LAI Test Nicardo Fermin

Interviewer/Interviewee

Interviewer: Hello. Thank you so much for your time today. My name is Nikita.
We'll just be talking you through some questions in relation to your
experience about getting your first job out of college. For the
purpose of the interview, would you like to let me know your first
name, just so I can refer to you throughout the interview?

Interviewee: Hello, Nikita. My name is Andy.

Interviewer: Thank you, Andy. It's lovely to have you with us today. As you
know, Andy, in Australia, after high school, there are two
pathways for further education, university or college. As we know,
college, we usually refer to it as TAFE. Out of these two
educational pathways, what did you choose out of high school?

Interviewee: Yeah. I took the college or the TAFE option.

Interviewer: OK. Very interesting. What course or what field of study did you
choose to study through college?

Interviewee: I did my electrical trade.

Interviewer: OK. Excellent. During your electrical trade, what job opportunities
did this open up for you?

Interviewee: Well, it opened up the opportunity to become an electrician and

qualified one. That also because of the Australian system for
schooling, it actually gave prerequisites in order to allow me to
move on to my engineering diploma, too.

Interviewer: Excellent. This is also an interesting aspect of college in Australia

that you can not only complete your college like certificates and
diplomas, they can even lead to more education, such as advanced
diplomas and undergraduate degrees as well. Then, when you
graduated from college, how many jobs did you apply for?

Interviewee: Well, I applied for possibly about three or four different jobs. Yeah

Interviewer: OK. Out of these three or four jobs that you applied for, how many
interviews were you granted?

Interviewee: I was granted about at least 75% of them. About three.

Interviewer: OK. Congratulations. That's a very good percentage of interviews

that you have been given most, maybe get 50% out of the jobs that
you applied for. How did you find these interviews coming out of

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Interviewer/Interviewee

college interviewing for roles perhaps you haven't done? How

were the interviews? How did you find them?

Interviewee: The interviews were quite different. I felt quite unprepared for a lot
of them. For example, because they were technical-based
interviews, they would ask you to draw a diagram. For me being
from a different region, it completely took me by surprise. I felt
inadequate for that interview. However, at the same time, being
able to have a little bit of experience in the apprenticeship helped a
lot to be able to know the general idea of it, and also speaking to
others who have been in interviews before, too.

Interviewer: Very good. What would you say would be the most difficult aspect
of the interview process for you?

Interviewee: Yeah, definitely. That's a good question. It would have to be there's

multiple parts. First, writing the resume, being honest, and not
overstating any of the skills that you have. It's quite difficult, and
talking about yourself, too. That's hard. Also, in the interview
itself, once you make it to the interviewer level, it's, it's quite
challenging to be able to answer different questions that you do not
expect to come. Also, when they ask you about yourself, even in
the interview can be quite difficult to speak about yourself. I find
personally that to be some of the biggest challenges.

Interviewer: OK. Thank you for sharing. I'm sure all of us who have done
interviews have had similar challenges, and it is difficult to talk
about yourself on the spot. That can sometimes be a challenge,
definitely. Was there anything that you enjoyed about the interview
process?

Interviewee: So many different things you put out of your comfort zone. No one
really loves interviews too much. If you really look at it, for the
whole approach, you learn new things in an interview, you learn
about a company in the interview, too. The questions they ask, also
give you a good idea about what the job entails. You get to have a
good idea as well about what to expect for future interviews, too.
It's good training. Not only for the menial job, but for future jobs
as well that you interview for.

Interviewer: Excellent. Thank you. You mentioned that you found these
interviews to be good training for future positions or even for more
similar interviews, perhaps if you weren't successful. What did you
perhaps learn from this first interview experience, your first
interviews out of college?

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Interviewee: Well, really, I learned a lot of different things. I learned that I

wasn't prepared for them. I tried to prepare really well. As much as
you prepare, you feel nervous sometimes in an interview, and you
don't perform as well as you might in a mock interview, maybe at
home, or with even some of those who have trained you in the
past. Nerves also, not knowing the people on the panel, as well,
that's quite nerve wracking. Even when you're interviewing against
colleagues that you're good friends with, you feel bad if you were
to receive the job, and they were to miss out, too. That's probably
some of the challenges that I went through with the interview.

Interviewer: Excellent. There are some more challenges that came about from
that interview. Were there any takeaway points or something that
you learned for next time from this interview?

Interviewee: So many things, but really, interviews for what was structure.
Interviews in Australia usually have an independent, so you feel
confident, comfortable, and you have trust in the process. I also
learned a lot about the company as well, especially when they talk
about the equal opportunities that really built my confidence in the
company. Also, I took away a lot of points when I was not
successful for an interview, or the job position, I got really good
feedback. That prepared me better for any future interviews that I
was to undertake, too. Also taken away, some key points is from a
technical perspective, or from a position description, I understood
the position better, I understood key things that I never realized
before. It was good, a good learning process, and really helped me
to be able to put my nerves into perspective, too.

Interviewer: Very good, Andy. Thank you for sharing those challenges and the
things that you found that you learned and was then able to apply
in your future interviews. Often in these initial interviews, or even
through our life of being involved in job interviews, sometimes
there's that one question that sticks in your mind because you
found it so challenging to answer, or you wish you could have said
something different. Do you have any memories or any
recollection or perhaps a question you found especially challenging
during these initial interviews?

Interviewee: I think the challenging questions were, “What is your weakness?”

Interviewer: Yes, we all struggle with that question. How did you approach this
question when you were fresh out of college, your first few
interviews? How did you feel about this question?

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Interviewer/Interviewee

Interviewee: Yes, a very good question, actually. It tests you out, always trying
to take an approach of turning a negative into a positive. If I was
asked, “What is your weakness?”, I might say something about, “I
take maybe a little bit longer to do something. That's really a
challenge that I feel that I have. However, I always try to end in a
positive note.” What it means for the employer is that, even though
I'll take a longer time to do something, I'll try to do it right. I'll try
to learn from it and make sure that mistakes don't happen instead
of rushing. In the industry that I was in safety and doing things
right was of vital importance. Really, it gave me an opportunity to
turn this negative into a positive.

Interviewer: Very good. I like that turning a negative into a positive. Really,
this is a question that still commonly used in interviews today. It is
something that we do or struggle with. You mentioned that you
had three interviews straight out of college. I want to ask you,
Andy, were you successful in any of these interviews?

Interviewee: Thank you for asking. Yes, I was.

Interviewer: Congratulations. You were successful. How did you find this out?
Will you send email

[End of Audio]

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