Friday Five: Interviews

This morning Bishop Laura asks us to share our thoughts on the wonderful world of interviews:

1. What was the most memorable interview you ever had? It had to have been when I met with the Comission on Ministry for my discernment meeting. They were so affirming and warm and I felt as if the church had opened its arms to me after some previous foot-dragging about my call. The chair at that time said some really wonderful things about how clearly he heard the Spirit at work in my life....it was a life-changer!

2. Have you ever been the interviewer rather than the interviewee? If so, are you a tiger, a creampuff, or somewhere in between? As a therapist my job really is kind of one long interview. I am a tiger in a creampuff suit. Just ask my clients!

3. Do phone interviews make you more or less nervous than in-person ones? I HATE the phone ones. No body language, no cues. Can't even use CAPS, bold, italics or :-) to convey things, people tend to "talk over" each other and there are those nasy awkward pauses. I'd rather be interviewed on the internet. That was a very memorable experience too BTW! And Maggie agrees about hers.

4. What was the best advice you ever got to prepare for an interview? How about the worst?
"Just be yourself" was the best. I actually figured that out and gave it to myself when I was interviewing for about my second job. I thought I better let them know what they were really getting if they hired me....no false advertising...and they must have liked what they saw. My interview to hire track record is pretty good, so I'm sticking with this one. I suppose the worst advice would be to cover something up or lie. Though I've never been told that directly, I know that some of my clients have. "Should I tell a prospective employer I have any mental health problems?" comes up frequently as something they wonder about or have been told they shouldn't do. Stigma exists, and people are passed over if employers know or think they do that someone has MI, no doubt. But on the other hand...this isn't, for many of my clients a common cold that will pass in two weeks. I'm for contained truth with a positive beat....My advice is IF it comes up and IF there is a need to know, the response is along the lines of: "I have this, I handle it, I'll let you know if anything comes up."

5. Do you have any pre-interview rituals that give you confidence? New clothes, always! But then that is pretty much a pre-anything excuse....er.... ritual. Prayer is good, too. The twenty-third Psalm is my all-purpose pre-flight, pre-interview, pre-exam, pre- anything "calm down and remember it's all gonna be ok because God's got it" ritual.