Becoming Career- and College-ready with Mock Interviews

Especially in today’s job market, interviews are a vital step toward acquiring a job or gaining acceptance to college. What makes one candidate more successful than another often hinges on interviewing techniques that can be learned –and the earlier the better!

Fortunately, for many, many years, Sayville Middle students have been honing their job-interviewing skills through Mock Interviews. This eighth-grade culminating activity is part of the Home and Career Skills curriculum. Coached for weeks in advanced about how to research a prospective job, how to fill out an application, how to dress, and what to say during the interview, the students come prepared to meet their “employers” on an appointed day.

Sayville Administrators, faculty, staff, and several, local merchants  (see List of Employers below) took the roles of Employers for this year’s fresh faces and rated the students’ interviews with a rubric that judged how the students answered the questions, from  the best, i.e.,“clearly”  to “did not answer.”   

Students were interviewing for positions at Sayville Books & Beyond as either a Sales Associate in the Book Department, Sales Associate in the Music Department, Sales Associate in the Coffee Shop, or cashier. They were asked questions about their hobbies, favorite subjects, their grades, work experience and job skills, as well as their greatest strengths, career plans, how they would get to work, and what hours would they be available. But perhaps the most important question was in reverse: “Do you have any questions for me?” the interviewers asked. Taking the initiative to ask questions about the actual job shows that the candidate had done research about the company before the interview.

After considering the candidates’ handshakes, attire, eye contact, answers to questions, appearance of the applications, along with the questions the candidate asked, the Employers also rated if the candidates were strong (Definite Hire), acceptable (Possible Hire), or unacceptable (Would Not Hire).

Thanks to everyone involved, Sayville Books and Beyond had many new hires this fall (see attached file). Congratulations, New Hires!