Take 20-30 minutes as a group to go over this with your tutor.
Your Mock Assessment Centre presentation will be held on Tuesday 26th November for Meantime groups and on Thursday 28th November for Meridian groups. The presentations will be held in your usual seminar rooms (unless otherwise stated).
You and your learning set will be required to deliver a 10-minute team presentation, in a given time slot, to external guests from a friendly employer.
This type of exercise is common in assessment centres. Other assessment centre exercises are likely to include psychometric testing (e.g. verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests), interviews and role-plays. The team presentation, to a brief given at short notice, is designed specifically to test candidates’ leadership, team-working, communication, research, creativity and problem-solving skills. It also tests candidates’ ability to work under pressure.
Presentation Brief:
The exact brief will be released exactly two weeks before ‘The Boardroom Project’ presentations. This gives all students ample time to prepare, although under some time pressure. (In case you think this is unfair or tough, normally in assessment centres you are only given an hour to research and prepare your presentation!).
Your team will have 10 minutes maximum in which to present your research and creative ideas. You are to use a maximum of 5 PowerPoint slides. You are required to use a USB memory stick (no downloading of slides from the internet or your network account on the day please). The first slide must contain your team members’ names and ID numbers. You must reproduce your slides in Part 3 of your Portfolio (see below 5.4). Your team will be expected to take questions after the presentation.
You are expected to dress smartly.
Presentation slot:
Your date, room and time slot for ‘The Boardroom Project’ presentations will also be published on Moodle. Presentations will take place one team at a time, using the normal tutorial rooms, at 15minute intervals. On the day itself, please arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled time and wait quietly outside your classroom until you are invited in.
Presentation Feedback:
Our guest colleagues will give some immediate verbal feedback after your presentation. Each team member will also receive written feedback for inclusion in Part 3 of your Portfolio (see below 5.4). This will be distributed before the end of term (see below 5.4).
Prize-giving:
Our guest colleagues will be providing the written feedback and awarding prizes to the best presentations. The prize-giving event will take place at the beginning of Term 2, and details will be confirmed by the module leader.
| Recap and Preparation for Workshop 5: ° How well developed is your CV in its multiple versions? Do you need more advice on it e.g. from ECS? ° Take a look at the materials for the Workshop 5 on interviews. Do some background research on the effectiveness of selection interviewing (see human resource management textbooks). ° Thoroughly and carefully read the Mock Interview guidelines on the next page to assist you in preparing for your Mock Interview, ° Remember, you will become confident about interviews when you are competent so PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! |
WORKSHOP 5: INTERVIEW ROLE PLAYS
We all need continual practice in interview technique. It helps to understand all aspects of the interview process, from both the interviewer and interviewee perspective. Nowadays there is a huge volume of examples of best practice interviews on the internet, on websites such as YouTube. As ever, however, be a critical and discerning customer of internet-based sources. There is also a substantial amount of published research on the effectiveness of selection interviews and best practice in interviews (see any HRM textbook).
In this workshop, we will perform a mock interview exercise and you will then need to write a critical reflection of this for Part 3 of the Portfolio.
Aims of workshop
- understand interview process from interview, interviewee perspectives
- gain an insight into best practice in selection interviews
- critically discuss the effectiveness of selection interviewing
- review requirements for Part 3 of the Portfolio
In Workshop 5, we will be doing 4 activities:
- mock interviews (70 mins)
- discussion of interview effectiveness (10 mins)
- briefing for mock assessment centre (The Boardroom Project) (10 mins) review of requirements for Part 3 of the Portfolio (10 mins)
ACTIVITY 5.1: MOCK INTERVIEWS
(70 mins)
Review the job spec (10 mins): In your learning sets, first of all review one the graduate job ads from Workshop 3 or an alternative agreed with your tutor. Agree the main requirements of the role.
Agree roles and prepare for the first interview (15 mins): One learning set member will be the interviewer, and another will the interviewee. The interview will last for 5 minutes only. The interviewer will select questions from the list overleaf, without the interviewee knowing in advance which questions will be selected. The third member will act as observer, taking notes to then provide feedback to both the interviewer and interviewer (using the form overleaf on page 56). Be sure to get into role! This means setting up the interview ‘room’ appropriately as best you can, acting out the meeting and greeting at the start of the interview, and seeing the candidate out of the room at the end of the interview.
Role-play the first interview with post-interview feedback from the observer (15 mins):
Repeat the mock interview twice, rotating roles (30 mins): Rotate the rolesso that all members of the learning set get to play interviewer, interviewee and observer.
Possible interview questions
*NOTE: a question on dissertation / management report is required for everyone*
Education
- Tell me about your education background: why did you decide to study BA Business
Management/HRM/
Psychology?
- What is your research topic for your dissertation / management report and how is it relevant for the job you apply for?
- How is the process going? Are you ‘in control’ of the process of doing research and writing the dissertation / management report?
- Did you undertake a placement year? How is this experience relevant for the job you apply for?
- If you did not do a placement: what evidence could you provide of skills that you have gained from other work experiences?
- Are you planning any further study/training after you have graduated? Why/Why not?
- Which skills do you most need to develop further? How do you generally plan to do this?
Previous Work Experience
- Can you give me a brief summary of your work history to date?
- What were the exact responsibilities you had in each of these jobs?
- Can you give an example of where you have needed to provide leadership in a team?
- Tell me about when you witnessed conflict in a work or team environment? What was your role and how was the situation resolved?
- Give an example where you have taken responsibility for a difficult task.
- Describe an incident in which your action was critical for the solution of the problem.
- Give examples of your communication skills and how you have used and developed them in practice.
Current Application
- Why have you applied for this post?
- Why do you want to work for this company?
- What specific skills/competences do you have for this job?
- Why do you want this job?
- How do you see your career development in the long-term?
- What do you see as the next step in your career?
- What is your ideal job?
- Why should we offer you this position?
- Why do you want to change jobs?
- Describe an example where you have utilised your communication skills to handle a difficult customer (or co- worker, team member, etc.)?
Personal
- Describe how you would adapt to new situations, people, workplaces and ways of working?
- Give an example of your experience as a team player and how you have handled group conflicts.
- Give an example of how you approach new challenges.
- Give an example where you have led a team to reach a group objective and demonstrated your leadership skills.
- What are your main strengths and weaknesses?
- What is your greatest achievement to date?
- Give an example where you have provided good customer service (or team work).
Observer Role
As an observer attempt to observe the following in the interview:
- information: how relevant is the information provided from both sides – interviewer and interviewer
- are the questions leading or do they open up the potential for a proper dialogue?
- How much are both sides willing and able to listen?
Other aspects that may be observed:
- gestures and the way people sit opposite from each other
- clarity of speech and appropriateness of answering: not too long and not too short
- referring back to other information provided in the interview and linking skills with experiences Observer’s notes
| Observer: | |
| Interviewer: | |
| Candidate: |
Write some specific comments that will be useful for improvement and reinforcement – at least one positive (+) and one change, or delta ( )
Please tick box (5 = Excellent; 4 = Good; 3 = Average/Fair; 2 = needs improvement; 1 = poor).
| General appearance, punctuality & presentation | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Listening and answering skills (how much evidence provided and preparedness to address questions adequately) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Understanding of job role(interpretation of the job description and tasks required) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Suitability to job role (ability to link previous/existing experience to job role) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Level of competency-based answers (ability to understand question, give clear structured examples) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Level of responding to abstract questions (e.g. strengths, weaknesses, why should we recruit you? Etc.) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Awareness of and evidence of research on company culture and sector | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Gestures, non-verbal signs and actions showing suitable attitude (e.g. avoiding irritating noises and movements) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Clarity of answers (tone, level, clarity) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Closing of interview: final question by interviewee | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
ACTIVITY 5.2: DISCUSSION OF INTERVIEW EFFECTIVENESS
An interesting dilemma about selection interviewing is that is relatively ineffective as a selection tool (i.e. as a predictor of the performance of the candidate in the job role), yet it continues to be used pervasively in organisations. Below is a summary of the main lessons gained from academic research about the reasons for widespread ineffectiveness and bad practice in selection interviewing.
Source: Bratton, J. and J. Gold (1999), Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition, Basingstoke: Macmillan (p.204).
As a group, discuss the following questions (10 mins):
1.How useful has this mock interview exercise been for you personally as a soon-to-be graduate jobseeker? o What are the main lessons you have learnt about best practice as an interviewee and as an interviewer?
o In general, how effective are interviews for both the candidate, and for the employer?
Tips for answering interview questions:
Remember to use the STAR framework:
Situation: Explain the situation
Task: Explain your task or role
Action: What action did you take?
Results: What resulted from your action?
Additional reading:
You may find this article by Steve Rock (2014) useful graduate jobs on how to stand out in an interview and impress employers.
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