Your first ever interview can be a nerve-wracking experience. To help ease school-leavers’ interview anxieties, 14 Driver Hire Group Services staff spent a day at Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford conducting mock interviews with 170 Year 11 pupils.
Driver Hire – based in Bradford – has been carrying out mock interview days for several years now, all part of its ongoing community engagement programme.
To make the process as ‘real life’ as possible, students are asked to prepare a CV which their interviewer reads prior to the interview. Alongside educational achievements and their predicted grades, students list their strengths, skills and any outside interests. They are then invited to sit down and take part in a 15-minute one-on-one interview, which is where Driver Hire’s team challenge students to think about problem solving, teamwork and where they hoped they might be in ten years’ time. Students were also given immediate feedback on how well they’d performed.
Chris Chidley (Driver Hire’s CEO), one of the volunteers on the day, said, “doing the Dixon’s big interview day is such a worthwhile thing to do. Not only is it valuable for the students, but it’s really rewarding for our team of volunteers as well. We’re always impressed with how well they present themselves and conduct their interviews”.
Organised with the support of Ashleigh Willetts, Head of Year 8 and Careers lead, volunteers from all departments of Driver Hire were keen to be there and do their part – from marketing, to HR, finance to national accounts.
“Any volunteering initiative means finding time in already busy schedules, but everyone agreed how rewarding the day was. Whether these bright students choose to remain in education or go into the world of work, Driver Hire wishes them every success”, Chris concluded.