When you are granted a social services interview, it is important that you demonstrate the sorts of qualities and skills that are expected to enhance your performance in the field. The work that social services professionals do requires striking a delicate balance between compassion and an ability to maintain a professional distance. Your interviewer will hope to see a person who can understand the hard times clients face, even as he or she must act appropriately to ensure that ethical interactions are maintained.
Your interviewer will want to see that you can handle yourself under pressure, maintain your composure when facing adversity, and temper your emotions with reason in all professional situations. These careers are very demanding, but the work can be extremely fulfilling for the highly qualified applicant.
Tips to Remember
Every interview carries with it certain issues for consideration. To prepare for your social services interview, you will want to make sure you are ready to demonstrate field-specific skills and characteristics. Here are a few tips to help you:
● Demonstrate respect for the standards of your field. Ethics, compassion, and attention to various standards are crucial to professional performance.
● Be prepared to share narratives explaining situations in your life and work experience that required you to behave ethically, rationally, and succinctly. The work professionals do may involve situations that are often sticky and require careful negotiation.
● Engage your interviewer in a discussion of the work expected of you. Demonstrating a deep interest in the tasks to be performed will show that you intend to invest yourself in doing the best job possible.
Take the time to ask your interviewer questions that demonstrate your desire to be an effective player in social justice. Professionals in the field must be committed to doing the best work possible within specific guiding standards.
General Skills to Highlight
All interviews are conducted in such a way to discover candidates with the greatest field potential. Social services professionals should highlight certain skills to ensure that they stand out during the interview process. Take special care to highlight these skills:
●Organization– an ability to keep organized demonstrates intellectual agility for a variety of projects
●Problem solving– effective workers pinpoint issu es easily in order to counteract them quickly
●Diplomacy– many people are in need of diplomacy, as it helps build relationships and develop respect
●Empathy– being able to understand the nature of an individual or a family's problems helps effect change
Your social services interview will go best if you can show that your interest in the field stems from a deep concern for social justice tempered by an understanding of the standards of which you must serve. Ethics dictates that you balance your compassion with effective approaches determined by the field.
