Attendees at U.C. Davis The interview begins
A Cooperative Effort of
the ACS Santa Clara
Valley Section
the ACS California Section
and
the AIChE
NorCal Section
The
Student Interview Workshop program was established to teach interview
skills to undergraduate chemistry and chemical engineering students.
What distinguishes this program from other types of interview
training is that every student who attends the workshop has a
practice interview with trained interview coaches and receives
feedback from the coaches and from a small group of student peers. At
the beginning of each workshop, volunteer coaches present information
and advice on interviewing skills and resumé preparation. The
presentations are followed by a mock interview done by coaches which
provides dramatic examples of good and bad interview behaviors, and
is used to teach how to give feedback. The participants then break
into groups where each student does a practice interview. Coaches
also provide feedback on students’ resumes on request.
Development of the program was begun in 2004 as a cooperative effort
of the Santa Clara Valley Section, the California Section and the
NorCal Section of AIChE. Funding for the program was provided by
grants from the ACS Local Section Innovative Projects Grant Program.
In addition, a grant was received from AIChE to help support the
program.
Development of materials for training
volunteers and for student workshops was accomplished in 2004;
materials have been revised somewhat as experience has been gained
with presentations. Initial training of coach volunteers took place
in 2005 at different locations in the Sections’ territories.
The program was rolled out to rave reviews at college campuses in
2005, and continued through 2006 and 2007.
Four Student Interview Workshops, a joint effort of the California Section, the Santa Clara Valley Section and the NorCal AIChE Section, were conducted in 2007: February 10 at University of California at Davis, April 28 at San José State University, May 2 at the University of San Francisco, and October 10 at Stanford University. The workshops were well-attended and received very positive feedback from faculty and students. Student groups on campus, particularly the AIChE student groups, became increasingly involved in making local arrangements for rooms and set up. Over 100 students participated in the 4 events with a typical volunteer to student ratio of 1:2.
As was done in previous years, feedback on the program was solicited from students and from coach volunteers at each workshop. Some different schedules were tried at different workshops, and refinements in response to feedback were continued. Feedback continued to be very positive, but the organizers continue to look for ways to improve and new ideas to try. Representative comments from student feedback follow:
“Most helpful was real chemists and engineers giving real advice based on specific experience.”
“Well organized. Rich in content.”
“Practice interviews intimidating but very helpful.”
“I really enjoyed this workshop. There was much interesting and important information provided that I may never gain in a classroom.”
“Most helpful was I got not only to practice my interview skills, but also got to see others practice and learn from them.”
“I really appreciated that the workshop was run by professionals who have experience in hiring.”
“Thank you for doing this – it was a tremendous help.”
The
Student Interview Workshop program is very volunteer-intensive,
involving participation of about 1 volunteer coach for every 2-3
student attendees. In order to keep the program going, let alone
expand, additional volunteer coaches must be trained each year. In
2007, volunteers were trained through one-on-one contact with
trainers and by being paired with experienced coaches during a
workshop.
We continued the practice of having
different volunteer coaches do the presentations and handle
scheduling and arrangements at individual campuses. This practice
helps prevent volunteer burnout, offers additional experience to
individual volunteers, and gives us greater depth and flexibility for
the program. The volunteer coordinator ensured consistent
communications with volunteers and maintenance of the volunteer
contact list. We are attempting to identify one volunteer contact
for each campus who will be responsible for communication and
building a relationship with students and faculty which can carry
over from year to year at a particular campus.
The 2007 Student Interview Workshop program was run on funds from a grant to the Santa Clara Valley Section (co-sponsored by the California Section and the NorCal AIChE Section) from the ACS Local Section Innovative Projects Grant Program in the spring of 2006. To ensure the on-going health of the program, funding from other sources will need to be obtained, ideally from a sponsor(s) who wants to partner long term to provide this opportunity to the future workforce.
We are making plans to
expand the program to campuses farther from the San Francisco Bay
Area, and to community colleges. Contacts with faculty at 2-year
colleges have reinforced our idea that this student population is an
underserved community and that the workshop would be very much
appreciated.
Attendees at U.C.
Davis
The interview begins
Bonnie
Charpentier, Chair
Student Interview Workshops