Mock interviews

Mock interviews give students the opportunity to brush up their interview technique, learn about their chosen profession / sector and reduce anxiety for the real thing. They also highlight the knowledge, skills and personal attributes of your students to potential employers.

“Although very busy, the employers were happy to get involved because it wasn’t too much of a commitment. They were also able to raise awareness of future opportunities with their companies”.  Frank Hamer, Teaching Fellow, University of Plymouth

Case study

School of Computing, Communications & Electronics, University of Plymouth

Working with the careers service we organised mock interviews for second and final year students from our electrical engineering programme with employers from local engineering companies. The aim was to give the students a real insight into the interview process and some interview practice.

We contacted seven local engineering companies and four agreed to help, although one subsequently pulled out. Some of the contacts we made were with Plymouth graduates and we also contacted employers that either we or the careers service already knew. We arranged the interviews at the end of the autumn term when the students were starting to think about forthcoming interviews, either for jobs or one year industrial placements. It was optional for students to sign up for interviews but there was a lot of interest and we filled all of the available slots.

The employers conducted their interviews in the careers service and each one set aside half a day for this, interviewing six students each. Each interview slot was thirty minutes, with twenty minutes for the interview and ten minutes for feedback. The careers service hosted the interviews for us and so looked after the employers and provided a reception service for the students.

“The students liked having a real interview experience and felt more nervous before hand because they were meeting somebody from outside of the university. They also valued the feedback they received”.  Frank Hamer, Teaching Fellow, University of Plymouth

Tips

  • Contacting employers you already know can make it easier to persuade them to get involved. It also means you know whether they are suitable for this activity or not.
  • To give a real experience, ask the employers to provide a real job advert that they would use and ask your students to apply for this job.

Pitfalls

  • Take care that the employers you invite in give an appropriate interview experience and feedback.
  • If this an optional activity for students, ensure they are interested in taking part before going to the effort of organising this as it can be time consuming. One way to do this is ask them to submit CVs.
  • If you make this an optional activity the students who might benefit from this experience the most, because they are least able or confident interviews, might be the most likely to opt out.

Resources

  • Financial: Refreshments for the employers and somewhere appropriate for them to interview.
  • Time: Contacting employers was time consuming and because this was optional it was also time consuming promoting this to the students and gauging their interest. There is also some administrative work that is needed e.g. booking rooms, sending out confirmation letters or emails, booking parking for employers and booking refreshments.

Logo: Higher Education Learning Partnerships (HELP CETL)

More in the employer engagement guide...

Find employers

Know the job market

Realise your goals

Understand employers

Other case studies

Why engage?

 

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Mock interviews
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  6. Mock interviews
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