The Strategy during the Interview - Assignment Example

Employability In Action Part One It would not be a mistake to point out that the exercise that is titled the Branding exercise was quite interesting as well as valuable. Indeed, it contributed to my understanding of the correct strategy when it comes to performance during the interview. Another point that should be mentioned is that it allowed me to develop a completely different approach towards viewing my personality: having completed it, I can view myself as a brand and “market” it accordingly. Indeed, the Branding exercise allowed me to enhance my self awareness and identify important aspects of my personality that I might mention in the course of the future interviews. What is more important is that it allowed me to have a rather realistic simulation preparing me for such situations. It is often said that the art of conversation is dead. I can not fully agree with this statement. Thus, it is my strong belief that this particular art is endangered at the present moment, but it is because of this unfavorable state of affairs more and more people tend to pay more attention to the way they verbally interact with other people. Thus, in the modern times a considerable part of conversation is held in the virtual environment. However, situations that require genuine interaction primarily rely on real life conversations. That is why in case a person is willing to be effective in case of the latter, one would put extra efforts to do so. In addition to that, thanks to the Internet there are lots of guidelines that teach people different peculiarities of persuasion. It would also be interesting to reflect on different parts of the experience that I had. To begin with, I should spare some words about my participation. Thus, I was responsible for delivering the tasks. I acknowledged that this activity was particularly important for me as well as for the group that I was a member of, so I dedicated all my efforts to do it correctly. I thought that the principles that I should have adhered to were clarity as well as integrity. Speaking of the former, I understood that the more there are people in the group, the bigger the change of misunderstanding is; that is why I did my best to express my thought in a clear manner so that everyone would receive the same message. As for the latter, I tried to have my motifs and actions in harmony. It would also be rather interesting to consider the way I felt myself during the public speaking. To my surprise, I felt rather relaxed and confident. Of course, to a certain extent this was quite a stressful situation for me, but people could hardly tell that since my voice was not trembling and I behaved myself in an assertive manner. It would not be an exaggeration to point out that when I started speaking I almost entered a different world which had different laws and I adhered to them: I looked at the audience, controlled my voice and, best of all, my mind was working incredibly fast. What is more important is that I learned a lot about myself in the course of this experience. Thus, prior to this exercise in public speaking I thought that I had somewhat moderate communication skills and that I will not be able to address the audience effectively. However, the reality proved me wrong: I saw that I was able to be quite confident while talking to a considerable number of people or behave rather relaxed in some stressful situations. I think that in the future when I encounter the latter I will have more faith in my abilities and show an even better performance than I did in class. However, it must be noted that there are still several points that I would like to stress which will help me to become an effective public speaker. To begin with, I think that I should use more body language. As I have noted before, I felt relaxed and confident during the exercise, but I knew that I could have done better in case my confident was also reflected in my posture and other non verbal signs. In addition to that, I think enriching my vocabulary would be a rather suitable idea. Indeed, while reading speeches of the famous speakers of the past, I might see what kind of tools they used to address the audience and keep its attention for a considerable amount of time. Moreover, I may also make use of recorded speeches to see how they handled differed unexpected situations while they were speaking. Finally, I would like to reflect on my role within the group. As we did not have any particular positions, I think I can call myself a group member. In spite of the fact that I was not a leader, neither formal nor informal, I did contribute to the discussion and on several occasions influence the opinion of other people. I think that I was able to find a right place for myself and express my potential to its fullest without making any troubles for the people that I was working with. As a result, out interaction was particularly effective and everyone enjoyed being in the group. Part Two It was quite interesting for me to learn about the process of interviewing and being interviewed. Speaking of the latter, I should note that I have already had some experience, so this activity allowed me to practice more and feel myself under these stressful circumstances. In addition to that, I learned that there are some strategies that will contribute to building up a positive image for me in the course of the interview. What is more important is that I found out that there is also a substantial preparation on the side of the interviewer as well. In other words, all the questions as well as situations that are being described during it are carefully planned in order to measure competency or other important skills of the person who is applying for a job. Speaking of the way I handled the questions that I was asked, I should noted that did that rather clearly and easily. Keeping in mind my confident behavior, I think I did quite well at answering them since I could sense that the people who I was interacting with gradually developed a good rapport with me. The latter is extremely important in the course of the interview. Considering the length of the exercise, I should note that it was not too brief or too long, the perfect balance was maintained. Indeed, there was enough time for me to present my skills and do my best to make a good impression. What is more important is that I understood all the instructions that I was given and could start following them right away. It is my strong belief that the purpose of the exercise was to teach the students to behave themselves during the interview and be able to identify important elements of their identity so that they could construct a well structured response as well as practice the deliverance of this particular message to the people with the maximum effectiveness. In other words, the three important areas that were emphasized in the exercise were proper behavior, theoretical background of identifying the necessary properties and implementing them in practice. During the exercise I learned that I have more developed communication skills than I previously thought. Indeed, I have always thought that interacting with other people especially in such stressful situations was not my strong suit; however, the practice showed quite the opposite: I was able to display quite a confident as well as relaxed behavior which reinforced the relationship between me and the people who I was interacting with. Considering the things that I should change in order to become and even more successful in this kind of interaction, I think I should put emphasis on the non verbal communication. Indeed, in the course of the exercise I put emphasis on the words that I was saying, but not the gestures or the postures that would help me to display confidence and enhance my positive image. There is no doubt that I am going to work on this in the future. To my mind, one of the most effective ways to improve my body language is to record the way I behave while speaking on camera and afterwards analyze it with my friends as my opinion might be biased and they will tell me the truth. It would not be an exaggeration to point out that the kind of information that I have learning is likely to change my behavior in the future as I will be more careful and pay more attention to different peculiarities of this kind of interaction. In other words, I will know what the people on the other side of the table are looking for and will do my best to give it to them. I should note that the stress management theory has helped me a lot in the course of preparation for interviews. Thus, it is quite obvious that the latter is considered to be a rather stressful situation; so, the people should be aware of the tools that they might use in order to ease the tension and get a hold of the situation so that they could show their abilities. In addition to that, the past experience of interviews that I had as well as all the learning match this particular theory quite well: the latter is able to explain why I was not able to do well and concentrate on the situation, but now I know several ways to cope with it. The theory according to which that the first impressions last is quite correct, in my opinion. Indeed, there is a rather simple explanation to it: when a person is seen for the first time, the situation itself, the actions that one is doing as well as numerous other circumstances are able to make a powerful imprint in the mind that does not wear off easily. For example, I personally know that it is rather difficult to build good and productive relationship with a professor whose first classes I missed as that creates a negative image of a bad student which would require me to put all my efforts if I want to eliminate it. However, the reality suggests that sometimes it is extremely difficult to change the original imprint. It was quite important to learn a lot about stress. First of all, the definition of stress contained a considerable number of significant elements that could not be omitted while analyzing it. Thus, stress is defined is a certain reaction of one’s body to a specific change in the environment that urges a person to experience physical, emotional or mental adjustment or response. In other words, stress is essentially connected to the body and the processes that take place in it. In addition to that stress is unique to everyone. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to make a list of different symptoms of stress. For example, in the majority of cases the person feels mood swings and emotional insecurity. Moreover, one might experience irritability and impulsive behavior. What is more important is that stress might also be manifested in certain physical aspects such as dizziness or high blood pressure. Finally, a person might feel lack of enjoyment of life and other activities which leads to depression. There are several ways in which a person will be able to deal with stress. For example, it is particularly important for one to gain control of the stressful situation which might require saying “no” to some people or action. In addition to that, a suitable advice might focus on performing different exercises. For example one might breathe in a certain manner called 7/11 in order to deal with stress. Finally, it is particularly important identify the stressors and avoid them in order to regain balance. Read More