Conquering Your Interview: Make a Great First Impression

Are you looking for a new job this new year? I've been on many interviews and I actually quite enjoy them. I have created a FREE product available in my TpT store of every interview question I have ever been asked. I would write them down in the car before driving away. Then I studied them for my next interview. 

It's hard not to feel stressed, but I loved talking about all the great and amazing things I did/can do. It's a free brag session. Here are some of my personal beliefs during interviews.

Tips and Tricks:

• Arrive 15-20 minutes early, if you're on time...you're late
• Dress for the job you want, not the job you have
• Invest in a good outfit (a suit if you can), bag and a pair of shoes that make you feel like a boss
• Check out portfolio folders to hold extra copies of your resume/cover letter, pad and pen
• Mint chapstick or lipgloss can help with after lunch breath if you're squeezing in an interview after lunch
• Talk slower than you think you should, being nervous you naturally speed up. Slow down!
• Stop and take a pause. Gather your thoughts. Avoid saying "um", "like" and other fillers
• Talk about experiences and successful moments in therapy, show them what you can/have done
• Be prepared. There are common questions you can have answered prior to the interview
• Ask questions at the end of the interview, you want this to be a good fit for you too

*Don't forget to ask about parking when you're scheduling the interview and how many resumes they may need you to bring.

I wore this to my graduate school interviews (Suit dress/blazer combo from H&M). 

Grey/Black/Blue are classic colors for an interview, you can never go wrong when you wear them. 

I always wore pearl studs and my hair up in a pony tail so I wouldn't futz around with it.

Simple black shoes with a larger heel were comfortable and easy to walk in.

I love this interview bag, found it on Amazon (Anne Klein)

This was the outfit I wore for all my clinical fellowship interviews, classic black and I would swap out the shirt underneath (Suit from Macy's and top from NY&CO).

*Different colors represent different features of a person. Blue is said to show the person is trustworthy and loyal!

Check out a portfolio folder to hold all your needed papers, and even put little notes to yourself to help you with talk points during an interview.

I went to Ireland and bought myself a special brooch that I wore for a conversation starter!

These are the outfits I wore after I had received my CCCs. I would wear the pink outfit (LOFT) for a second or final interview and the red one (from NY&CO) with more modest shoes for demo lessons (never knew when I had to chase down a student). I wanted them to remember me. 

*Wear a watch, it shows that you are reliable and prompt!

Resume/Cover letter Tips:

• Research the facility and take key words from their mission statement and use those words in your document
• Use bold and italics to help organize visually on the resume
• Use the cover letter to tell elaborate on why they should bring you in for the interview
• Bring extra copies of your resume and cover letter

Example of write up for private practice/homecare

Example of write up for school

Parting Advice:

Before the interview take 2 minutes to power pose! These poses below when held for 2 minutes have been scientifically proven to increase serotonin (the feel good hormone) and decrease cortisol (the stress hormone). They're very easy to incorporate into your day!

• Stand up straight with your hands on your hips, like WonderWoman
• Sit in a chair and place your feet up on the table
• While standing lean on/over a table with both hands

FOLLOW ME AT:

Sweet, Sweet Certification

I have made the leap from "Trained" to "Bridged" to "crazy"...I mean "Certified"! Totally worth it. I have been certified since Fall of 2015 and I am still learning. Things are much more "second nature" now and I feel way more confident in the lexicon and overall practice of PROMPT. The certification process was stressful and tedious, but I learned a lot in 4 months.

Advice:
*Work with a mentor.
*Be organized; schedule, highlighters, post-it notes.
*Prepare for the unexpected; children get sick-things come up. Leave yourself extra time to get things done.
*Clear space on your computer and recording devices.
*Learn how to work "google drive" prior to the process.
*Have multiple cameras taping for the inevitable "out of space" or "random" stop.
*Use your resources.
*Be confident. You're going to make mistakes, but this is always a learning process-not meant to be perfect.
*Don't be afraid to make these mistakes.
*ABR. Always Be Recording. ALWAYS!
(The client won't want to stick their face into the camera every second and you are bound to tape something magical. Like when mine accidentally poked me in the eye, and then 3 months later, in a different video, poked me in the eye...with his toe. $10,000? America's Funniest Video? Of course I'm going to split it with the kid! <----it's in writing now.)

Celebrate November with a Salute

This time of the year many teachers are teaching vocabulary for the big holiday in November. I'd like to take this time to remind you of a very important group that gets forgotten in the hustle and bustle of turkey season...the veterans. I've laid out my November plan in hopes to spread the love to our brave soldiers and of course express my gratitude!

I introduced the topic of Veterans Day with vocabulary: honor, respect, thankful, salute, celebrate, faithful, loyal, serve.


I work in a school for the Deaf and hard of hearing and targeted auditory skills by counting syllables for words from arlenesandberg.blogspot.com:

Words included 1-4 syllables: world, war, peace, wreath, sailor, parade, solider, salute, medal poppy, November, 11th, veterans, memorial, ceremony, military.

I explained what Veteran's Day was and we made flags out of hand prints. Some of the terminology used on the poster is from a pin I found on pinterest (http://www.mylifeasathirdgradeteacher.com/).

November 11th: a day to honor those who have served and are currently serving in the military

What is a Veteran?
-A person who has fought for our country
Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard

What do they do?
-Protect our country!
-Fight for our freedom!

I used "The Wall" by Eve Bunting and created my own reading comprehension questions based on the student's goals (i.e. main idea, recalling details, sequencing).





My older kids (5th-7th grade) get a kick out of my "Speechgram". We created usernames in the beginning of the year and I post a new picture every week. The kids can ask questions and write (grammatically correct) comments! It's fun to see what the kids come up with, and they are all super motivated to write! This is my friend Bridgett, she is a marine.

#who #what #when #where #why #how

(We are still working on the grammatically correct...and spelling)

Now for my favorite. Writing to Bridgett and her soldier friends. Operation Gratitude is always looking for letters to soldiers! Collaborate with your OT friends for a super fun writing a letter lesson! It was a fun process for the students and they were excited and motivated. I broke down the process into parts and really drilled ASKING and ANSWERING questions. I created statements (i.e. "My favorite movie is Frozen.") and had the students create their own questions; What's your favorite movie? Who is your favorite character? Again, since I'm in a school where Auditory Verbal is a big component of speech; I asked questions presented orally only and incorporated it into this part of the lesson.

It was an easy way to transition into Thanksgiving; as we were all feeling very thankful for the brave men and women in the military.

THANKS for reading.

APP-Y HOUR: Speech Trainer3D

Speech Trainer 3D ($7.99)

Valerie the SLP is a blonde bombshell that takes your through the basics of speech therapy.

There are 2 views: lateral (where you can see the inside mechanism of the speech cavity working) and anterior (where you can see the front of the person only)

I have used this with kids and adults.  For adults it helps them visualize what they should be doing with certain articulators (this was of course pre-PROMPT training).  For kids I use it for that wacky IEP goal "will identify articulators used in speech".  It's fun to learn how everything works together, and they think they're watching TV on the iPad! (Awesome).

It's not a bad app for you up and coming SLP's.  You can see the anatomy of the oral cavity and have a nice visual for certain sounds!

It's an app just like us speech language pathologist; a multi-tasker.

Falling in Love: PROMPT

In undergrad I attended a brief presentation on PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets).  "What is this magic?". I thought to myself.  How interesting, how innovative, how invasive to my personal bubble!

2 years wiser, another presenter came to my graduate school and spoke about PROMPT.  She told us how wonderful and great it was.  I agreed.  "When can I start? Who do I call? Where do I sign?!"  After she spoke my classmates and I were deflated and feeling sorry we didn't know this awesome technique.  We still had to resort to our age old methods from oral motor to standing on our heads to get some of our clients to correct their speech sounds.

Fast forward one year to my clinical fellowship.  It's here, it's time!  I'm on my way to certification and loving every minute of it!  Certification for PROMPT is intense and lengthy.  I've been trained, am in the process of my self study project and signed up for the second workshop: bridging.

Seeing the success I've been having with my clients makes getting out of bed on these cold mornings much easier.  I love shopping for hand sanitizer, analyzing new clients to create appropriate goals and practicing on my PROMPT head.

(My family was tired of me asking to practice my new PROMPT skills on them, so we went to the local wig shop and purchased a wig head.  It's styrofoam, so I drew on the target points of contact and used pins for the mylohyoid spots.  It still needs a name!)


Much of the information has been provided from the PROMPT institute website. Please check it out! Who knows you may fall in love too.