Helping Your Child Excel at School and Beyond
All young people will need to be able to confidently face interviews well before completing secondary school. Many will have an interview as part of the tertiary selection process for some courses. Fortunately, a growing number of tertiary institutions and employers are recognizing that marks alone are not a reliable indication of the full potential of applicants.
Being familiar with some commonly asked interview questions and thinking about them carefully can make a good interview a great interview. Young people will feel more confident and be able to adapt information and life experience they have thought about to virtually any question.
Have you heard the expression, `Dress for Success’? It’s true. It really is important to make a good visual impression at an interview. It’s generally better to err on the formal side so forget about your favourite pair of jeans even if they are a ‘dressed up’ pair! It’s always better to be a little overdressed than feel uncomfortably underdressed.
If your teenager will soon face an important interview, go through these tips on how to perform well in interviews or give your teenager a copy to read over. The first, second or even third interview can still be a stressful experience and even independent teens can benefit from a little help.
Interview questions that appear to be tricky or challenging are often easy to answer if you have thought about them. Preparation is the key to doing well in all interviews and this certainly applies to those tricky questions.
Parents can help young people prepare for interviews by helping them think of possible questions well before an important interview. Even knowing that they have thought about possible questions gives students greater confidence.
If your teenager has had a negative experience at an interview, always offer encouragement as well as empathizing. Give the message that it’s okay not to get the first job or the first leadership position we apply for. Stress that each interview is a learning experience. Which question was unexpected? What would have been a better answer? Which question was difficult to answer?
Interviews can be far less daunting when teenagers prepare well. Parents can help enormously by speaking positively about interviews they have had and giving teens practical advice. Here are some points you can share with your teens or give them a copy of the advice provided here.