Hi guys,
I'm posting in this forum because I would like the opinion of professionals on something that happened to me at a social work university interview today.
Basically, I had my interview with a panel of three (practitioner/academic/service user) and everything went really well. At the end, I had the opportunity to ask questions. As well as asking the normal questions about placements/days per week at uni etc, I wanted to ask something that set me apart a little. So, after asking the normal things, I asked the service user present 'what qualities do you think are important in a good social worker?'. The service user started to answer but before she could say anything, the academic jumped in furiously, saying 'Stop- you're overstepping the boundaries, You have no business asking questions about her personal life - you are being interviewed, you are not doing the interviewing.'
I was speechless and tried to respond by saying that I didn't mean for it to come across like that and that I simply value that service users are experts by experience but she didn't give me a chance to finish. She cut me off, saying 'Now that you have overstepped that boundary, I should make it clear that you will be able to obtain FEEDBACK on your interview' (which suggests to me that she was saying that i was out of the running from the moment I asked that question). She also told me I should simply wait for the response to come through, instead of (I can't believe she said this) trying to track the social worker down at work to elicit a decision.
That last part is besides the point though. Was my question to the service user inappropriate/overstepping boundaries/unethical/discriminatory any way? I'd prefer to know if it was because at least I can learn from it
LouLou86:
Not much doubt in my mind that the main issue here is poor interview behaviour by the interviewer.
NB: Of course anything I'm saying here is based purely on your account of what happened - and some obvious assumptions (such as that otherwise you'd come across appropriately, that there was nothing condescending in your tone, and so on).
You may have made a mistake with this question - if you did it's not not a big one (particularly for someone before attending what I'd guess would be a course designed to teach you about such things).
Even if it was a mistake, a good interviewer would need to give you an opportunity to explain.
A good interviewer would also seek the opinions of their co-interviewers, including I might add that of the service user.
Even if you made a bad mistake through a deep level of ignorance - or for that matter prejudice, there's no need for an interviewer to be as rude as this appears.
Was it a mistake.... well, you could argue that you'd turned from interviewee to interviewer. Whilst your reasoning is good (about service users being the experts) - it might be argued that you'd temporarily forgotten your place in the scheme of things (that this wasn't an appropriate forum to be asking such a thing - that the service user was there for their interview skills), or that you'd suddenly carelessly stolen from them the temporary power which goes with being an interviewer.
But in the pressure of an interview we all make mistakes. If the whole judgement of the interviewer is based on one mistake (if it was one) then that's no good.
I'm not sure if this will be any comfort, but welcome to the world of health and social care. I've seen the most horrendous interview technique within this world. You'll encounter this again. Get used to it, and get used to trying to work out what game is being played in the particular interview you are in. Sometimes you'll be being assessed for whether you say key words and phrases. Sometimes you may have people ask questions you think may be designed to trick you. Sometimes it won't matter if you've said something relevant during an earlier question - unless you say the whole thing again it'll not be counted. Sometimes you'll be asked questions that are simply not understandable - but people will refuse to explain what they mean.
There's at least a chance that such a poor interview suggests that this isn't a good course to be attending anyway!
Best wishes, and good luck.
Sorry Robert W cannot agree with you. We have to take it that LouLou has given an accurate account and as such there can be no mitigation in favour of the interviewers appalling behaviour.Apart from the abuse of power the SU was patronised.
I do take your point about this being the first of many such experiences; usually promoted but pseudo pschiatric types, who think innapropriately long silences indicate brilliance on their behalf.
(Usually accompanied with hands in front of face with the tips of the ten digits in contact.) Yuk.
I completely agree with Shirack and Marbles. The academic interviewer behaved abysmally and I, personally would make a complaint. To me- your question was far from inappropriate - it was appropriate and how it was construed by that particular interviewer as 'personal' is beyond me.
If anything the interview behaved in an oppressive manner - had the SU suddenly lost the power of speech???? or did his/her opinion not count??? It speaks volumes about that interviewer's attitude to SU's.
Thanks for your input guys, I've found it really helpful to hear others peoples points of view.
I have to agree with part of Robert's response. I guess what I did could have been seen as a reclaiming of power from the service user - unintentionally, of course. I also may have made her feel uncomfortable by putting her on the spot like that. That said, interviews by their very nature require people to speak impulsively - I shouldn't have received too much criticism for asking an ill-thought out question. And besides that, I thought SU were involved in the interview process in order to get their perspectives and views counted?
I thought that too Marbles - I would have thought that speaking for a service user would go against the very natuer of social work. If I'd asked her something about her own experience of working with social workers then yeah, fine, shoot me down. But I didn't. 7
I've written a letter of complaint to the course director, explaining what happened and asking for clarification on why such a hostile response was recieved from the academic. I've explained to her that I've been made offers from other institutions and I would like feedback on the incident to allow me to reflect on my own attitude/practice/values etc before beginning my professional study elsewhere.
Thanks for your feedback guys!
What have I missed? Why are there two threads on the same topic?
Hey, before everyone tells me I'm wrong please can I refer you back to the main point I was making - which we all agree on - that the interviewer was in the wrong.
All I was trying to do with the extra detail was to add some depth. There is a valid issue about whether it was right to have asked the service user about social workers. I'm absolutely not saying that LouLou96 was wrong. What I'm saying is that there is a a genuine issue to be thought about carefully here and that she should consider the possibility that she was wrong. Not very wrong - but wrong nonetheless. In social care we need to get used to this kind of uncertainty and subtlety. It's an awareness of such subtlety which makes us good workers. It's probably only LouLou86 who can answer this - she was there - she knows whether her question may have shifted the power balance accidentally.
But once again, nothing excuses the interviewer's behaviour.
I hadn't noticed the other thread: Perhaps further conversation should happen on it here ( http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/forums/inappropriate-question-to-service-user-10351.aspx )
Simeon. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz?