Capstone - Phases 2 & 3 Explained

If you have not already seen the first part to my Capstone, please check out the home page and click on the small circle in the Capstone bubble.

The second part of my assignment was to take part in a mock-interview to better prepare me for a real one in the future. The name of the firm I (fake) applied to is elbkind, a German communication agency that specializes in helping clients improve their presence in the digital world. I am in the process of trying to find a real internship in Germany for this summer and am actually considering this firm as a potential option (fingers crossed).

For my interview, I wrote a list of 10 questions that I believe could come up in an interview of this sort. Some are from previous interviews I've had and others I found written by German companies on GlassDoor.

· How good are you with PowerPoint?

· What do you do in your free time?

· Are you good at communicating with other people?

· What experience do you have with working in teams?

· Describe a time when you were self-motivated.

· What do you bring to the table?

· What relevant experience do you have?

· What do you hope to take away from this internship?

· Describe a weakness you have and how you are trying to improve it.

· How do you imagine your every-day activities in this position?

Given that I would be working in Germany, there is the potential for any interviews I take part in to be conducted in German. Dr. Smith is a very busy woman, so I asked my dad if he would do the interview with me. He is a director at The Home Depot and does a lot of hiring and firing. I also needed someone who can speak German and would be able to call me out on indirect answers (that he did).

I sat down with my dad after shaking his hand and introducing myself. I handed him a printed copy of my CV and did not engage in small talk since it is not customary in a German interview. He asked me a majority of the questions on my list and threw in some of his own to keep things interesting.

I shared the things that I know how to do such as graphic design, video editing, and webdesign and expressed my social media know-how. I can sometimes have a hard time talking about my strengths in professional settings. I never want to come across as boastful, so I typically talk about myself in a sarcastic manner, or not at all.

I would say that overall it was a good experience because practice and repetition are things that work well for me. I would like to think this helped better prepare me for my upcoming series of interviews over the next few months. My dad (reluctantly) gave me a second interview, business talk for making it to the next round. He told me which of my answers were strong and explained which ones he did not care for. This is valuable information to me because I know that he knows what he is talking about.

Next step: A real interview with The Joachim Herz Foundation. I'll keep you posted :)