Chairing Interview 102

Once you have submitted your application for a MUN conference, the secretariat will contact you for an interview. Most conferences will do a pre-selection of applications before proceeding to the interview. You will receive an email, asking you to fill out a doodle form in which you will fill out your availability, and indicate your skype username.

Before the interview, clear out your schedule. The location you are during an interview is very important. You wouldn’t want to find yourself at an unusual place, such as a bar… Yes, I once had to pass an interview at a bar and I’ll let you guess how that turned out. 

Also, keep in mind to check your WIFI connection before the interview, I once interviewed someone who was at a safari, and I’ll also let you guess how that interview turned out. Be careful about not being late for your Skype call. Being 5 minutes late is always acceptable but keep in mind that most of the time, the person in charge of the interview has to do many interviews back to back. Therefore, when you are being late, you are also ruining the interview time of other candidates, indeed many conferences, especially large ones have hundreds of candidates to go through. Also, be aware of the time difference, the indicated time might be in a different time zone than yours, so be sure to double check the exact time. 

Always read what you wrote in your application before the interview. Sometimes the moment you filled your application and the moment you are being interviewed is so far apart that you won’t even remember which committees you’ve selected nor their topics. Never be overconfident. During the selection process, the secretariat will try to even out the range of experiences of chairs. Having diverse chair profiles is always better for the conference. 

Meaning, it doesn’t matter if you’ve previously chaired 30 conferences or only 1. You will be selected based on your answers to the questions and not because of your previous experiences. Everyone is equal during the selection process. So never think that you will be picked for a conference and therefore not spend any time getting prepared for the interview.

The Secretariat picks carefully all the chairs because they are with whom they will interact with the most before and during the conference. Ultimately, chairs are the key link between the Secretariat and the delegates. Most delegates do not remember the secretariat members, however, they will remember their chairs and whether they provided a great experience or not. Therefore, being prepared before a chairing interview is very important if you want to get selected for a chairing position.