{"id":1037,"date":"2011-09-01T14:05:10","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T14:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2011-09-01T14:09:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T14:09:34","slug":"how-to-prepare-for-your-first-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=1037","title":{"rendered":"How to Prepare Your Teen for Their First Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1044\" href=\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=1044\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1044\" title=\"Ryan Interview\" src=\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0881-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>This is Ryan right before he left to go on his first interview for a busboy position at the local sandwich shop.\u00a0 He was nervous.\u00a0 Very nervous.\u00a0 I knew he would be, so a few days before the interview we began role-playing.\u00a0 I wanted him to feel comfortable and confident that he was qualified for the job.<\/p>\n<p>Although it\u2019s always hard to know exactly what questions are going to be asked during an interview, there tend to be some standard ones.\u00a0 So we started with those:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why are you interested in this job?<\/li>\n<li>What makes you qualified for the job?<\/li>\n<li>What is your greatest strength\/weakness?<\/li>\n<li>When can you start?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then I tried to get creative.\u00a0 It\u2019s been awhile since I\u2019ve been on an interview.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How would you handle these scenarios?\u00a0 <em>A customer is upset because they feel their order was not handled properly<\/em>. \u00a0Or <em>Your shift is over but your replacement hasn\u2019t shown up.\u00a0 What do you do?<\/em><\/li>\n<li>How do you describe good customer service?<\/li>\n<li>What are your expectations for this job?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To build his confidence I reminded him of all the work experience he had.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to toot our own horn but sometimes we simply need to do it. \u00a0Besides, unlike a lot of kids his age, he&#8217;s been working since he was eleven years old. \u00a0First it was his once-a-week paper route which he kept for five years. \u00a0When he was 13, he began reffing soccer in the fall. \u00a0And then there was all the in-between stuff like doing yard work for our neighbor or cat-sitting for weeks at a time. \u00a0All of that shows initiative, responsibility, and commitment. \u00a0Employers like that. \u00a0So mention it.<\/p>\n<p>I also told him that if he was asked to describe what sets him apart from the others, he should talk about the times he went above-and-beyond in his responsibilities.\u00a0 Like when he decided to run the newspapers up to the doorstep of his subscribers. \u00a0Or when he stayed to ref the next soccer game when the scheduled ref didn&#8217;t show. \u00a0This shows you&#8217;re willing to put in the work&#8230;and then some.<\/p>\n<p>But, I told him, they&#8217;re going to learn a lot about you even before you answer that first question. \u00a0Did you arrive on time? \u00a0How are you dressed? \u00a0How did you introduce yourself? Did you offer a nice, firm handshake? \u00a0How was your eye contact? \u00a0All of these are clues to who you are as a person. \u00a0And how you relate to everyone you meet is an indication of your inter-personal skills. \u00a0Those are very important to an employer.<\/p>\n<p>We role-played until he felt like he was ready. \u00a0And although he was still nervous, he was less so knowing that he had prepared.<\/p>\n<p>As he drove off that afternoon to learn more about how the world works, I was hoping that his biggest lesson that day was learning that 5 minutes before you leave for the interview is not a good time to discover that you&#8217;ve misplaced your dress pants and that your shirt needs to be ironed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is Ryan right before he left to go on his first interview for a busboy position at the local sandwich shop.\u00a0 He was nervous.\u00a0 Very nervous.\u00a0 I knew he would be, so a few days before the interview we began role-playing.\u00a0 I wanted him to feel comfortable and confident that he was qualified for the job. Although it\u2019s always hard to know exactly what questions are going to be asked during an interview, there tend to be some standard&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=1037\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34,21,22,24,26,32],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids-and-earning","tag-entrepreneurial-kids-2","tag-karyn-hodgens","tag-kidnexions","tag-kids-and-finacial-literacy","tag-kids-and-money","tag-teaching-kids-money"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Prepare Your Teen for Their First Interview - Karyn&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=1037\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Prepare Your Teen for Their First Interview - Karyn&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is Ryan right before he left to go on his first interview for a busboy position at the local sandwich shop.\u00a0 He was nervous.\u00a0 Very nervous.\u00a0 I knew he would be, so a few days before the interview we began role-playing.\u00a0 I wanted him to feel comfortable and confident that he was qualified for the job. Although it\u2019s always hard to know exactly what questions are going to be asked during an interview, there tend to be some standard... 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