Employability Exercise (Mock Interview Practice)

As part of the exchange programmes I run, Elaine Watson and I created a simulated job interview process for my Nanjing University Journalism exchange students whereby they respond to a job offer by sending their CVs which they would have had to write for classes. Then they would be shortlisted for an interview which was with the Master in Human Resource Management students. This exercise was part of the Employability component of the China exchange programmes on which Elaine Watson is the main tutor, and we also used the help of Lena Bauchop from the Careers and Employability Service. I was very happy that Lynn Whiteside from Stirling Management School joined us on the day and organised for the Master in Human Resource Management students to interview the journalism students. The most important aspect of it for me was the collaborative work between the academic faculties and the professional services which always results in higher student satisfaction, on the one hand; and the application of the skills the student learned in class in a real-life scenario, or as close to it as possible, on the other. For the students it was a great experience which not only made them practice their skills, but also made them think actively about their future career plans and how to get there. One of the students got a graduate internship with a big media corporation based on the CV he wrote for this class. One student who shared her thoughts about this experience said “We seldom understand how to apply what we learn in class in real life. Now we do!”.