By Jaelon Mitchell
Staff Writer
A new software program at TJC will help students get ready for job interviews, officials say.
“Interview Stream is an up-and-coming website that TJC has just recently started, and I am really excited to see how the students will use this new resource and benefit from it,” said Maggie Ruelle, Tyler Junior College coordinator for Career Services. “This a great tool for them to see how they are in an interview and how they conduct themselves.”
Interview Stream is a website that puts students in a realistic setting using certain questions that will be asked in an interview. First, when visiting the website, students will need to set up an account. Next, click to choose to conduct an interview. There are two types of interviews to choose from, the first one is a pre-made interview created just for the user. With this, students can choose to do an interview designed by the chosen career choice. Some of the choices include nursing, criminal justice and even default questions asked at standard job interviews. They also have custom interviews from more than seven thousand pre-recorded questions. After finishing the interview, students can then watch it to critique and see what needs improving for a real interview setting.
“Interview Stream is great because it gives students the opportunity to be able to see how they see themselves and what their strengths and weakness are when they are in interviews,” Ruelle said.
With Interview Stream now coming to TJC, the school finally has a resource where the students can conduct practice interviews and better themselves. Having this new resource for students to use “fills the gap” so that they no longer have to go to career services to complete interviews.
The website was put up on the TJC website on Jan. 27., So the product has not been tried by students yet.
“With just being contacted by the company this is a very new product here at TJC,” said Ruelle. “About 10 faculty members have been trained using this website and they are excited to get this out for the students so they can use it.”
While there are several things to like about Interview Stream, Ruelle said that her favorite thing about it is the word filler counter, it actually counts words people use when they get stuck or don’t know what to say. Some of those words are “um” and “like”. She also likes how students can use it on their mobile devices. With everyone not being able to have a laptop, students have another way to access this great resource.
“I hope students use Interview Stream multiple times to get added practice, get comfortable in an interview setting, shy students and any students can get comfortable in classroom speaking and to be able to perform to find employment,” said Ruelle.
Some other things Interview Stream helps with is working on public speaking, projection of voice, posture and how to present oneself during an interview. To create an account, students can contact Ms. Ruelle or set up an appointment to meet in her office in the Rogers Students Center on the second floor. Professors can also create assignments for the students once the account is created.
“With this being such a new resource to us, we hope to have at least 500 students use Interview Stream by December,” said Ruelle.
This resource is really good for second-year students who are about to graduate from TJC who are looking for either an internship or a job in the field which they are majoring in. “But it is not just exclusive for second year students; freshmen should also look into this for future possibilities in internships and jobs,” Ruelle said.
For more information or to set up an account call Ms. Ruelle at 903-510-2480 or email her at (mrue@tjc.edu). Her office is located in the Rogers Student Center on the second floor.
