Career Services promotes on-campus mock interviews

Nicholls State University students participated in mock interviews and resume critiques hosted by the Office of Career Services and NSPIRE on Tuesday at the College of Business sales lab.

The event, which took place from 3-6 p.m., featured practice interviews with a professional recruiter. The objective of the event was to provide the student with a simulation of a real interview and the critique of the student’s performance, so the students could have the chance of getting better results once they enter the job market.

“The students signed up, they gave us a copy of their resumes, a job description that they want to pretend they are applying for and a $5 dollar deposit,” Goulas said. “The $5 dollars is just to hold a spot. If they come, we give the students the five dollars back.”

Nicholls Alum and Marketing Manager at Dynamic Retail Solutions, Joel Picolo was the guest recruiter that collaborated to the event. The role of the recruiter in the mock interview is to give feedback to the students about their performance. At the end of each section, Picolo provided the students with a written critique that explained the areas in which the students did well and areas that need some improvement.

“What the recruiter is doing is a practice interview with the students,” Goulas said. “He is letting them know what an interview feels like, what kind of questions might be asked and then he is giving them a critique afterwards.”

Each student had a 20 minute appointment with Picolo, in which they were interviewed individually for a job position they pretended to be applying for. The student also had the opportunity to ask him questions afterwards.

“Since this is just practice, we felt like 20 minutes would be good for them to do the interview and then have time to talk about it,” Goulas said.

The Office of Career Services is also providing the students with a video recording of their mock interviews. According to Goulas, this is an easy way for the students to see for themselves how they performed and try to catch the things they can do better the next time.

“We are giveing them that, so they can take it back and watch it to see if they fidgeted to much, if they sat straight, how they answer the questions, if they said ‘um’ too much and how was their body language,” Goulas said.

“I don’t think students think about practicing for an interview until it is to late, so they don’t really know what to expect,” Goulas said. “To have a person to give them some feedback and say ‘I think you did really well on this and you might want to practice this a little bit more’ or whatever critique the recruiter gives them will be for their own benefit.”

The Office of Career Services and on campus organization NSPIRE have partnered to promote the mock interviews on campus. NSPIRE helped to get students involved, while Career Services brought in the guest recruiter.

“We want to continue to collaborate and do the mock interviews more often, at least once a semester,” Goulas said.

NSPIRE, Nicholls Students Promoting Industry and Real World Experience, is an organization that focuses on connecting students with professional experiences, advertising events for all organizations on campus and sponsoring events to better prepare students for future employment opportunities.

The Nicholls Office of Career Services promoted other events this semester, including Career Day, Colonel Connection and classroom presentations. Their online database system, College Central Network, is aimed at connecting students with employers by allowing them to search for jobs and internships. The office also provides a range of free services to Nicholls students, such as help critiquing personal statements for graduate school and resumes and cover letters for a job application.