Jaerb Interview

The girls' home/school in Arlington, MA, I applied to work for is considered the best program of its kind; I believe it, now having seen how articulate and direct the director is. He's been there for 30 years.

Before we went on a tour and had our individual interviews, we filled out half an hour's worth of paperwork. Then we were herded into another conference room to get a talking-to by the director.

He said new staff spent 3-6 months feeling depressed AND anxious, because the girls would (abusively) test new staff.

He said restraining the girls physically would be necessary.

He said they're 85% successful with the girls they work with, that it's the only program in the northeast that includes sexual offenders, that if you took the job, you would see blood (from the cutters slicing themselves open).

He said the staff training was excellent, but you'd have to be ready and able to learn new skills in how to interact with the girls, how to praise, how to set boundaries, or you wouldn't make it.

He told everyone that if we didn't want the job, if we weren't up to the challenge, we should, seriously, leave before the interviews and not waste anyone's time.

I went knowing I didn't want the job -- couldn't take it and couldn't move to Boston on time short of a miracle, even if I wanted to -- and the executive director convinced me in his speech to the ten of us there for the position that 1. this was EXACTLY the sort of job people would move for -- a career-making job, actually, in human services, a very difficult, challenging job that would set you up for success in the field -- and that 2. that's not the sort of job I'm looking for right now.

I was the only one who left before the interview portion.