Dear Rachel,
I am graduating this spring with a degree in media studies, and my ambition is to become a planner working in the internet space. I think I’ve learned what college could teach me about media but I was not able to do a summer internship, and I worry I won't come off well in job interviews as a result. I don’t have any feel for what media people are like or what they look for in applicants. Can you help me here? --Green and Anxious

Dear Green,
Every year at about this time I get a letter like yours, and the best I can do is repeat the advice I’ve given in the past.

When you go on job interviews, there is no right way to come off. You can only be yourself, and my advice is to do just that.

Be polite, of course, and answer what questions come your way. But don’t feel you have to put on a dog and pony show in which you expound on all you learned in college.

Put your real energy into listening.

Older people are inclined to believe young people don’t listen, and there’s some truth to it. People just out of college feel they must work at making a good impression and being liked, and often the result on interviews is that they don’t hear what the interviewer is saying.

Sure, you want to make a good impression, but you really need to listen to determine whether you want to work at that agency. You don’t want to end up in your first job out of college and not liking it.

Good interviewers are pretty astute at explaining what the job is all about because they are concerned about not making the wrong hire.

They’re also pretty good at picking up whether the person they’re talking to is picking up on what they are telling them about the job. So being attentive is very important.

My other observation, having observed the hiring process over these years, is that what really matters in the end is not what you studied or did over the summers or the references you provide from this or that professor.

What really matters to the people who are making the hiring decisions is how well you will fit into the operation and how well you will perform.

Are you motivated? Can you be relied on to show up on time for work and for meetings? Can you pick up the slack when an extra hand is needed? Are you an honest person?

The answers to those questions reflect not your education but as much as anything your character. In the end the interviewer is going to be weighing your deeper qualities.

Good luck.