You might have heard of MOCK INTERVIEWS being offered at the Career Center, but have you actually thought of going in for one yourself? USF's student Jared is in a Communications Studies class that was required to do a mock interview with the CSC. He had an interesting enough time to share his assignment with us!
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"Going into this mock interview, I was scared out of my mind. Of course, it wasn't for an actual job, so that was a bit of a relief, however, being interviewed for anything, whether it be a job, internship, college admission, etc. is just plain scary! Days before my scheduled appointment, I received a call from the Career Services Center, reminding me of my appointment, (awesome customer service!) and asking if I would like to be video taped. I quickly said "absolutely not" to that question, hoping to avoid even further humiliation. I felt bad enough that someone at CSC was going to have to suffer through my interview, there was no way I wanted to relive it! (Not this time around, anyways.)
When I arrived at the CSC, to my surprise, I was met by extremely friendly students and staff who were eager to talk to me. When the woman came out and called my name, I instantly got even more nervous, however, my nerves were calmed by her kindness and friendliness. Before we got started with the interview, Ellen (that was her name), offered to look over my resume and cover letter again, as she had previously helped me with it for the last assignment. She picked out a few remaining errors, and offered great advice on how to tweak it to make it perfect. I now feel really confident about my resume.
So, on to the interview. This is where the fun began. I didn't go in with a job description, but rather told her about my current position at DNA and what I do, and she based the interview off that. At this point, I was shaking, sweating, and just plain freaking out! I'm not one for interviews (is anyone?), so this was not fun for me. As my voice started to get shaky and the questions started coming my way, I tried my best to answer them using my pre-thought out answers, even if the questions weren't exactly what I had expected.
So the interview continued, and at the end, Ellen had a full page of notes scribbled down, front and back, on things she wanted to talk to me about. This made me question how horrible it actually was, but to my surprise, she had a lot of good things to say. She took me back to a few instances in my answers that she really liked...
1) My eye contact was very good. I didn't notice, I think I blacked out during the interview, so for all I know, I could have been looking at the gum under the table. But, apparently not!
2) I mentioned that fashion was what I am the most passionate about, and she asked "Then why not FIDM?" It took me a second to ponder this question, but she liked my answer. I explained how I wanted the University experience, a solid liberal arts education, and that pleased her.
3) While talking about the wonderful liberal arts education we receive at USF, I had mentioned core classes, and she asked about them. I took a minute to talk a little about a few classes that I really liked, and when Existentialism came up, rather than bombarding her with a story, I asked her if she would like me to expand on why I loved this class. She said that this was great because I first gave a quick overview, and rather than throwing a story at her that she might not want to hear, I asked her if she wanted to know more about it, which intrigued her. I told a story about the class, and at the end, mentioned that "my mind doesn't work like an Existentialist's." She liked this because it showed her that even though Existentialism isn't something that I love, I do value my liberal arts education that I'm receiving.
Anyways, you know what they say...when it rains, it pours, so let's move onto the bad...and by bad, I mean, I pretty much blew it!
The last question of the interview had finally arrived, the most important question, the one that I had prepared myself SO much for...
"Why should we hire YOU?"
My answer: "Uhhh, well, I want experience and I'm eager to learn and uhhhh..."
MY MIND WENT COMPLETELY BLANK. I had a five minute answer prepared for this question, and after 20 minutes or so of being interviewed, I lost it. I couldn't get a single word out of my mouth. So, the interview awkwardly ended, but to my delight, Ellen had tons of good things to say, which I already mentioned. She gave me her sheet of notes, and pinpointed what I nailed, and what I (obviously) blew. We spent another 15 minutes talking about ways to improve, and she gave me some awesome constructive criticism that I definitely appreciated and will use to improve my skills in the future.
Moral of the story: the interview was extremely helpful and I think that I learned a lot about myself by doing it. I fully plan on utilizing CSC again, probably even before a real job interview comes about, just to practice my interviewing skills. I really enjoyed talking with Ellen, sharing stories with her about my experience and my current job (sometimes, it's nice to just talk to someone about what you love!), and getting her feedback on the whole process.
And, it's over!"
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University of San Francisco
Career Services UC 5th floor
FB: USF Career Services
Twitter: @USFcareer
