Mock Interview Student Reflection - Reflection And Learning Outcomes

Now that you have completed your mock interview, take some time to reflect on what you experienced and how it might affect your college and career plans in the future. 

1. What job/position did you choose for the mock interview? Why?

2. What skills and personal qualities are required for this position?  Which of these do you still need to develop?

3. What aspects of the mock interview were most helpful to you?  Which were not?  Why?

4. What questions did you feel most prepared to answer? Why?

5. What questions did you feel least prepared to answer? Why?

6. What did you learn about yourself through the mock interview? Please explain.

7. What knowledge or skills do you need to strengthen to be successful on your next interview? Please explain.

8. How did learning about ‘interview skills’ in class prepare you for the mock interview?

Choosing a Job Role for the Mock Interview

1. I have chosen the role of an assistant branch manager at a bank. The primary reason to choose the role is a personal preference for the banking job since I have a knack for financial management and dealings. I would enjoy working in a job role which is people-facing, where I have to deal with a different person with varied stature as part of my everyday work schedule. In addition, I would like to lead a team of employees by taking their responsibility and motivating them through their work, which is possible in the chosen role. Along with that, I would prefer a job role where I can view the direct implications of the inputs that I give in as part of my daily routine. As an assistant branch manager in a bank, the results on my actions are visible as the performance and profitability achieved by the branch where I would work (Ghias et al. 2017).

2. The primary skills required for the chosen role is the extensive understanding of core banking operations including savings and current accounts, term deposits, overdrafts etc. Along with that, I must possess an understanding of financial market products and client portfolio management. Apart from these, as an assistant manager, I have to build, mentor and influence my team to achieve the business goals and simultaneously develop strong client relationship. According to Moller and Russell (2008), the people management and soft skills are very essential for this job role. Also, I must have the skills to develop and execute strategies to bring in new business for the branch. The dexterity in the overall branch operations is needed too.
Among the above-mentioned skills, I need to develop the understanding of the various financial market product and portfolio management since these require considerable monitoring and prediction of the market trends (Bharne et al. 2017). At the same time, I need to develop the prowess of managing branch operations to a great extent as it is a practical skill and can be learnt on the job.

3. The oration skills are very important for all practical purposes and especially to crack an interview. While answering a variety of question, I could understand the gaps in my speaking capability which requires some practice. It was the most helpful aspect of the mock interview process. The second most helpful aspect was the perception of a proper body language and professional etiquette. Salmon et al. (2011) mentioned that these can earn positive points during the process of the interview. There is a lot of stress and anxiety during an interview. Attending the mock interview helped me feel prepared and overcome the anxiety to a certain extent. It also helped me by boosting my self-confidence as this was a good opportunity for practice.
However, as it was a mock interview, a majority of the questions were generic and was not typically around the technicalities of job role chosen by me, which was not helpful in preparing me for the real-time scenario. Also, there was not enough constructive feedback given which was not helpful as they could point out the weak areas that need more practice (Rohaizat Baharun, 2012). 

Skills and Personal Qualities for the Assistant Branch Manager Role

4. I was quite prepared to answer the personal questions concerning my background and preferences for the job role and my strengths and weaknesses. I also felt prepared for questions related to the key skills as a leader that I possess and are needed to work as an assistant branch manager since I have done some research on the topic and undergone some practice myself.
There were some behavioural questions where I was required to provide past examples of handling challenging situations, creative problem solving, working under stress, team-leading activity etc. I was prepared to face these questions as the answers come from real-life situations and actually focus on how a person handles various situation revealing the abilities and personality traits.

5. A few quantitative aptitudes and logical reasoning tests were conducted during the whole interviewing process. I was not at all prepared regarding these questions, as domain knowledge is the main concern for the employer to judge the capability as an Assistant Manager of a bank. Before attending the interview I studied past literature regarding the interview patterns related to the job roles and responsibilities of a  banker and I gained the knowledge that functional skill is the most important to lead a position of Assistant Manager of a Bank (Goff- Kfouri and Saleeby-Malek, 2017). Considering these requirements, I prepared more on team building skills, leadership efficacies and put the lesser priority on the aptitude test.
Apart from this, during the mock test, the HR manager asked me about my health condition and whether I had any surgeries before or not. At that instance, I was shocked and tried to answer properly with true information. Since the health condition is not related to the mentioned job roles and responsibilities; I did not prepare these sorts of questions before attending the interview.

6. First of all, I would like to state that I have learnt to be comfortable with the basic interview questions. I realized that I lack promptness while answering out of the box questions. Hence, from this mock interview, I came to know that I have work on smartness and promptness to make the interviewer satisfied with my answers.

Secondly, I have identified that making people understand is my core strength. As I prepared myself with some basic banking questions, I answered all these questions very promptly and the non-verbal communication was also professional, which has made the interviewer happy and satisfied. Thus, I think my interpersonal skill is good enough to become a successful manager.

Lastly, I found that my confidence level was high during the interview, which is considered one of the core strengths of the interviewee. Colakkadioglu and Celik (2016) also pointed out that employers always look for a confident decision maker to meet their business goals, which is judged from every interviewee during the interview process. Thus, through the mock interview, I found that confidence level is my one of the core strengths to manage critical decision-making process for the position of an Assistant Manager.

7. Although my responses were logical and justified, there was a lack of cohesiveness and clearness. I want to improve these areas to be successful in my next interview. Moreover, I was very speedy while responding to the interviewer. As per the opinion of Wedisinghe (2009), interviewee needs to make a conscious effort to slow down and speak calmly to make the other party understand the interviewee’s responses. Thus, improving the chosen areas could help me avoiding interview stress and lead to a better result. In this context, it may also be argued that the famous proverb “slow but steady wins the race” comes handy when it comes to personal interview as the quick delivery of reactions and statements both may vitiate the basic purpose of interviewer in terms of understanding the interviewee’s capability of presentation (McConnell, 2007).

In addition, past researcher Woodzicka (2008) stated that optimism needs to be expressed with words and body language to catch the eye of the interviewer. Although non-verbal expression was good, the overall communication was not very catchy. Thus, I will prioritize more on improving the communication expression before attending the next interview.

8. Experiential learning has become one of the most crucial agendas to sustain as a promising employee in the competitive job market (Stocco et al. 2017). Therefore, mock interview skills are needed to enhance the emotional control and knowledge base of an interviewee before approaching the final interview. This knowledge can be obtained from the mock interview conducted during the study. At the same time, personal development plans can also be learnt from the mock interview, which can gradually enhance the response pattern of the interviewee (Buckley et al. 2018). Thus, I may state that the overall learning has been extremely helpful for me in order to get prepared for the future interview. I will carry such experience within myself  in future also so that the interview in coming years may become fruitful at my end.

References:

Bharne, N., Vaya, S. and Srivastava, A. (2017). Interpreting non-verbal behaviour during forensic assessment interview test (FAINT) and polygraph techniques, Advance research journal of social science, 8(2), pp.360-364

Buckley, K., Karr, S., Nisly, S. and Kelley, K. (2018). Evaluation of a mock interview session on residency interview skills. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 10(4), pp.511-516.

Colakkadioglu, O. and Celik, D. (2016). The Effect of Decision-Making Skill Training Programs on Self-Esteem and Decision-Making Styles. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 16(65), pp.1-35.

Ghias, K., Jilani, T., Jabeen, K. and Ahmed, R. (2017). Does mock exercise improve students' oral examination skills?. Medical Education, 51(11), pp.1162-1162.

Goff- Kfouri, C. and Saleeby-Malek, A. (2017). Helping Students Master Interview Skills. SSRN Electronic Journal, 3(7), pp.121-133.

McConnell, C. (2007). Conducting the Employee Selection Interview. The Health Care Manager, 26(2), pp.164-174.

Moller, L. and Russell, J. (2008). An Application of the ARCS Model Design Process and Confidence-Building Strategies. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 7(4), pp.54-69.

Rohaizat Baharun (2012). Changing skills required by industries: Perceptions of what makes business graduates employable. AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, 6(30), pp.35-57.

Salmon, K., Pipe, M., Malloy, A. and Mackay, K. (2011). Do Non-Verbal Aids Increase the Effectiveness of ‘Best Practice’ Verbal Interview Techniques? An Experimental Study. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(3), pp.370-380.

Stocco, C., Thompson, R., Hart, J. and Soriano, H. (2017). Improving the interview skills of college students using behavioral skills training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 50(3), pp.495-510.

Wedisinghe, L. (2009). Specialty training interview skills course. BMJ, 6(11), pp.b382.

Woodzicka, J. (2008). Sex Differences in Self-awareness of Smiling During a Mock Job Interview. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 32(2), pp.109-121.