Last month our partnership with Wrotham School took another step forward when we spent a day giving a group of Year 11 students some job interview experience.

The session of mock interviews we held wasn’t just for young people’s benefit, however. At RDT we’re teaching some of our junior technical people  about the hiring process, so interviewing the Year 11 ‘candidates’ also gave them some valuable practice.

As part of their training, RDT’s staff have been learning: how to screen CVs and match an applicant to a vacancy; the different types of interview and assessment methods; questioning techniques; and finally and importantly in this market, how to best ‘sell’ RDT, and the vacant role, to a candidate.

The interview coaching day was attended by five of our trainees, as well as HR Officer Emma Box and Principal Software Engineer, Richard Day.

Each student was interviewed one-to-one, and were then given feedback from their interviewer to help them understand the best way to perform in a real-life situation.

Our Associate Software Engineer, Sanyam Yadav, said:  ‘I really enjoyed interviewing the students, and it’s given me a boost of confidence. It was a really good opportunity to practice my skills and it’s helped me see how to get an understanding of interviewees, if they are good for a role, and if people were genuine in the contents of their CV.

‘Being on the other side of the interview process has also given me a new insight into how to sell myself in future, and how important it is that a candidate expresses real passion for a role during an interview.’

The Wrotham students agreed that taking part in these mock-interviews had reduced their anxiety over the real thing, and improved their chances of being successful in interviews.

RDT is recruiting right now, so have a look at our Vacancies page and get in touch if you fancy putting your own interview skills to the test!