Resume and Interview Reflection

Resume

Feedback and Reflection

When creating my resume, I found the video and guidebook Western provided a good starting place. I received good feedback from the HR students. The layout, appearance, and content ranked “Yes” and the HR students suggested adding volunteer work. I plan to add that content to my resume because I still need to get volunteer work to add. They also commented on how clean and well-formated my resume looks and liked that I included my certifications and related coursework. Besides the idea of volunteer work, the HR students had no other suggestions for changes to my resume.

Since I took the time to look over the resources given to us and researched resumes, I adequately covered the areas needed to create a good resume and didn’t plan to change anything.

Mock Interview

After reviewing my interview video, I found the feedback from the HR students to be constructive. This entire experience was very beneficial and helped me discover the areas that need improvement. Although I hate watching myself, watching the video back helps me understand where I struggled and succeeded. I hope Western continues to utilize this project because I found it very helpful for the real world, and both classes benefited from this experience.

Feedback

After reviewing the feedback from the HR students, I found three aspects I need to work on from this project:

1. Calm Nerves

I have always struggled with public or group speaking, so I was incredibly nervous during the interview. The HR students were terrific with keeping the conversation encouraging and flowing, but sometimes I paused for too long and kept apologizing. I was overthinking the questions, which caused me to not actively listen to the conversation and questions; that then turned into me rambling through an answer and forgetting the question. Sometimes I couldn’t finish my answer because I forgot the question.

2. Build Confidence

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

At some points during the interview, I second-guessed my answers, which came across as low confidence. However, I did notice that I sounded confident in other answers. This feedback helped me understand what questions I need to work on answering confidently, and what areas I already sound confident talking about.

3. Step Up the Interview Prep

The most significant way to set me up for success during interviews is by taking the interview prep process more seriously. I felt prepared at the moment, but I found myself prepping for more of the situational and behavioral questions rather than marketing-related ones, such as approaching data gathering and using analytics. In addition, I forgot to utilize the STAR method that was discussed with Mabel when answering questions, so I plan to work on implementing the STAR method.

Reflection

After reviewing the feedback from the HR students, my biggest struggle is my lack of confidence. Therefore, I plan to strategize three ways to improve my confidence for future interviews:

1. Relaxing and Calming the Nerves

I plan to practice interview questions and general conversation to help me feel comfortable and relaxed. In addition, I will utilize a breathing technique through meditation before my interview to help me stay calm and focused during the interview and answer questions without rambling.

2. Active Listening and Appropriate Pauses

Some of my biggest struggles during the interview were not actively listening to the conversation and repeatedly apologizing. My strategy includes using a counting technique that will allow me to take a breath before answering and remain calm and focused on answering the question. For example, I will count to five in my head before answering so I can process the inquiry and get my thoughts in order before I reply using the STAR method. I also plan to implement phrases such as “I need a moment” instead of apologizing. Using different expressions like the above will make me sound more confident.

3. Improve Body Language

Our body language speaks volumes about our confidence before starting a conversation. While watching my interview, I noticed my body language was closed off, and I seemed uninterested in aspects of the conversation. Although I know this is not how I felt, this is how I appeared to others. Improving my body language and presenting myself in interviews will significantly enhance my confidence. I plan to keep eye contact, sit up straight with my hands in my lap, and work on asking relevant questions to the conversation.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the best way to get more practice is to keep going on interviews. I plan to utilize the Selfmade Millenial YouTube channel as a resource for future interview prep. This project helped me create a solid strategy for improving my interviews, and I plan to use these methods and feedback from my mock interview in future interviews.