Technology helps students navigate job search process

By Tom Gresham

Some VCU students hoping to improve their job interview skills have been employing a new technological training tool this year to prepare themselves for potential employers.

InterviewStream, a Web-based virtual interview program available at the VCU Career Center, gives students the opportunity not only to practice the interview process but to study their performance, enabling them to identify weaknesses – and strengths – they might otherwise never recognize.

The program uses a webcam to tape students answering interview questions. The student can access the interview footage through e-mail and review it with a career counselor, examining on a computer screen how the job-seeker appears in his or her body language and verbal responses.

The student can also forward the footage to family and friends to solicit their advice.

In setting up for the mock interview, students can either select from groups of questions that are specific to various types of professional or academic interviews or they can select random questions. An interviewer delivers the questions from the computer monitor and the student answers, treating the webcam eye like the eye of an interviewer.

The students can use the interview program as often as they want, and the massive database of questions ensures each interview feels fresh.

“It’s a great way to practice and prepare for doing interviews,” said Susan Story, director of the VCU Career Center.

Students who have used the program say it has had a substantial impact in their interview preparation and has helped them polish their skills, according to Jennifer von Durckheim, an education support specialist in the VCU Career Center.

Sandrea Acheampong said InterviewStream has helped bolster her confidence for an experience that’s largely unfamiliar to most college students.

“It’s helped me a lot,” Acheampong said. “The more I do it the more comfortable I’m going to get with the kinds of questions you get in an interview and the better job I’m going to do representing myself.”

Students interested in using the InterviewStream program should contact the career center at 828-1645.