Professional Practice (Week 8)

Preparing for your Interviews

This was our final week before I was going to be practicing a mock interview with my tutors Henry and Cathy from the UU employability team, Patricia who is an animator from 16 south and Adrian who is another student in my class there to learn from different perspectives of the interview. I was happy with this group of people and the initial idea of a mock interview, as I think it’s a great way to give us as an class an idea of what interviews generally are like and to prepare us for our future career and for some of us, our soon to be placement year next year. Next year I’ll be hopefully taking a placement year for my third year and I am eager to be more than prepared when it comes to creating my CV for an employer, emailing them for a position and hopefully being invited for an interview.

So, for this week’s lesson in class, we were going to be given a lecture on what to expect from an interview and advice on the how prepare for the interview, what to do during the interview and what to expect in the aftermath. This was then going to be followed up with us being put in breakout groups, to prepare each other for our interview and to also get a feel of being the one to take the interview and ask the others question. I am nervous for the year to come when we are expected to start searching and preparing for a placement, so no amount of experience and knowledge learned will be too much for me.

In preparation and knowing what to expect before going into an interview, I took in that all interviews will be different in style and will be based on the studio I will be applying for and who the employer is who is hiring. However, the general substance of the interview may follow the same guidelines and how I act for the interview will always stay the same and be important to remember. I learned that it is a good habit to really prepare for the interview a good few days before the actual appointment and to make sure I have made a check list of what to remember and what I need to do, in order to be at my best level and feel as comfortable for the interview. It is good to edit your CV and cover letter for that employer which you are emailing, use keywords and word your experiences and skills in an honest way.

This will help my CV stand out and will hopefully be recognised throughout the stages of an employer’s search for whoever they would like to employ and ask for an interview. I learned that researching into the studio must always be ongoing and be extensive in order to keep up with the studios on going projects and show that you have been doing research into their studios past projects and have shown this in your answers and questions you may have at the end of the interview. So, I need to remember to write up a few bullet points to go over before the interview, of answers I may have to their questions and also a list of questions I am genuinely eager to know.

This preparation would be best in helping me step into the interview more confidently, as confidence is something I struggle with and hope that it does not affect my ability to get a job, but something I will grow and get better with in experience.

Coming up to the interview I think it’s best to dress professional but in something that shows your personality and will not make me more uncomfortable than I already am, I believe with research, jotting down of what I should remember, comfortable but professional clothes and a loud outspoken introduction. Hopefully it would set the tone for the rest of the interview and allow me to power on from there and have a successful try at any interview.

Alex and Aodhan continued the lecture by giving us points on what to do during the interview to help us give our best effort and what to expect once the interview happens and what to expect after. It is key to be honest and respectful throughout the entire interview, as being honest about your experience, skills and what you have achieved in your life will be better in the long run. Otherwise, you could face difficult circumstances if you are not honest about your work and end up promising the employer things that you won’t be able to do for that company. You are there to be hired and present the best version of yourself so a good positive attitude, so I need to show them that I am eager to help them, respect them as a company and that I will be compatible with their working styles and are grateful for the opportunity.

I learned it is important to have great self-confidence and to really be sure within your work and the strengths you have gained within your career. You cannot expect someone to see you in a positive light if you do not see that yourself and make sure you show others what you are made of, that you can handle your work and that you are an hard worker ready for everything. It is good to have a healthy balance of admitting your strengths and weakness, but when it comes to weakness talk about them in a positive light, how you are aware of these weaknesses and how you plan to manage them and use them as a steppingstone to improve.

There is a lot to wrap your head around when going for an interview and it is something that can change your career. When speaking with the employer, they are going to ask questions which may range from your experiences, skills, what you can expect from the job and random queries to test your ability to think on the spot and your personality. We learnt a promising technique of ‘STAR’ and depending on the question which you are asked if you think of a situation to do with the question, a task that you had to face during this time, the action you took to resolve the task and what result you ended up with. This is a good method to think about most questions and can help you keep calm and think about the question and your answer without getting too overwhelmed with a response.

Overall, the interview is a time for you and the employer to get to know one another and know that the employer wants to understand why they should bring you onto their team and what difference or extras you can bring. They want to know what skills and experiences you have for the workplace and what you are like as a person, your passion, likes and who you are as an individual. However, it is always a time for you to become family with the studio and to think about what this career path can do for you and how you can benefit from them hiring you. I learned that is it always important to have an idea of what questions you want to ask the employer, to get an idea if you are suited to this role and what they expect from you once they hire you during or after training.

After the interview it is a good time to ask all your questions you want to know and perhaps ask about a time frame of when as a studio, they may get back to you about their decision and from there on it is a waiting game. It is also important however to never become settled and keep searching for job opportunities and interviews, as you may never know which one can become your next career milestone.

Next was our mock interviews in our breakout groups and I am confident that this amount of preparing for the future, will defiantly benefit me for the future career.

It was Oisin who decided to play the role as the employer and ask me some questions, to give me an idea of a practice interview. He asked me practice questions ranging from where I see myself five years, if I work better independently or with a group and more relaxed and personal questions like how my friends would describe me and what hobbies I enjoy out of work.

I think for my first practice interview in a long time, I was able to answer the questions and was not as nervous as I had initially set myself up to be. I was worried if I would know enough about my own personal skills and the work of the studio, but although I was not too prepared, I was able to hold myself together and finish the interview positively. I asked my group if they had any pointers for me to improve on and to give feedback on how well they thought I had answered the questions and taken the interview.

The feedback I had gotten from my classmates was that it was noticeable I wasn’t too confident coming into the interview and that when I was taking a pause to think of an answer out of nerves or genuinely just to think a bit, I got nervous with the silence and filled the gaps with “ah and um”. This highlighted the fact I was nervous even more and was not the most professional and confident way I could have went about taking a moment to think. I need to work me on relaxing, taking a breath and being okay with a few minutes to collect my thoughts.

Oison gave me the feedback that with some of the questions and in the overall interview, there was a few moments he had to move to the next question himself, as I was taking too long to answer the questions and instead began to ramble and take a while to get to the point. This was something I could also agree with as because I am so nervous and my brain is all over the place, I am finding it difficult to express the point I am trying to communicate with the employer effectively and instead ramble and take too long to get to what I was saying. Hopefully this can be another thing I get better at when my nerves are relaxed, and I gain some confidence with more experience in interviews and can be something that I also keep an eye on. So, if I notice I have been talking a lot about a specific topic or have been stuck on the same question for quite a while, to be mindful of this and try my best to be aware and try to concise what I am saying and end of the ramble as close the point I can get without taking up anymore of the employer’s time.

I think this practice and the lecture beforehand was beneficial in helping prepare me for my interview and get a better understanding of what is to come.