One of the many assignments Planning 10 students get to do are mock job interviews. All Planning 10 students have to dress up just like they would if they were being interviewed for an actual job. Planning teachers get volunteers from the community to be the interviewer.
“Having the experience of an interview, giving feedback, to students is very important,” said volunteer interviewer Shannon Stahr. Stahr is a controller at Total Green Commercial Cleaning and also has a background in business. For many of these students, this is their first job interview experience. “Most of the students are 15 years old and are hoping to get part time jobs in the next year or so,” said Planning 10 teacher Mr. Brian Barazzoul. “By having these experiences in school they can take away not only what an interview will look like, but they learn what they can do to improve their interviewing skills for actual employment opportunities in the future.”
When students first hear about this assignment, several students do not look forward to it because it is different and they have never done anything remotely like this before. After they have done the interview however, they realize that it wasn’t as bad as they originally thought it was and that they learned from it.
“I like the mock interview because it allows us to become more aware of the employer’s expectations and how to prepare for questions and answers,” said grade 10 student Cayley Minty. “I am hoping that the students first of all can take away that sometimes if you don’t have a great job interview, there are things you can do for the next one going forward; such as, improvising body language, how you answer the questions, and your mannerisms, said Barazzoul. “I think the whole idea of the interviews is to have them practice in class what to do properly, then when it comes to actually putting it into an interview, seeing how they would perform in a situation that is a little more pressure filled.”
After it’s all over this interview assignment is always one of the favourites for all the Planning 10 students.