Group Interview

So I attended the group interview for the Summer Program Assistant Onsite Director position last Monday. That's a level above the Summer Program Leader position, which I've held the three other years that I have worked for the Summer Program. The only difference is that in addition to the standard Summer Program Leader tasks, the Assistant On Site Director is in charge of the Peer Leader program. The Peer Leader program is an opportunity for people diagnosed with a developmental disability to hold a leadership position in the Summer Program, which may include hosting activities, assisting with the implementation of activities, engaging participants, and set up. The Assistant On Site Director would be in charge of hosting interviews for Peer Leaders, programming their training, evaluating their goals, and overseeing their progress throughout the program.

Last time I mentioned that I had to do a group interview, which I hadn't needed to do since my first year of Summer Program. I said they had me "jumping through hoops" which I hadn't needed to do other years when I was a return staff. I thought that was weird, and suspicious.

Well, I was waiting for the interview. I was the first there, so I got to see the three other people sign in asking about the Assistant On Site Director position. I was like "You're all here for Assistant On Site Director? None of you are here for Summer Program Leader?"

And then it clicked. First year, I applied for the Assistant On Site Director position instead of the Summer Program Leader, because I didn't know the difference between the two positions, and I felt like "Assistant" was a weaker title than "Leader". So I interviewed for Assistant On Site Director and wound up with the Summer Program Leader position. In years following, I was requested to interview as a returning staff and didn't ask about the specific position. So they only interviewed me for my previous position as Summer Program Leader. This year I specifically applied for the Assistant On Site Director position, and so for the first time since my first year, I did the expanded interview.

When going in, I told myself that I wouldn't talk up  my credentials. Part of me wanted to address everyone applying with, "Yeah, I've got four contracts with Extend-a-Family, did my student placement with them at their day program for two years consecutively, done three years with their Summer Program, and I teach their Safe Management courses." But I thought that would be unprofessional, and would be perceived as unprofessional.

My interview was at 5:00, and the office shuts down at 4:30. I showed up at around 4:30 and as other applicants arrived, they got to see every office worker stop and make small talk with me, implicating my extensive history with the organization.

My fellow applicants gave me some suspicious  glances and I was like "I've been with Extend-a-Family for a bit"

It also created an interesting dynamic between me and the current Summer Program Manager and On-Site Director, as they clearly didn't know how much they were supposed to acknowledge our previous history.

Our icebreaker question was "If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?" I said "I would be purple because it's the combination of red, the hottest colour, and blue, the coldest colour, and therefor, it is the ultimate colour".

All three interviewers broke out in heavy laughter. There's a difference between familiar laughter and stranger laughter. Familiar laughter is wild, while stranger laughter is controlled. The strangers cast looks at me.

Our first task was, as a group to create a program lasting for three hours, which needed a high-energy activity, a low-energy activity, a craft, and a closing activity. We had a set of resources, and we were told that, within the group we were facilitating for, we had two people with manual wheelchairs, one person with an electric wheelchair, and someone who can only hold attention for ten minutes. We developed an ice breaker activity, an obstacle course, a sitting-parachute activity, and a build-a-country course. Then we all had to present one section each with the interviewers acting as participants.

Weird dynamic because we're all competing against each other, but we're competing to prove how good we work on a team. So we're competing to be the best at being inclusive and making our competitors look good.

Then we split into pairs and were asked to do roleplay exercises. I had to pretend to be a staff member who was texting incessantly due to a family emergency while being quite defensive about it while my partner played the role of a staff member who needed to confront me about it. Then I had to be a staff member that had to confront my partner, playing a participant, who refused to leave the bus while an angry bus driver shouts at me. Then I had to play a participant that ran away from the gym while my partner probed me as to why. Then I had to be a worker that had to develop a strategy with a fellow staff member who was uncomfortable to lead a group alone or confront an escalating situation when a program participant had just thrown a rock at us and run into the woods while we were taking a walk through the woods and had no communication devices.

Then we had our one-on-one interviews. They had given the questions ahead of time, so it wasn't too intensive. Soon as I was alone with the interviewer he was like "Now we can finally stop pretending not to know each other. I really appreciate how you didn't try to intimidate the other applicants. They have some good experience but you have the most".

Then I did a written bit, developing a strategy for a program participant that was having difficulty engaging herself. Then the interview was over. They said they will get back to us late next week.