About this activity
Eight questions and what belongs in the answers: tell me about yourself — what belongs and what does not; why do you want to work here — draft a two-sentence answer; tell me about a time you handled a conflict — use situation, action, result; what's your availability — state it in days and hours; do you have any questions for us — name two good ones. Every one of these is predictable, which means every one can be prepared.
How to use it in a session
Draft, then cut. Most first answers to tell me about yourself run three minutes and cover the wrong material, and the useful work is deciding what to leave out. The situation-action-result frame on the conflict question is worth teaching explicitly, since it converts a rambling story into a structure. The do you have any questions item is the one students skip and interviewers notice. Twenty minutes covers three or four questions properly.
What to listen for
Listen for answers that are true but useless. I'm a hard worker is an answer with no evidence in it, and asking for the example that proves it is the whole coaching. Watch the weakness question, where students either deny having one or confess something disqualifying — the useful shape is a real weakness plus what they do about it.
Carrying it home
A family member can ask these eight questions in ten minutes. What helps most is asking a follow-up rather than accepting the first answer, since real interviewers do.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth, under transition and vocational goals.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight questions play with no account.
- Why is this a language target?
- Because it is discourse under pressure — formulating an organised answer to an open question, in real time, to a stranger. That is a language demand before it is an employment one.