Leicester Award Workshop 2: Part 1

The second Leicester Award for employability workshop focused heavily on the job application process and the interview technique, which I personally benefited from immensely.

Firstly I learnt about the fact that nearly all graduate schemes hold interview days or workshop days in order to meet the group of applicants face to face and to see who works well. From the employer presentations, such as Enterprise Rent-a-car,  I found out that small things count, such as body language, introductions and punctuality, and can go a long way. Furthermore you do not want to be known or remembered for the wrong things such as being too pushy or loud; it is hard to strike a balance. 

The majority of the afternoon was dedicated to speed interviews, which proved very useful as well. We were paired up and told to move around the room from station to station. The first station would be a prep station where you prepare your answers to set questions that they may or may not ask at the next station where there would be an interviewer, and then you continuously move from prep stations to interview stations to prep stations etc. I found the prep stations challenging as they often had questions that forced you to think. For example I had this asked of me:

"Describe a time when you failed at something and give the reasons why." 

Now on the surface this looked difficult as it is extremely negative and not something you'd particularly like to share with a potential employer. However if you look deeper, it is really a twist on the classic, most loathed question: What would you say are your weaknesses? I decided that I would give a short anecdote of a time I failed at completing an extra dissertation project (AQA extended project) as I actually went on to complete it a year later. This meant that I could demonstrate that I was dedicated at overcoming my weaknesses; turning a negative into a positive.

At the end of the session I received some feedback, from both my partner and the interviewers. It was noted that I often had good ideas, but needed to explain them further and just have the confidence to continue and promote myself. These are all things that I feel that I can work on easily and so the afternoon was very much a success!