The gist
Just under 240 CTE seniors were scheduled to participate in interviews between Oct. 1-2, CTE Director Stephanie Speaks said. The interviews were held at CHHS on Oct. 1 and at Grapevine High School on Oct. 2.
Speaks said the idea for mock interviews came from wanting to teach kids how to prepare for job interviews in a low-stress environment. The mock interviews also serve as a great chance for kids to get feedback, she said.
“It provides an experience for kids that they wouldn’t necessarily get,” Speaks said. “We talk about resume writing, we talk about interviewing but this actually takes all of those pieces taught in the classroom and applies it into a low-stakes real-world setting.”
How it works
Nearly 70 volunteers from the community agreed to participate, Speaks said. In a single session, each volunteer was expected to interview a student for about 20 minutes and provide verbal feedback for five minutes after.
Volunteers were provided resumes of students they were assigned to interview and a rubric scoring each student on their comprehension, professionalism and confidence. After the interview, volunteers graded each student according to the rubric.
In addition to resumes and rubrics, each volunteer was provided a list of behavioral interview questions revolving around several themes:
- Communication
- Decision making
- Initiative
- Planning and organization
- Flexibility
- Leadership
- Time management
Faculty members began preparing their students for the interviews at the beginning of the year. The CTE department hosted professional development sessions for teachers in August featuring guest speakers who spoke about what job resumes need to include, Speaks said.
Guest speakers were also invited to review the situation-task-action-result (STAR) method for answering interview questions.
In addition, the CTE department put together a “soft skills” curriculum for teachers to reference when reviewing resume writing and interviewing skills with their students, Speaks said.
What they’re saying
After finishing his mock interview, CHHS senior Ely Amerson said he thought it went smoothly. The mock interview was a positive experience that gave him more practice for future interviews.
“The more experience you get in something, the better you’re eventually going to be at it,” he said. “There’s no downside to doing it at all.”
Amerson is studying sports and entertainment marketing under the business and industry career cluster at Heritage High School. He’s considering pursuit of an engineering or finance degree after high school.
One question Amerson was happy to encounter during the interview was when he asked how he responded to failure. Amerson said he needed to work on responses to questions like those because he struggled to turn his personal failures into strengths.
“At the end of the day, people want to know how you responded to failure,” he said. “How you responded when you weren’t at your best.”
