Bridging EAL Excursion

This term in Bridging EAL our class focused on being work ready. We did a whole lot of activities to help build our written English and our confidence in speaking. It ended in a mock job interview at RMIT run by their Skills and Jobs Centre.  Actually it is ending here with this article where we are now cooperating in groups to write paragraphs based on reflection writing we did after the excursion!

Paragraph 1 - written by Jinyang Pan , Teevan Ma, Austin Yan 

Before the interview,  we prepared tremendous work. We wrote our resume and cover letter to show the attributes that we had and the skills we own, also the work experience some of us have had. According to Teevan writng about her resume she included ‘information and details of my education and working experience’. In the resume and cover letter we demonstrated passion, motivation and enthusiasm to evoke the interest of the interviewer. We had different ways to practise our spoken communication skills such as practising with a mirror, such things as eye contact - practising on our own and with others. We also practised the question the interviewer may have asked. We hoped we had fully prepared, that we had enough to respond. 

Paragraph 2 - written by Leo Chang, Fiona Xu and Bek Zhang

During the interview, everyone was matched to an interviewer and each interviewer was facing two or three students. Many of us felt good at the beginning of the interview because we prepared a lot and the interviewer was kind and gentle. We were happy that the interviewers were friendly and not one by one face to face, which made us feel more at ease but a little bit informal. The interviewers asked us some questions about our basic information. Some questions were easy to answer, but others about dealing with tough situations, according to Neo, “were hard” for us. Fortunately, the interviewer was so great that after we answered the questions they gave us feedback very carefully and patiently so that we can learn a lot in the interview and be more confident. Also, in the job interview practice for working, everybody learned lots about what the job involves and how to get ready for the interview. We learned how to stay calm and keep confident as we conversed and answered the question for the interviewer, finally we learned that sharing examples of past work experience is helpful. Talking about times when we did similar work before. The most important things we learned is to write resumes and application letters. We were happy with how we did in the job interview.

Paragraph 3 - written by Yu-Chun Chen, Yuhan Chen, Li-Chun Chang

The interview has helped us to learn. The thing we found helpful about this unit is that it gives us a sense of how job interviews look in real life. From the feedback that our interviewer gave to us, real interviews will be formal and professional. They told us we should introduce our hobbies and interests and share examples of past experiences, so that we can show we’re good for this job. Overall, these practices have made us more confident and ready for the interview. We realised we should put more details in the job history. By reflecting on our answers, we gained a better understanding of what employers are looking for. To improve, we will learn some adjectives and adverbs and also develop communication skills by talking with strangers to make our talking become more professional. It was also helpful to practise answering common interview questions and thinking about how to present ourselves. In addition, practising with others allowed us to give and receive feedback, which improved our confidence. These experiences have prepared us well for future interviews.

We would like to thank the RMIT skills and job centre for teaching us how to be ready and the team of student Youth Workers who interviewed us.

This is an article by the Bridging EAL class - Ghada Aldosry, Neo Chang, Leo Chang, Jamie Chen, Stella Chen, Teevan Ma, Jinyang Pan, King Fung Tsoi, Fiona Xu, Austin Yan and Bek Zhang