The practice interviews we did on Wednesday were helpful to gain more experience and feedback on our interview skills. They were conducted with our classmates which made them less scary than when we do our real interviews, but they helped me get an idea of what my interview could look like.
The first part of the interview that I learned I could improve on was my pacing. Natalie was the one assessing me, and she mentioned that I was moving through the questions quite quickly. For my interview, I think I should try not to rush through anything and give lots of time for responses. This is important because it will help me get information about my eminent person that I might not have known to ask about for. I also want to not rush through my questions so that the person I interview can understand what I was looking for in the answer. If I give bad explanations to questions, I can’t expect to get the information I need for this project.
During the interview, I also got to practice being aware of how I am coming across to the person I was interviewing. In interviews, there are a lot of considerations for how you hold yourself and what kind of energy you give off to the person you are interviewing. For the interviews we did, I practiced showing the person that I was interviewing that I was engaged and interested in their answers. Something I still had to work on was making sure that I was not fidgeting and moving around too much. This can be distracting for the people that are answering questions and I would not want them to forget an answer or lose their train of thought. This might be less important because our interviews will not be in person but was still helpful to practice for the future.
The last part of the practice interview that I found helpful was getting some positive feedback. It helped me build confidence in skills that I was told were the strengths of my interview. Natalie mentioned that I was responding to the answers in a way that helped keep the flow of the interview going. I found this helpful because I now know to stick to how I was responding to the interviewee’s answers for my eminent interview.
The practice interview helped me practice new skills in a low-stakes environment. I was able to learn what I can focus on improving on for my interview and what I was already doing well. When doing an interview, you do not usually get any feedback so this experience was helpful for any interviews I do in the future.