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The ‘speed interviewing’ format saw students moving betwe... |
Students get ahead with speed interviews
In an ever-competitive job market graduates are working harder to make themselves stand out from the crowd – and at the Career Ahead mock interviews held last week 120 students did just that.
Around 40 graduates returned to UOW to take part in speed interviews – where the students moved around a station with eight alumni, and had a limited amount of time to answer a question from each person.
Questions included interview-standard requests like “Describe your weaknesses” and “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
The alumni then gave instant feedback to the students and gave tips on how to respond to questions in a real interview situation.
Barbara Marks, an HR and Management alumnus, has been on Career Ahead panels for the past three years, bringing her experience working at multinational HR company Bureau Veritas to give valuable feedback to students.
She said that although the day was made up of mock interviews, the students and alumni involved certainly treated it as the real thing.
“Students appreciate the feedback, and if we can help give them opportunities that’s great,” Ms Marks said.
“There were a wide range of responses to the questions, and some were absolutely outstanding.”
Psychology students Sabine Mascrenhas and Isha Sood said the day was extremely helpful, and that getting instant feedback was the best part of the interviews.
“The feedback helped because they suggested ways to deal with problems that we had,” Sabine said.
“It was good to gain experience and to be able to think deeper about the questions than we normally would,” Isha said.
Alumni ranked each student’s interview performance and the best five students from each of the three sessions received a prize at the networking function at the end of the day.