I help out at mock interviews
I went to help out at some mock interviews yesterday. It’s so easy to become engaged in people’s stories. I was really there just to feedback on performance in role plays and did not see a CV, but you find yourself wracking your brain trying to think of helpful suggestions.
Lady 1 was in her early 50s – very smartly turned out; good eye contact; nice smile; thoughtful answers. Something had happened that had shattered her confidence – broken relationship, middle age life crisis, I don’t know. I said how helpful I had found counselling and that age was not a barrier to employment these days, but this was a harder nut to crack. I also advised her to have a narrative to explain why she had moved in to three very different fields after approximately 8 years in each other than just restructuring.
Lady 2 wanted to work with small children in a school setting. She had all the right qualifications but she worked for an agency and they seemed to be moving her every 3 months which would make it more difficult for a school to like her and offer her a job when one came up. I suggested focusing on 4 schools she liked and writing directly to the Head. Agencies need their staff and are not going to make it easy for them to leave.
Male 1. Seemed to have low scores in two of the exercises and then shone in his group exercise for thoughtful, affirming and inclusive interventions. He was quiet and a bit hippy and geeky and into computer games, looking for supermarket shelf stacking work. I suggested Curry’s if he liked his IT and firms with a family ethos. It’s a myth that only the jolly, outgoing types get the jobs. There are lots of quiet, young men on the check outs at my Sainsbury’s who are well loved for their gentle and considerate natures.
Lady 3. Had worked for 13 years in a nursery environment without encouragement to get any qualifications during this period. I was enraged for her. Without these she would not get as far as an interview. She had been exploited for her accommodating nature. I suggested a nanny agency where she could work part-time and get qualifications, but I think she felt she was too old to risk something different.
Male 2. Did the coffee shop role play as if he was the manager – never mind an employee. I struggled to understand why he was on the course, but he was coming out of a job in IT to train in social care so he could look after his elderly mother. While morally laudable I thought this would take some explaining professionally. He could have run a social care business and probably will!
Male 3. I worried for this guy too. He was in his early 30s and had just left banking. Why do people leave jobs without another one to go to? He had obvious people facing skills. I suggested he worked as an employment broker while he developed his entrepreneurial leanings. He said someone had suggested that already!
I was moved by all of them. They were all there trying. I hope they are all successful.