During my second week as an intern at Berklee PULSE, I tagged along with the video team on a shoot for one of the supplemental videos to the Take 5 documentary series. Jamilah Allwood, the Associate Director of Admissions, Recruitment and Special Events, walked a group of students from the City Music program through the process of auditioning and interviewing by performing a mock interview with a Berklee senior, and discussing strategies to make their best impressions.

Having experienced the nerve-wracking, and often intimidating process of college interviews and auditions myself, I was a bit jealous to hear the kind of insight and advice the City Music members were getting from this session. Being told to “stay calm” or “just be yourself” is all well and good, but only goes so far when coming from your parents 10 minutes before you walk in. Jamilah described the expectations of the judges and interviewers, and put the idea of a big scary interview into a more relatable context.

Check out how the video turned out:

PULSE’s Take 5 documentary series follows students of Berklee’s 5-week Summer Performance Program, tracking their experiences from auditions to the final concert. You can see episodes 1 and 2 in the PULSE Study Room and on the President’s Office of Education Outreach page, and new episodes will be posted once a month, leading up to the next 5-week program this summer.