Workshop 1: Job interviews

For our Science and Employability module we attended a workshop that consisted of two parts: for the first part, a hypothetic scenario was set where our group was a victim of a plane crash in the middle of a snowy forest and we had fifteen minutes to decide which ten items to pick from a list of  various items from inside the plane that would help us survive in the woods before the plane burst into flames; so that afterwards we debated our decisions. But on this entry I will focus on the second part of the workshop.

For the latter we simulated a job interview and each one of the members in our group assumed a role, which we rotated in shifts: the candidate (the person who was going to be interviewed), a note taker who did not make questions but took notes on what the candidate was saying, a supervisor who made sure that the interview would last five minutes (no more, no less) and three interviewers. In our case, since our group only consisted of five members, the supervisor also made questions.

After the candidate was interviewed, the note taker gave some feedback, mostly positive but also constructive; and afterwards the remaining members of the group made some contributions to the feedback the note taker had done.

Personally, I think it was quite a remarkable change from working as a group to dividing ourselves in different roles, especially when you were the one to be interviewed you felt so much pressure and responsibility. However, I don’t think interviewing the other members of the group was difficult or awkward, the questions were quite short, basic and concrete, and not particularly uncomfortable.

I found some difficulty at giving feedback when I assumed the role of note taker. I feel like the other members of the group assumed the role very easily and naturally, however, my feedback was pretty poor and general.

Since I was the first candidate, I was quite nervous and whereas the other members were being interviewed I kept thinking of more things I could have said in my interview, and questions I would have liked to answer. For example, the very first question I answered got me unprepared and I completely blanked. A few minutes later I thought of many possible answers, but I guess that is some preparation for future real job interviews.

While watching other candidates, I didn’t feel like I was a rival or competing with them at all: we were all in the same boat, but I guess in a real job interview the situation would have completely different…

To sum up, I thought it was a very useful workshop, and also pretty entertaining; which changed my perception towards job interviews and the reaction I thought I would have when the moment of my first interview arrived (even if it was not real!).