Be Your Own Advocate

It's amazing the assumptions we make. Nuances of posture, dress, and dialect sway our opinions often without conscious thought. Most young people are excellent at deciphering others. After all, they live in a world obsessed with brands, styles, and image. Their lives are constructed around a series of artificial rules on what is "cool" and "not cool."

 

Yet for all their cultural savvy, kids struggle to see from the viewpoint of an employer. The same person who would never wear Adidas socks with Nike shoes often sees no problem coming into an interview in ripped-up jeans. Appropriateness is often fluid depending on the situation. Teaching professionalism and interview skills is not just about finding a job or working the system—it's the practice of predicting another person's perspective. 

Cliché or not, it's true that you only get one chance to make a first impression. While first impressions often fade in a long-term relationship, you don't have that opportunity in a brief interview. Create situations where learners get to practice and get live feedback not only from peers, but from professionals. Here are a few ideas:

• Invite a few local businesses to come in and hold mock interviews. This helps your class take the interviews seriously and gives an outside perspective.

• Practice before the mock interview by going over a list of interview skills

• Have your students evaluate each other with an interview rubric

• Have your class do additional research with this interview presentation

• Hold a professional attire fashion show where students can demonstrate the proper way to dress for an interview, as well as practice their overall demeanor and posture

Our kids have a warped sense of self-worth, usually based on athletic prowess or a Flappy Bird high score. Have your class brainstorm what character traits a business owner would value. If you want to make it more personal, have each individual create a mock business and list of qualifications for employees. 

 

Once each person has thought about those qualities, have them honestly assess their strengths and weaknesses. Remind them that unless they can back up that strength with an anecdote, an employer will rarely believe them. Ask students to create answers to demonstrate some of their most important skills—collaboration, honesty, reliability, and being teachable. 

 

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is not just about interviews, scholarships, and employment—it's a useful skill while you are still in school. Being your own advocate and recognizing your own limitations enables you to ask for help and communicate where you need assistance. It's a skill few teenagers possess—often leaving it to parents or teachers to guess where they need help.

• Use a template and checklist to create a resume

• Use a resume workbook to guide your class through the career-finding process

• Find more resources in this previous article to develop lessons on resume writing

• If you're teaching a higher-level group of learners, try out some unorthodox resumes that present the same information in unique, yet still professional formats. This helps applicants stand out in the often overwhelming stack of resumes and applications. 

As you work on this, remember that high-pressure practice is the only way to truly improve. For every skill, have a practice session. If need be, tape the interviews and have the interviewees watch themselves. It will be uncomfortable, awkward, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious, but the results will be worth it. Knowing how to self-advocate and clearly communicate under pressure is an acquired skill that has value in every occupation.