You will rehearse a full interview with a partner and review the recording.
Most people's first real practice for an interview is the interview. They have read their stories, they know their one-minute introduction, and they feel ready. Then a question comes from an unexpected angle, a story that read well on paper runs to four minutes, and they hear themselves say "um" every few seconds. The preparation was real, but it had never been tested out loud with someone else asking the questions.
A mock interview fixes that. It costs you forty minutes and a friend's goodwill, and it shows you things you cannot see from your notes. This exercise walks you through running one, recording it and using the recording to improve.
Ask a friend, a former colleague or someone from your network to play the interviewer. Ideally they work in or near your target field, but anyone willing to take it seriously will do. Arjun asked a friend who works in HR at a bank. Wei Ling asked her cousin, who manages a small team.
Give your partner a real job ad you are interested in and a list of about ten questions to choose from. Include the openers from lesson 6.3, Tell me about yourself and other common questions, several behavioural questions that your story bank should cover, and two or three that are harder, such as "Why should we hire you over someone with more experience in this field?"
Ask your partner to pick questions in any order, to ask follow-ups when an answer is vague, and to play it straight. A mock interview where your friend laughs and says "that's fine" after every answer is pleasant and teaches you nothing.
Set aside thirty minutes and treat it like the real thing. Dress as you would for the interview if that helps you take it seriously. If the real interview will be on video, do the mock on video too. If it will be in person, sit across a table.
Answer using your story bank from lesson 6.2, Build a bank of six stories, and your one-minute introduction. Do not read from notes. Have them nearby in case you go completely blank, but the point is to find out what you can do without them.
At the end, ask your partner the questions you would ask the real interviewer, from lesson 6.4, Questions to ask them. It is good practice and it closes the session the same way a real interview ends.
Record the session, with your partner's permission. A phone propped on a table is enough. Most people find watching themselves uncomfortable, and most people learn more from five minutes of the recording than from an hour of rereading their notes.
When you review, look for three things.
Length: time each answer. Behavioural answers over two minutes usually mean the set-up was too long. Your introduction should be around a minute.
Structure: for each behavioural answer, can you hear the situation, task, action and result? Did you spend most of the time on the action? Did you say "I" for what you did, as lesson 6.1, The STAR method for behavioural questions, recommends?
Filler words: count your "um", "like", "actually" and "you know" in one answer. A few are normal. If they appear in every sentence, they distract from what you are saying. The usual fix is to pause instead, which feels long to you and sounds thoughtful to the listener.
Before your partner leaves, ask one question: "Which answer do you remember best, and why?" Their answer tells you which of your stories lands, which is not always the one you expected.
Arjun assumed his revision programme story was his strongest. His friend remembered the story about the parent complaint, because it had a moment of tension and a clear turn. That told Arjun to lead with it when asked about working with difficult people, and to add a sharper moment of tension to the revision programme story.
Ask also which answer they remember least. That is usually the one to rewrite.
Pick the one answer that went worst. It might have run long, lost its structure, used "we" throughout or simply not answered the question asked. Rewrite it in STAR form, practise it aloud twice and time it.
When Wei Ling reviewed her recording, her answer to "Tell me about a time you failed" ran to three minutes and never reached a clear lesson. She rewrote it around one decision she would make differently, cut the set-up to two sentences and brought it down to ninety seconds.
A finished mock interview gives you a thirty-minute recording, notes on length, structure and filler words for each answer, your partner's view on which answer they remembered and why, and one rewritten answer that you have practised aloud. Book your partner and run the session in the activity, then rewrite the answer that went worst.
Run a 30-minute mock interview, review the recording, and rewrite the one answer that went worst.
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