This month Leicestershire Cares welcomed a new member of staff to our YES team. Catalina joined us as our new YES Project Development Officer and her interview process included a panel of questions from some of our very own young people. We really value the ideas and opinions of our young people at Leicestershire Cares and we always try and cater our support to fit their needs. With this in mind, we thought it was crucial to include our young people in our recruitment process for our new YES Project Development officer to give them the opportunity to ask some questions and speak to the candidates who were potentially going to be supporting them on the YES Project.
“I found the Interview Panel experience very exciting but very nerve-wracking at the same time. Also, it was really new and unique to me because it was my first time doing an interview panel, being an interviewer and asking questions to someone that I'm interviewing”
YES Participant 1
The young people who took part in the interview process asked some excellent questions and really took the opportunity to find out more about the candidates before feeding back to the recruitment panel about how they thought the interview went. The final decision definitely had influence from the feedback that the young people provided and we are extremely happy to welcome Catalina to the team!
I found it a hard choice you had a lot of great candidates. But I thought it was a lovely idea to include us, seeing as they will be working together and with others
YES Participant 2
Catalina - “Before the actual interview I was reflecting on what a great opportunity this panel is for the YES young people. They got to experience what it`s like to be in the interviewer`s shoes and carry that new understanding with them in their own job finding journey. The actual YP interview was a lot more challenging a personal level because they asked amazing questions aimed at finding out who I am and not just what experience and achievements I bring to the role. It`s never easy to make yourself vulnerable and answer truthfully but I felt that this is something that it`s asked of them all the time so it created an opportunity to offer a possible example that when you are honest and true to who you are and when you embrace the challenges you had to overcome, sometimes it pays off. Thank you to all the Young People on my interview panel for a great experience!”