I have never been in a position where I needed to interview people who are competing for a certain position. I, myself, have been the interviewee many times and understand the nervousness and preparation that goes into being interviewed, but I have always been curious as to how other people conduct themselves during a professional interview. This week, it was my job to interview potential volunteers for Winship and I was able to witness how a large variety of people react to being interviewed in a professional setting.
Volunteering at Winship is different from any other volunteer opportunity that I have been apart of/read about because it requires a serious long-term commitment (6 months with a minimum requirement of 8 hours/month) and accepts about 70% of it’s applicants, which I would consider to be fairly low for a volunteer organization. This past Monday, my supervisor handed me the packet of questions to ask during my interviews and had me sit in on an interview with her so that I could get a feeling for how the flow of conversation should go. Many of the people that I interviewed were college students who were 2-4 years younger than me. Because we were so close in age, I realized how difficult it was at first to assume a position of authority and to have the interviewees treat the interview in a professional manner. Of course, this would be portrayed in the final “grade” that I would give them, and those who did treat the interview professionally, no matter the age similarity, were more likely to be recommended for the position.
As the week went on, I was interviewing about 6-8 people each day, and the interviews on average lasted about 30 minutes. Initially, I was worried that it would be difficult for me to tell if someone would be a good fit for Winship just based on a 30 minute interview, but as the week went on and as I worked more with staff members and patients at Winship, I began to understand what personality traits were vital to working in such an environment as a cancer institute. A few key things that I looked for included: having a main goal of serving others, being articulate when explaining their opinions, thoughts, or past experiences, being able to understand a question and take direction well, and lastly, having a serious excitement in pursuing/experiencing as many opportunities that Winship has to offer for its volunteers.
From this week, I learned about what it takes to find community leaders and passionate individuals that would best suit a specific job. Understanding what characteristics are needed to fulfill different positions in a health-based strategic plan is an important skill to master because you need the most qualified individuals in order to have the most successful outcome of the project. One person might have the skill set to successfully complete one portion of a plan, and yet their skills are completely useless in another area of the plan. Thus, building balanced, cohesive teams is a critical component of any successful public health initiative.