Preparing for Careers in Human Services

One of the career opportunities in the Human Services field is being a caregiver for an Alzheimer patient. How should you prepare for an interview in this field? Is it different than an interview in private industry? From my research, I have found some similarities and differences. Preparation before your interview:

According to HS Careers.com, candidates should take some time reflect on past experiences, education and volunteer work. It is important for candidates to articulate clearly to the hiring manager, what they will bring to the organization or patients. This is consistent with what I would recommend to any of my coaching clients. I typically frame it as a question: Do You Know Who You Are And What You Bring To The Table? What do you have in your “backpack”? What will you bring to your next organization? Can you speak to it? Can you back it up when you are actually in the game, when you actually are hired?

HS Careers outlines 3 Critical Components a hiring manager will look for in the Human Services industry:

Can Do, Will Do and Fit

• Can Do: Does the person have experience, qualifications to be able to do the job?
• Will Do: Have they done this before? In similar situation/environment? Assesses potential-”they have performed in past- they will perform for us in the future”.
• Fit: will this person be a part of our team? How will they ‘fit’ into the department? This looks to interpersonal skills, how the person accomplishes tasks, management style.

Here are a list of questions I found on the HS Careers website. It is a good sampling of questions to get you started in your preparation. I truly believe that candidates have a responsibility to prepare for every interview. Practicing with questions and answers gives you an advantage over the competition. Take a look at some of these questions. This is just a small sample of questions recommended on this website. There are more. I can not over emphasize the value of preparing your answers prior to the interview. Don’t memorize the answers. Prepare the answers and practice speaking, practice having a conversation, so that when you are in the interview, it feels natural.

• Describe a time when you saw a problem as a potential opportunity-What did you do?
• Tell me about yourself.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What are your outside interest? Professional interest?
• What specific skills do you have that relate to the job?
• What personal experiences have you had that would help you in this job?
• What is your philosophy of life?
• What kind of person are you?
• How well organized are you?
• Why are you interested in this position?
• What can you bring to this agency?
• What hours are you willing to work?
• How would you coordinate and evaluate this program?
• What are your goals for the first year?
• What are your salary expectations?
• For what reasons do you believe you could handle this position?
• What does this job have to offer you and you offer it?
• Why would you want to work in our agency?
• What do you want out of your job?

The purpose of this post is to give some direction to job seekers who are interesed in the Human Services industry. The post will be included in a carnival at Alzheimer’s Notes. If there is anything  I can do to help you in your job search, please stop by Interview Chatter. Leave a comment or send an email.