Mock It Til You Rock It! How Mock Interviews Can Benefit Students

For the past three years, the Las Cruces Public School district has worked with the New Mexico Workforce Connections office to host a mock interview event for CTE students.  The event gives students an opportunity to practice their interview skills with a community member.  Students and interviewers sign up for a time to participate.  Most students do at least two interviews and they are asked to bring their resume with them.  If students do not have a resume, then our LCPS Career Specialists will help them create one and print it out.  Students are asked to dress professionally however, dress clothes will be available at the event for students to borrow if needed.

Interviewers are given a brief training at the start and are given feedback forms to complete while the student is interviewing.  They are also given a list of ten questions to ask.  They may ask additional questions and students are allowed to ask them questions.  Community members are also given an opportunity to interview students that are interested in their career field and this has led to students actually being hired as a result of their interview.

Our local workforce connections office always sets up a table and has information for students on available jobs, support services, work permits, etc.  Additionally, we offer the students an opportunity to interview in Spanish if they prefer and all support providers also speak Spanish as needed.  Students are given a participation certificate when they finish as well their feedback sheets from the interview.  Refreshments are provided for all participants from sponsoring restaurants in our community.

In 2020, we held our mock interview event virtually on zoom so that students still had an opportunity to interview.  The feedback from community members and students has always been very positive about this event.  Many students come back and tell us that their mock interviews helped them land jobs because they were much more comfortable interviewing.

 

 

Rachel Knight

Region IV Experienced Fellow