What to expect from the Interview Experience
The Interview Experience is the penultimate section of the Exeter Award and is designed to give you a safe space to practise your interview techniques and to learn from your peers.
In the session you will have a 10 minute interview with an experienced member of staff from the Career Zone. There will be up to 4 other students and you will be expected to provide constructive peer feedback. You will have the opportunity to learn how you react under pressure and gain feedback on your performance from both the interviewer and your peers.
Sessions run throughout the year during term time, both online, and in person at the Streatham and Penryn campuses. Please note, you need to have had your mock job application form marked and approved and watch the The Interview Experience video before you can book onto The Interview Experience.
The interview is a competency based interview with the questions focusing on your transferable skills. Questions may cover skills including:
- communication
- problem solving
- teamwork
- adaptability
- time management
- initiative
You will not be asked questions relating to your technical knowledge of a specific role.
Before you can book onto a session of The Interview Experience, you will need to watch a video and answer a short quiz. This video will help you consider how you might prepare for an interview and will introduce you to the STAR (situation, task, action and result) technique, a way of structuring your answer to help demonstrate to the interviewer the skills you have. The video can be accessed on your Handshake journey once your mock job application form has been approved. You do not need to do anything else before you attend the Interview Experience.
If you want to practise for The Interview Experience beforehand, you may be interested in using Interview360 to record and review your interview technique. Your responses will only be seen by you, but this can be a really useful way of reflecting on how you approach different interview questions. Why not try the ‘Competency Questions’ in Interview360? It takes less than 10 minutes!
Once you have attended a session of The Interview Experience, your Exeter Award profile on Handshake will be updated and the Interview Experience will be marked as complete. In order to complete the Exeter Award you will need to complete the online reflection form. If you have completed a themed Exeter Award, you will be able to let us know in the reflection form.
Your Exeter Award certificate will be emailed to your univerisity email address within 2 weeks of completion.
We are committed to making The Interview Experience accessible to all. If you have any questions or would like to discuss any accessibility requirements, please get in touch with us at exeteraward@exeter.ac.uk.
For more information and support on equality, inclusion and diversity please see our specific EDI pages.