Did you know that theatre can help you in your job search? Xabi Olza tells us all about it
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 7:24 am
For two months at the Adecco Foundation together with Dramatic Resources, and specifically Xabi Olza, we have carried out the Protagonists Project. A project in which people with disabilities looking for work have participated. They were finding it difficult to pass a job interview due to issues of confidence, self-esteem, attitude. All of these aspects have been addressed and worked on from the theatre during 12 sessions together with the actor, director and trainer Xabi Olza, whom we interview below. He gives us the keys to how theatre can be a key ally in our search for work.
Xabi, what did the Protagonists Project that you carried out with the Adecco Foundation consist of?
Through the Protagonists Project, created by the Adecco Foundation latvia phone number data and together with Dramatic Resources, we have helped through theatre those people who in some way were facing problems when it came to carrying out and passing a job interview. Thanks to this project we have put these difficulties on the table and have established a working method to overcome them using tools offered by dramatic art, which many times people with disabilities have never experienced.
What can we learn through theatre that we can bring to our work?
From theatre, just as spectators, we already learn a lot of things, which we carry in our memory and recollection. The same as when we read a book or watch a film. That is why it is so necessary to use theatre as a tool but also as a spectator.
Many people don't know that theatre is a teaching tool that can be very useful in their professional lives. Theatre is another training method. Just as when we want to run a marathon, we train for 5, 10, 15 km to run a 50 km marathon. The same thing happens with theatre. The more times we are able to recreate, not only in our imagination but also in role-play exercises, a job interview, the more likely we are to succeed. Through recreation, we see what our weak points, strengths, areas for improvement, etc. are. Working on these aspects will allow us to face these moments in real life, such as a job interview, more confidently.
And for those who are not yet employed, what theatre techniques can help us train for and successfully pass a job interview?
The first and very important tool that theatre allows us to work with and that we must use in our job search is non-verbal communication . We must remember that we are always on stage because there is always someone watching us, someone observing us to see how we move, where we look, or how we move our hands. With this alone, we are already giving a lot of information to the interviewer about our personality or about what is happening to us at that moment. Our non-verbal communication can change depending on the time of day we are in or our mood. That is why it is very important that we are aware of our non-verbal communication. In the Protagonists Project we have seen that with very simple tasks such as the simple act of walking we will give a lot of information to the person who is interviewing us, since with our body we will say how we feel or what is going through our head at that moment. Through various exercises we proved how with simple, everyday actions we can obtain a lot of information about the other person.
Xabi, what did the Protagonists Project that you carried out with the Adecco Foundation consist of?
Through the Protagonists Project, created by the Adecco Foundation latvia phone number data and together with Dramatic Resources, we have helped through theatre those people who in some way were facing problems when it came to carrying out and passing a job interview. Thanks to this project we have put these difficulties on the table and have established a working method to overcome them using tools offered by dramatic art, which many times people with disabilities have never experienced.
What can we learn through theatre that we can bring to our work?
From theatre, just as spectators, we already learn a lot of things, which we carry in our memory and recollection. The same as when we read a book or watch a film. That is why it is so necessary to use theatre as a tool but also as a spectator.
Many people don't know that theatre is a teaching tool that can be very useful in their professional lives. Theatre is another training method. Just as when we want to run a marathon, we train for 5, 10, 15 km to run a 50 km marathon. The same thing happens with theatre. The more times we are able to recreate, not only in our imagination but also in role-play exercises, a job interview, the more likely we are to succeed. Through recreation, we see what our weak points, strengths, areas for improvement, etc. are. Working on these aspects will allow us to face these moments in real life, such as a job interview, more confidently.
And for those who are not yet employed, what theatre techniques can help us train for and successfully pass a job interview?
The first and very important tool that theatre allows us to work with and that we must use in our job search is non-verbal communication . We must remember that we are always on stage because there is always someone watching us, someone observing us to see how we move, where we look, or how we move our hands. With this alone, we are already giving a lot of information to the interviewer about our personality or about what is happening to us at that moment. Our non-verbal communication can change depending on the time of day we are in or our mood. That is why it is very important that we are aware of our non-verbal communication. In the Protagonists Project we have seen that with very simple tasks such as the simple act of walking we will give a lot of information to the person who is interviewing us, since with our body we will say how we feel or what is going through our head at that moment. Through various exercises we proved how with simple, everyday actions we can obtain a lot of information about the other person.