Writes Sue Grice, Head of Careers
The Studio Theatre was transformed into a virtual interview suite last week to conclude this year’s Upper Sixth Ace That Interview! event.
Across two days, 134 students undertook a mock competency-based interview with a parent or OMT who is experienced in interviewing early talent. After each interview, pupils received personalised verbal feedback from their interviewer and then attended a group review session to consolidate their learning from the experience.
In the previous week, pupils had attended workshops run by Dale Willis from My Great First Job to learn about pre-interview research techniques, approaches for answering interview questions, and strategic ways to use LinkedIn to build their online profile/brand and develop their professional network. In addition to the workshops, Dale was also able to give some pupils personalised feedback on their LinkedIn profiles.
At the heart of the initiative was a deeper exploration of how to tell a rich story about their skills and values. The workshops helped pupils to see how they could leverage experiences from seemingly insignificant activities, such as a part-time job as a lifeguard, shop assistant or volunteer gardener, to exemplify the skills that recruiters for internships or graduate schemes are likely to be looking for, using the STAR(R) technique. They applied this learning to simulate preparing for, and taking part in, an initial interview with a recruitment agency.
Our mock ‘recruitment agency interviewers’ were drawn from an amazing line-up of parent and OMT volunteers, who conducted the one-to-one interviews on Teams with great commitment to helping pupils develop their interviewing skills. Pupils left the interview suite buzzing with personal feedback, and comments such as “that was amazing” and “that was so useful” resonated around the room.
This is our first cohort to have also undertaken our new Lower Sixth event, Future Ready Day: Mastering Interviews and Graduate Assessment Centres, which took place in May 2025. With the support of parents and OMTs who coached pupils on their interview skills at that event, pupils were able to practise using industry-standard asynchronous recorded interview software. This Upper Sixth event gave them the opportunity to build on what they learned in the Lower Sixth, introducing further refinement into their technique and developing a more conversational style suitable for a real-time interview.
We hope that these experiences will prepare those pupils heading to university to be successful in the coming year or two with internship applications, which are becoming an increasingly important part of the undergraduate experience. Furthermore, for pupils currently engaging in degree apprenticeship applications, this was an invaluable opportunity to boost their confidence ahead of forthcoming interviews.
I am truly grateful to all the parents and OMTs who support our initiatives, particularly these very personal experiences that have such a meaningful impact on individuals. The generosity of our community that underpins these events is genuinely heartwarming and gives us confidence that our pupils are well prepared as they move closer to the workplace.
If, on reading this, you feel you would like to support any of our future careers initiatives, please do complete this simple survey as a way of getting in touch. We would love to welcome you to be part of future events.
