a job that I'd like to have is  uh  software engineering role  at  uh  a tech company or something.  Uh  and um  I think I am a good fit for the job because I have a pretty strong background in computer programming skill sets for this position  um  I've been taking various computer science classes at MIT and engineering classes and learning  uh  the proper was.  Uh not THE proper ways  but  um  good problem solving skills and ways to approach and ways to approach  um  hard problems and  um  that's  I think those are skills that are not difficult  not overly difficult to acquire  but most  many people do not acquire them in  uh  the engineering education.|Interviewer: Well thank you!  This concludes the interview.|Interviewee: Oh  good.
pp64,Interviewer: So  um  please tell me about your background.|Interviewee: Um  So  my name is Andre  uh  I come from Finland  I've studied for two years at Cambridge University in England  umm where I did all sorts of engineering for the first two years but I chose to specialize in electrical engineering and information technologies. Um  Currently I'm on an exchange year abroad to MIT doing Course 6. And at MIT I'm specializing in artificial intelligence -- machine learning  (score vector?) machines -- and also device physics and some digital electronics. Um  Specifically in the area of device physics and digital electronics I'm looking at risk processors as well as  um  nanot- um  micro- and nanoscale  uh  semiconductor devices such as transistors  uhh specifically ballistic transistors  which operate at the smallest possible unit.  Em  so yeah. Uhh In the area of AI  I have undertaken  uh  certain competitions  uh  which I have been  uh  lucky to win. Um  in the first one I had to write a simulator where um  I wrote an AI to control a spacecraft which is --|Interviewer: Hmm|Interviewee: -- supposed to be able to land and take off from Mars. And during that  I had to take into account planetary rotation  gravity  atmospheric effects  uh  aerobraking and all those things  so it was a pretty complex AI  to be able to handle all of that. Um.  Also I undertook a competition  uh  at Cambridge. Uhh in a team of six  we had to build an autonomous robot which was able to navigate a grid and pick up an object and put it in a  in the appropriate box. And there I um was a  a team lead where I managed the team until it did the tasks.  And also I wrote the AI for that.|Interviewer: Oh  great. So uh  do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I think I have pretty good leadership qualities  umm mainly because I'm able to think uhh on a lo- longer scale  like what has to get accomplished uhh and be able to delegate tasks to people to achieve intermediate goal which will be kind of modular to the achievement of the uhhh long term goal. So for example  in the the  um  robotics project  we had- our  our ultimate goal was to build a chassis  build an electronics  build an AI  and have the robot win this competition. But uhhh we- we didn't go from like scrap metal to that in one go. We had to uh  we had to look at um  specifically first I had to write an AI which was uh  straight - the bit of a AI which was able to follow white lines on a black surface  um  and turn on the- uh  at the junctions of those lines. Um  The electronics guys to that end had to  uh  make some circuits which uhh connect the  um  infrared light form sensors to the kind of main CPU  the arm-core CPU. Umm  So there was some circuit elements involved. And the  uh  mechanics guys had to pretty much just make a test chassis for us  um  but all that took some organizing because they were busy in the workshops  so they didn't have much time to screw arou -- to  uh  play around with  um  . . . you know  other  uh  other things  and the electronics guys had to  um  also schedule the time correctly.|Interviewer: Ah  yes. So uh  do you think you're a team player? Can you tell me about a time when you were on a team and you faced a challenge? How did you go about resolving it?|Interviewee: Um  So one of the challenges in the robotics competition  and this specific team  was that  um  we often had to share resources which were limited among other teams and also among the people in the team.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm|Interviewee: Um  For -- One of the resources  if I may say so  which had to be shared in  in our team was myself  because I ha--|Interviewer: (snickers)|Interviewee: uhh  I was a bit of the project lead so I had to give some advice  and also  umm  sort out some technical points with both the electronics and the mechanics teams  and also I had to write my own AI  so I had to kind of balance between the  uh  two and kind of manage my time.  So  what I would try to do was  I would tell them  uh  that we would work out some sort of specific issue  of like sensor connections with the electrical  uh  team  and I would say  Okay guys  so you're going to build this now  and  How long is this going to take? and they would say  I don't know  it's going to take us  uh  a couple hours. And then I would have the time to  maybe for half an hour  go down to the workshop where the mechanical team are playing around  and I would talk to them and see  you know  what they're doing and how- how far apart they want the wheels  or something  uh  for the  you know for the touring to be efficient  or  where do you want the balance  because uh  we faced an  an issue: if we put too much  um  weight on the back of the robot  the robot might tip over. So we try  uhhh we have to  you know  uh  fix that issue. But  uh  once I had the two teams working  uh  I was able to go back and quickly  um  write some code. So the issue was that I needed to kind of give advice from time to time. Umm  and I think I did that by delegating tasks pretty well.|Interviewer: Oh  good. So uh  if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what do you think that would be?|Interviewee: Um  I think I would try to become more succinct in how I speak and more engaging to people because often I find that umm I come off sometimes a bit geeky or dorky  and some people might not take to that a-- as easily. And --|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: -- as a team lead  you have to be both inspiring and charismatic. Um  I mean  some uhhh  some great examples  I mean  I guess as a cliche  it's kind of like Steve Jobs  where he's  uh  amazingly inspiring  he's very good at talking to people  but he's also  um  like I wouldn't be able to say that he's kind of more (adducent?) to . . . While at the same time  he is quite  you know  quite the geek being  you know  uh  in charge of Apple  and  you know  thinking about how to play with all these (unintelligible)|Interviewer: Mmmh.|Interviewee: . . . toys. So  striking a balance like that  where you  kind of  you're kind of able to have the fun with the tech  and also be  uh  kind of serious  |Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee:  um  but not boring-serious  um  so I try to strive towards that direction  uh  if I could.|Interviewer: Interesting. Em  so  and now  think of a job that you'd like to have. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um  I think that being a project lead in a robotics design team or a  like  an electronic product design team  uhh  would be really great fun  especially if I was also able to participate in the technical side and not only the managerial side.|Interviewer: Hmm.|Interviewee: Umm because being on the managerial side would allow me to  uh  kind of be able to set the  the direction  uh  in some way  which I enjoy doing  and also  manage the kind of  uh  the sub-teams  and how things will get done. But at the same time  being on the technical side  it's just fun to play around with all this really cool tech  and build it  especially  it's quite rewarding. Um  so I think I have the technical background for the technical part. Um  I've  I've done my programming  I've done my AI - AI courses  my electronics courses  so I  so I know that pretty well. And I have the experience  um  of working in a team and being a team lead  uhh  to know how to manage a small but efficient team.|Interviewer: Hmm.  Ah  well thank you for coming here today.|Interviewee: Thank you.
pp65,Interviewer: tell me about your background.|Interviewee: Um so I'm obviously not from the States as the accent gives away. I'm from a smallish town called Carifargus near Belfast in Northern Ireland. I just went to a local primary school there which is the equivalent of elementary school um for people this side of the pond. Uh and then like a local high school and uh was encouraged to within a year to consider applying to Cambridge which was something I hadn't really thought was something appropiate for me. I kind of just envisaged going to one of the Northern Irish universities maybe one of the Scottish ones. Um so I applied to Cambridge and luckily they seemed to think that I was suitable. So I've spent the last two years um there studying engineering. And then the opportunity came up to spend my junior year here in the States. So I went for that immediately. Um I've been moving into specialism of aerospace engineering |Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Inerviewee: Uh just because I've always been interested in space and um it would be quite uh like a personal ambition to be somehow involved in future space exploration um in terms of actually like desigining the stuff and helping to actually deliver it. Um so ideally that's where I see my kind of professional career path going. Uh aside from that stuff I'm quite into sport. Like I have three younger brothers so we'd often play sports together. Particularly rugby cricket um soccer. Uh but I have got into the American ones since being here. Um basketball um it's probably the one that was least aware of before I got here but I've managed to get tickets for a Celtics Timberwolves game tomorrow.|Interviewer: [laughter]|Interviewee: That should be good fun. And was as Fenway Park I think in my second week here or something.|Interviewer: Oh...|Interviewee: A Red Sox game so... Immersing myself in the American culture. Definitely enjoying my time here.|Interviewer: Well good. Glad to hear you're uh getting to enjoy the city. So uh do you think you're a leader? Can you tell me why?|Interviewee: Um yes I think that I have the self-confidence to be a leader. I'm someone who's happy enough to stand in front of others and put their kind of head on the block as the saying is make a decision and accept that if it does go terrible the consequences will come back and I can't just pass the blame on. Uh I think this is self-evident in positions I've held so far in my univeristy time in the UK where I was on the student council for my college Robinson College in Cambridge for both my freshmen and sophomore years. Um two different positions but both of them elected and competative elections. Obviously my peers think that I'm uh suitable leadership material.|Interviewer: Mm-hm|Interviewee: Um how does that allude to you from previous response sports is another big part of my life. And in that I've had um competency rules with school's rugby and then college rugby and also college ruin. Um so I feel I have the experience of leader of having been a leader before and I have the confidence to lead others while also realizing at the same time that there will be others in the group that have strengths that I don't have. So um I'm humble enough to realize that and and hopefully get the best out of others by not insisting that the way that I've initially thought to approach the problem is the only solution. You can be a leader a very good leader by listening to suggestions that others have and being able to discern which are implementable and which are merely to put on the let's leave that for now pile. So yeah I would feel that I'm a good leader.|Interviewer: Well good. So um do you consider yourself to be a team player? Can you give me an example of a time when you worked in a team and encountered some sort of a challenge? How did you go about resolving it?|Interviewee: Yeah so the obvious examples here would be sporting achievements and stuff but I think and just out of a variety a good antitote for growth um in the UK we still have a monarchy one of the few countries that do.|Interviewer: Mm-hm.|Interviewee: And the queen's husband rather than being king is the Duke of Edinburgh. I'm not sure why he doesn't get to be a king but anyway so there's a scheme called Duke of Edinburgh's Award which is aimed at 16 17 18 year olds. And there are three tiers too bronze silver and gold. So I've completed all of them. I have the set of the gold. And in order to do this a big part of it that people that undertake this scheme that they raise is the expedition element. Um you go somewhere you haven't been before with coordinates certainly maps compass tents troungier and enough food and supplies for like four days. Um you follow a predetermined route but obviously you have to uh like deal with unexpected realities. If there's flooding and suddenly a path is no longer a viable transport option you got to reroute yourself around that. If I come too exposed and there are high winds you need to decide for a different sleeping point for that night. We did our gold expedition in the summers in the final years of my high school. We traveled to which is a very nice area naturally. We spent three days four night hiking really glorious weather. One big mission. When we encountered another group they were lost. quite hysterical. They thought they will never be found. We made a decision we would make a detour from our way to get these other hikers in the nearest area so that they can then contact the other hikers they knew in that area. and pretty much get themselves back in to familiar surroundings calm them down make sure they are okay and go on to our planned destination. To be honest I did quite enjoyed that experience. getting to feel slightly like a hero. That was a time when we had to work as a team. One of us could not have dealt with all by themselves because they were five hysterical people with all their backpacks and equipments. They were tired. They weren’t feeling like carrying any more we had to distribute their load among ourselves and make sure we do not lose them on our way from where we found them to where we ultimately drop them off in the nearest village. The whole expedition is a big example of team work. keeping each other motivated keep going at the pace of the slowest individual so that no one is left behind . encouraging each other so that the slowest individual is not on the ground . It was massively enjoyable experience. That would have been one major team work experience|Interviewer: not to mention. If I give you an option to change one thing about yourself what would that be ?|Interviewee: I think umm the one thing that really seems to set me aside between me and a lot of friends and my brothers that I could probably benefit from caring a little more about my outward appearance. Not that I think I dress very scruffly or anything but I don’t really mind leaving the house in the morning with my hair soaking shower and wearing jeans and t-shirt. two out of three of my brothers worry about straighten hair which I wouldn’t agree at all. but if I cared little more just making sure my hair is not messy when I leave the house that would probably be small benefit. given that even though there is a saying don’t judge by covers people inevitably make decisions as soon as they see you. and they can’t perhaps if I was a bit more self conscious about my appearance that would be something of a benefit|Interviewer: Think of a job you would like to have. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think this is the kind of job in which job satisfaction can be the greatest benefit if it is something that is genuinely interesting to you. And as I said before I have such a deep rooted interest in space exploration just really pushing the limits of what we can achieve. I feel that this kind of job is what I will just get up in the mornings really thrilled get into work and do my parts towards contributing towards it. umm I realize it’s also the kind of job where projects are really so vast ranging there is gonna be inevitable variety and also this would scare me I would be really drawn I get to challenge myself in various different ways novel situations that I perhaps haven’t encountered before with the opportunity to work with other professionals who are equally umm well established within the field that you are really getting to work with the best and that can only help improve me as a professional and as a business person. and it’s um yeah other things such as inevitable prestige and umm the financial benefit just the job satisfaction . I can easily see this something that will interest keep me coming back for work for the length of my career. That would be the key reason. um I think I would just be able to enjoy the work and therefore put my best and get the best out of my and ultimately give the company the best chance to success.|Interviewer: Thank you for interviewing with us today.|Interviewee: thanks for letting me come out. umm It turned out okay. I think it was a group of case female. 17 to 18 years age range. we opened nearby village public and get to a public phone. our school was quite strict. didn’t allow us to bring mobile phone. which was probably a good thing.
pp66,Interviewer: Can you tell me a little bit about your background?|Interviewee: I'm a student here at MIT  I'm in my third year as a junior  um  and I'm studying chemical biological engineering with a minor in economics. And so  as part of that I've uh taken coursework in transport processes  thermodynamics  chemical biological processes  and things like that. And also some macro  micro  public policy classes with the econ. And then I'm also doing research in chemical engineering laboratory here for a year and a half studying yeast  um  and different ways of doing transcription factors and how they relate then to promoter architecture and the dynamics that are behind that. So  lot of bio chemical engineering complications. And I also did some research this past summer in a systems biology lab in Madrid  Spain  um  so a little more biology related  so  those are most of my technical background.|Interviewer: Excellent. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yeah  so um  I definitely think I'm a leader and that's actually something that's come to define a lot of my time here at MIT is leadership. Um  and so I think I'm a leader both because of the actions I've taken and also the mindset I have and as actions  I guess both of those things are important. So to give an example  um  I'm currently in a position of leadership in a club on campus  our Habitat for Humanity club  um  where I serve as the president of the club and I think I started off as a freshman  um  just participating  I really like community service so I volunteered with them a bit to go help build houses in the Boston/Cambridge area  um  and then I was fairly proactive which led me to start organizing those builds that I was going on  I figured I was benefiting from them  so I wanted to be able to give back and organize them so I ran for the exec of Habitat for Humanity here and started helping organize them  and then from there I went on to wanting to do more  and so now I'm president and run the exec and get to do everything that the club does  and so  um  I think that kind of drive and that desire to move up and give back and contribute and also make things happen definitely is characteristic of a leader. Um  and obviously  the position I'm currently in is one that demands leadership. So I think that's just one illustrative example of why I'm a leader.|Interviewer: Yes very good. So uh  are you a team player? Can you tell me about a time when you worked on a team and faced a challenge? How did you go about solving it?|Interviewee: Yeah  um  so I definitely think I'm a team player  um  and I think MIT especially is really conducive to teamwork. Um  but I'll look at a example of team work than relates actually to  um  I'm also involved in leadership within my fraternity. And so  as a part of that  um  we have a five person exec that uh I wasn't on to begin with  but uh  I've now loosened up and wanted to take on more leadership  help out  and so I'm currently on. And so  as a part of that five person exec  um  we've had to do a lot of teamwork. There's five of us  there's uh  my fraternity has seventy people. Um  so it's very large and it requires a lot of working together in order to  um  accomplish really any task. And so I think  um  one illustrative example is we wanted to put on a philanthropy event that I was spearheading in my position. I was doing brotherhood development activities  like a philanthropy even. And so  we haven't really had much precedent  we haven't had an event in a couple of years  um  and so I had come up with a summer with an event based off some stuff for other friends and other schools who I've talked to. Um  and so I had the idea for the event and then I had to work with these other four members to kind of lead the rest of our brotherhood in putting on the event  organizing it  um  and there was a lot challenges because it wasn't  there was no precedent  we hadn't done things like this in the past  um  so we had to work to like motivate people within ourselves to go out and get people to register and participate and things like that. Um  and there's also of course the challenge of then finding others. Um  give us five dollars to participate in our event  why it's of any value  why it matters. And so that duality was really a challenge  as well as of course working amongst ourselves  and so we met those by really laying out very concrete goals  um  and like  doing a lot of brainstorming among the five of us  breaking up  um  to focus on different elements of the problems we would face. Um  and the event ended up being really tremendously successful and then we had a lot of people participate. We met those goals of participation and money raised um  and then were able to have the event again this year and really set a precedent that hadn't existed before  so  it was very successful.|Interviewer: That's very excellent. So uh  what's your greatest weakness? If you had to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: Um  so I think currently  um  what my greatest weakness  and one which I'm working on  is my ability  I talked a lot just now about leadership positions and so they definitely impact me a lot. Right now my ability to successfully delegate  um and the word  I'm not necessarily looking for the word micro-manage  but just truly delegate responsibility  work with another person  and let them be very responsible and communicate with them. I think i struggle there and that's definitely a weakness in my leadership as well as just my general activities because i struggle just to let that person kind of go and foster their own ideas and get their own job done. I'm very quick to step in and assist maybe step on their toes even or at least provide feedback. Sometimes it is warranted and sometimes I think it isn't  and so to be more cognizant of that and to uh be better adept to deal with that I think would be very helpful. And so  I'd love to see that change. It is something I'm working towards and I'm working with people whose leadership I admire  um  who I think do a better job of that then me and try and model myself after them  but currently I do think it's a weakness that I'd like to improve.|Interviewer: So  think of a job you'd like to have.|Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: Got one?|Interviewee: Yes.|Interviewer: So now  why do you think you deserve this job?|Interviewee: So  for this particular job  um  I think my greatest assets are the combination of skills and experiences that I bring to the table. Um and I think that it'd be very valuable for the position. So I have a very strong technical background  I'm in my third year at MIT studying chemical biological engineering which requires a wide array of very challenging coursework. Um  and I've done research in the field as well  so all of those skills combine to give me a strong technical set of both problem solving and engineering based skills. And then I also have done a lot of work outside of the classroom  both in projects that are academic related and totally not  community services related and things of that nature  um truly develop communication skills  organization skills  um  and the ability to really take a project and get it done. And so I think for this position I will have the technical background to fully understand and wrap my mind around and make goals that I want to accomplish just solve a problem and then these other skills will ensure that not only can I identify a problem  but if I identify a problem I will get it done and I know how to facilitate whatever resources that are available to me to ensure that whatever job gets done well  so I think that will make me a very strong candidate.|Interviewer: Well thank you  thanks for your time.
pp67,Interviewer: Oh well  please tell me a little bit about your background.|Interviewee: Alright. um So  for starters  I am a senior taking an extra semester so you know  half-way through junior year in that sense. I'm a chemical engineer  I'm a rower  light weight rower  not a heavy weight. I have the extra  an extra bonus of having to deal with a weight cap  that sort of thing. Diving in the middle of the year can be fun sometimes. I'm in a fraternity  um it actually recently started up. So I was a founding father of the fraternity  it's Sigma Alpha Epselon. And I've also done very rougly coordinated engineering leadership program. So I'd say those are my main commitments. I had done other things earlier one  I went to Baker and I was very involved in the executive committee there. And I'm also an active member in creating the dining plan that currently exists at MIT. It's got some pros and cons  but it is a good experience so sort of like go door to door and talk to people and really see  let them know what's coming up. THat sort of thing. In general I'd say I'm a pretty active person on campus  pretty well known  um and I do a lot of things to keep myself in shape but also academically stimulated with chemical engineering and whatnot. |Interviewer: So you think you're a leader  tell me why.|Interviewee: Very much so. um I guess to start out  being part of the sport sort of creates a natural affinity towards teamwork. Especially with rowing you're depending on other people to be able to accomplish a common goal  there's eight guys in a boat and then there's the person that steers it. And if one person gives up you guys aren't going to win. So that is very much like teamwork  it also coincides with leadership. Rowig doesn't necessarily cultivate leadership  it sort of cultivates like personal dedication and willingness to contribute to the whole. But I feel like I get my leadership experiences from my fraternity. Especially since it started out  I was one of eight people  there was five that was the founding five  that was part of the first pledge class. And when things are starting up everyone needs to take a leadership role and if anyone like cuts any slack it's very likely that the whole ship is going to sink. So right from the get go I was given tons of responsibility and I went with it. I did as much as I could in each of the positions and eventually I came up to the role of  you know  the President. um And in that role I've gotten a lot of praise from the alumni groups and from my students  but generally I feel like I'm a pretty good  I like to work with people  um I can relate to them  and generally pretty sociable  so yeah.|Interviewer: Well  sounds like a (?) situation. So do you consider yourself a team player? Can you tell me of a time when you worked on a team and faced a challenge  how did you go about solving it?|Interviewee: Alright  let me come up with a good example here. Alright  Gordon has a new leadership program very much about being a team player. There's different opportunities that that program provides  every single week it's divided up so that each student gets an opportunity to be a leader or be a part of the team. One of the modules for instance  there was  it was a negotiation module. So every single table was given a set of legos. And there was the goal of the project was to create satellites which requires a certain number of colored legos from each table  and every table was given different combinations. So I was not the team leader in that case  but the team leader's goal was to make sure that we had good negotiations going with all of the tables adjacent to us  and coordinating everything. And at times it got a little bit frustrating because there were time limits  and people were running all over the place. And one of my roles was to be one of the negotiators  so as the team player my role was to simply talk to one table  get as best of a result as possible to get the parts that we need to make the satellite but not to be directing people and nothing of the sort. um My natural instinct is to direct people so what I had to do instead to make sure that I was used effectively as a team leader  you know  just give the team leader suggestions  that sort of things  but also do my duty  negotiate  we consulted for a while. Said  OK Cameron  we need to get three white legos for four brown legos etc etc. So I managed to get my end of the deal done um also contribute to the team leader but also give him advice  and that sort of thing. It's kind of a lower key example  just because those modules  the time schedule is an hour. But they put you in a high pressure situation  but I felt like I did a good job there because I didn't go all up in arms and tell the team leader that he was not doing a good job  that sort of thing. So I did my best to give him the suggestions to steer him in the right direction and ultimately it got us to the end goal.|Interviewer: That makes sense  thanks for sharing that.|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: So  if you had the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be.|Interviewee: I go back and forth with this. When I was younger in middle school  uh I was a lot more modest  I was just generally a quieter person. You know  everyone goes through different phases  through elementary  middle  high school  college  that sort of thing. um And ultimately I turned into someone taht was a lot more sociable  outgoing  that sort of thing. But at times I feel that I can come off as  I hate saying this but I  other people don't say it but sometimes I feel like I may say something and it might be cocky or something of the sort. So one thing I'm really trying to balance is to make sure that I have confidence but it's not overbearing. So I guess  what I'd wanna do right now  like if I could change something  is really try and bring back the modesty because I really respect people that are modest but still able to get a lot of work done. um And  I mean  it's not something that I can't change  it's just something that's really not jibing with my personality right now. So  I'm really  you know  trying to tow the line. But if I could make that switch  I'd at least like to see what kind of a person I'd like to be right now. I guess  I guess I'll leave that answer for now.|Interviewer: Interesting.|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: Thank you for sharing. And now  think of a job that you'd like to have. Anyone in mind?|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: OK. So now  why do you think you should have this job?|Interviewee: Well  the job is  it's a pretty  lots of people look are sort of looking at it at MIT but it's consulting. You work with people  you work with teams  and every single team has a project with a defined deadline  scope  budget  that sort of thing. Which is the stuff I've learned from the Gordon Leadership Engineering Program. Um  so that you know  exactly that  working in a team  trying to accomplish a goal in a certain time  blah  blah  blah. I'm a very big fan of that  ever since I joined the program I'm like wow  this is business  I like business. And the reason why I prefer consulting right now rather than going into energy or going into connectors? that sort of thing  is just because of the breadth. I like  I'm a person that likes to keep my doors open  and consulting is one of those really good segways in my opinion from undergraduate into the industry. I'm not particularly interested in grad school at the moment just because there's no one thing that like  I wanna like  I don't wanna narrow my scope quite yet. So I feel like consulting will give me an environment where there's still a young vibe with a lot of newer people and also expose me to older people and really  uh  I'll be able to test my skills that I've cultivated while I've been here in the job industry.|Interviewer: Interesting.|Interviewee: Yeah.
pp69,Interviewer:  So  uhh  please tell me about your background.|Interviewee:  Uhh  so I'm uhh  I was born in D.C.  moved to Nigeria when I was seven  umm  came back to America for my junior and senior year of highschool and applied to MIT.  I always wanted to be a mechanical engineer  so it was sort of a straightforward choice for me.  It was always my first choice school  and umm  I was excited to come here and to start learning things.  It just  in the past  it had just been sort of hearing about things but not doing anything or learning about it  which was exciting.  So I'm studying mechanical engineering here now  and umm  I'm concentrating in computer science and electro engineering  which has been a new found interest  I guess.  It's uhh  I'm a junior now  so yeah.|Interviewer:  Well  cool.  So  uhh  you think you're a leader  tell me why.|Interviewee:  I do think I'm a leader in some regards.  I mean  it's important to not always  and sometimes you don't want to be a leader.  Um  it's important to know how to follow as well  but I think  umm  I am  like  in most situations  a leader.  For example  I was  uh  sort of like  the leader for my 212 Intro to Robotics group  where we build a robot  amongst the four of us  four to five.  Uhh  my group happened to be four.  We built a robot.  I sort of lead the group:  organizing meetings  uhh  delegating tasks  making sure that everyone was doing  uhh  what they were meant to  and just getting everyone on the same page.  So just instances like that  I think  have shaped me into being a leader.|Interviewer:  Uh  very good.  So uhh  do you consider yourself a team player?  Can you give an example of a time you were working on a team  and faced some sort of challenge?  How did you resolve it?|Interviewee:  Uhh  so yeah  like I said  it's also important to know how to  you know  let someone else take the lead.|Interviewer:  Mmm-hmm.|Interviewee:  And so  my other project class this semester I'm taking  to double in (unintelligible)  and it's a group of eight people  so there's even more  sort of  heads to balance.  And so  uhh  just sort of working with everyone  making sure that  you know  everyone sort of has a say in what's going on.  There's a particular instance where it's at the beginning of the project  we're meant to design a yo-yo  and we couldn't really decide on a design  'cause everyone wanted to do their own sort of thing.  And  umm  my role in that particular situation was to  getting everyone to recognize the manufacturing aspect and not only the design aspect.  So we ended up choosing something that was easy to manufacture as well as had a good design.|Interviewer:  Well  very good.  So  uhh  if you could change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee:  Change one thing about myself...  Uhh  I'd say  like  to...I wish I had a sort of  better background of academics.  Uhh  I didn't go to  like  the best high school.  I didn't  uhh  like  have the best teachers or things like that.  And coming to a place like this and sort of seeing a lot of people who are  I mean  obviously kind of naturally talented  but who have also had good- they've had opportunities to  uhh  show their talent and get better and smarter.  Umm  I wish I could've had that opportunity.  I think I'd be  uhh  even more-  I could do more things than I am doing today.  So  yeah.|Interviewer:  And  uhh  now think about a job that you'd like to have.|Interviewee:  Mmm-hmm.|Interviewer:  So  uhh  now why should we hire you?|Interviewee:  Because  uhh  you should hire me for a few reasons.  One  is because my leadership  uhh  abilities  which I've talked a little bit about  umm  a little earlier.  But  also  just my willingness to learn.  Umm  I think  more than the average person  I'm excited to learn new things  umm  and sort of put those things in practice.  And  just as an example  I didn't know anything about computer science before coming to MIT.  But  just uhh  taking just the introductory class  learning about that  I got really interested in that  and so  I'd say that when I don't know a lot of things  or when my experience isn't the best  I'm always willing to learn a lot.  And lastly  I'm a really hard worker.  And so  I'm able to put in the hours and the time and the energy that it takes to  sort of  get a task done.  It's uhh  yeah  I think I'd make a good intern.|Interviewer:  Well  thank you for interviewing with us today.|Interviewee:  Thank you.
pp7,Interviewer: Please tell me about your background. |Interviewee: Ok. I'm a junior at MIT majoring in electrical engineering computer science as well as mathematics. Um and I have a couple of previous internships under my belt as you can see on my resume  so I feel like I come prepared with a lot of experience both from school and outside.|Interviewer: Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Uh yes  I would say that I am a leader. Um in particular I've been involved in many student groups on campus such as educational studies program  mystery hunt and several other groups that I have leaderships positions in. But even when I don't have a formal leadership role as I do in those groups  I feel like I still tend to take charge in situations  whether it's a group project for the class where  you know we're supposed to be working collaboratively but I'll be sending emails to make sure we're moving forward and making progress. Or something a bit more structured actually supposed to have a have a leader like I mentioned student groups. |Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was conflict in your team and how you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Yeah. So yes  heh  I would call myself a team player and to go back to sort of one of the examples I was just talking about with uh the educational studies program with a fairly large student group. We have a couple hundred different MIT students teach with us but a core team of about 30 to 40 admins who come to meetings every week and help out. And unfortunately being college students there's a lot of personal conflict between members and I have had to step in several times with sort of individual people first notice that there's a problem  um talk to the people in question individually to figure out more about what's going on and then intervene and sort of set aside rules and sort of help them interact well professionally and keep their problems outside the group. Um I don't really want to get into details because some of these can be personal but I have had to do this.|Interviewer: If you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: It's a difficult question. I'd probably say my age. I feel like there are a lot of experiences I've missed out on  sort of looking backing at you know  high school  say now that I'm in college or looking back at a first internship once I've done a second. Um  there are a lot of ways I think I could've learned more or matured more as a person had I got into situations with a different mindset. So um I guess what I'm trying to say is if I knowing what I know now will able to go uh redo some of the things of the past year at least which isn't physically possible.|Interviewer: Why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee: Ok  well as I mentioned before I have a lot of experience  I leadership  I'm a team player but uh beyond that I think I'm just very well qualified and passionate about your company and would be excited to join the team and work with you guys to further your goals.
pp70,Interviewer:  How are you doing today? |Interviewee:  I'm Good.|Interviewer: Good. Tell me a little more about your background. |Interviewee: Uh so I am a biology major at the IT um  Burton of Biology. I'm also getting a minor in chemistry. I'm currently pursuing research on marine micro-biology   specifically Carlson bounds at the Thompson Lab. Um  previously i had worked on arsenic metabolizing simbions in the sponge in Israel  and I hope to continue working on marine-microbes. |Interviewer: Okay. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Umm  I would say I was a leader not so much  uhm   in maybe project teams but definitely in terms of uhm my research view.  I would like to be on the cutting edge of uhm new research and to  uhm  microbes encyclobes vents part of the ocean  so i would say that i'm really looking forward to researching  but really haven't been exposed so much. |Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Uhh yeah I would def consider myself a team  um  player. Uh  so  when  I am part of the team HPV group now at IT so we raise awareness about the Hepititus B virus. so we rec had a lot of difficulties with quest  uhm  industries  so they're the ones that provide us with phlebotomists and in order to conduct the screening  hepatitis B screenings that we have. so Uhm there is a pretty large conflict about like how we should reach out to them to get them to get them to interact with us and whether or not we should   uhm  maybe reach out to other providers and i definitely tried to make sure that we were keeping up with our contacts at quest as well as like researching like new avenues - reaching out to giliad  which is another industry  uhm   core that could  uhm   also  that works actually with MIT in particular. Um so together we delegated work  and so one person had to do this  um  reach out to them and one person had to do that and i was def a big part of taking in whatever  everything that we had to do and like trying to make sure everyone had something in order to not let this really important part of our work would be lost. |Interviewer: If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be? |Interviewee: Uh  i would def say it would be  my self confidence issues. or rather  my ability to speak up and be more  uhm   assertive about my point of view. I've definitely  a lot of times  kept quiet or just like put my views on the back burner  especially I think when i was a fresh coming to a new country it was very difficult to integrate and also like to navigate my way in  so i think i'm still trying to cope with that. |Interviewer: okay  why do you think you should get into graduate school? |Interviewee: I def think i deserve to get into grad school because it's the only thing i want to do - research for me is extremely exciting  and there is a lot. i feel like its the most meaningful way that i can contribute to   uh  the scientific world. and especially in my field. Uuh i def am dedicated to research it's what i want to do for the rest of my life so i hope that i get this opportunity.
pp71,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm good  how are you?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: So I'm studying mechanical engineering at MIT  and I am taking the flexible course which lets me concentrate on a subject other than mechanical engineering...|Interviewer: Hmmm.|Interviewee: ...and I've chosen to concentrate on building technology. And on top of that  um I'm double minoring in energy and architecture to supplement my concentration. And I'd say two years ago  two summers ago sorry  I interned at Square One Armoring Services  which is a company that manufactures armored vehicles for the government. And I interned with them for two summers  and this was before I really chose the building technology route. I didn't really like the super mechy side of it. This past summer I interned in Barcelona  um  with a company called Ilon(?)  they're a very large engineering consulting firm and I worked in their architecture department. And I really enjoyed the experience. So  I'm going that direction.|Interviewer: Ahh. Ok. Do you think you're a leader? And tell me why.|Interviewee: I believe I am a leader. Um  I normally  I wouldn't necessarily run for positions  but when it comes down to someone filling the spot  I will step up  um  and make sure that things get done. I feel that I might be more of a...of an encourager  so to speak...I don't really like sliding my ideas down the table and making everyone follow it but I try  sort of to like  to lead people in the direction that I want to go to and to integrate their input with mine.|Interviewer: Ok. And  do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Um  so I uh  had a coach here this past year to plan the campus preview weekend dinner  um at my sorority. Its a weekend where MIT pre-freshmen come on campus to see if they like the feeling from MIT and its a big recruiting event for a lot of different groups around campus. And um  so my coach and I had very different ideas at times about what we wanted to do and how to go about doing it  but I feel that communication was defiantly the most important factor in sort of getting through those difficulties and working together as a team and we wound up having a really successful event. Um  a lot of the girls that came to the dinner  um  who are now freshmen  still say  Oh I remember you from (unintelligible). It was a really good feeling to get through that.|Interviewer: Ah  good. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: Um  I'd probably change trying to be a perfectionist. Um  I like doing things right and sometimes its not the most time efficient or energy efficient way of getting about things. Um  I think thats something  to sort of  a strange thing to work on  to let things be sometimes  heh.|Interviewer: Ok. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think I'm qualified for this position academically  and I've taken a lot of courses that apply to building technology. And my intern experience as well. I'm really interested in the subject matter  and my parents are architects  so I've sort of had this my whole life and I've always kind of denied my interest in architecture because everyone always pushed me towards it  but now I do realize that this is something I truly enjoy. And sort of mixing it in with my other more technical interests  um  I feel bring me further in the field.
pp72,Interviewer:  How are you doing today?|Interviewee:  Good  how are you?|Interviewer:  Good.  Tell me a little bit more about your background.|Interviewee:  Um.  OK  so I'm a third year linguistics student  umm  I'm  uhh  working on some linguistics research right now and I'm interested in going into linguistics research after undergrad.|Interviewer:  Do you think you're a leader?  Tell me why.|Interviewee:  Um.  Yea I think I'm uhh leader.  I think I've fulfilled leadership positions in the past and umm I think I've excelled in that role umm.  I've led different group projects in my classes and I've also been umm a resident associate advisor in my dorm umm  and I've led activities there where we had to organize events for freshmen once a month uhh to get them interested in different aspects of the curriculum and also umm just general helping them out for things  so.|Interviewer:  OK  and do you consider yourself a team player?  Can you give me an example of a time where there was conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee:  OK  umm  so yea I think I work well as a team member  umm  for a big group project we had in one of my linguistics classes  umm  we had to look at aspects of a language and so we were broken into groups of four  umm  and we were each split to look into different aspect of the language so two people looked at the phonology  or the sounds of the system  and my partner and I looked at the grammar of the language  and so one of the two people assigned to the phonology group wasn't really following through with his part of the work  umm.  He  I guess he was busy with other classes but his partner was really stressed out about it so she came and talked to my partner and I and asked what she should do about it  cause he wasn't helping out.  And so  the three of us sort of talked about it  and then we emailed him asked if he could come meet with all of us. The four of us were able to talk about it and work out an agreement where he did some of the...some extra work in putting the two parts together  the phonology and the syntax  to make up for the fact that he hadn't done as much for the original research.  So  that ended up working out well  so.|Interviewer:  OK  good.  And if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee:  Um  I think it would...probably be my shyness because that tends to hold me back.  Um  but I think I've been working to change that.  Um  I've been trying to practice things umm like presentations that make me nervous or that I have problems with because I'm shy.  I've also been trying to get out and meet more people. I've been doing more extracurriculars. And  umm  I volunteered to teach a class to middle schoolers and high schoolers  so  that sort of helped in a low stress environment practising presenting.|Interviewer:  And  why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee:  Um  I think I would be a really good addition to a linguistics research team  because I'm really really passionate about linguistics and it's something I really enjoy spending lots of time working on.  Um  and I enjoy working on a team and I work well with other people.  And I've had research positions in the past and I think I would umm be a good addition to a team.
pp73,Interviewer:  So how are you doing today?|Interviewee:  I'm good  how are you?|Interviewer:  Good!  Tell me a little bit about your background.|Interviewee:  I'm a freshman at MIT here  so I'm studying courses 6 and 18 which is computer science and math.  Umm in high school I did a lot of community work service.  I was the president of our United Way board which is a not for profit.  I did a lot of our school clubs  math teams classic goal. I was captain of a lot of those  and then on campus here part of my sorority Sigma Kappa  the tech. fair which is involved in bringing a lot of companies and students here to showcase their things.|Interviewer:  Do you think you're a leader?  Tell me why.|Interviewee:  I think so.  I think umm  I have a little different view of what a leader is.  I think there's definitely one aspect that's very obvious  that you know  you bring everyone to do what you think is best  but I think the most important part of being a leader is incorporate everyone else's ideas.  I think a lot of times some people who are really strong are like natural leaders  but they don't always take the time to make sure everyone else likes what they're doing and they're very straight forward  and they go for it  but I think what makes a really important leader is being able to incorporate everyone else's ideas and find that middle ground that everyone wants to do.|Interviewer:  Okay.  Do you consider yourself a team player?  Can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee:  Definitely  umm I know in high school as a senior last year they gave us a lot of group projects to kind of bring us out of the stereotypical classroom and get ready for uh  a new environment in college and I remember one of our projects it was my group and we were doing something for our econ. class  and it was  we had to like model a situation and do the graphs  and econ's like very straight forward graph wise  there isn't that much to deal with  but my group had like different ideas of how they thought the lines would shift and I remember everyone was just kind of in a panic.  We had to double graph four different scenarios  and no one knew what they wanted to do  and we just had to take them two at a time and I like looked at all of the graphs  and there was some things that were similar  just everyone had a different way of going about it  so I like kind of tried to combine all the ideas and we ended up coming up with a graph that was almost a combination of everyone's  so  it worked out in the end.|Interviewer:  Great.  If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee:  I think what I'd change about myself is that I  I've always grown up a very private person.  At home  it was just I always felt like my problems and my issues weren't as important as what other people were dealing with so I tend to deal with them myself  which as you grow older and the problems are just so silly  like a little middle school problem may become a lot more weighty when you have so many of them  and so because of that it's  sometimes I get bogged down in myself.  And I never let it affect my work because I don't want anyone else to be burdened by it  but after a while it gets very overwhelming  and so I wish that I'd just be more willing to share that with people.|Interviewer:  Okay.  Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee:  I think I should get this job because I think there's so many opportunities at this company that I'd really like to be a part of.  There's just a lot of chance for growth and a lot of chance also to do something that you love and also make a difference because of it.  I think that the way I deal with problems and working together but also trying to find the best solution and bring people to that level is something that could really benefit the company as well.
pp74,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Hi  I'm good  how are you?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Umm  well  I have been going to MIT for four years now  going to graduate this year  umm  I do computer science and I really enjoy it. I really like to play music. I've been involved in several music groups ac-  across campus. I play flute  specifically. Umm  and I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. It's a great place.|Interviewer: Great. And  you think you're a leader. Tell me why. |Interviewee: Okay. I'd say that I'm a leader  because  often- First  first of all  in my friend group  and  and any group of people  I generally take the lead  and- For example  where we are going to eat  umm. And  I work in a lab  currently  and I need to direct the project  umm  for writing a  a website to collect music samples from people in Toronto. Umm  and  I'm primarily directing this project and I work with some grad students  and  I make the plans for how its going to work.|Interviewer: Great. So  do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you resolved it.|Interviewee: Okay. Umm  recently I was working  umm  just this last week actually  in a group for my computational biology class. And  we had some struggles dividing the work. It was  it was kind of a difficult thing to  especially since some of us were from a biological background and some of us were from a computational background. Umm  we had a hard time deciding the project so that it was equal work for everyone. So  it was kind of difficult to resolve that  but what we ended up doing was changing our project. Umm  so  I tried to come up with some ways to make sure that everybody had enough  umm  enough work to do based on their backgrounds.|Interviewer: If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Umm  I think that  I would like to make myself more comfortable  umm  meeting  new people. I think that  that would enrich my life.|Interviewer: Okay. And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think that  I have great background and great experience specifically in the field that  that this job would be for. And  I really enjoy learning new things  and I think that I'm be good at it. And  so  in web programming specifically there's always new technologies coming up and so  I'd be really excited learning how to use those.
pp76,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm doing well  thanks. And yourself?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me more about yourself.|Interviewee: Well  I'm Zaynab. I am a junior in chemical-- majored in chemical engineering at MIT  but I'm doing a minor in energy studies and a fo-- a concentration in anthropology.|Interviewer: Okay. Do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: I think that I am a leader. This is because I've held various leadership positions at college thus far  and I think with my leadership  the groups and the organizations that I've been part of have been able to succeed. For instance  at the moment  I'm the vice president of the African Students Association and the MIT African Students Association as well  a group of 80 students  both international and domestic students.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So  we're more of a social group  where we throw social events  such as like  cultural shows and study breaks  and things like that  just to get the African students ignited and just united so that they can confront each with whatever problems they have.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: So I guess the most recent event that we had was a cultural show  where we displayed to the entire MIT community just about what it's like to be African like  through-- we did it through performances such as like dancing  singing  spoken word and things like that. And also  other schools from the Boston/Cambridge area like Harvard  Boston University  Wellesley  and so on  they also came  attendance and that was fun.|Interviewer: That sounds great. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: I think the time  like  when there was a conflict in my team was  when I was doing this project for one of my classes  which was in my sophomore year. So  there was  like  a group of four of us and we all divided the topic evenly so that we could all focus on a specific part of the project. |Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: However  there was one person that just wasn't pulling her weight. So  I wasn't too sure whether it was just she's stressed or busy with other things  like towards the end of the semester where she just didn't put the effort into doing what she was meant to do. So I did confront her about it  and she told me that she hadn't had time to do the necessary work. So I just said  just block out some time in your schedule  and let's meet up and let's do the work together  and we were able to produce  um  I guess a very good product at the end of the day.|Interviewer: And if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: The option to change one thing? I think I would be more outgoing in the terms of speaking  being able to speak to others more freely and confidently  because at the moment  I do speak with people I don't know and do work with people that aren't my friends or aren't in my social circle  but I wish I was more outgoing in the sense of I was more comfortable speaking with other people and interacting with other people  things like that.|Interviewer: Okay. And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think I should get the job because I have a very strong academic background.|Interviewer: Mmm.|Interviewee: I have experiences in different companies thus far in my very short academic career  and I think I've been able to work with a variety of people. I would be an asset to any team I'm a part of.
pp77,Interviewer: How are you today?|Interviewee: I'm doing well  how are you?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: So  my background is in mechanical engineering  um  what's  um... and product management  so product development. Uh  basically  what I'm looking to do now is  uh  find a role that combines product management and  uh  communications skills to be with a technical background as well.|Interviewer: Okay. You think you're a leader. Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yes  um  so  I think leadership doesn't have to be something that always  uh   done in a formal role. I think leadership is something that you do actively in every part of your life  uh  whether it's taking initiative turning on a light in a dark classroom when no body wants to stand up  something small like that to actually having a formal leadership role  with uh  leading a group and team members. So  I try to always  uh  stay on top of those things. So  take initiative if I'm in a group  scheduling a meeting  whether I have a formal role  um  and be on top of things and  uh  be proactive.|Interviewer: Great. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee: Definitely. Uh  so  right now  I'm working on a  I just actually finished a group project that we were doing. And  we had to design this  uh  speech system. And  we got to a point within our system where we surveyed a large number of people  it was like 630 people that we surveyed  and we realized that what they wanted was not what we'd designed our system for. |And  so  they wanted a system in which they could basically just review comments and posts. It's all from this  uh  inspired by [?]ISawYou which is this website that MIT students  uh  post missed connections on. And you can post and you can comment and people can just read. |Well  what we found out was that almost 90% of the people just read the website. And we were planning on this system where you could post and comment. Well  we're like wait a minute; this isn't going to work if everybody is just reading the web site. And  so  half of our group was  wanted to stay with our original plan. Were like  okay  guys we don't have much time to implement  let's just stick here and go for it. Then the other half was like  no we have a huge problem  we need to fix it. |So  uh  what we did was  we just sat down together in a room. Talked about all the options. And really tried to put our  at least I definitely tried to put all my  um  original bias out of the way. Uh  because I knew that we had a huge conflict going on  one of us was going to have to abandon  there was probably a good idea out there somewhere. Um  so  I just put that behind me and really listened to what all my other team members were saying. Um  and  it turned out they had a great idea and we just presented today and the system worked out really well.|We changed the direction to fit what our users wanted and  uh  came to a solution that we were all really happy with.|Interviewer: If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: One thing about myself. That's a tough one. I have a tendency sometimes to take on a lot all at once and not.. I will sometimes get bogged down in all the little details of prioritizing all the small fun things that I have to do and not always taking a step back and focusing on  um  the small picture. But  I'm trying to change that in the way I focus on manage my time  um  really noticing what is it that I'm dedicating my time to  and how can it be better utilized. Or  what is it that is actually should be a priority. Um  and how do I reorganize things. So  I try to do that  um  at least weekly  just look back  you know  what did I do this week  what did I get done  where was I loosing time  what was happening. Um  to try to make  try to  uh  fix that tendency in myself and  um  hope that becomes habit.|Interviewer: Great. And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think I have a lot of qualifications that  um  fit exactly what this job is asking for. Uh  both the skills to communicate and to manage people and technical background so I understand what's going on. Uh  but  beyond that  I really  I love the company. I love what's happening at the company  I'm inspired by the work here. And for me  it's really important that I not only enjoy the work I'm doing  but also the people I'm doing it with. And so far  everyone that I've met  I've loved them. And it's been a really great experience.
pp78,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: I'm doing well  how are you?|Interviewer: Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: I'm uh a junior in computer science.  I used to be a chemistry major  so last summer I worked in a chemistry lab synthesizing pharmaceuticals.  But now I'm taking more computer science classes and I'm interested in software.|Interviewer: Mm okay. Do you think you are leader?  Tell me why.|Interviewee:  Yeah I would say that I'm a leader.  I have a lot of leadership positions.  Again the president of my a Capella group and I'm the room assignment chair in my dorm.  So I have to manage people like for the room assignment chair there's an event where I have to make sure that all of the freshman come down to the dining hall at a certain time and then get them to be lead around to the different parts of the dorm.|Interviewer: Mmmmm.|Interviewee: And then they get to decide where they live.|Interviewer: Oh okay. Um do you consider yourself a team player.  Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee:  Yeah so eh I would consider myself a team player.  In my a Capella group often times there are different disagreements about how we want to sing a certain song like whether a certain part should be loud or quiet and we have to discuss it instead of just arguing over the details.  So we've gotten better at figuring out how to settle disputes.|Interviewer: Okay.  If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: Mmmmmm.  That's a difficult question.|Interviewer: Hahaha.|Interviewee: I would probably try to make myself less self conscious.|Interviewer: Hmm. Okay.|Interviewee: Because it's uh it sometimes being self conscious gets in the way because it makes me think twice about doing something and then I hesitate too much and don't do something that I should do.|Interviewer: Okay. And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Because I'm enthusiastic and I'm good at problem solving and I like Facebook a lot {laughs}|Interviewer: {laughs} Okay.
pp79,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Um  Good. |Interviewer:  Good. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Related to self or career or…|Interviewer: Just in general. Tell me about yourself. |Interviewee: Ok  um  so my name Jessica Aria and I come from  uh  India. I come from IT thinking and I do computers. I then did chemical engineering in Europe and Indonesia which I found amazing. So  I was like  maybe this is what I want to do. So  I shifted over to computer science  um  and I’m a junior right now. It’s been going great. I’m generally interested in  um  in energy education  recently  robotics um. And  uh   What I  um  I hope to do  I’m not particulary clear about what I want to do after that. Hopefully  eventually  something enterprenurial. And definitely including something I experience with before that. Depending on how that goes I may not stick with academics after that. Um  I’ve always been super excited about that and doing projects that actually make a difference to  you know  people. That’s kind of what I want to do. But how I want to do it  um  is not yet been foregone.    |Interviewer: Do you think you’re a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I do  um. Well  there is all that said  sorts definitions of leadership. I do believe  um  that I have had the good fortune of being a leader  um  in numerous student clubs  and in high school  and even at MIT. Um  even in the presence of graduate students. Um  I’ve managed to sort of  um. Obivously  they know more academically  but  um  I’ve still managed to like hold my ground. Oh  and because I think I’m involved in a lot of stuff that goes on on campus  stuff  that’s just  and um  that’s what sort of made me realize that  um  I do like people. I like working with people  and I like generally working on a team. I do believe I’m good enough to sort of lead and at the same time technical enough to sort of understand what it is that we want to achieve. And convince everyone  and have this mutual consensus that this is how we should do it.|Interviewer: Mmmm  ok. Do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Um  so yeah definitely  I feel like  I like working with teams  I like people. I work with um  and example related to a class I took. I don’t remember the name of it exactly  but it was something related to mobile development. We had to make an app as part of the class and one of our ideas was that if you have the I-phones and you could kind of bump the two of them together. It was kind of a novel idea in relation to what everyone else was doing in terms of photo sharing and meeeting friends. I was required with the technical expertise. There was this new thing that was developed at MIT’s regional lab called SWIPE which I had basically allowed you to swipe from one phone to another for data sharing. It was to get data across. It wasn’t really what we wanted  but we thought it was a good start. A couple of members on my team knew the people that started it and one girl on my team was particular gung ho about it  um  the four the us. One guy was experienced and super excited to be trying new stuff. Another experienced programmer was relatively alright with this  and then there was me who was sort of relatively alright. Um  and there was someone else who was a freshman at the time and she was basically ok with every idea that we said. |Interviewer: Right  right  exactly.|Intervieweee: So  um  and he really wanted to use it. But  after a few tries he realized it wasn’t working. And  we went back to the people who made sky- uh  SWIPE  and they said maybe it’s not read for production yet  and maybe you should stop using. While the other member of my team still wanted to keep using it. Um  we had to sit back  but we had to still complete the project  so um we had to deal with somehow understanding where he comes from  and we had to sort of do something about it. We had a meeting that resolved it  um  and we had to sort of say  “this is why we think SWIPE is cool  but this is also why we think we should not use it.” We had to complain that  um  that link is like swipe  but it would not do what we needed it to. Over a series of meetings  he came to realize that um  it evolved  that you know  um  we had to stick to the group. And we would say something like  “maybe you could do this link real quick for me ” and he had to realize  like  “maybe I can.” (laughter). So  he was like  it was a very short time to get him to sort of fix it. |Interviewer: Oh  ok.|Interviewee: So  we would not use SWIPE but thought of something that thought pushes and you know.|Interviewer: Ok  great. If you were going to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee: I  so  well  I would actually change  even though this is in the past. I would  have a deeper understanding understanding of math. That sounds really strange I know. But  what I consider myself intuitive in general  I understand the concept. I would want to know  what to do  in that situation. But  in other situations  I realize  this is a really into academics. I realize that having a superior understanding of mathematics is so key. |Interviewer: Uh  huh.|Interviewee: Um  I really believe I have a good understanding. I just really wish I had done more of that  um you know  when I was littler. I wish I had just like known what I wanted to do when I was really little so I could have actually started working on it. But  that being said  that’s not something that’s not something  that’s something I’m already working towards shifting.|Interviewer: Mm mm.|Interviewee: I’ve already gotten a lot better at  you know understanding  you know  the theory behind the math. Um  and definitely by the time  you know  I graduate  um  ready for this to will have changed. You know  some people have been doing it since  they were  you know  five  and I kind of been doing it. This is not what I understand right now  but last year I sort of could. I’m in my last semester  as in three classes away from completing my computer science degree. So  that makes me feel like I can do that. I wish I had done it a lot earlier.|Interviewer: Oh  ok. Why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um  well  it’s because  first it’s about  first it’s because I’m super excited about working in this industry  and definitely in this company working with great people. Um  I think there is a lot to be learned from that. And  those two factors really is  basically  uh  why I want it. And  as to why I should get it  and it’s because I can learn really quickly and um. I believe that I’m a team player  and um  and try to really fix things. And  I would like to quote one of my professors who said either you’re building the product  or selling it  or getting in the way. So  I definitely feel that  um  I could be  um  building the product really well  um  and to contribute in general. Positively  with your message. |Interviewer: Great.
pp8,Interviewer: Please tell me about your background.|Interviewee:  So I am a Junior at M.I.T  Ah  I am in computer science and I have taken several classes in Algorithms and in [xx]Nessus six |Interviewer: Uhum|Interviewee:  and I am also doing studying on my own machine and I plan on taking that next semester before summer starts umm to develop data analysis and machine running skills . Especially in field of pattern recognition which I am very interest in. And uh I hope that will give me some training for internship that I will do in that field. ah That will give me more practice in the real world |Interviewer: I totally agree. Do you think you are a leader? |Interviewee: I think I am.|Interviewer: Tell me why?|Interviewee:  I think I am a leader. Ah I have lead several projects in the past ah As in my position as that community service chair and um  and one in my ah fraternity pledge class and the other in my ah in the student group that I am part of. The South Asian American Student Corp and successfully completed. um  Service  projects with the community as well as organizing ah events for ah raising money for charity|Interviewer: Umhum |Interviewee:   ah and also for school projects. I frequently ah I am good at assigning tasks keeping people on task and um as well as gathering input from everybody um which I think are the essential quality of a good leader |Interviewer:  Umhum do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give you an example when there is a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it .|Interviewee:   I do consider myself a team player. Ah Going back to the example of my pledge class from my fraternity. uh we had several tasks. One of which would be to visit every other every student in the pledge class. Storm week  this was during freshman year.|Interviewer: Umhum|Interviewee:   and with a pledge class has  13 people it is not a impossible task but there were logistical problem. One communication trying to get everybody to participate another is  figuring  out the best way to go about things. People wanting to  meet in the middle ect. So I did my part as a team member to lead people to my room and show up myself. um But a good team player should also make sure that other people are doing their job. ah Not necessarily in a lead or a managerial role. But with the same general properties as a leader ah that all the team members should be checking one another and so I ah pardon that to um when there was several members missing I would ah say hey you call this person and I will call this person. Split up tasks etc. Ah and also help in planning  with what's  the best route to go by etc.|Interviewer: That makes sense. If you given  the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be?|Interviewee:  If I had to change one thing about myself?|Interviewer: Yes |Interviewee: Naturally there are a lot of thing I wish i could  change about myself. I wish I could do better at basketball.|Interviewer: (Snicker}|Interviewee:  But ah I think if I had to pick one quality it would probably be my ah  abillity to stay focused on a task  Although I am pretty efficient at ah getting things done and I do create ideas sometimes I get distracted or I like to multitask so I might be staying on task with work in general but I'll like to  have three different homework sessions going on at once and find this one and this. A lot of times that will work really well  for me but if I working collaboratively that may not work best for other people. So making myself more adaptive to other peoples study styles working styles etc  that would probably help me a lot |Interviewer: Uhum Thank you. So why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee:  I think I should get this job because ah for two main reasons. One because I would provide a lot the company because I am very efficient at working. I can think creatively for new ideas. Say for new ways to analyse certain new data or to optimize the running of the ah of certain ah software. ah On the other hand. The other reason I should get this job. Is because I would be a valuable member of valuable member of the workplace in this field I think by getting more experience um with this start up I think I would ah Really would  help me with my study skills that would help me in the future |Interviewer:  Well thank you for coming today
pp80,Interviewer: [inaudible]|Interviewee: Mm-hmm.|Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Fine  thank you. How about yourself?|Interviewer: Good. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: So  I'm from Berkley  California.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee:  And I came to MIT to study bioengineering. And it's been a really great education because I've learned to combine like engineering skills  real world skills with all this academic knowledge  um  and especially true in my lab where the combination between hands-on research and like thinking about how the research is working has really come together to improve my understanding of science and medicine.|Interviewer: Wonderful. And you think you're a leader. Tell me why.|Interviewee: I think I have great leadership potential. Uh  I am currently head of the Greek MedLinks at MIT. And what MedLinks is  is this really great program where we serve as the liaison between students and healthcare facilities. MIT has so much support  so much support. And there is...I mean we have...the students have great access to it. But a lot of times we don't know to look for it. Right? It can be right in front of your face  and if you're not looking  it's not there. So we do a lot of outreach stuff. |And I as head of the Greek MedLinks  uh  I really try and encourage people in their fraternities and sororities to  uh   get involve with their  the people that they assess and teach them a lot about nutrition and health. And then I organize inter-Greek MedLinks events. So this has really improved my leadership because it helped me learn to do organizational skills and really learn to listen to feedback because you can't lead people that don't want to be led.|Interviewer: Right. |Interviewee: So.|Interviewer: Great. So  do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Sure. So  I think team work is...the only way to get anything done...right  an individual  what are you going to do? Um  so  I played on the golf team in high school. And we're a close-knit team. But golf is a mental game and sometimes it can get to your head if you're not playing well  and you just play worse. And it's a downward spiral. And you're with someone out on the course for five hours. And if you have like a little feud between each other  you're still going to be stuck with that person for five hours. |And one time my teammate was playing not as well. And it was a pressured situation. And we have  you have a break in between  2 1/2 half hours. And the rest of the team was doing pretty well but she wasn't. And they were sort of pressuring her to do better. And I sort of said  Well  guys like it's going to make her do worse  you know  so let up. And we joked around and that really helped resolve the conflict. So  I think it's important to like understand that the angle is more important than your own personal goal like winning this trophy. It's more important to be like be cohesive and  function as a unit.|Interviewer: OK. If you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would that be?|Interviewee: So  I'm not great with administrative work. |Interviewer: Hm.|Interviewee: I have trouble with like little menial deadlines and all this writing and signatures and getting everything organized. It stresses me out. But I'm learning to deal with it by electronics...ah! The new age! It is my savior.|I had...with the new iMac and iPhone and the way they interconnect means that if I have to do something  there's going to be like six alarms that are going to go and remind me. And so with my computer and my phone so if I can't hear one  I can probably  probably would [inaudible] the other. So  that's really helped. It helped relieve the stress. Knowing that I'm going to be reminded is almost enough to take my mind off of it so I can focus on what I'm doing.|Interviewer: And  uh  why do you think you should get into medical school?|Interviewee: Well  I think I should go to medical school because I love people  and I love to help  and I've got the academic background for it. I'm not afraid to work hard and put in long hours. Medicine is fascinating surrounded by all these diseases that...I mean we've made such great progress  but there's just more that we can study. So  I'm currently studying in my lab  uh  work in an HIV lab. And that really inspired me to go into medicine because  you know  I'm looking at all these cutting-edge technologies and it's like I want to be right where they're being implemented  not just on the research side but on the people side as well.|Interviewer: Great.
pp81,Interviewer: So tell me more about your background.|Interviewee: Um  I am a sophomore at MIT. Um  I'm studying brain and cognitive science  with a minor in biology. Right now I’m working in a lab that is more of a narrow cognition lab. We work  um  basically to try to figure out pathways in the brain that process different functions. Um  it’s a longitudinal study. Um  so it’s something I’m really interested in. But I think moving forward I’m going to try to start working with from a pharmacology aspect  because it’s such an emerging field. Um  that’s mainly where I want to go  because I hope to eventually work  um  in [??]  and so pharmacology would be very important for that field.|Interviewer: Great. And do you think you’re a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: I think I am a leader  in a sense that I see people as people  and I see tasks as tasks  and I know how to communicate effectively between how to get these tasks done and how to get the people to do them. And I think I’m a good motivator  good communicator  and I’m also very detail-oriented. So it helps me better able to break down  um  people in order to delegate  um  more fundamentals or specific tasks  in order to get them done more effectively.|Interviewer: Great. And do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example where there was a conflict on your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Yes  I consider myself a team player  because I do think I’m very fair and always open to what other people are thinking. So in [??] movement  which is an on-campus student group which basically seeks to provide inner city Boston high school students with better access to reading and math comprehension to help better prepare them for the SAT test. We meet with three or four of them once a week on a Sunday. And large groups  so they’re  like  small groups that two members are on a charter. So I’m part of a two-person team  and then we all meet together. So I would sometimes disagree with my partner as well as the [??] as a whole in terms of what we should be teaching and what we should be focusing on  whether we should look more at science  whether we should have more holistic education versus just teaching to the SAT. I think that basically what I was trying to do was explain my point. If the group thought that what I was saying had some merit and liked to incorporate it I would feel good. But if they didn’t  then I would accept the fact that that was the way they felt; and  you know  majority rules and I didn’t have any hard feelings. At the end of the day I wanted what’s best for the kids. So in a sense I am a team player because I want what’s best for the project as a whole. It’s not just all about me and getting my point across.|Interviewer: Great. And if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: I definitely think it would be making myself more organized. So I’m extremely detail-oriented  and I see exactly what needs to be done and the timeline it needs to get done. But I guess since I’m involved in so many things  being a student  as well as in a sorority  as well as pursuing various academic endeavors  I think that  um  sometimes that bogs me down. Knowing exactly what I need to get done and what timeline  and then I get overstretched. But I think that’s an easy problem to fix. Um  and so far as we  you know  you get more specialized over the course of our lives. I definitely have a path that is more specialized that I intend to pursue. So that won’t be a problem  and I think just maintaining basic organizational structure definitely helps me  but it would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to maintain anything and that was just naturally the way I was  so...|Interviewer: OK. And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: I think that I have… I’m very interested in what your company is doing  and I’m very interested in what this project specifically is related to  but I also think I have a lot to offer the group as well. I am a MIT student who’s given a very specific set of problems and some solving skills that would be very unique to the group. But I’m also very outgoing and very interested in interpersonal relationships and I think that could help me convey our message as well as work with the technical aspect of the team.
pp83,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee: Um  pretty good  pretty good. Getting busy with studying for finals. |Interviewer: Oh  I'm sure. So tell me more about your background. |Interviewee: Um  alright  so  I  I've been studying at MIT for three years. I initially started as a physics major actually  so sophomore year I took  um  a couple physics classes in relativity  um  waves and vibrations. Uh  and then one of the classes that had been recommended to me was computational neuroscience  which also counts for physics department. So  um  after that was intro to neuroscience. So I took that  fell in love with neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience  so... I started taking more classes in that.|Interviewer: Great. And do you think you're a leader? Tell me why.|Interviewee: Um  I'm working on it  um  definitely. Uh  I mean  I do  I do like working in a team as equal group members  um  I feel like I can be a leader. Uh  for example  this past summer I was in China  and  uh  they let me  uh  teach a classroom of 60 students. Um  and so that really help to strengthen my leadership skills  just in terms of classroom management and getting everyone to work together as a group.|Interviewer: That's great. And do you consider yourself a team player? Can you give me an example of a time there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it?|Interviewee: Yeah. Um  I feel like I  I  um  so  uh  in that last summer as well in China  we had sort of a problem. Uh  we were trying to get some videos up on a website...|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: ...um  none of us had any computer science background  and so  um  I tried to find a student who had both computer science background and spoke English to a level where we could  like  actually communicate...|Interviewer: Right.|Interviewee: Um  so  uh  I participated in that  in that kind of way.|Interviewer: OK. Um  if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Hmm... let's see. Um  I'd say  probably  I get kind of nervous sometimes. Um  I'd say I'd like to calm down a little bit.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: Uh I mean  sometimes it's good  like  I... I have lots of energy  but sometimes it's just a bit too much. [laughs]|Interviewer: Uh-huh.|Interviewee: To be able to [??].|Interviewer: Uh-huh. OK. And why do you think you should get the job?|Interviewee: Um  so  I mean  I'm very committed  but on top of that I have a very strong academic background. I've done research before in this area...|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: And  um  in a similar field  but sort of  um  also different. So I think I come in with a different sort of perspective to this.|Interviewer: OK.|Interviewee: And also  I mean  I come in with  like  some physics background. So I think that additionally provides a different perspective on brain and cognitive science that isn't always seen.|Interviewer: Mm-hmm.|Interviewee: That sort of  like  very analytical way of thinking  and  like  seeing things at the most fundamental level  I bring that perspective in.|Interviewer: Great.
pp84,Interviewer: How are you doing today?|Interviewee:  Good thank you  how are you?|Interviewer:  Good. Tell me more about your background.|Interviewee:  Alright  well  so I'm originally from Australia.  And um  since then my family and I have moved around a lot so I would consider myself an international citizen.  I'm actually not an American citizen.  Um  but I've been here studying at MIT material science for uh  three years now and I'm enjoying it.  Um  it's helped me figure out that I'm really interested in engineering and I'm really loving having a bit of material science as well as mechanical engineering which is what I'm doing a minor it.|Interviewer:  Great. Do you think you're a leader.  Tell me why.|Interviewee: Yes  definitely. Um  well I can tell you that I was told that at a leadership conference that I went to earlier this year. Um  we classified personalities in team-working situations and I was definitely one of the more leader type one people where I work well with a team but I like have things  I like to do things well my way or I like to at least be...if I want to see something done right then want to  I would like to do it right.  Um  then I've had a lot of chance to practice that and I would say that I've gotten pretty good at incorporating that personality type with other types of personalities in teamwork situations.  So  for example I'm  um  co-president  I've recently been elected president of Amnesty International here on campus and I  so I've had a lot of experience with that group up until now working with them  trying to lead a team  trying to help them take initiative for themselves  trying to encourage them as well as be a leader by example and do all of  as much as I can uh  handle comfortably to make the club a success.|Interviewer:  Great.  Do you consider yourself a team player.  Can you give me an example of a time when there was a conflict in your team and you had to resolve it.|Interviewee:  Okay  um well.  Yeah  um  Amnesty International is another good example.  We've had a few tensions between personalities.  Um  the year before  so last year  we had two co-presidents and one of them was a pretty opinionated person  someone who had strong feelings toward his vision for the club and just went for it with all like  all of his effort into that one direction and just didn't really look back and didn't look around to see how other people felt about it.  Which  I was okay with because I saw his direction being really beneficial for the club  um  but we had another member of the team who was not okay with that.  She felt also that she had a lot to give and she felt like none of her ideas were being heard.  So  they would actually get into some tense email situations and there was a bit of tension in the group.  But  it actually kind of became resolved during elections this year.  Um  they worked together fairly well during the semester  um  especially when they weren't both in the same room at the same time  just working via email it was good.  And then today  uh  sorry  this week during elections it kind of all came out into the open and now that he's not president any more and she's in the same role as treasurer  um  it's been resolved.  Um  I guess my role in that was just kind of being uh  the team player.  Just trying to make whatever we trying to do work successfully so that there was no added tension from our efforts being a failure. |Interviewer:  Great.  And if you were given the option to change one thing about yourself what would it be.|Interviewee:  Oh  interesting question.  I  I would like to be a better public speaker  actually.  I would really like to be able to synthesize my thoughts quickly and coherently.  Um  I think that would make me a better writer and I think that in general being a great at communicating is one of the strongest skills that you can have to convince people to  to just make whatever project you're working on be a success.  To convince investors to invest money  to obtain partnerships and sponsorships  to be a good leader  to inspire...I think  I would love to be able to just have an infinite vocabulary and have a very  you know  better way of presenting my ideas.||Interviewer:  And why do you think you should get the job.|Interviewee:  Um  I do think I am qualified for the job because I've had a lot of experience in this industry.  I've worked in research in material science for the last two summers as well as I've had a lot of leadership experience  um  not just in Amnesty International but also in my sorority.  And um  what was the other one  I was an orientation leader for um  orientation at MIT  which was a cool experience.  So  um  I've had a lot different ways to develop my team-working skills and I'd really like to put those to work in industry-based projects now um  which I've seen a lot of but I've never had a chance to actually try it out.  So  I'm excited to try that.
pp85,Interviewer: Please tell me about your background|Interviewee: Okay  well I'm a junior here at MIT. Umm  I'm double-majoring courses ?? which is uh  the ?? computer science and bioengineering  and I guess those are two very different things  so I get alot of questions about why  and I think it's um  because I came to MIT thinking I wanted to do bioengineering. And then I guess I just feel like I everyone around here like  has some relation to programming sometime  and then I took a programming class  got bit by the bug  and then I just like  I loved it. And then  so last year  I decided to double major  cause um  I'm actually interested in a lot of I guess there is an overlap  between like biocircuits as well as just modeling biological systems with computer science  so um it was a really good opportunity here  so yeah.|Interviewer: Oh  excellent. So uh  do you think you're a leader? Can you tell me whY?|Interviewee: Um  I do think I'm a leader  and then I guess that's one of the things  me coming to MIT  I wouldn't have said I'm a leader necessarily  even though like I guess I was like  did some things in high school. But um  I think that's one of the things I'  really thankful from MIT  it's really developed my ability to be confident  as well as um  I think just to motivate other people and uh  and it's like  just like  if I wanted to get something done like I think something really... like I think something really cool will happen with some ideea  then what I'll do is I'll  like  get a couple of people together  like get them motivated by  uh  figuring out what needs to get done logistically and just like  assign people  I think a timeline and stuff like that?  And  I think um  my experience at MIT has  uh  like really given me that experience and as well as actually just allowing me to find these people that  cause there's a lot of really awesome people here and usually willing to do the exact same thing.. or you tell them about other ideas and they're really excited about it just like you are.  So.|Interviewer: Mmm  good. So do you consider yourself a team player? Can you tell me a time when you were on a team and you faced a challenge? How did you go about resolving it?|Interviewee: So yeah  so I think  um  what like one of the things I guess obviously is you have to be able to take direction just as well as you give it  otherwise you're team can't function. And  so I guess um one of the times I was on a team was um for example ah  in a fraternity and for the fall we have rush  which is basically all...we have 26 fraternities at MIT  there's a 1 000 incoming freshman. You're essentially like all  somehow  competing almost for them but ah I guess one of the other things you're just looking for the people that are a good fit for you  but you want to meet as many people as possible.  So I think one of the things that is you have to be able to take direction from your  from our rush chair. So it's  sometimes he needs you just to go out on campus and try to get random freshman to the house. Sometimes you just need to go talk to people at the house  and then  like  just have a converstaion with them and learn more about them. Sometimes you just need to clean dishes from the food event cause we need to get the next event  so I think  um  just being able to...willing to take direction just doing anything and not losing track of the bigger goal is  I think  what makes me a good team player.|Interviewer:  Oh excellent. Which house are you?|INterviewee:  Ah  Alpha Delta Phi? It's right in Central Square.|Interviewer: Ah  yes  yes I'm familiar with it.|Interviewee: Lot of nice restaurants. 'laugh'|Interviewer: 'laugh'|Interviewer: I know  I've been to the house. Um  so if you were given an option to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee:  Ah  that's  uh  a really interesting question. Um. I think I would make myself  ah  maybe a little bit better  I think  just in um social sitatuions with strangers.  Um  sometimes I just can get a little bit  like  anxious. Uh. For example I hate  like  bit networking events  because like I never really know how to  like  walk up to someone  like just maybe like have small talk and then just leave the conversation. That's some of the things that like  I guess I've never really been too extroverted of a person  so I don't really  like  say necessarily  good at just meeting lots of new people  getting them like  making a memorable impression or something like that? So I think  um  that's one of the the things I've been trying to work on. I think that's what's really nice about MIT is  there's a lot of people like that.   There's a lot a research.. there's a lot of  like  lot of ahh  session for people  like there's a bunch of opportunities for networking for people who hate networking and then I think a lot of people have the same or similar just like  philosphy about it.  Um so I think just need to change to be better about that  and just be better at talking to strangers and less apprehensive about approaching people and just starting up a conversation.|Interviewer:  Mm-hmm. There's definitely a thing one can work on  there's definitly a...?  Ok  so think what job you'd like to have. So  why do you think you should get this job?|Interviewee:  Ok  so I guess um  right now I'm looking for some software internships for the summer  and I think why I should have that job is just because I think I've gotten the technical background from like  algorithms classes  like software engineering classes? But then I've also had  um  the experiences of working as a team at MIT  like  uh  I'm on student government  um  with my fraternity  as well  as uh  I guess I'm pretty independent. I think MIT really develops everybody  you choose your own classes  like your own activities? And I think I'm very self-sufficient so I thnk uh  for like  maybe like super.. I've like  mabye supervised peers in previous internships  and I think I would just be able to like  take a project. I'm not afraid to ask a question if I need direction  and I mostly  like I can just work alone so I think it's be very helpful for  I guess  just like a supervisor cause then they don't have to check up on me all the time and uh  but then uh the would also know that I would go to them when needed. Uh  also  I'm very thourough  so I would  like I don't like leaving things  like if there's a small  mistake I'll like  even if it takes a long time  I'll make sure that I can iron it out  so I think for  code-wise  that's really nice for testing in that it's often more bug-free. So.|Interviewer: Oh  excellent. Thank you for interviewing here today.|Interviewee: Thank you.
pp86,Interviewee: In my technical background  um. Been a junior at MIT. Um  I studied a lot of music  but I've been mainly studying robotics  mechanical engineering and a little bit of electrical uh  at MIT here. So  uh  I've done a few robot competitions  built a few  and um  you know  that's basically what I do  build robots and play music.|Interviewer: Excellent  yeah. So  do you think you're a leader? Can you tell me why?|Interviewee: I think I am a leader. Um  because um  I'm very calm. And I don't over react and I'm very good at  I wouldn't  handling is the wrong word. But I guess  you know  dealing with people and making sure that they can relate with other people. Making a team work. That type of stuff. Um  I like to think I'm pretty sociable. Um  I'm a nice guy and I'm easy to talk to and I think those are all very nice traits for a leader.|Interviewer: Mm-Hm|Interviewee: So  I would say yes  I'm a good leader and based on previous leadership experience I say that I did a pretty good job  so.|Interviewer: Do you think you're a team player? Can you tell me about a time when you were working on a team and you faced a challenge. How did you go about solving that challenge?|Interviewee: Um  I  I'd definitely say I'm a good team player. Now  are you asking about how I worked well with the team  or how well I worked bringing the team together or how well I worked  okay  well uh  I'll address all of them. Um  I guess  as a team member  I very quickly learned what my role was and asked you know  if there's anything I can do  what do I need to do? And I do that  fill that role. Um  but I'm also very good at you know  kind of combining all of the roles together. So  say  let's just  you know  on a robot  for example  there's mechanical  there's electrical  there's  there's code work that also needs to be put together. And  everyone can do a great job by themselves. But if they're not working together then you know  like if I don't know what the guy  the code guy is working on and what energy equations he needs and that type of stuff then I  as an electronic guy or as a mechanical guy like  it's not gonna work. Um  and that's how I guess I work well within a team is kind of bringing people together. Um  but  if there are any like  challenges I guess I faced as a team um  I guess  that really wasn't the question though was it. Could you repeat the question again  I'm sorry.|Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a team player. Give me an example where there was a conflict on your team that you had to resolve.|Interviewee: Okay  um  okay  so a recent project I worked on with friends. Um  there were these two guys. Love them to death  they're great guys  very talented  Tyler and Dan. They're very close. They've been very close for  I guess freshmen year. Um  they have one of those relationships where good  you know  good high points  but there's also like  they fight a lot. So  um  there were a couple moments where they were just pissed at each other. They hated each other. They couldn't work well together so  what I did was I kind of you know  told them take  take a step back. Tyler  we're gonna go to the student center. We're gonna grab some food  chillax and then we're gonna get back. And while we were walking to the student center I talked to him about it and talked to what his issues were. And then  on the way back  he was much more calm and things progressed a lot smoother and much faster. I would say.|Interviewer: Mm-hm  well  well  this helps. So  if you were to change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: One thing  okay. Um  I would say  time management.|Interviewer: Mm-hm|Interviewee: Definitely time management. Um  it's been rough my whole life. Um I'd say it's definitely been getting better but I've definitely had problems with  I'm very much living in the now and so sometimes I forget to think ahead. and  um  there have been many instances where I've got into trouble. I have a lot of work to do and it's you know coming up in like  a few days. And sometimes  I  I should work harder earlier on  but I don't get  you know  I don't get  I'm like  well I could work on it  but I've done enough tonight. Why don't I  I can figure it out tomorrow. And usually end up working really hard um  right at the end. Which I guess a lot of people end up doing but  if that was one thing I could change  I'd say definitely better time management  being able to spread it out more evenly and be more prepared.|Interviewer: Now  how about a job you'd like to have?|Interviewee: Okay.|Interviewer: Do you have one in mind?|Interviewee: Yeah.|Interviewer: Good. So  now  why should we give you this job?|Interviewee: Okay. Um  should I go with  just go with  let my imagination flow?|Interviewer: Sure.|Interviewee: All right.|Interviewee: Okay  so we're at a robotics interview. Um  well  I think I deserve this job  a lot because I've been working very hard. I know a ton of control background. I know a ton about robotics  mechanical engineering. Um  I've had a ton of um  hands-on work with robots. Um  and I know all the work that goes into it. Um  so as far as background and experience that I've had with robotics  I'd say I'm very well um  informed  I wouldn't say informed. I  experienced  I don't want to use the word experienced again but that's  I have a lot of experience in robotics. Um  and I've  since I've been working with it for such a long time  I can learn more about it quicker and I'm very  I'm very fast to learn. So  throw me in a new situation. I'll  you know  Oh  okay  I know what that is. I can relate to that and I just work from there. Um  and I think I'm a very  I work well with people so robotics is one of those things where you have to work with a bunch of  a group of people for a common goal. And I'd like to think that I'm very good at working with people so |Interviewer: Mm-hmm|Interviewee: Um  and it  it sounds like a fun place to work. I  I've talked to you know  some friends and some other people working there. And it's just  I'd really love to work there. And I think I'm a good fit.|Interviewer: Well thank you. I appreciate you coming to interview today.
pp89,Interviewer: Please talk about yourself.|Interviewee: Mhmm uh so is it all right if I kind of talk about the same stuff as last time?|Interviewer: Of course  same person.|Interviewee: I was going to say  I haven’t changed too much but um yeah so still a junior at MIT here  and um about halfway through junior year and um I’m a physics major and um I’m from Pensacola  Florida and um I’m  yeah so born and raised in Pensacola and I just um uh you know moved up here a couple years ago and started at MIT and I uh  I’m not sure as far as what I’m going to go into career wise but I’m looking at something applied in the physics area. And um as far as extracurricular go I do a few things. I’m involved with a few IM sports that my fraternity does uh  soccer and basketball  and I enjoy juggling and unicycling as well. I’ve done  I’ve unicylced since 5th grade and I’ve done that a lot and um I’m involved with the juggling club here and I like to play ultimate Frisbee as well from time to time just for fun and um yeah so you know enjoy doing sports in my spare time but uh yeah physics as far as school goes.|Interviewer: Thank you  so uh do you think you’re a leader and tell me why.|Interviewee: Do I think I’m sorry?|Interviewer: Leader.|Interviewee: A leader. Oh um yeah in some senses  I like  as far as leadership experience I’ve had  I’ve enjoyed more in the small group type things. Like I’ve mentioned before in high school I led a small group of students to do a community service project where we organized a math competition. And um I uh I enjoy doing  um for one of my internships  I worked at a robotics firm and it was a pretty small group  it was 4 or 5 of us but I go to kind of have some leadership on some of the tasks there that was fun. And uh yeah I mean juggling club is a little bit of a leadership position  there’s a few people I kind of oversee there. And you know those few leadership experiences I’ve had have been really good um you know I guess besides those three  I haven’t had any larger scale leadership experiences with you know more people but those I have enjoyed. I guess I consider myself a leader in that regard.|Interviewer: Good do you think you’re a team player? Can you tell me about a time when you worked on a team and you faced a challenge. How did you solve it?|Interviewee: Yeah um so I mean this past semester I’ve done some team stuff just one on one with a partner for my um lab class. And um so I got to kind of do some team playing there. But um I guess another time was uh last January I was in Mexico as well but this time it was with an exchange program and it was the whole month and next week I’ll actually going back for fun for a week. But yeah it was [???] Mexico and it was me and two other students at a high school and we basically got there and we thought they were going to know what we’re supposed to do  it was the first time they had done the program and we get there and they were like  “Okay well what are you guys going to do.” And we were like  “Well we were going to ask you the same thing.” So we kind of had to come together with the three of us and figure out what to do. So we uh we talked at first and well kind of had familiarity with a lot of different subjects as far as like  especially applications of what these students were learning  calculus and physics and how to demonstrate those. We decided to each give little lectures on topics that were relevant to what the students were learning they might you know be going to a certain field to apply later on like especially calculus but also the physics classes and stuff. I ended up doing two main things  I gave a few physics demonstrations uh and you know they had some equipment there  I just talked about vectors and how to halve those and force equations. And then you know we had a couple weights and walked through the class how to predict how it would work out and actually measured it and so that was cool. All three of the students collaborated on what we should talk about because we kind of were familiar with what everybody else was talking about. It turned out pretty well  we ended up helping them out and getting their students to have some faith and how these things of learning are applied. Yeah so I guess major time where a big obstacle is overcome.|Interviewer: Wonderful  thanks for sharing that. If you could change one thing about yourself  what would it be?|Interviewee: Um let’s see  well the first thing that popped in my mind was that uh if I was a little shorter I could be an astronaut. But I think the height requirement is changed for that. I’m 6’3” and I think a few years ago it was 6’1” which is the cut off.|Interviewer: You can’t change your height though so what could you change?|Interviewee: Okay yeah that too. Um I guess um let’s see  my um  uh I guess as far as larger scale positions go  like kind of being decisive. I think this is like a common problem for you know undergraduates here. Because you know you come in and I guess a major way American schools are different from schools in other countries. We have all the options open and so um you know it’s a tough thing to you know have all these options and be decisive with one thing. And be able to like you know if you’re in an environment where you’re more restricted and you just put yourself in that. As far as larger scales go and smaller scales too with whether it’s  I don’t know just managing things just day to day. I feel like time management’s you know a major part of that being decisive stuff. Yeah I think decision making would be the main thing.|Interviewer: Good  so now think of a job that you’d like to have. So  one in mind?|Interviewee: Yep.|Interviewer: Good. So why do you think we should hire you for this job.|Interviewee: Um well I’m standing by one of the things I mentioned before. Which is mainly that I think I communicate pretty well. As far as small groups  I’ve had a good amount of experience Working with people on  you know  in real time problem solving. I’ve had experience there and I think that’s a major attribute that I can bring to the board and bring to the table and um as far as experience goes  yeah I mean things I mentioned before just coming back as far as like Diversity of background and being able to bring multiple perspectives. I have kind of experience with physics and more like applied things like robotics. So I think that diversity of things really helps and um yeah.|Interviewer: Thanks  Steven. Thank you for coming here today.|Interviewee: Yeah thank you.