NROTC Interview Disappointment

[wnsham96]

My DS had his NROTC interview today (remote). He thought the interviewer was somewhat "unprofessional" and was surprised at her lack of effort. Apparently, the interviewer was interrupted multiple times by someone coming into the room, and my DS had to stop in the middle of his answers until she was done talking to the other person. She even cut short one of his stories to let him know he "shared enough". At the end, she told him that he wasn't lacking anything in his application, and that was about it.

Should we be concerned about this? Or were we expecting too much? I'm just concerned that her being distracted and seemingly uninterested may have a negative impact on his application.

 

[ArmyOfOne81]

This can be the downside of remote interviews. My DS has done many of these for ROTC, SA's and NOM's over the last year. Although I really can't offer any advice on how this may have affected your specific interview I can tell you that my DS has also had some strange remote interviews including one where the interviewer was driving and had to pull over to the side of the road during the very short interview for a NOM that was very important to my DS.

 

[BlueHen2005]

Yes - your mileage may vary with PMS’s. My daughter had an in person scheduled in December. Since it was durimg winter break, the building was locked when she arrived, and the PMS never showed up! It all worked out in the end and the interview was scheduled a few weeks later. But still….

 

[USMCGrunt]

Should we be concerned about this? Or were we expecting too much? I'm just concerned that her being distracted and seemingly uninterested may have a negative impact on his application.

There is nothing you can do about this anyway so let it go.

That said, there are trained interviewers with great skills and others who find the task thrust upon them. Having done hundreds of interviews over my career, I feel I can offer an informed opinion on what is a good and bad interview. Distractions are not the best use of either party's time but they happen. Both parties need to reengage and push on when they occur. Cutting off verbose responses is both a skill and a technique to keep the interview on track. Perhaps your DS can replay the event and determine if his answer was a bit off-track and long winded. That would be a good learning for future interview opportunities.

While it may seem as if all the rules are stacked against the "interviewee" your DS has the option to send a follow up note thanking the Officer for the time and reinforcing any answers to questions he felt got muddled during the meeting.

Good luck!

 

[wnsham96]

While it may seem as if all the rules are stacked against the "interviewee" your DS has the option to send a follow up note thanking the Officer for the time and reinforcing any answers to questions he felt got muddled during the meeting.

Good luck!

Thank you for these very helpful suggestions, especially the follow up email. I forgot to mention that she was reading the questions as if it was a script, so maybe she was new (?)

I’ll pass along this info to my DS.

 

[JohnMcLane]

Thank you for these very helpful suggestions, especially the follow up email. I forgot to mention that she was reading the questions as if it was a script, so maybe she was new (?)

I’ll pass along this info to my DS.

She was reading the questions from a script. They have to ask everyone the same questions to ensure consistency across the board. The Marine NROTC application requires interviews by two different officers which helps prevent skewing.

 

[wnsham96]

She was reading the questions from a script. They have to ask everyone the same questions to ensure consistency across the board. The Marine NROTC application requires interviews by two different officers which helps prevent skewing.

Yes, it was a Zoom interview so that was obvious. What my DS pointed out was that she was reading questions as if it was the first time she had seen them. Just not what he was expecting, but sounds like his experience is not that uncommon.

 

[FastFood44]

I wouldn't worry too much. The LTs at my unit did *so so* many interviews, and they always felt they could accurately access based on just a short conversation.

And to add onto that; it's often clear early on who is a good fit and not a good fit for ROTC when they showup at the unit. Not saying someone cannot improve as time goes on, but usually it's clear amongst the "slackers," who is motivated to improve and who is not. If your child showed motivation, strong commitment to the program/becoming a military officer, I'm sure that was shone through the interview, regardless of the hiccups on the interviewers part.