Tips for the interview

 

How to succeed at the UWC interview?

Pura Vida! People on the other side of the world!

I hope you are all doing well with your life and hope you feel great for the upcoming 11 months that remains for the year 2020. In addition, I wish you all Happy New Year and hope that later you would be selected for a scholarship for UWC! Currently, I am experiencing a great moment, full of diversity, learning and challenges ...

But before you get to the point I am in my UWC experience. You have to go through the ultimate test ... THE INTERVIEW!

If you are one of the lucky ones who were contacted for an interview with the national committee’s members of Burkina Faso. Congratulations! But, still it is finished...

The interview itself seems really difficult for most of the candidates, many of them come out from discouraged, with the mindset that UWC was not made for them. Also, If you've heard rumors like the interview is overwhelming or that it's a horrible experience...

Let me tell you, you shouldn’t believe all the ‘’ rumors ’’. You have to warm up yourself with your greatest potentials, your confidence, your knowledge to show the greatest leader, thus impressing the jury of UWC. So, to boost your morale and the leader that you are, here 3 crucial tips for your future interview.

1- BE YOURSELF AND HONEST

You would be thinking: Ah! Why is she bringing this again on the table…

It’s true that I repeat myself and I am a little bit cliché by giving this advice. But, in the whole process for getting into UWC, it is one of the fact that will tell if, whether or not you are a good fit for being a student at United World College. If you are not yourself, the jury cannot properly evaluate your potentialities, get to know you better and therefore admit you in the movement. Then, the adventure would end there for you.

However, when I say "be yourself" I don't mean come with your pyjama and start talking as if you were having a conversation with your best friend. NO!

What I mean by being honest, is that you need to show your true strengths, your leadership’s skills and your authentic personality. Basically ... show what differentiate you from other candidates and why the committee should choose you instead.

Also, ask to yourself these questions: Why do I want to go to UWC? What is the purpose of going through all of this?

These questions would help you to better understand the questions from the interview, boost your leadership mindset, know yourself better and furthermore, boost your courage to fight to get into UWC. Honesty, is key in the admission process to any school. Honesty makes you authentic!

2- BE PREPARE!

The best battles are planned in advance!

The majority of people would argue that you cannot prepare for an interview. To some extent, this statement is true because we cannot be prepared for all the interview’s questions. You would always be surprise at any point. But I think that your personality and your honesty would help you cope with these questions without any problem.

However, I think you can prepare yourself to be comfortable in speaking in public. For example, when you have a presentation. What you would do, is practicing your presentation with a relative or just practice by yourself by speaking alone!

 

Yes, you read that line right, speaking alone.

This is really simple, if you have no one to practice with. Well, what you would do is recording yourself answering expecting questions, with the recording app from your phone. It may sound a bit odd at first, but it allows you to be prepare for speaking in front of a large audience and would give you confidence toward the interview.

Even better, if you know anyone who would help you by listening to your audio and give feedback, this would be great! Ask to people who would be ready to spend 10mins from their schedules, to listen to you. In my case, I practiced alone in my room or I ask to my relatives to spend some time listening to me.

Finally, all this pay off because I am a student at UWC!

 3- KNOWLEDGE IS KEY !!

To get know better topics like UWC, you have to know the movement.

 I advise you to read more about UWC and the school that you are interested in, by visiting the national committee’s website of Burkina Faso or the official global page of the UWC movement. Additionally, try to watch more videos from alumni of UWC schools to find out about the activities in the campus and more identify yourself as a future UWCer.

Moreover, you can even ask questions, in comment sections on the facebook page of the national committee, visit the Instagram page to know a little better about the profile of the current UWC students. The more you know, the more motivated you would be, and I'm sure that motivation will be reflected in your interview.

Bonus Tips

Remember the usual advice before an interview.

• Get enough sleep hours

• Eat enough in the morning

• Be confident

Above all, prepare your outfit in advance and dress casually. No T-shirt where it is written: Fuck you! 

Be clean, you have to sound already like a potential leader.

I let here the link of the video of Latifatou Sawadogo who talks more about the interview’s outfit. Also, I wanted to remind you that even if you haven't been enroll for UWC, it's not the end of the world. You have been so far in this adventure and you have learned and developed skills that would be beneficial for applying to university.

I wish you….

Good luck !

PEACE !!