In today’s class, we learned all about interviews. This is the subject where my nerves go out of the roof. I’ll admit it, I’m not a big talker under pressure, which is a skill I seriously need to work on. Through partaking in this course today I will hopefully learn a few valuable and helpful tips.
To start today’s lesson Daniel explained to us that there are five primary prime values that captivate the employer as a person looking for placement. These are:
- Never Done – This one presents the willingness to learn through the unknown. This has changed my mind on this type of subject as it changes the motion of one being uneducated on a subject to instead create a learning experience.
- Challenge Convention – This is the act of pushing boundaries to create a unique experience and essence in the work that you do.
- Impact Together – Being able to cooperate coherently and efficiently within a team.
- Bring you – Being able to converse your personality and flair into the working environment.
- Be an Advocate – Acknowledging the importance of having a user-centric approach.
About me
This part focuses on what questions I can ask myself in order to understand and construct a fluid response to the employer.
However, whatever the employer may ask me it is always good to connect back to one of these following questions even if I don’t understand the question as giving an indifferent response is better than giving no response.
What are my values?
My top 5 values would be my creativity, motivation, adaptability, dependability and willingness to learn.
Prior experience
This is one thing that I have been lacking. I do have experience in three other places of work. However, none of them relate to UX/UI design. Although, any experience no matter how irrelevant can help build a case.
Understand the role
When applying to any job I must ensure I have excessive knowledge on the subject at hand. Without doing this I am setting myself up for failure.
Enthusiasm
Why do I want to work here?
Willing to learn
Perhaps use past mistakes or talk about problem-solving skills which is one of my strong values.
Aspirations / motivations
What motivates me while looking at the job, why does this field of work excite me?…
User-centered approach
Process/Motivations. This is an important response and shows the employer that I have a good set of priorities and ethos.
Structuring my response for my projects
Start – Open up with a backstory and shortly talk about the importance of the project.
Middle – Go through my actions – highlight what happened, obstacles and solutions.
End – Positive outcome – what did I take away/learn, improvement for me / business?
Interview Task
One of the tasks that we have done today was mock interviews which involved two classmates taking turns and interviewing each other through a select group of random questions. The task then involved the ’employer’ to rate how well the candidate did in accumulating his response in a variety of areas.
As I was online, it was harder to actually do the interview. However, I and Orla partook in this task together.
The Result
I found this task extremely helpful in giving me an insight into what interviews will be like and what kind of questions will be asked. Although, I wasn’t prepared for these interviews these mock-up interviews are here to test your raw ability to tackle these issues which Orla scored me on average a 3. This seemed correct and shows that I have a lot to work on when conducting myself during an interview.
How has today’s class helped me?
Today’s class has given me more insight into what interviews are all about. From a person who is foreign to interviews, this has been a great relief and help as this is what I needed. I now know more about structuring my response and what values to talk about as well as some of the commonly asked topics that employers will mention.