{"id":1737,"date":"2020-03-25T14:55:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T14:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:16:35","slug":"so-what-did-you-do-in-spring-2020-interview-questions-in-the-post-covid19-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2020\/03\/25\/so-what-did-you-do-in-spring-2020-interview-questions-in-the-post-covid19-world\/","title":{"rendered":"So what did you do in Spring 2020 ? Interview questions in the post-Covid19 world"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing this in mid March 2020. I don\u2019t have a crystal ball\u2026but all things must and will pass. At some point, hopefully not in the too distant future, we will be at least be gradually \u201ccoming out the other side\u201d of this unprecedented public health and economic shock.<\/p>\n

Just as the 1914-18 war defined an entire generation, I\u2019m anticipating that we all will look back on this period with a host of mixed feelings and thoughts about how it affected our lives, perhaps forever.<\/p>\n

Could some of those feelings be pride and personal satisfaction that you personally made the best of an unexpected and exceptional event?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want this period in my life to be dominated by memories of copious binge watching of box sets (however appealing the thought of catching up on the final series of Homeland and Designated Survivor\u2026which I definitely intend to give in to I might add!). So this weekend I set myself some professional and personal goals\u2026and am planning on \u201cencouraging\u201d my husband and teenage son (and Labrador?) to do the same.<\/p>\n

My professional goals outside of my work here in the Careers Service include producing some online learning materials around employability suitable for sixth formers, enrolling on an online TEFL course and \u201cmaking progress\u201d with learning Italian\u2026ready for the wonderful time when I shall be able to rearrange our family holiday to that beautiful land. Already my tech skills (not my forte) have sky rocketed (relatively speaking) making better use of Teams, Zoom etc. I\u2019m also planning some \u201cself-care\u201d around the things I love to do: growing some salad leaves and herbs in pots, cooking one new recipe from each of my many<\/em> cookery books (my guilty pleasure) and having a go at online yoga . I\u2019ve also signed up as a volunteer to deliver groceries to those who are self-isolating in my village. Now that I don\u2019t have a daily three hour round trip to Bath I figure I have the time.<\/p>\n

So what about you?<\/strong> At the Careers Service we have been running a series of Interview Practice sessions for students who have interviews coming up, or those who just want to experience a formal interview before doing it for real. Will you be ready for what might be to come in those \u201cin real life\u201d interviews in 2020\/2021?<\/p>\n

What will graduate employers be asking applicants to demonstrate post Covid-19?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, my crystal ball is a little hazy\u2026but if I were a graduate employer in the next 6-18 months, these would be the sorts of things I would be interested in exploring at interview:<\/p>\n

\u2022 How did you demonstrate personal resilience, in the face of a highly stressful situation?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 What did you learn about yourself, thus enhancing your self-awareness?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 How did you create momentum to continue your studies virtually and how did you expand your self-directed learning beyond the curriculum?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 Did you develop some new transferable skills by volunteering in your community?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 How resourceful were you in the face of a lockdown?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 Did you demonstrate leadership by setting up and running a virtual project?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 How did you develop new virtual teamworking skills?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 How did you look after your physical and mental wellbeing and that of your friends and family?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 What structures did you design and implement around your daily schedule to ensure deadlines were met and projects delivered?<\/em><\/p>\n

Why not create a page in your notes app, or in your bullet journal to jot down examples that you could use when you are asked for evidence of these attributes and skills. You never know it could make all the difference at interview for that perfect role...which may seem a very distant possibility right now, but \"this too shall pass\".<\/p>\n

Being human will see us through<\/strong><\/p>\n

I read today that in China robots are starting to replace some health workers in administering tests and medication to infected patients, thus reducing risk for clinical staff and freeing them up to do the \u201creal caring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world of work may never be the same again- how do you plan to grasp the opportunities that even this dreadful situation presents for your future?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to hear about your goals!<\/p>\n

NB. At the Careers Service we\u2019re curating a whole load of resources and answers to FAQs for you, frequently updated:<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/unihub.bath.ac.uk\/s\/myfuture\/faqs\/detail\/17\/faq-careers-service-support-an<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing this in mid March 2020. I don\u2019t have a crystal ball\u2026but all things must and will pass. At some point, hopefully not in the too distant future, we will be at least be gradually \u201ccoming out the other...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[4,552,68,44,15,9,8,41,120],"class_list":["post-1737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-advice","tag-covid-19","tag-employers","tag-interviews","tag-job-hunting","tag-reflection","tag-self-awareness","tag-skills","tag-top-tips"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}