All volunteers with the right training can conduct interviews. We encourage volunteers to get involved, and check with their team leadership if they have any questions about their own team's process for scheduling and interviewing applicants.
Contact the interviewee within 1-2 days.
It is a best practice to contact the interviewee as soon as possible to set up your interview. Particularly for those interviews where multiple members of the family are involved, it can be a few days before you can secure a date/time that works for all. For volunteer interviews, you will receive an email notification when someone needs an interview after you've taken the Volunteer Registration Interviewer training.
What's next?
Find Applicants Who Need an Interview
Find Applicants Who Need an Interview
To find study abroad, hosting, and volunteer applicants who need an interview:
- On MyAFS, click Interviews in the navigation bar.
- On the Team Interviews tab, a list of study abroad, hosting, and volunteer applicants who need interviews appear (if any).
- In the Status column, those applicants with a To Do label need someone to claim their interview.
When you claim an interview, you take responsibility for scheduling, conducting, and submitting an interview for an applicant.
To claim an interview to be done by yourself or assign an interview to another team member:
- Find an applicant who needs an interview, as explained above.
- In the Status column, hover over the To Do label, and then click Claim. The Claim Interview dialog box appears.
- Select who will conduct the interview— 'Me' or 'Assign to another Volunteer'. If you are assigning to another team member, select their name from the list.
- Click Save. Then, the Claimed status appears.
Now that you've claimed the applicant to interview, you can reach out to the applicant by phone or email to schedule an interview date. Click the applicant's name to access their contact information.
Pro Tips
- Contacting the interviewee as soon as possible results in better response rates.
- Try contacting them via phone, text, and email over time, as everyone has a different preferred mode of communication.
Once you arrange a date and time with the study abroad, hosting, or volunteer applicant, you should log that date. This helps you and your team communicate the progress of interviews.
To schedule an interview date:
- Click Schedule link in the Status column. The Schedule Interview dialog box appears.
- Select the interview date.
- Choose the interview type (i.e. phone, in-person). Choices will vary depending on the type of interview.
- Click Save. Then the Scheduled status appears.
Next, you’ll want to prepare for the interview.