TABLE OF CONTENTS

A PERSONAL NOTE TO INTERNSHIP APPLICANTS

CHAPTER I: Developing a Strategic approach toward Interviewing

A.  Handling Interviews: The Art of Making a Good Impression

B.  Overcome 3 Common Misconceptions about Interviewing

C.  Define Your Core Personal Marketing Concept

Develop the Key Qualifications of Successful Interview Candidates

Determine What You Want to Say about Yourself

Define a Wardrobe and Look that Conveys Your Professional Image

CHAPTER II: Preparing for Effective Interviews

Research Internship Sites

Gather Information from Current and Past Interns

Prepare the Focus of Each Interview

Prepare for All Kinds of Interview Questions

Create a Match between Your Training Goals and What the Site Offers

Package and Transfer Your Skills to Work with a New Population

Prepare to Discuss a Clinical Case

Organize Yourself for Maximum Advantage

CHAPTER III: Conducting Successful Interviews

Manage the Entire Interview Experience

Orchestrate a Professional, but Comfortable, Interview

Answer All Interview Questions Carefully

Handle "Hot Seat" Interview Questions Strategically

Prepare for Follow-up After Each Interview

Evaluate Your Performance after Each Interview

How to Ruin Your Interviews from the Beginning

Appendix A: Internship Interview Preparation Summary

Appendix B: Post-Interview Summary Record

Appendix C: Strategies for Effective Internship Interviews

Appendix D: The Questions: Common Internship Interview Questions

Appendix E: Reader Satisfaction Survey

At some point during every interview, the interviewer asks a few very probing questions such as this. These questions often have some connection to obvious employment gaps in your curriculum vitae, a dramatic career change, academic inconsistencies (i.e., incompletes, lower than average grades, etc.), and less-than- stellar letters of recommendation. Carlsen’s Law of Interviewing applies here. Learn it well. . . and follow it religiously.

The stronger your hope that an interviewer will ignore your areas of vulnerability, the greater your certainty that he or she will ask about them directly. These questions will come at the most inconvenient time, in the most challenging form, and with the most anxiety-provoking tone of voice.

Do not, however, simply shy away from these kinds of questions and hope interviewers will not ask about inconsistencies or question you about situations that raise a red flag. Rather, prepare yourself fully to account for any discrepancies and find ways to explain the inconsistencies or questionable situations honestly and succinctly. Remember, psychologists are trained to notice and account for discrepancies in any information they receive. Assume that they will listen very carefully to anything you say about such situations.

Internship interviewers ask these questions to put the you "on the hot seat", thus exposing your areas of greatest vulnerability to the rest of the committee. That is, they use these questions to gain a great deal of information about you very quickly and with minimal effort. By putting you on the spot, they can find out: 1) how you think on your feet, 2) how rapidly you can formulate an answer and respond under pressure, 3) how strong your defenses are, and 4) how you manage stress.

Often, interviewers, especially psychologists, care much less about the actual content of your answer and much more about how you handle a particular question. If you can respond directly, without defensiveness, you have the best chance of making a good impression.

1. Assume that interviewers will notice any areas of inconsistency or ambiguity in your background.
2. Identify honest, forth-right ways to provide information that directly addresses your interviewers’ questions.
3. Find ways to turn inconsistencies into positive qualities about your ability to adapt to life or to become a better clinician.
4. State only the facts. Avoid any temptation to express your emotional reactions to what happened or unburden yourself.
5. Keep your responses brief and succinct. Answer only the questions the interviewer asks. Do not volunteer any additional information.
6. In this situation, do not answer the question-behind-the-question. Wait for the interviewer to ask for more information if he or she wants it.
7. Avoid responding defensively, as though the interviewer has no right to ask. He/she always has the right to ask, as long as he/she stays within the law (i.e., he/she cannot ask about marital status, sexual orientation, etc., without risking charges of discrimination.) You may, however, choose not to answer.
8. Reserve your right to decline answering any questions that feel too personal. But, recognize the consequences of refusing to answer them.
9. Always finish by returning the focus to the positive regarding your excellent qualifications for this position.

View Contents of Volume I by clicking here.