You can hone your interviewing skills online with real-to-life, multi-media scenarios that were developed by employment professionals. Select from several prepared interviews or you may prefer to create one (or more) of your own from hundreds of questions available. You can select an interviewer, as well as a coach to help you understand the question.

Are interviews recorded?

If you have a computer with a camera and microphone you can record and save your interviews; however, this is not required. You can listen to the question and practice your answers without recording it. Recording it is a great tool when you are more comfortable with the process as you get to see yourself. Your body language is as important as your actual answers to the questions.

How do I access the Optimal Resume Interview Prep?

If you previously created an Optimal Resume account, just login on the link and go to the Interview Prep tab. If you don't have an Optimal Resume account, you will need to do this first.

1. Go to Optimal Resume (make a live link) and click on Create New Account
2. Type your official USF email address and press Continue
3. Go to your email and obtain your Random Code (password)
4. Return to the Optimal Resume site to create your user profile
5. Complete the Contact/Login Information and Copy & Paste the Random Code (password) provided in the email
6. Page Down and Click the box Agreeing to the Terms and Conditions
7. Click Create Profile
8. Repeat the sign-in using your USF email and Random Code
9. You are now in the Document Center. 

How do I use the Interviews?

As you can see, the Optimal Resume tool has a number of tools to help you.  From the Document Center:

1. Page Down to access Interviews
2. Click on Create New Interview
3. Enter a Name for the Interview
4. Click Start Interview
5. Choose an Interview Type, Length & Format, Recording Format and Interviewer
6. Click Continue Interview
7. Adjust the camera and microphone if you are recording the interview
8. Prepared interviews will begin to load.  (Go to Step 10)
9. In creating your own interview Select Category and Select Questions provides a wide range of topics and questions.  Mix and match to total the number of interview questions you chose.  Then click Continue Interview
10. Click Play Question to begin.
11. Use the Virtual Coach (bottom right) to gain a better understanding of the question and an appropriate response
12. The interviewer will ask the question and you have 2 minutes to respond
13. Your recorded response can be viewed in the top right corner in the Candidate frame
14. You have the option to Re-do our response to the question
15. Save your response to each question if you are recording
16. After answering all the questions Page Down and click Save Interview

If you record and save an interview, a Career Counselor can provide additional feedback to help you improve your answers. 

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Fax. (813) 974-5332