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Mock Interviews - Real Experiences
Tests, quizzes and homework are all part of the standard school curriculum, but for some students at SCPA, real-world preparation comes from experience.
Nearly 30 SCPA visual arts students participated in 15-minute mock interviews where they answered common-interview questions before rotating to their next interview.
SCPA staff and partners would ask common interview questions and then provide feedback regarding responses, body language and professionalism of answers.
Rob Biddinger, Career Coordinator for SCPA, organized the interviews after hearing students’ desires for more career preparation in high school.
“It’s interesting hearing people say things such as ‘oh, this would be really nice if I had this in high school,” said Biddinger. “A critical piece of job readiness is developing an understanding of job interviews. We're here to provide that experience so that when it does come time to have actual job interviews the students had that experience and received that necessary feedback.”
To add an additional piece of real-world expectations, Biddinger included online interviews for students over Google Meet. According to a recent Indeed survey, 82% of employers currently use virtual interviews to some degree.
“I definitely feel more prepared, especially having experience with job interviews in the past,” said Dylan Nance, SCPA senior and soon-to-be freshman at UC Blue Ash. “Having this and then going into an actual job, it gives you a very big insight into how you should present yourself and how you should answer certain questions.”
Biddinger says students from last year showed an increase in confidence after participating in the program.
“Last year we had an interviewer who works at Xavier, and she told me that our SCPA students left this more prepared than her own undergrads!”
Biddinger says he plans on making the mock interview process a yearly tradition for the students at SCPA.