Challenges and benefits of interviewing an international student

Challenges and Benefits of Interviewing an International Student.

       Interviewing a person from a different country has its benefits but also poses a set of challenges at the same time. I will address a few of the benefits and challenges in this essay.

Interviewing can be task in it of it self let alone interviewing someone who is very different from you. The are two major challenges that I see in interviewing an international student, the first being communication and the second, conduct. 

The way people communicate is different, there are two-forms of communication, verbal and nonverbal, and they can vary a lot depending on where someone is from. In some cultures nonverbal communication is much more important than verbal. This can be a big problem in an interview if the interviewer does not have an idea of the interviewee’s culture, things like eye contact can be disrespectful or make the interviewee uncomfortable, or certain words and hand gestures could be offensive to someone. 

Your conduct is also important to watch, some people will find certain mannerisms acceptable and others unacceptable. The way you approach someone could set the mood for the interview and change the direction you desire, this varies with the cultural background of an interviewee. If an interviewer were to pick their nose during the interview it could cause the interviewee to become distracted with disapproval of the action and lose train of thought, but some cultures may not be bothered much by it. 

Despite these challenges there are great benefits to interviewing a person from another part of the world and especially a student. Interviewing a student may help it be more successful, being a student as well puts the interviewer and the interviewee on the same level taking away an element of pressure. Also this helps the interviewer to relate more closely with the interviewee, being closer to age can mean similar interests and stages of life. There are always differences between an international student and a native student and these can be difficult to get past but hopefully through the differences you can learn more about a persons culture, lifestyle, morals, and religion. Knowledge of these things about a person and where they are from helps you to connect better and helps you be more understanding of that person. 

The implications of overcoming these challenges will affect you for the rest of your life, someday you might live next to someone from another country or work with them, the knowledge gained through an interview of this type will help you interact with them and help them feel welcome in their new environment. 

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