Practice Interviews
Students: Participate in a Practice Interview!
Next Interview Date: Fri. Mar. 12th, 2-4pm
Elizabeth Schlicht '09
Elizabeth Schlicht majored in Voice as a student at IWU's School of Music. She was planning to continue studying music post-graduation, but decided to pursue other interests during her senior year. Elizabeth is currently the Executive Director of the Association Acumen in Milwaukee utilizing her skills in non-profit management and marketing. This is a great opportunity for music or marketing majors to explore career options and develop their interview skills!
Submit your resume &Choose your timeslot
Employers & Alumni: Host a Practice Interview!
Practice interviews are a great way to connect with IWU students, promote opportunities at your company, and share your expertise! Practice interviews are currently being held virtually on Zoom. Students submit their resumes to sign-up.
We hold practice interviews for two hours on Fridays. We offer timeslots from 10am-12pm or 2pm-4pm, consisting of three 40-minute interviews OR four 30-minute interviews. We recommend allowing 15-20 minutes for interview questions, 10-15 minutes for verbal feedback/discussion, and 5 minutes to complete the candidate evaluation form at the end of each session to provide additional written feedback. Feel free to use the time however you feel would be most beneficial to each student you meet with!
We developed a list of suggested interview questions to use as a starting point for the interviews. We encourage you to use your expertise to vary from this list, especially if you can include industry-specific questions depending on each students' interests!
Contact us via email to express your interest in hosting a practice interview!
Practice Interview Program FAQ
Practice makes perfect! Practice interviews are a valuable experience for students to refine their interview skills. Interviews are hosted by IWU alumni and by human resource personnel from IWU's employer database. Practice interviews are great for students of all years and majors, but some practice interviews are targeted to specific career industries.
The Hart Career Center hosts practice interviews on Fridays. See above for information on the latest interviewer!
To sign-up, login to your Handshake account, submit your resume to the job posting, and choose your timeslot on the interview schedule.
Create/update your resume to submit for the interview. Get help from a student staff member with our quick resume help sessions every Wednesday!
Review common interview questions and use Big Interview to see more industry-specific questions.
Practice interviews are typically 40 minutes long and consist of approximately 20 minutes for interview questions, 15 minutes for verbal feedback/discussion, and 5 minutes for the interviewer to complete a candidate evaluation form to provide additional written feedback.
Although practice interviews are currently being held virtually on Zoom, we encourage students to utilize the interview rooms in the Hart Career Center (2nd floor of the Welcome Center building) as a quiet and professional space. To reserve a room, email jsheetz@iwu.edu with the date/time of the interview.
In addition to receiving immediate feedback from the interviewer, we created a candidate evaluation form based off SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) guidelines. The criteria include:
- Qualifications/Resume
- Knowledge of Company
- Verbal Communication
- Enthusiasm/Motivation/Initiative
- Teambuilding/Interpersonal Skills
- Time Management
- Overall Impression and Recommendation
We highly recommend that students record their Zoom interviews using the Loom screen recorder to watch back later to help improve interview skills!