Interview basics
Content
This lesson provides the first opportunity for students to practise their interview skills. To prepare them for this experience it is important to go over some basic information, to ascertain whether or not they understand some interviewing basics, and to role-play a good interview for students before allowing them to try an interview scenario themselves.
Objectives
- Understand the basic skills required in an interview
- Recognise different interview types and questions that could be asked in a general interview
- Demonstrate this understanding by completing an interactive quiz
- Demonstrate this understanding by participating in an interview scenario in Second Life
Resources
Web pages:
- The job interview - Interview preparation (Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development web site)
http://www.deed.state.mn.us/cjs/cjsbook/interview1.htm
- The job interview - Interviewing types (Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development web site)
http://www.deed.state.mn.us/cjs/cjsbook/interview2.htm
Videos:
- Job interviewing videos (Education Portal) – there are several videos that support the lesson objectives
http://education-portal.com/video_library/Job_Interviewing_Videos.html
- One-minute interview videos (Collegegrad.com - also on YouTube) – again, there are many videos here that could be used to support students who may lack understanding in specific areas – as these are very small files, just one-minute videos, it would be useful to encourage students to access these in their own time
http://www.collegegrad.com/job-search-videos/
- Classic job interview questions (2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr2bpcpNQWY&feature=PlayList&p=37D1515892814808&index=1&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
Great for questioning – how to answer questions
- Preparing for job interviews (3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sagv6DGpdHI&feature=PlayList&p=37D1515892814808&index=2&playnext=3&playnext_from=PL
Shows how to prepare for the interview/research the company and shows the importance of mock interviews
- Stairway of Learning and interview rooms (in Second Life)
Activities
Recap
- Encourage students to access video material – the urls for the two web sites with interview videos could be given to students to access if and when required, while the longer videos have been set up on the media screen in Second Life, also accessible to students at any time
- Walk students around the Stairway, give them time to read the main boards and show them how to save the note cards for reading and later reference – make sure they all take a copy of the note card for Board 5 – Interview types and stages
- Give students a few minutes to access the online quizzes and attempt either one or the other – the links for these can be accessed in Second Life
| Interview Skills Quiz - University of Kent quiz for students |
| http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/ivquiz.htm |
| Test your job interview skills - Career Clubs International |
| http://careerclubsinternational.com/job_interview_quiz.htm |
Main activity
- Allow students 5 minutes to dress appropriately for an interview (rez the shop and pose stands)
- Remove the shop and rez the demonstration interview room
- Either ask for a student volunteer for the role-play or have a colleague who is prepared to help out in the role-play
- Discuss the interview room and how to access the generic and behavioural question lists (if students are unsure of the difference between these two types of questions, they need to have this clarified)
- Demonstrate a good interview through role-play
- Assign students to groups of three (interviewer, interviewee and observer) and walk them through rezzing and teleporting to a private interview room
- Encourage students to vary their roles as they are practising
Reflection/evaluation
- Each interviewing group could write up a note card about their interview roles and experiences
- All members of the group would need to have their name included on the note card and then dropped into the drop box in Second Life
- Another alternative would be for the students to write up their experiences on the web (if this is the method of choice used by the lecturer), or even typed up in a portfolio
