One thing to bear in mind before you design the sessions is to ask "what could the participants benefit from by meeting together with yourself, that they wouldn't be able to do alone on-line". This will enable you filter out the information that can simply be given as web-links or hand-outs for the attendees to study afterwards. Given the topic, this is the best opportunity for mock interviews rather than CV preparation (and more importantly the covering letter which is often given greater emphasis). Here's one possible exercise:
Divide the group into teams of four. One person is the interviewee, one person an observer and the other two interviewers. Each is given a hand-out explaining the roles of all four. Have a lucky-dip of standard questions that are asked and the sub-questions that follow so that there is a dialogue. Each person has five minutes of interview and three minutes of feedback from the observer + interviewers. The roles then change so that everyone has a go at all roles. This will take up about 35 minutes including time to explain the process.
The 2nd most important thing that can't happen easily after the attendees have gone their separate ways is to share experiences from previous interviews, especially if they have had the benefit of feedback for jobs for which they didn't get selected. Gathering all this information through small discussion groups and recording key points on Post-its for example, then writing it up afterwards on one document and e-mailing all participants will result in a useful and valued resource for all.
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If 2=2 then 3=6
Dear Judith,
One thing to bear in mind before you design the sessions is to ask "what could the participants benefit from by meeting together with yourself, that they wouldn't be able to do alone on-line". This will enable you filter out the information that can simply be given as web-links or hand-outs for the attendees to study afterwards. Given the topic, this is the best opportunity for mock interviews rather than CV preparation (and more importantly the covering letter which is often given greater emphasis). Here's one possible exercise:
Divide the group into teams of four. One person is the interviewee, one person an observer and the other two interviewers. Each is given a hand-out explaining the roles of all four. Have a lucky-dip of standard questions that are asked and the sub-questions that follow so that there is a dialogue. Each person has five minutes of interview and three minutes of feedback from the observer + interviewers. The roles then change so that everyone has a go at all roles. This will take up about 35 minutes including time to explain the process.
The 2nd most important thing that can't happen easily after the attendees have gone their separate ways is to share experiences from previous interviews, especially if they have had the benefit of feedback for jobs for which they didn't get selected. Gathering all this information through small discussion groups and recording key points on Post-its for example, then writing it up afterwards on one document and e-mailing all participants will result in a useful and valued resource for all.
Kind Regards
Kevin