The Office of Career Services has signed up for a new program that allows students, alumni and faculty of Slippery Rock University to practice for a popular new trend of conducting job interviews online through webcams.
Webcam interviews are becoming more popular among employers in this generation, Director of the Office of Career Services John Rindy said. A growing number of companies have been using programs like Skype to conduct long-distance interviews rather than having applicants arrange a flight to physically meet. Interviewing online benefits both the employer and the applicant by saving time and money by reducing the amount of travel required.
To practice for this type of interview, Slippery Rock University has subscribed to a new program known as InterviewStream. The subscription started in late November, and the program is now available to use by all Slippery Rock students, faculty and alumni. To use the program, students must visit sru.interviewstream.com and sign up for an account. All that is required is a name, an e-mail address and a webcam. There has been a computer with a webcam set up in the Office of Career Services specifically for students to run InterviewStream.
The idea of the program is to provide students with an easy way to practice being interviewed. It is a skill that is necessary for getting a job, internship or getting into grad schools. Rindy believes it is one of the most important life skills that most people never properly practice.
"We practice for hours and hours for one sports match," Rindy said. "But we never practice for interviews, and we'll be doing interviews for the rest of our lives."
After signing up, the website takes you to the main menu. From there, you can click on "Expert Tips" to gain advice on how to answer specific questions, "Interview Webinar" for general advice on interviews, "Tutorial" for instructions to use the website, "Conduct Interviews" for doing mock interviews, and "Watch Interview" to watch all of the interviews that have been previously completed.
When the program first starts, students will chose if they would like to have a general interview or one based off of a major. Each interview selection has 10 customized questions. As of now, the only major-related interview online is for public health, but Rindy promised more will be added as departments ask for them.
Students also have the option of customizing their own interview. If this selection is made, the student can create a list of 10 questions they want to be asked. There is a large and extensive selection of both general and major-specific questions. After choosing the questions, the interview will begin. A video will play showing an InterviewStream employee asking a question, and the student will have up to two minutes to respond. If the student finishes early, he or she can click on the screen and the next question will be asked. There is an option to re-record a response if the student is unsatisfied with the results. After all questions are responded to, the interview is finished.
The process of creating an account, picking questions and answering them usually takes less than 30 minutes.
The entire interview will be recorded and saved online. Then students will be able to watch themselves answering the questions.
Students will also be able to send the video to the staff in the Office of Career Services or any other faculty member in order to receive feedback and advice.
Rindy stated that students can expect to receive feedback within one to two days if the video is sent to the Career Services department. InterviewStream also allows viewers to leave comments and rate the interviews on a five-star scale.
Students are encouraged to run the program multiple times so that they can compare their results and see how they have improved.
As of now, Slippery Rock University has only signed up for one year of the service to see how beneficial it is to students.
If the subscription goes un-renewed, InterviewStream will be available to use until November 2012. If enough students use the program, the Office of Career Services hopes to sign up for another year of the service.
The subscription for one year of InterviewStream costs the university $15,000. The first year was paid for together by four schools' deans, Dr. Kurt Schimmel, Dr. Susan Hannam, Dr. Eva Tsuquiashi-Daddesio and Dr. Kathleen Strickland. Rindy said that the Office of Career Services does not have the funding to pay for the subscription themselves.
Professional writing professor Dr. Jason Stewart has experience interviewing both students and applicants for a nonprofit research organization in Washington, D.C. He believes that most students are not properly prepared for real job interviews.
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