CAREER MANAGEMENT- CDEV 8130

Assignment 4: Mock Interview

Academic Year 2021-2022

Worth 25% of Final Grade

Due Date
This assignment is due by the end of module thirteen.

Purpose
Preparing, practicing and reflecting on interviews will support you in improving your interview skills.

Explanation of tasks
In module 8, you selected a job posting to which you tailored your resume and cover letter. In module 10, you
carried on the analysis of that posting to predict interview questions and prepare written responses. During
modules 10, 11, and 12, you worked on a series of activities to help you prepare for interviews.

Prior to completing the tasks, be sure to review the attached rubrics.

Student Name: Manik Luthra Student Number: 8742163

List of activities
Module 10: Predicting Questions (Fit and Competence), Preparing using the
STAR Method
Predicting Questions
Using job posting complete the following worksheet. Aim to predict 5-10 questions based on the posting.

Statement From the posting KEY WORDS Predicted Question

Fit We excel at creating digital solutions  enhance  How can a
to enhance business performance business software or ERP
and operations performance help in
Our software solutions are being  software improving
used by over 10k companies and is solutions company’s
helping them transform their  HR solutions performance?
business  As an HR what
We expertise, yet not limited, to HR would be the
solutions and are focused at pain points and
diversifying our portfolio how can
software help
them to solve?

Competence  Communication skills  Deal with 1. Which skills do you

  Deal with clients clients think are essential
 Reliability  Reliability for sales?
 Work under pressure  Work under 2. How would you
 Organized pressure react to sales
 Fast-paced environment  Attention to targets?
 Attention to detail detail 3. Are you comfortable
 Communication with cold calls?
skills

Preparing using the STAR Method

Now that you’ve predicted some interview questions, take some time to think about how you would answer at
least five of those questions. Write the question in the blank and then fill in your response in the table.

First Predicted Question: Are you comfortable with cold calls?

Situation/Task In my previous organization, cold calling was one of the few tasks that I used to
perform.

Action Cold callings can be tricky, so I prefer doing my research about the clients before I
call them.

Results By knowing about clients’ interests and goals, I had great conversions. In fact, a few
of my company’s most paying clients came from cold calls.

Skills Confidence, research, and cold calling.

Second Predicted Question: Have you consistently met your sales goals?

Situation/Task Sales, like most people think, is not hit or miss. I always try to keep my focus on
counselling the client and understanding their needs.

Action I tend to probe and dig deep into customer’s actual problem and try to provide
them with appropriate solution.

Results And by following this formula, I have had great success in making sales and had
been ranked as top performing employee for last 3 quarters.

Skills Counselling, Empathy

Third Predicted Question: How do you handle customer objections in sales?

Situation/Task While working with MX-RAPRO, we used to provide tech solutions to companies
and some of the times customer used to object the solution provided by our
company.
 Action The best thing when customer object is not to cut him in between but listen to his
pain points. You must empathize with him and must be in his shoe to fix his
problem.

Results Once you understand what customer wants you can tell which tool of your software
can help him to fix his issues and what solution/module can be changed to make it
work for him

Skills Good listening, observant

Fourth Predicted Question: How do you establish trust with customers?

Situation/Task As a salesperson, the most important thing to close a high-ticket sale is trust. To
establish trust, I always try to find mutual grounds by probing them.

Action I generally try to slip if conversation where they talk about their family, place they
are from or anything that is significant to them. Then I try to tell how am I
associated with that thing and show that connect in terms.

Results Once people connect with you on personal level, they unknowingly start trusting
you.

Skills Emotional Intelligence

Fifth Predicted Question: How do you view collaboration in sales team?

Situation/Task Most of the people think sales is just one man show, but when we talk about an
extensive product or service, it is generally multiple people talking to clients and
closing sales.

Action We used to follow three step approach- finder, closer and developer. Finder used to
find the potential clients, closer used to close the sales and developer is a person
who is great at follow-ups.

Results When our company applied this approach, our annual sales increase by 2.2x and
workload was down by 30%, so I think collaboration is really good way to make
sales.

Skills Team work

Module 11: Who Would You Hire? Job Interview Observation
Who Would You Hire? Short Answer
Now it’s time to put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter to assess how each person performed in the interview.
After viewing the video be prepared to answer the following sets of questions. Your responses will be graded.

Which candidate would you hire?

1. Anna

 Mat
What is the number one thing you noticed about Anna’s performance in the interview?
Anna is caring, and she resembles a leader or someone of that nature. She is a charitable person who enjoys
doing things for others in need and assisting them in their daily life.

What is the number one thing you noticed about Mat’s performance in the interview?
Mat is more of an assignment person who wants to finish each task in the allotted time and see outcomes.
Furthermore, he is a trustworthy individual who stands up for what is right.

Did Anna give specific examples for the interview questions?

 Yes

Did Mat give specific examples for the interview questions?

 No

If you were to give Mat one piece of feedback, what would you say to him?
He should perhaps pay attention to his flaws, which might be a little contentious in a work atmosphere, but
other than that, he did a wonderful job in his interview.

If you were to give Anna one piece of feedback, what would you say to her?

I believe Anna could be a more productive and performance-oriented person if she took on more initiative
and dealt with the assigned assignments instead of reporting straight to manager. However, she possesses
many other positive traits, such as her willingness to work with a team and lead it.
Module 12: My Mock Interview, Interview Reflection
My Mock Interview
Be sure of the following items. You must:

1) Select someone to act as “interviewer.” This person does not need to be in the video; however, the
questions they ask you must be clear and audible. They will ask you 3 of your predicted questions from
the work you did above.
2) Answer your interview questions on video, use the STAR format to orally communicate what you have
written in the responses above.
 You can either record on your smart phone, webcam, other video recording software, or using a
Bongo Video submission.
3) Ensure the video length is between 6 and 10 minutes.
4) Ensure the quality of your video submission is clear and audible (for both the questions and the
responses).

Interview Reflection
What are your first impressions of your performance?

I tried to give my best in this mock interview, however, there is a lot of scope for improvement. I think
I should have known more about their product/Saas to explain how can I be a better fit for that job
role.

How did your answer(s) reflect the STAR model?

The star methodology provides a simple format for answering questions. It also aids in the potential
to obtain specific information about a person's previous experience. It indicates their ability to think
critically, solve problems, and interact with others. That is a decisive factor for employers when
deciding whether to entrust them with future duties. In addition, I felt I was well prepared using STAR
technique.

In what ways did practicing help you?

Practicing actually helped me re-evaluate the skills that are required for this job and helped me being
better prepared for this job role. Also, it gave me confidence because I already thought through what
interviewer could have asked and was prepared.

How could you improve your responses?

Although interview was good, but I feel I could have cited more real-life cases that happened in the
past to showcase the experience that I had. Also having a better product knowledge could have
increased my chances of getting selected.