During Summer 2023, Wofford gained a new tool to help students prepare for interviews and life in the workforce after graduation. This new  technology uses Artificial Intelligence to assess interview skills so students can know what to expect. 

Lydia Bloodworth ‘24 first heard about the new technology when talking to the Career Center about graduate school applications. Now, she is making sure other students are aware of the resource. 

“It’s called Big Interview, and it’s found on the Career Center website. You log in with your Wofford account, and it has video lessons on interviewing and (information) you can read, like how to answer common interview questions,” Bloodworth said. “But, there’s also this AI tool that lets you practice mock interviews and get feedback on how you did.” 

When logging into the website, there is a variety of tools to choose from. There’s a tool that gives random questions to make sure you’re prepared for anything. The video lessons give in depth information about what improves interview performance. The most unique feature is Big Interview, an AI tool that watches your interview and notes anything that you could improve upon. 

“It monitors things like eye contact and tells you if you looked away too much. There’s different levels of difficulty too. There’s specific options too for internships, entry level jobs, career changes (and) managerial roles,” Bloodworth said. “There’s even one you can do that asks uncomfortable questions like about weaknesses, salary expectations, gaps in resumes, have you ever been fired, things like that.”

In addition to general interviews, the technology also utilizes internship- and job-specific interviews, so that any interest or skillset is catered to. There is specifically a tab for graduate programs including business, law, medical, dental, optometry and veterinarian school. 

Besides artificial intelligence, there is also coaching by experts and general, behavioral and technical practice interview questions, where users can practice questions based on what you think you need to work on, including skills such as communication and conflict management, 

“It’s really crazy how specific it gets,” Bloodworth said. “I can see the appeal of practicing with AI because you know that no one is judging you, and you can do it as many times as you want at whatever time you want.”

Big Interview also allows students to learn how to efficiently search for jobs, build the perfect answer for a question an employer could ask and play an interview roulette to think quickly on your feet. The website’s purpose is to make sure students are as prepared as possible for their upcoming interview(s). 

“(Jenn Sainovski) told me it’s actually a pricey tool, so it’s nice that we get to have this for free as students now. More people should know about it,” Bloodworth said. “I wonder if in the future our actual interviews for jobs will be done with AI? I don’t really like that idea but I bet it’s bound to happen.”

The Wofford Career Center encourages students to use these tools to become more familiar with the interview process. 

Students can access Big Interview on the Career Center’s website by clicking on the “Prepare for an Interview” page. Under the resources section, there is a link to Big Interview where students can access all of the Big Interview tools.