job interview experience

[psychrat]

I went for an interview for a job that I really want. I feel that it would be a good match for my experience and clinical interests, and I was very excited to interview. However, the interview ended up being very standard. They opened up by saying they are going to ask me a series of questions that they ask everyone. The interviewers took notes as I spoke, but did not offer much in the way of nonverbal (nods, smiles, uh-huhs, etc), so I became quite nervous and off my game. I felt wound up internally and fear that may have come across in my own nonverbals and tone of voice. I am worried that I blew it. It’s been a while (since internship) that I had such a structured interview. I am more used to conversational type ones at his point. I feel like I answered the questions and the content of what I said made sense; I just feel like they did not get a great sense of who I am, and I may have come across as a ball of anxiety. I guess I do not have a question. Just needed to vent that I likely shot myself in the foot for an exciting job opportunity. At least it renewed my sense of what structured interviews are like.

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[temppsych123]

Aw man, tough break! My last experience with lots of interviews was applying for internship, and I agree that some of the toughest were the ones that were structured differently, just because I had gotten used to a certain style/type of question being asked and lapsed a little in preparing for later interviews because I thought I knew what to expect. The good news is, you got the interview, so they're clearly interested in you - and one would hope that psychologists would recognize that observational data from a single interview is not always highly correlated with how well someone will actually do on the job. I know my grad faculty mentor, for instance, made a concerted effort to evaluate job applicants on their job talk, sure, but also on their whole application package (CV, publications, letters of reference, etc) rather than assuming all those things are equal among the people who get interviews, and then just using interview/job talk performance by itself to make hiring offers. Anyway, I hope it went better than you thought it did; good luck!

 

[foreverbull]

Yeah, structured interviews can be difficult. In my opinion, if you can't even offer nonverbal encouragers, you're creating unnecessary anxiety in interviewees (who are particularly attuned to read facial expressions). I understand the utility/practicality of asking the same questions, but you don't have to just sit there and stare blankly at the interviewee like a robot, which I have experienced before as well. If it's any consolation, I ended up getting hired after one of these structured interviews (that I thought went terribly because they didn't give me any encouraging nonverbals AND I was caught off guard by some of the questions).
Try not to worry about it!

 

[G Costanza]

If you felt nervous and you’re not typically a nervous person, you probably acted just like every other candidate.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I went for an interview for a job that I really want. I feel that it would be a good match for my experience and clinical interests, and I was very excited to interview. However, the interview ended up being very standard. They opened up by saying they are going to ask me a series of questions that they ask everyone. The interviewers took notes as I spoke, but did not offer much in the way of nonverbal (nods, smiles, uh-huhs, etc), so I became quite nervous and off my game. I felt wound up internally and fear that may have come across in my own nonverbals and tone of voice. I am worried that I blew it. It’s been a while (since internship) that I had such a structured interview. I am more used to conversational type ones at his point. I feel like I answered the questions and the content of what I said made sense; I just feel like they did not get a great sense of who I am, and I may have come across as a ball of anxiety. I guess I do not have a question. Just needed to vent that I likely shot myself in the foot for an exciting job opportunity. At least it renewed my sense of what structured interviews are like.

Keep in mind that you are interviewing them too. If it was that uncomfortable for you, then would that be what working with them might be like? I have an interview next week and am also really excited about the position and especially the location. The two main undecideds will be salary and working environment; i.e., how will I get along with the owner. I will still have a lot of feelings of needing to impress them and anxiety around that, but I am also confident that I have the skills that they need. Also, I have found that at some of my worst interviews, I ended up with the job and at some of the best, they didn't want me at all! We are horrible at predicting this type of stuff from either the perspective of the interviewer or the interviewee. Good luck with the job and wish me luck next week.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

If nothing else, as you've said, it was an experience. And like G Costanza mentioned, if you felt uncomfortable, odds are some other interviewees did as well. Maybe you can identify the aspects of it that threw you off so that you'll be better prepared for those in the future, if needed.

Sounds a lot like PBI in the VA, btw, which can throw just about anyone of their game the first time or three they go through it.