A morning of interviews for the Sixth Form...

‘What is your greatest strength? Can you tell me about a time where you have worked well in a team? What makes you suitable for this internship?’

These, along with many other similar questions, seem straightforward on the surface, however, faced with an unknown interviewer in a pressurised environment where a fantastic job role or university place might depend on it, such questions can appear challenging and one’s responses quickly unravel! There is no doubt that for many, interviews can be nerve-wracking and intimidating experiences. To help prepare King’s 6^th Form pupils for such situations and make them strong candidates for future real-life interviews, the U6^th Form Interview Scheme matches pupils up with career experts for one or two practice interviews.

And so it was that in early November, a team of parent volunteers kindly gave their time to grill and then advise the Upper 6^th pupils through 90 interviews, both in person and virtually. All pupils received experienced feedback on how they could improve in future and gained increased confidence for future real-life interview situations. The pupils, who had been prepared for the event with CV and cover letter instruction and interview technique training, were interviewing for a range of roles, from quantity surveying, nursing, accounting and digital marketing, forensic psychology, through to music production, environmental management, journalism and sports coaching.  

As ever, the King’s pupils did themselves great credit with interviewers commending them as having “very good levels of self-awareness and emotional intelligence” and demonstrating a “confidence without arrogance”.

The pupils afterwards were most grateful to the interviewers, benefitting from additional career guidance in addition to the interview skills themselves. One pupil, with university interviews already lined up for the coming weeks, commented “I found it insightful, very helpful and as a result feel much better prepared for my coming interviews”, whilst others commented on how they would feel much more settled and prepared for future job interviews.

A huge thank you to the parental interviewers who gave their time so generously to make this a formative and hugely beneficial experience for the pupils.

Will Daws - Deputy Head, Sixth Form