It is day three at Minnesota Business Venture and all has gone swell; we’re half way through and so much has already happened! As all the events have been happening all over the Saint Cloud State University campus, I have been going around taking photos and seeing how the students engage with the speakers, staff, and one another. It reminds me of all the great memories of camp that I had experienced when I was a student at MBV.
Today was the day for the mock interviews; you could see all the students dressed in business professional attire, ready for a mock interview which will for sure be indelible. It reminded me of my own experience at Saint John’s University in 2011, when I stood out in the hot blazing sun in a pencil skirt, cardigan, and four-inch heels (most likely not the best choice for a hot summer day) sweating from both the nervousness brewing inside me and the hot July sun beating out each drop of sweat from me. As the large group of us students stood outside waiting our turn, the surrounding aura was a mixture of anxiousness and excitement. The same height of emotion was just as palpable today, as it was two years ago.
Today, stepping inside the room, I saw station after station of interviews. Some had a strong affirmative posture that conveyed well their confidence. Immediately before the interviews, the students received a keynote presentation from Communications VP Al Galgano on presenting their best selves. His words of advice were apparent on the faces of the students as they readied themselves for the interview.
I recall being directed to my interviewer in 2011, and the nervousness that had been brewing inside miraculously vanished, and my confident front turned on. The woman who interviewed me was in the financial field, she asked me the litany of questions that were prescribed to each interviewer, “What are your strengths?” and, “Was there ever a time you struggled in a group dynamic?” Afterward, I felt as though I nailed the interview.
As the communication specialist of MBV 2013, I have the opportunity to watch all these students go through a similar process to my own. The nervousness, the scanning of the room, and the automatic confidence were all reoccurring actions I had seen through other students today at the mock interviews. The experience of mock interviews was something I remember and am grateful I had the opportunity at Minnesota Business Venture to be both in the place of the student and to be someone who can see it happen to the other students as well.
I hope the next communication specialist is able to have such reflective moments, as for Minnesota Business Venture, it has meant a lot to me.
Until next time,
Aimee Vue
MBV 2013 Communication Specialist