The job process is slowly creeping along. I had an interview today for a case manager position at a nursing home for chronically mentally ill people. I would work with the residents that also had substance abuse issues. MISA love me.
The interviewer kept asking if I was still interested in the job throughout the interview like I didn’t know that a MISA job at a nursing home would be tough. He described the job, the neighborhood, clients and we toured the building. After each part he said “are you still interested?”
He looked at the schools I have attended and asked where I grew up. I told him the suburbs and he said “Remember when you came to the city with your family when you were younger and you would see the people on the streets talking to themselves? What did you think of them?” I was honest and told him that when I was younger I was scared of them because I believed the stereotype that severely mentally ill people are dangerous. I think a lot of people believe that stereotype even as adults. He asked when I stopped being afraid and I told him it was when I started to attend college and live in the city. “So you’ve gone from being afraid of mentally ill people to accepting and working with them in under 10 years?”
Well, yes. I don’t know if he was just pointing that out to me or looking at that as a weakness. Touring the facility, I did appear to be the youngest person there, as usual.
Where do all the young social workers work? Why don’t I ever see them when I’m interviewing? I’ve worked at one agency that employed social workers around my age but they were all in the process of finishing school or obtaining a license and when they were done they planned to leave the agency.
So I can do this job but it will be hard. The hours are awesome though. The agency appears to be going through a lot of change with a new director. The director said it’s always chaotic, which I thrive on. I will see if they call me back next week…