Simulated Job Interview
One of the most intimidating experiences in a professional setting is the job interview. The job interview is stressful and hard as you are tasked to show a person in a more established state than you are why you matter and can do the job you are being interviewed for. The job interview not only highlights your skills and accomplishments but also shows more about yourself and why you are a perfect fit for a job. It is your ‘education, background, and skills that have earned you the attention of the recruiter, but it is up to you to present yourself as the most attractive candidate for the job’ (Mooney,1). Preparation is key for succeeding in job interviews. Therefore a simulated job interview is as good as any preparation technique. Using Gibbs Reflective Cycle, I will be reflecting on the simulated job interview done alongside my peers and what I have learned from it overall.
Description
For the purposes of this exercise I was required to look for a hypothetical job that was related to the field I will be pursuing post university. Then with the help of the information given in the job description, I was to be interviewed by my peers as if I was actually being interviewed for the job. I would then do the same for my peers as well with their selected jobs. The job that I selected was for a fast track apprenticeship with the BBC in their production management field. The apprenticeship runs for twenty months and has a salary attached to it. The apprenticeship gives on the job experience and leads to growth in the industry. I felt this was a good fit for me as it is an industry I have a lot of interest and passion for. I love being creative and developing interesting projects so therefore a production role in one of the biggest television companies in the world would be a satisfying start.
Feelings
My mind was very scattered in how this experience would play out. Would it be awkward? Would it be strange? Most importantly would it be beneficial? With great respect to my peers, I could not help but wonder if this would work as they do not know much about the occupation I am applying for and what it would entail. However, they do want to see me succeed and help me with my interview skills. Just like I want to see them succeed and help with their interview skills. On the morning of the simulated job interview I felt nervous as if I was going in for an actual job interview. All that was happening was I was being asked a few common interview questions by people I respect and admire. And I was not even getting marked. Yet I still wanted to make a good impression and give great answers in a professional manner.
Evaluation
I felt the experience overall went very well. I felt my answers to the questions was overall strong and confident. I felt my eye contact was professional and I felt present in the room. Being personable and down to earth shows the employer that there is personality attached to you and employers usually do not just look at experience and work ethic but they also look at personality. Does this applicant have the personality of someone we would want to work with? I feel like I showed strong personality in my answers. That was what went well. I feel pretty positive about the experience as a whole. If I had to evaluate something I did negatively I would speak on the fact that I did ramble a bit on my answers at points. I tend to do this a lot. I feel this is due to the worry that I will not say enough or that I will suddenly stop talking whenever they want to hear more from me. This could be avoided by saying whatever I need to say and wait to see if they want to hear more from me. This will determine whether or not there is a need to elaborate or not.
Analysis
My fears before the interview were all for nothing as there really was nothing to be worried about. This experience was done to give me experience in interviews, teach me what I do right and wrong and to also help my peers with their interview skills. The experience was overall beneficial and felt easy. The ten minute interview went very quickly and I felt there was not a mental struggle in answering questions. The answers came to me naturally which I felt was a good sign. I think that part of the naturalism in the answers comes from my life experience in other non related jobs as well as related experiences to what I was applying for. This experience was good practice for a real job interview. I feel now I can enter a real life interview confident in how I speak and what I speak about. I do know after this experience that preparation is important and to be sure I know what I am talking to in regards to the position I am applying for. This will make talking about everything a lot easier.
Conclusion
In asking what else I could have done is hard to answer without knowing what my peers thought of how I performed in the interview. It is hard to know what was missing from my interview as I was cut off after ten minutes and it felt there was no proper ending. However, I feel that I could have and should have talked more about the specific position. I spoke well about the industry itself and spoke a bit about the BBC specifically, however I could have spoken more about why I would be such a good fit for the role of Production Manager itself. I did speak on this however I could have spoken a bit more and elaborated more on why I would be a great fit as a Production Manager.
Action Plan
This experience will definitely help me in future interviews. I will use this experience to further better me when it comes to real life job interviews. With this experience I learned that it is important to educate yourself the best you can on the company you’re applying for as it will create more confidence in your answers. You can have all the confidence in yourself and your abilities which will take you a long way however if you do not know anything about the company, you may be stopped in your tracks. Patricia Mooney writes in her article The Job Interview that, ‘recruiters often comment on the lack of preparation in otherwise qualified individuals’ (1). Therefore I will be comfortable in my own skin and be sure to use the proper preparation techniques before every interview. I have the abilities now it is time to show them.
References
Mooney, Patricia. “The Job Interview.” Umoja Sasa, vol. 6, no. 5, Career Communications Group, 1982, pp. 42–44, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43690974.
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Williamson-ga.us. 2022. Gibbs Reflective Model Template How Long Does It Take to Grade 88 Persuasive Research | williamson-ga.us. [online] Available at: <https://williamson-ga.us/gibbs-reflective-model-template/gibbs-reflective-model-template-how-long-does-it-take-to-grade-88-persuasive-research/> [Accessed 18 February 2022].
