Do You Think You Could Take it Down a Notch?

I had an interview at a Field Placement Agency (aka a place to do my first social work internship) two weeks ago and had this strange experience of feeling like I needed to play myself down in order to build myself up. Let me explain: We had a board meeting at work on the same day of my Field Placement interview, so it made sense to me to wear my nicest black suit. I can bring it when I want to, and that day I brought it. I did my research on the company for which I was interviewing, and I came prepared with lots of questions. The agency provides mental health services to children ages 3-21 and their families, mainly in their homes, mainly low-income families. I was told that the over-arching philosophy of the agency is to build on the family's strengths and to treat the family unit as the entity that drives the services they receive. In other words, the family guides what type of help they need, rather than the providers dictating what needs to be done to "fix" the family.

My interviewer read over my resume and asked me some questions about my past working with low-income and disenfranchised populations, yadda yadda. I talked all about my year as a VISTA Volunteer (where I qualified for subsidized housing AND food stamps) and my experiences with Adult Education learners upon my return to North Carolina. Then I talked about what I'm doing now, administering a private foundation in Cary, whose operating budget stems almost entirely from interest earned on the original multi-million dollar endowment. What this guy saw and experienced first-hand just didn't add up. He even said as much. He read and heard me talk about working with poor people but saw me in an expensive business suit emitting executive-level confidence and command. He told me I came across very polished and very powerful and reflected on the fact that I had pretty much dictated how the entire interview had just gone. His biggest concern was whether or not I'd be able to "take it down a notch" in the clients' homes and whether "corporate Sarah" (my term, not his) would feel comfortable going into poor people's homes and helping them from the vantage point of the family as the unit of power.

I assured him I really wasn't that polished (is that ever a good thing to do in an interview?) and told him that I'd prove it by showing him the inside of my car, then invited him to come to my house to take a look at my ghetto screen door that's been broken for weeks. On the other hand, I didn't feel like I needed to apologize for being confident, knowledgeable and passionate about my field of study and pending Field Placement. I felt like telling him that we have friends who live in trailer parks AND in near mansions and that if it were really up to me, I'd like to get by with less attachment to stuff. I wanted to tell him about riding around in the 70's as a kid in a broken down Ford where the children of Appalachia looked at our family as the ones who stuck out, not the impoverished families my dad was studying. Simultaneously I wanted to tell him that I can hang with the best, the brightest, the richest, and the most notable characters even if I don't feel the most at ease doing so.

What I wanted to come across in the interview was that I do feel comfortable around poor people and at the same time, I am polished when I need to be or want to be. I can be a good listener, I am very down to earth and I can adapt to just about anything you throw my way. I'm also strong, powerful and assertive. I'm all that. Make no mistake, I'm not saying that I'm all that...I'm saying that I'm all that. There's a difference. I'm all that and I don't apologize for any of it. Except maybe the ghetto door that lets flies into my kitchen .

Of course I can take it down a notch if and when the occasion calls for it. What I want to know is can he?