BCAS Oral Interview

[lindykulika]

Hi all, I'm a little concerned about the BCAS start interview format, I've done my research and all, but I just can't seem to be able to get through the pannel without my nerves getting the best of me.

I'm a full-time university student and don't have a lot of experience with employers because I've only ever been able to work in the summers.

All the questions I'm always asked seem to be related to my work suppervisor or co-worker

During my first BCAS interview I didn't use the proper start format and got nailed for it.

I recently did my second BCAS interview and I was unsuccessful, I'm still waiting to hear back from them to find out why..

Can anybody give me any pointers or 'words of advice'? I really prepared for this one, and read up on star questions etc.. but again, many of the questions I was asked, infact the majority.. were regarding employers and supervisors. I skipped and asked for the alternative to the questions but in the end... I was still unsuccessful.

[scubanurse]

If they are asking about previous experience with employers and you feel like you don't have enough to provide a good answer, try to relate the question to your experiences in University. I'm sure you have experiences with professors and advisors who you can make work for those kinds of questions.

Good luck!

[cprted]

Google the "STAR" format and read up on interview strategies. The format of your answers are just as important as the content. You can have a great story, but if you don't articulate it in the STAR format, you won't score very well. Alternatively, you can have a so so answer, but if you nail the STAR format, you'll get a decent score. So just to review:

Situation-What's the context?

Task-What was the task at hand?

Action-What did YOU do?

Result-How did it turn out?

The questions are rather broad and you can draw from all aspects of your life. Yes things are kind of geared towards employment, but you can from all aspects of your life. School, volunteering, youth group, a sports team, etc. For example, "tell me about a time when you has a disagreement with your supervisor." If you don't have a work example, there really isn't any reason you couldn't make your answer about something else where you had a supervisory relationship. These answers don't have to be earth shattering life and death stuff, you'll get the best scores for sticking to the format. Also your story doesn't have to have a positive result. The "R" part could be, "turns out I was wrong and the project blew up in my face. But what I learned from that was ... "

[rock_shoes]

Which region did you interview in? If you haven't had any luck in a particular region you do have the option of applying to a different region.