Interviewing Questions

1.   Tell me about yourself. (for example) very open-ended.

In the last four years, I have been in a variety of cultures and situations and have been placed in many different environments. All of these experiences have helped developed my skills in outreach and evangelism, leadership, and communication, and have taught me how to work hard. When I graduated from high school I went to college for a year in Oregon. While I was there, I was a Young Life leader and was planning on double-majoring in Spanish/Education. Being a Young Life leader in college taught me how to work in a team, plan events, and reach out to youth. I learned a lot from this experience and developed qualities as a leader. However, at the end of the year I felt the Lord calling me to do an internship in my home-town at the church I attended in high school. I ended up doing this internship at my church for two years, and doing this internship truly changed my life. In the first year of doing it, three times a week I was required to get up at five in the morning to clean the church with the other interns. This did not include our cleaning responsibilities on the weekends. Although in the beginning I was not excited about this part of the internship, at the end I realized how much it taught me about dedication, being a servant, and commitment to excellence. In the internship, I also took college classes, was given leadership and ministry classes by my pastors, went on two different mission trips, and was given great leadership opportunities. One of these opportunities was being the evangelism fractal leader for our college age ministry. This meant that I was one of the four key leaders in this ministry, and oversaw the areas of production of services, worship, technology and creative arts. I was ultimately responsible for anything that went wrong during a service (even when at times it was not my fault), and was required to lead core team of four people, who each also oversaw another four people. This experience taught me how to be an excellent leader, how to work in a team and how to plan and be in constant communication with others. After my two year internship, I felt the Lord calling me to a Spanish-speaking country to solidify the Spanish skills I had acquired in high school and my first year of college. I went to a language school for 6 months in Costa Rica, and lived with a host family. While I was there, I got involved in a church and truly got to experience live in a foreign place. At the school I went to, there were people from all over the world who were there as well, and I became friends with people from England, Germany, Japan, and many other countries. This expanded my world-view and knowledge about other countries and helped show me how to relate to people from all different backgrounds and cultures. While I was in Costa Rica, I knew I had to finish college when I came back, and felt the Lord calling me to Northwest University. I transferred here this last semester and am now finishing my degree in communications. All of these experiences reveal that I can easily adapt to new environments, I am not afraid of a challenge or of new things, and they taught me many leadership and communication skills. I realized through these experiences that I can relate to anyone when I find common ground with them and do not focus on their background or cultural differences.

2.  Which activities do you enjoy the most and why?
The main activities I enjoy doing in my life are working out, reading, spending time with people, and doing ministry-related tasks. I believe working out is important in order to have a healthy lifestyle. Whenever I work out, I feel better and feel as though I can accomplish more things and feel more motivated. I also know that doing this leads to health benefits, and because I believe I am a steward of my body I want to steward what God has given me well. I enjoy reading because I love learning and expanding my knowledge. I love reading Christian books that challenge me in my walk with Christ, but also enjoy books of other topics. I enjoy auto-biographies and biographies because I believe I can learn a lot from the lives and experiences of others and apply it to my own life. I am an extrovert, which means I draw my energy from people and therefore love spending time with just about anyone. I love hearing other peoples’ stories and helping others in any way I can. I enjoy reaching out to others and meeting new people as often as I can. Because ministry is who I am and not what I do, loving God and loving people are always on my mind. I also enjoy doing tasks that benefit the kingdom and serve the Lord and His people.

3. How do you handle conflict at work?
If I am experiencing conflict with another co-worker, I would confront them directly and in a calm, gentle manner but also in way that gets my point across. I would not do this in front of other people, but would take them aside and make sure that the conversation is just between me and the other person. If we cannot resolve the conflict, then I would talk to the other person and tell them I believe we should go see our boss until the conflict is resolved. There will always be conflicts that occur in our lives, but the important part is how we deal with them and try to do our best to not let them negatively influence our relationship with the other person. I will do my best to deal with conflicts in a mature, respectful manner.