Mock Interview Reflection

     

     When preparing for the mock interview, I felt extremely anxious and nervous.  When you're on the interviewee side of an interview, I feel as if the stakes are always pretty high.  If they weren't, then you may not need to be at the interview in the first place.  Even though this was a mock interview rather than a real one, the stakes still felt high.  Despite being so nervous, I do feel as if it went well overall.  In hindsight, I appreciated this feeling of realness and typical anxiety that I would feel for a real interview because it allowed me to get those negative feelings out of the way some before I have a real interview.  It allowed me to prepare like I would for a real interview without the stakes being high.  I am so appreciative that we had this opportunity as part of Leadership Development II.

     Through the preparation and the mock interview itself, I learned a couple key things.  One thing I learned was the many beneficial ways to respond to the most commonly asked questions during interviews.  I prepared by reviewing the resources given to us and practicing how I would answer many of the most common questions.  Many questions are geared to see how you handle them and how you relate them to that specific facility and yourself.  I feel as if I gained a much better understanding of how to better answer interview questions for the future.  Additionally, I learned that interviews are important because they give you the opportunity to separate yourself from the other applicants.  An interview is your time to share what about you makes you most qualified and prepared for a certain position compared to the other people claiming the same stance.  Many times we get caught up in what the interviewer will think about us, but it's also an opportunity to see what we think about them as well.  We are getting to officially meet our potential future managers and/or bosses just like they are getting to officially meet their potential employee or coworker.  It is an advantageous opportunity for both parties.  It took participating in this mock interview for me to grasp that concept.

     In the past, I feel as if I would get worked up during times when I am speaking alone and end up speaking too quickly.  However, during the mock interview I feel as if I remained at a much calmer and slower pace when speaking.  It is so easy to feel like you did badly during things like an interview after the fact, but when reviewing the video, I realized that I had done much better than I thought.  One thing I need to improve on is how often I use filler words like "um" and "things like that." I used "um" often when I was trying to gather my thoughts and prepare my next few words in an answer.  I used "things like that" when trying to wrap up the end of my response more than I realized at the time.  To decrease my use of these filler words and phrases, I will try to have a family member or friend ask me common interview questions prior to an interview so that I can practice answering questions without using the words and phrases too much or at all.