Mock Interview

 In order to prepare myself for the workplace, I am going to have a mock interview with David Longworth from the BBC. From my CV research I feel like I already know the processes of how an interview works. I know the way employers hire so therefore I can prepare myself effectively.

The college held the mock interview in order to help and assist us in knowing what to expect in the future. In order to prepare myself, I went online to find out what is best to do in an interview.

-Research company

-Prepare for common interview questions

-Prepare some questions to ask the interviewer at the end

-Bring a copy of CV/ availability 

-Turn off phone-STAR Method (situation, task, action, result)

-Treat everyone you meet in the building as your interviewer. 

Below is a copy and paste research in my CV research.

Stage 3 - First interview/ interview:

Commonly there are two types of interviews, Structured and unstructured interviews. Structured interviews, being shown to be almost more than twice reliable than unstructured, are the most commonly used. Although it may be best to use a structured approach to an interview, some jobs may use a unstructured. For example a company looking for a financial advisor may use a structured approach in order to find out more about the person's accomplishments and how they would deal with common or unusual situations that may arise. However a person, such as myself in the past, who is applying to a restaurant or bar may have an unstructured interview due to the fact the employer might be more interested in the persons character and their background, to see if they would be a good fit for the team. 

STAR:

Normally used within the screening  and pre-selection segment, STAR is an acronym for a process of questions that can be asked to a person and see if their answers match with what the employer expect and want. It can be used to ask candidates about past experiences as well...

S stands for Situation. The candidate will be asked about situations they will find themselves within the workplace and how they would be expected or how they would resolve the situation. 

T is for Task. Finding out the end goal for the candidate and the process they would go about solving it. Is it the conventional way? or are they going to take risks in order to possibly have a better outcome?

A is for Action. If they fail or something goes wrong, what is the action they will take in order to resolve or minimise the damage of their mistakes?

R is for result. What did their past situation, task and action help them learn? Have they been able to take what has happened and make sure it will not happen again?

This does not always have to do with the job physically however. For my Aldi Pre-selection process for example, I was asked how I would deal with a colleague not doing work and how I would support a colleague who was feeling low. Companies like to see how you treat your fellow staff and commit to work at the same time.

Knowing the style of questions that could be asked, I was able to prepare myself effectively for the interview...

This was the given brief and due to my B2 project being based on the north east, I decided to do my pitch on the north of England Vs the south of England. Due to the interview being more of a pitch, my preparation was slightly different. In order to prepare for this I researched into the common misconceptions around the North and South of England.

Last year I did another project with BBC three. Therefore, i used my previous knowledge of BBC three to help steer me in the right direction.

Example of the research:

As explained in this report, "Younger age groups continued to watch less broadcast TV in 2020. People aged 16 to 24, for example, only spent an hour and 17 minutes watching broadcast content – down four minutes from 2019". Bearing in mind this isn't just for BBC three, this is for the whole of TV.  Most young people these days are constantly watching online and using streaming platforms. The only time young people seem to be using TV is for sport and drama. "The most-watched program so far this year is the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy." Although TV is on a decline for this age range, many still watch TV. However, because of lockdown "TV and online video have proved an important antidote to lockdown life, with people spending a third of their waking hours last year glued to screens for news and entertainment." 

Pitch from Bailey44

Knowing what to expect within my interview I felt more prepared than before. I felt like I had the right amount of information and had rehearsed what I was going to say before the interview. However when I had my actual interview, I feel like the pressure got to me and I was overthinking the questions he asked me. Therefore, I found myself stumbling on my words and was stuttering quite a lot.

This is the link to my interview

Overall, from this interview I have learned to take a breather during the questioning of my pitches and interviews. This interview has helped me have a brief insight into the industry and is helping me prepare for interviews within the future.