Job interviews are high-stakes situations that can induce heightened emotions like anxiety and stress, potentially impairing a candidate’s performance. This challenge is particularly pronounced for college students, who often lack substantial job interview experience and effective coping strategies. Traditional methods such as mock interviews may not always be accessible due to human availability constraints. This paper presents the design and implementation of a Virtual Reality-based Interview Simulator (VR-Sim) to enhance interview preparedness through emotion awareness. VR-Sim creates an immersive mock interview environment with virtual interviewers designed to elicit specific emotional responses in the participant through situational cues. The intervention aims to help students identify situational cues, experience different emotional triggers, and develop emotion regulation strategies in a safe setting before actual job interviews. An exploratory study involving five engineering students was conducted, and data from their Self-Reporting Journals and Learning Experience Questionnaires were analyzed using qualitative methods. The qualitative analysis of the data enabled the mapping of situational cues with the emotions experienced by the students and the response strategies they employed. The results indicated a rise in students’ ability to recognize situational cues following their participation with the intervention. The findings indicate the potential of the VR-Sim as an innovative tool for better preparing engineering students to navigate the emotional demands of job interviews.