Year 10 ABCN Excursion

ABCN stands for the Australian Business and Community Network, and on the (date) we were lucky enough to attend

This is our second experience with ABCN, and most people would agree, it was the most valuable one. In a single day we were able to engage with mentors working in different areas of the Commonwealth Bank, and learn about Interview Skills: how to present yourselves in interviews and how to respond to interviewers questions. 

First we did a few icebreaker activities, one of them being to introduce ourselves without smiling. It is much harder not to laugh when you're supposed to.

After that, we went through how to present yourself at an interview, the sorts of questions interviewers might ask, and how to respond to them using CAR structure. 

They asked three students to act confident, arrogant and reserved respectively, and then asked the other students and mentors who they would hire. Most were able to recognise that it was better to be confident or even a bit more reserved, rather than arrogant.

After that we used the CAR structure we to create our own mock interview speech, and put it into practice. They conducted multiple mock interviews with multiple mentors, and then provided helpful feedback on what we did well, and what we need to improve on.

 Then we were able to swap and interview the mentors about how they got to that position! One of the most valuable things I learnt that day was that if you have a task you can do within 5 minutes, do it now! Also don't let where you come from, limit you. Anyone can come from anywhere, and do extremely well. The mentors proved that.

Overall this experience was a really valuable one, and if you ever get the opportunity to go, you should take it!

Plus, the free food involved tasted like you paid for it, it was so good. Definitely a highlight!

Lia Velissaris