Almost everyone will have to go through a job interview at least once in their lifetimes. Many people do not know how to act in an interview or even how to dress for a job interview. The students taking speech and debate classes had to go through the district-required Mock Job Interview to engage them and teach them about the process of applying for a job on the 21st and 22nd.
Language art teacher Jennifer Jerome is the teacher who plans the Mock Job interviews every year. She plans this unit every year so that the students taking speech and debate can learn the basic skills of an interview. The mock interview teaches students how to dress for and act in an interview. The students have to figure out what schedule works best for them, what the annual salary would be, and the general information about that place of employment.
“Just the basic skill because we are all going have to get an interview,” Jerome said. “ You will also never get it for free after this experience.”
A lot of people would be nervous during an interview, but not sophomore Samuel Wheatly. Wheatley was very confident and happy. Since Wheatly already had work experience, he decided to work in the place where he had the most experience. He had decided to work at Zio’s Pizzeria because he is already working there.
“I did pretty well,” Wheatly said. “The interviewer said I had good contact and I didn’t have any weaknesses.”
While some people, like Wheatly were happy and confident, other students, like freshman Alana Nieman, were nervous and stressed. Nieman was so stressed that it made her stutter. She had applied to Scooters because she goes there a lot and thought it would be the perfect job for her. Nieman maintained great eye contact with the interviewer.
“I think remembering what to say is hard because I kinda kept repeating stuff,” Nieman said. “A little bit more than I was but not for the whole thing.”
There are many hard parts of a job interview. Some parts will be harder than others depending on the person. Jerome has some other ideas. She thinks that the paperwork is more important than almost everything else.
“Getting students to acknowledge the importance of having neat and grammatically correct paperwork,” Jerome said. “It’s a life-skill than use.”
With the help of this experience, students who are less confident in their interviewing skills can get some help and understand what to do in an interview. This skill can help many of the students because they will most likely be applying for jobs soon.
