NGPF crowd favorite, Project: Who Aced the Interview Challenge?, was highlighted in the 2020 FinLit Month Calendar. At a time where many schools have transitioned to offering synchronous and asynchronous learning, we’ve listed some adaptations that may work for your current classroom environment.

Synchronous Learning Environment

Interview Challenge via Verbal Response

• Pre Work: 
• Use a Google Form to have students identify which general field of employment they are most interested in. Create groups of ~4 students accordingly.
• Review the 35 interview questions and select the top 10-15 questions that you would like students to focus on.
• Inform students which employment field they will be focusing on and have students asynchronously prepare their responses to the identified 10-15 questions. 
• On the identified Interview Challenge date, use a video conferencing platform with designated breakout rooms and allocate each group to its own breakout room.
• Students can then complete Part III: Group Work Challenge as is but in virtual breakout rooms rather than a physical circle. Have students use a random number generator to identify which number question the next person answers rather than selecting out of a box/bag.
• Students will still require their own copy of the SCORE SHEET.
• Optional: Have the winning member of each group advance to the ‘Championship Round’.

Interview Challenge via Discussion Board

• In real-time, use a discussion board format that allows posts to be anonymous and the ability to up-vote responses (such as Padlet or NearPod) to post an interview question. Students anonymously respond to the question using examples that are specific to the employment field of their choice within a given timeframe (~3 minutes). At the end of the given timeframe, students identify and up-vote their choice for the best 3 responses.
• Optional: Facilitate a discussion about the top-rated responses and the elements that led to them being rated as the best.

Interview Challenge via Pitch

• Pre Work: 
• Review the 35 interview questions and select the top ~5 questions that you would like students to focus on.
• Have students asynchronously prepare their responses to the identified ~5 questions and craft a ~30-second pitch working in their responses to the questions and identifying why they should be hired for the position (Note: students should customize their responses to be specific for the employment field they are interested in).
• On the identified Interview Challenge date, use a video conferencing platform and have each student deliver their Interview Pitch live to the class.
• Each student will still require their own copy of the SCORE SHEET (Option to modify this document into a Google Sheet so that students can respond to all student pitches).
• Optional: After each pitch, ask 1-2 students to provide their feedback to the person who pitched.
• Optional: After all pitches have been completed, students identify and submit their top 3 Interview Challenge selections (students are unable to nominate themselves). Tally all submissions to identify the 3 students who will then enter the Championship Round (either in this class session or on a future date).

Asynchronous Learning Environment

Interview Challenge via Individual Submission

• Students select which employment field they are interested in and submit written or recorded verbal responses to the list of interview questions.
• Optional: Allow students to submit responses using a range of mediums and encourage creativity in response submission.
• Optional: Have students vote for the most compelling submission

Interview Challenge via Live Interview

• Students select which employment field they are interested in and prepare answers to the interview questions accordingly. Students then set up a mock interview in their house:
• Provide the list of interview questions to the person who will take on the role of the interviewer.
• Set up video or audio recording capacity (most phones have these features or Screencast-O-Matic will allow up to 15 mins of free recording).
• Start the recording, then the interviewer selects questions from the provided list to ask of the student. The student responds accordingly in real-time.
• Bonus Points: If the student dresses in interview-appropriate attire or if the interviewer asks some extra questions of their own!
• Submit this recording to the teacher.
• Optional: Share the recordings with the class. Have students vote for the best interview.

Interview Challenge via Discussion Board

• Within a set time period, use a discussion board format that allows posts to be anonymous(such as Padlet or NearPod) to post an interview question. Students anonymously respond to the question using examples that are specific to the employment field of their choice within a given timeframe (~1 week). 
• Optional: Have students add comments to other posts with suggestions on how to improve or refine their response.

View NGPF's Virtual Adaptation Series if you're looking for additional resources with suggestions on how to facilitate in a virtual environment.

About the Author

Laura Matchett

After graduating with an education degree and spending 7 years in an elementary classroom, Laura made the switch to the non-profit world and loves interacting with students, educators and business professionals across the country. She is passionate about all students having access to high quality education and views personal finance education as one way to ‘level the playing field’. When Laura is not locating or creating high quality educational resources, you can find her mountain biking or searching for the best ramen in town!