Recruiting: Week Three

MPA Mock Interviews

If you have ever taken BA 101, a class required of all first-year business majors, you probably know what a mock interview is. Basically, mock interviews are practice interviews. Each semester, MPA career services holds a round of mock interviews for MPA students right at the beginning of recruiting season. This semester things have been a little different as a snow day delayed the event until the end of the month.

As an MPA student, you want to take advantage of this resource and sign up for the MPA Mock Interviews as soon as you can. They are a great tool for students to gauge how well they interact during an interview and practice thinking on the spot. It’s also a great confidence builder. Sitting through three or so mock interviews will ensure you feel more at ease talking with employers. MPA Career Services brings in actual recruiters to interview you in these practice interviews. It is possible to end up practicing with the exact same recruiters you interview with at the real thing! While it’s kind of a roulette when it comes to what employer you get, no matter who you interview with it is still good practice. I encourage you to sign up for multiple!

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Resume Drop Period

Sometime around the first week of February there will be a period where you are permitted to finally apply to the job postings on OCR (Online Recruiting System). Our resume drop period just ended a few days ago and, from my experience, there are several things you need during this time. You need cover letters, a resume, official transcripts and time. While having cover letters or resumes ready might seem obvious, the fact that you need official transcripts might come as a surprise to you as it did to me and most of my friends in the program. Do not wait until the last minute to request trancripts! Some students this semester found out on the last day that you needed them and there was a possibility that school was going to be closed due to weather that day. Luckily, school remained open. However, they had major freak-outs that could have been avoided.

Lesson to be learned: Do not wait until the last minute to start applying to job postings.

You will find during the application process there are certain documents you need from the school. These applications may require you to apply online, which can take a good amount of time. Do not want to rush through your applications! Make sure to set aside a decent amount of time so that you can complete them thoroughly. The last thing you want is to lose an opportunity because you did not submit all of your documents on time.

Miss the first installments of April’s MPA recruiting experience? Check out Recruiting: Week One

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