Employment Interview
Career Program Area

Goals

Employment interview is a program designed to help postsecondary agricultural students explore occupations and prepare for career success through completing a resume, letter of application, and interview in an agricultural field related to specific career interests. The program involves a cooperative effort between the student and local agricultural business and industry.

General Rules

No participant shall be allowed to compete in more than one employment area.

All graded materials will be returned to participants or an answer key will be provided for them to use as learning tools. All announced results are final.

Participants must use all required forms for the Employment Interview Career Program that request information. Any forms that are required to be used and are not used by the participant will result in a 15% deduction in total points possible from the total score. In the event of a computer malfunction, it is instructed that the Employment Interview coordinator provides flexibility.

*Though not required, each individual is highly encouraged to write a general unsealed thank you letter to the career program area sponsor of the Employment Interview event area. Thank you letters should be submitted to the Employment Interview coordinators at the beginning of the competition. If possible, write thank you letters on local or state PAS stationary. Therefore, participants will be responsible for their own thank you stationery and their own writing utensils.

Employment Interview Specific Rules

A student may enter only one area in one year. Students must be currently enrolled as full-time students. Any participant who achieves 1st place in
the Employment Interview Career Program Area at Nationals will not be eligible to participate in this career program area in the coming years.

Employment Areas

Each participant will select a specific job from a list. This job will be in one of the following areas:
1. Agriculture Equipment Service
2. Agribusiness Administration
3. Agribusiness Sales
4. Crop Production
5. Dairy Production
6. Livestock Production
7. Forestry and Natural Resources
8 Fruit & Vegetable Production
9. Landscaping & Nursery
10. Floriculture
11. Fertilizer & Agriculture Chemicals
12. Feeds & Animal Health
13. Agriculture Education

Procedures

1. Judge’s Rating Sheets – Complete the top portion of the Judge’s Rating Sheets (see link below). Fill in your name and institution of the Resume Evaluation sheet. On the Personal Interview Evaluation sheet, complete your name and the employment area/position for which you are applying. Bring both sheets to the conference and submit them at the participants’ orientation session.

2. Two of each of the following items are required: (one set for the interview judges and one set for the resume/letter/application judges).
   A. Resume – Bring the resume to the conference and submit it at the participants’ orientation session. The resume must be the work of the participant.
   B. Letter of Application – A letter of application and properly addressed envelope are to be completed, brought to the conference and submitted at the orientation session for Employment Interview participants. Address all materials to the Employment Interview Career Program coordinator.
   C. Application for Employment – A sample of the application for employment is linked below. The application form will be completed in the participants’ handwriting during the Employment Interview orientation session. The participant will be allowed to refer to a copy of his/her resume to complete the application and no applications completed prior to the Employment Interview orientation session will be accepted.

3. Orientation Meeting – The Employment Interview Career Program Area orientation meeting will be held during the National Conference at the time stated in the conference program. Sets of materials must be placed in the following order:
   A. Set One: Resume Evaluation sheet, Letter of Application, Resume, and Envelope. Paper clip together.
   B. Personal Interview Evaluation sheet, Letter of Application, Resume, and Envelope. Paper clip together.

4. Personal Interview – Each participant will be interviewed individually, for a period not to exceed fifteen minutes. If the participant does not report for the interview at the assigned time, he/she forfeits participating in an interview, unless prearranged with the Employment Interview coordinator. A copy of the resume and a portfolio of the participant’s work may be brought to the interview.

Scoring

Resume	40 points
Letter of Application	40 points
Application for Employment Form	20 points
Personal Interview	100 points
TOTAL POINTS	200 points

In the event of a tie, the participant with the higher number of points in the personal interview will be determined the winner.

Judges
A judge familiar with the employment area will be provided for the personal interview.