TMU’s Career Center holds its second annual final interview competition

By Jeremiah Yonemura

The Master’s University’s Career Services department on Wednesday, Nov. 1, held the final interview competition for its second annual The Master Interview.  The event took place at the Student Center so that students could watch and learn about job interviews.

The five finalists participated in a mock interview for a job in their desired career paths.  A panel of judges listened and gave feedback.

“I really think the best part of the event is for students to be able to see what a real job interview is like because normally that’s something that you do by yourself, but this is just making it public and letting everyone experience…,” said Nate Dougherty, associate director of corporate partnership at Career Services.

The finalists were Lillian Bleeker, a senior communication and music double major; Samuel Jean, a junior kinesiology major; Cameron Jordan, a sophomore marketing media major; Rachel Culver, a senior political studies major; and Brandon True, a senior entrepreneurship and business administration double major.

The judges included Scott Floyd, senior director of global benefits at Cisco Systems; Carly Brannon, founder of Carly Jean Los Angeles; Stephanie Beals, lead organizational effectiveness consultant at Kaiser Permanente; Todd Sorrell, attorney at Lagerlof, LLP; and Bobby Doyle, executive coach at Bobby Doyle LLC.

Doyle was also the event host, and Sorrell was the interviewer.

Jean won the first place $2,500 scholarship, and Culver won the second place $1,000 scholarship.

“It was an exciting and exhilarating experience honestly.  At first, I didn’t anticipate to be [in] the finals, but I see it as an honor and an opportunity to share my story, and I’m really thankful for the opportunity,” Culver said.

The Master Interview is a competition in which students practice applying for and interviewing for a position related to their future careers.

The competition consisted of three phases.  Students would receive coaching and feedback throughout each phase.

The first phase was to select a real job and submit to Career Services the job description, application, resume, and cover letter.

The second phase was the elevator pitch, in which students would have 60-90 seconds to answer an interview question.  The potential questions were “Tell me about yourself,” “Why did you apply for this position?,” and “What is your long-term career goal?”

The third phase was a mock job interview to determine if the student was the right person to hire.

The interviewers then evaluated the students’ performances across all three phases and chose five students to advance to the final interview.

“We didn’t eliminate anybody.  We wanted everyone to experience phases one, two, and three and get the learning opportunity,” Dougherty said.

About 80 students signed up, and about 60 progressed through all three phases.  Participants who completed phase three received a copy of John MacArthur’s book “Quest for Character” and a $25 gift card.