interviews: throwed roles

inter-view. hm!

keys to interviewing well? there are those who do interview "training", learn interview "skills", and all that. blows my mind. just be yourself and be honest. that will help you get the right job for you at a place that is right for you. that's more important than you know.

at my fellowship interviews i asked the questions. it's a sick and twisted way to interview someone, getting your questions answered by making your applicants ask the questions. about 2/3 of the way of the way through my 5-6 month process (too late, really) i developed a beautiful question to ask that i knew was impressive and that i actually wanted to know the answer to. the funny thing is i didn't even realize all the depth and importance of my own question.

that question was that "i have spent the last ## years being trained as a physician, clinically. being an academic physician means being a researcher and a teacher as well. what steps will your particular fellowship program be taking to prepare me for those new roles?" (young doctors take note! they ate this one up.)

today i was sitting in a faculty orientation meeting and had a flashback of this. while being lectured to about my role as a faculty member i realized AGAIN (getting tired of being reminded of this) that i am young (bleah). my life is going to change over time-- a lot-- and there are multiple roles that will be further assigned to me as time goes by.

aw, crap. i have finally started getting comfortable and familiar in the roles of woman, daughter, sister, friend, musician, physician. still working on homemaker. very much still working on "beloved child of God whose identity is in Christ". these were what the 20's have been for. yeah, blah blah, the late teens and 20's are a time of establishing one's identity and getting to know oneself. it's trite. but if you don't know how important this is just look at the people who had new roles tacked onto their lives (spouse, parent, even patient or victim) before getting established in their identities and you can observe how hard that makes it.

sadly, as much as my interviewers glowingly praised my question, their answers were lame and made up on the spot. no one was able to address the idea of helping someone else prepare for the roles they were intending to assume. so now what? i get to blaze my own trail again? groan.

what roles lie ahead for me? teacher? mentor? employee? boss? girlfriend? wife? mother? today i don't find that exciting. it's scary. because with the assumption of each new role comes more opportunity to fail or to disappoint someone. and with roles like these there is an expectation-- no, a certain necessity to do well right away with minimal transitional time.

someone once asked me, "isn't there anything you're NOT good at?" it was meant as a compliment, but it pointed at a big weakness in me. my answer? "of course. bowling." and then, seriously, "it's not that i'm good at everything i do. it's that i only do things i'm good at." well sooner or later that is going to change, and i cannot avoid it.

we'll see how it goes. thank God for protecting and blessing me and everyone else around me thus far, despite all my efforts!

to come back full circle, my advice on interviews (and relationships and jobs and life in general): know yourself, then be yourself. otherwise you'll find yourself in a role you're not ready to play.