Evaluation

 

Evaluation:

 

Mock Interview-

I have had some experience in the past with interviews, I have previously done one for when I applied to College and I have done and been successful in a job interview earlier this year so the interview process was not new to me.

However, the STAR interview technique was something new that I had never come across before so I had to get grips with before I did my mock interview. In order to do this, I looked at interview examples on YouTube which utilised this technique as well as watching videos which explained in more depth which helped me massively in getting to grips and understanding this technique.

For the mock interview, we had to choose are career that we’d like to be interviewed for and the career that I chose was a puppeteer. I chose to be interviewed for a job as a puppeteer because over the years as a puppeteer, I have often spoken about my experiences in depth and previously did a mock interview during our documentary project where I spoke about my puppetry experiences. However I had never been asked questions in the STAR format and when writing my questions I had change some of my questions and adapt them to allow myself to answer them in the STAR format

When I did my interview, I had to do it over zoom because unlike my peers, I had to self-isolate and was not in college on the day they all did their mock interviews so I was nervous because I had no idea of how it would go because I couldn’t look at anyone else’s interview and fully understand the structure. But I feel that this was not a problem in the interview because I believe that I answered every question well and in detail without it becoming boring or repetitive and more importantly, I answered nearly ever y single question using the STAR method. So I feel that I now understand the STAR interview technique after a successful mock interview

 

Telephone Call:

The Telephone Call was probably the easiest part of the Unit 11 process. I feel this because in my job working at the Co-Op, customer service is very important and that includes the way you talk and treat customers so I am very used to talking in a polite, friendly and respectful manner.

So, for my telephone call, I imagined exactly that. That I was back at work serving a customer on the checkout where I would have to be polite and respectful to a customer and I decided to base my telephone call around this, because I am comfortable in that environment.

When recording my telephone call, I decided to do a couple of practise attempts to make sure I said all the right things and that it all made sense and I actually had to do a couple more practise runs than I would’ve liked because I felt that I stumbled on my words a few times and stuttered which I wasn’t happy with, however I do feel that it was just nerves and the awkwardness of talking to myself. However when doing my proper and final recording, I had no issues after my practise runs

 

Canva CV:

I am well used to writing CV’s. I have been doing so since high school and I have pretty much kept a very similar CV since making my first one back in year 9. However it has become more professional as time has gone on with it becoming my formal and grammatically correct as I have gotten older, my latest CV had helped me to gain employment back in September for the first time.

However I had never made a CV which looked stylish and professional which would make me stand out. Previously I had just used Word to make my CV which looked boring however for Unit 11, I used Canva.

Canva was very easy to use, they have lots of templates that I could choose from and I decided to try out a couple of templates to see how they would look however none of them were to my liking. I eventually settled on a stylish black and white one which made my current CV look so much more professional and I will definitely be using it in future.

Cover Letter:

When starting the process of Unit 11, I was unfamiliar with the concept of a cover letter. I had never written one before however I wasn’t unknown to the concept of writing letters so I wasn’t too worried about writing a cover letter

However just to assure myself, I did some research into how to write a cover letter and looked at different examples of cover letters to make sure I understood what needed to be included in mine.

I decided to write my cover letter to the UEA in particular to Mr Snelson who is one of the lecturers at the UEA on their media studies degree. I chose the UEA because my first choice of University for next year. In my cover letter, I decided to talk about why I had chosen to study at UEA, after having the university recommended to me by Jake Humphrey and the facilities they have.

I feel my cover letter is exactly what it should have been, short but gets to the point but also shows my genuine interest in going to UEA. And I am now confident in writing cover letters for the future.

 

Personal Statement :

Out of everything for Unit 11, this was the one thing I was most worried about. The personal statement is a massive piece of the puzzle when applying to University and can make or break your application.

In class we learned how to structure our personal statements. However I was having trouble getting started because I felt that I did not know what contents I should include in my personal statement. However my friend Owen showed me his personal statement and although his personal statement was for Engineering and not media, it really gave me inspiration and the knowledge of what I had to include in my personal statement.

I found writing my personal statement easy. I spoke about my interests in puppetry and animation. I discussed in detail about my passion for media and the skills that I have acquired over the last two years at the college including the experiences I have had while being here such as working with Springboard.

 As well as personal achievements outside of college such as raising £14,000 for charity as well as being awarded the Teenage Achievement award last December recognising that charity work. I have included this, to stand out as a candidate on my UCAS form.

I had sent my personal statement to James Fox who gave me feedback. However I also sent it to my mum and a family friend who has given me lots of help in the past with things such as application forms and CV’s. They both helped me to reword my personal statement to make it sound more professional. Which I feel came out great and their feedback has really improved my statement.

Overall, I’m very happy with how all of my evidence came out. However one thing I hope to work on is my time management and planning for our next unit because I left a lot of things to the last minute which isn’t acceptable however I am still happy with how it all came out.