Get ready for the job interview!

Learning objectives and the skills developed

To learn how to prepare for a job interview
To learn about company’s expectations from
a candidate participating in a job interview

Materials:

A4 paper sheets, pens
Chairs, and a table to set up an “office” for the interview
Printed job announcements for all the participants

Presentation:

Search on a job platform a couple of job announcements and print them out

Presentation:

Select four participants from the group or ask for four volunteers. Three of them will play the role of: the director of a company, the human resources manager, the supervisor. The fourth participant will be the candidate for the job.
Give to all the participants copies of one of the announcements you printed out.
Ask the volunteers playing the roles of company’s representatives, while sitting separately from the group, to prepare a set of questions they will ask the candidate for the job position from the announcement. Explain to them the role of each position, respectively the interests and role of the director, of the HR manager, and of the supervisor.
Ask the volunteer playing the role of the candidate to prepare some answers to questions he / she might think the company will ask for the same job position.
Until the volunteers prepare their questions, and answers, prepare the room, arranging some chairs and a table to simulate the environment of an office. Use the help of the other participants in doing this.
Ask the other participants to pay attention to the role playing, and take notes, make observations on how the interview takes place.
When volunteers are ready, ask them to reunite in the “office” you create for them, and ask them to start the interview.
Do not interrupt the role playing and do not let other participants to interrupt it. Leave the volunteers to end it when they consider they have all the information needed from the candidate.
At the end of the interview, discuss with the participants what went right, and what went wrong. Focus the discussion on: the questions asked (explain to the participants that usually these questions are focused on knowledge, experience, and motivation of the candidate; make sure to correct the discriminative questions, or the closed-ended questions, or too personal questions); the answers given by the candidate; the attitude of the candidate, and his / her non-verbal communication style; the questions asked by the candidate; the atmosphere of the meeting; etc.
Ask participants what would they do differently if they were the company’s representatives, or the candidate.
End the session by presenting the basic rules of preparation for a job interview, from the candidate perspective (research the organization, learn about the company and the job available, revise your CV / experience / motivation, prepare answers related to knowledge, experience, motivation, prepare your own questions for the company’s representatives, etc.)

Follow-up questions:

What are the most important things you learnt from the role playing in regards to a job interview?
What are the things you must improve for your next job interview?

Possible Variations:

Before step 11, you can add another role playing, with a different group of volunteers, and choosing a different job position from a different announcements.