I was 16 when I got my first job, it was as a car tire fitter and it was through my brother, who had worked in the garage previous to me that I got the job. He pulled a few strings and I was told to show up the following morning (that was the end of my summer! And it was only the first week in June) at the time my speech was a major issue for me, I had been through a tough time in school that year and would often come home exhausted having tried to get through the day without having to say anything. The big morning came and to the best of my memory I don’t think I had thought too much about how I would introduce myself, Remember I hadn’t gone through any interview and the manager had never laid eyes on me before!
When I Got to the Garage I rode in on my bicycle and walked up to the guy in the office, “Hi my name is…….” And that was as far as I got. I broke out in a bog of sweat and after about an hour the manager was able to find out who I was and why I was there! For the first couple of weeks after that I don’t think I said two words in there, I just did what I was told and things went fine.
Jump fifteen years or so years to today, having gone through speech therapy and dozens of interviews since, some good some bad I’m a successful Senior Manager and a different person in many ways to that teenager back then. Even though my speech is 100 times better, I still have a stammer, and more to the point I still avoid situations and words that I “know” I’ll get stuck on. So to start to put an end to these avoidances I’m tackling them one by one. This week it was the Interview.
I suppose it wasn’t really as I expected because I had no intention of changing jobs, but even still I felt the usual butterflies and tension before going in. It was a relatively small agency hiring for Management positions.
My first hurdle was having imagined and played through my entrance a couple of times to prepare, When I got to the front door I had to press a buzzer to get in,
“Hi Charlie Boswell, I have an appointment with Catriona for 1:15pm”
I noticed I blocked on my name briefly and also on “Catriona” but not so bad as to appear silent.
Having filled out the usual forms I was ushered into a small office and started the interview. There was nothing that I hadn’t prepared for and after about 45 minutes it was all over. The biggest negative was that after about 5 minutes I started to sweat like a pig waiting for slaughter, This is something I’ll have to research and work on more as it happens anytime I’m put under pressure in a speaking situation, whether I’m fluent or not.
My tips and advice for an Interview.
Preparation is the key I know it’s the old cliché but it is true, even more so for somebody with a stutter or stammer. How I prepared was to rehearse all the usual questions I would be asked and also for anything that if I was asked would make me feel uncomfortable or under pressure. I also worked a lot on my mental preparation, I’m reading Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of highly Effective People at the moment, and a lot of what he says can be applied to preparing for an interview.
Just into the first habit “Be Proactive” he discusses how people can choose their response to any given situation or person, I have a stammer, I can either choose to accept that and focus my attention on finding the knowledge, skills and desire to become more fluent and more comfortable with myself and my speech, or, I can listen to all my negative thoughts and feeling and continue down a path of life long low confidence, low self esteem, avoidances and so on. I hope you can guess the path I’m on!
So I chose to be relaxed, and when I did stammer, I didn’t allow myself any negative thoughts or feelings get the better of me.
Tip 1: “I can choose to have a positive or negative experience in this interview” Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Tip 2: Be proactive, Set up interviews for jobs you know you don’t really want, you can review them afterward, see it as practice for the big interview you are aiming for.
Tip 3: I bring a piece of paper with me everywhere these days, on it are seven key beliefs of high achievers, which I read in a Paul McKenna’s “Instant Confidence” book a while ago, they struck a chord with me when I first read them and I read them now at least once a day
They are:
Seven key beliefs of high achievers.
1. You are the expert on you
2. You are not broken, you do not need to be fixed
3. You already have all the resources you need to succeed
4. You can accomplish anything if you break it into small enough chunks
5. If what you are doing is not working, try something else
6. There is no such thing as failure, Only feedback
7. You are creating your future NOW!
Finally,
Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope it makes sense. If you can take even one thing out of it that’s a start!
As always any comments greatly appreciated.
Charlie.
When I Got to the Garage I rode in on my bicycle and walked up to the guy in the office, “Hi my name is…….” And that was as far as I got. I broke out in a bog of sweat and after about an hour the manager was able to find out who I was and why I was there! For the first couple of weeks after that I don’t think I said two words in there, I just did what I was told and things went fine.
Jump fifteen years or so years to today, having gone through speech therapy and dozens of interviews since, some good some bad I’m a successful Senior Manager and a different person in many ways to that teenager back then. Even though my speech is 100 times better, I still have a stammer, and more to the point I still avoid situations and words that I “know” I’ll get stuck on. So to start to put an end to these avoidances I’m tackling them one by one. This week it was the Interview.
I suppose it wasn’t really as I expected because I had no intention of changing jobs, but even still I felt the usual butterflies and tension before going in. It was a relatively small agency hiring for Management positions.
My first hurdle was having imagined and played through my entrance a couple of times to prepare, When I got to the front door I had to press a buzzer to get in,
“Hi Charlie Boswell, I have an appointment with Catriona for 1:15pm”
I noticed I blocked on my name briefly and also on “Catriona” but not so bad as to appear silent.
Having filled out the usual forms I was ushered into a small office and started the interview. There was nothing that I hadn’t prepared for and after about 45 minutes it was all over. The biggest negative was that after about 5 minutes I started to sweat like a pig waiting for slaughter, This is something I’ll have to research and work on more as it happens anytime I’m put under pressure in a speaking situation, whether I’m fluent or not.
My tips and advice for an Interview.
Preparation is the key I know it’s the old cliché but it is true, even more so for somebody with a stutter or stammer. How I prepared was to rehearse all the usual questions I would be asked and also for anything that if I was asked would make me feel uncomfortable or under pressure. I also worked a lot on my mental preparation, I’m reading Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of highly Effective People at the moment, and a lot of what he says can be applied to preparing for an interview.
Just into the first habit “Be Proactive” he discusses how people can choose their response to any given situation or person, I have a stammer, I can either choose to accept that and focus my attention on finding the knowledge, skills and desire to become more fluent and more comfortable with myself and my speech, or, I can listen to all my negative thoughts and feeling and continue down a path of life long low confidence, low self esteem, avoidances and so on. I hope you can guess the path I’m on!
So I chose to be relaxed, and when I did stammer, I didn’t allow myself any negative thoughts or feelings get the better of me.
Tip 1: “I can choose to have a positive or negative experience in this interview” Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Tip 2: Be proactive, Set up interviews for jobs you know you don’t really want, you can review them afterward, see it as practice for the big interview you are aiming for.
Tip 3: I bring a piece of paper with me everywhere these days, on it are seven key beliefs of high achievers, which I read in a Paul McKenna’s “Instant Confidence” book a while ago, they struck a chord with me when I first read them and I read them now at least once a day
They are:
Seven key beliefs of high achievers.
1. You are the expert on you
2. You are not broken, you do not need to be fixed
3. You already have all the resources you need to succeed
4. You can accomplish anything if you break it into small enough chunks
5. If what you are doing is not working, try something else
6. There is no such thing as failure, Only feedback
7. You are creating your future NOW!
Finally,
Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope it makes sense. If you can take even one thing out of it that’s a start!
As always any comments greatly appreciated.
Charlie.
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