Practice makes perfect! Mock Interviews in Crawley February 09

The second Crawley Schools’ Mock Interview Event took place on Friday 13th February at the North Eastern Area Professional Centre in Crawley. Year 11 students from St. Wilfrid’s Catholic School and Hazelwick School took part and were interviewed by local business volunteers from Deloitte, KPMG and Crawley Borough Council and members of the Crawley & Gatwick Chamber of Commerce (including IT UK and Business Talk Magazine). The event was organised by the West Sussex Education Business Partnership (WSEBP).

Before the students arrived for their interviews they had previously applied for one of a selection of jobs on offer ranging from a Trainee Gardener to a Customer Service Adviser. This was followed by a 30 minute interview with two business volunteers, which included some feedback on the student’s performance. They were assessed not only on their answers to questions but on their body language, appearance, handshake etc.

Madeleine Mills, Co-ordinator from the WSEBP, said “this was a valuable real-life experience for the students as the interviews were conducted off the school site with business people that the students have never met before. In the current economic climate it makes sense to offer students as much experience as possible so that they are better prepared. All the students that took part this year came away from their interviews smiling and feeling more confident about being interviewed in the future.” Several of the business volunteers wanted to offer the students a job and Trish Couldrey from Crawley Borough Council said “all the students were polite, engaged well in conversation and took any constructive criticism positively and I felt confident that they would use any tips/hints in the future.”