ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 10, 1996 TAG: 9611110056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: JEAN McNAIR ASSOCIATED PRESS
You've breezed through the job interviews with company executives, but now it's time for the real test - dinner with them at a fancy restaurant.
Do you know what to do and what to avoid during the big dinner meeting? For instance, you should avoid the onion soup because the cheese is too messy. You should scoop the spoon away from you to avoid spills on your shirt. For heaven's sake, don't blow on the soup to cool it or crumble crackers into it.
And that only gets you through the soup course.
At the University of Virginia, about 180 students crowded into a banquet hall one recent evening to learn all the etiquette rules from soup to dessert.
The students, looking slightly ill at ease in their dark suits, stared apprehensively at their shrimp bisque while Joanne Mahanes called out the eating rules they must follow if they want to get that job.
When she paused, they hesitantly picked up the proper soup spoon and slowly began scooping - away.
As the students moved on to chicken with saffron-seasoned rice and five-green salad, Mahanes reeled off enough horror stories to take their appetites away.
Like the one about the student who excelled at his interviews but at the end of the four-star restaurant meal did something unspeakable: ``He asked for a doggie bag,'' Mahanes said in a hushed voice.
He didn't get the job.
Then there was the student who salted all his food as soon as it was placed in front of him. Another no-no. ``A sign of a hasty decision-maker,'' Mahanes explained.
Of course, never order an alcoholic drink, she said. ``You might start telling jokes that aren't funny.''
Mahanes, an assistant dean and coordinator of career development at UVa, started the dinners five years ago as a pilot project using student-athletes. The event grew from a dinner for the basketball team to one for the entire athletic department to an annual gathering for students at large.
``We want our students to have a corporate edge over other students,'' said Mahanes, who knew of no similar dinners at other colleges.
UVa's medical school and graduate business school have expressed interest in holding their own etiquette dinners, and a videotape of this year's dinner will be offered in local bookstores, she said.
This year's event was the largest ever, with each student who signed up paying $15 for the catered meal. CS First Boston, a Wall Street investment firm, has helped finance the dinners for the last four years.
``We thought [the dinner] was something that would help them feel more at ease,'' said Loren Kelly, a 1988 UVa graduate and CS First Boston employee.
The students, most of whom will graduate next spring with degrees in business-related fields, said they were grateful for the help.
``I'd rather learn the mistakes now than when I'm in the middle of an interview,'' said Darrin Witt, an accounting major from Roanoke.
Or as Laura Merianos, a Spanish and government major from Middletown, N.J., put it: ``You don't want to lose a job because you didn't scoop your soup the right way.''
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. William Weimer, a fourth-year student at theby CNBUniversity of Virginia, tries to add cream to his after-dinner
coffee correctly. color. Graphic: Chart by AP.