SZABIST, Islamabad places due emphasis on providing its students with ample learning opportunities beyond the classroom learning environment. In line with our philosophy of taking experiential learning hand in hand with the curriculum, the Department of Management Sciences arranged a mock interview session for the students of MBA –Day and BBA. The objective of the activity was to provide students with their first hands-on experience of appearing for an actual interview.

Over period of a few weeks, Ms. Sundas Azeem conducted a streamlined mock recruitment and selection process for her classes of HRM and SHRM. This involved allowing students to conduct an actual job analysis for a job of their choice, helping them prepare their resumes, creating a job advertisement, choosing one of two real-time job advertisements advertised in leading dailies for appearing for a mock interview session and evaluating other candidates appearing for the job interview on actual interview evaluation forms. This streamlined activity over a period of few weeks gave students a hand-on experience of the intricacies of the staffing function of HRM.

The mock interview session was held on November 21^st, 2019. Students appeared for the mock interview session well prepared with their CVs and were evaluated on their KSAOs for the advertised entry-level jobs. Invited panelists, Dr. Mubarik Hussain, Dr. Sana Aroos and Mr. Rana Kashif conducted the interviews, shared their insights and advised students on important tips for overcoming interview anxiety, preparing for interviews and being mindful of their verbal and non-verbal language during interviews. Observing the panelists, students also learned important tips for interview-taking in line with their course contents. Those in the audience evaluated the candidates on actual interview evaluation forms shared with their instructor as part of the next step of the selection process.