1. What was the most memorable interview you ever had?
Definitely the one for my current call, when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and the entire search committee drove 600 miles each way to interview me.

I remember them smiling and laughing as they poured out of the van that Saturday in January and feeling right away, these are my people. Still, it was nerve-wracking because I had to choose lunch and dinner places, and wanted to pick comfortable places that had food that these people I didn’t even know would like. I also had to get ready to preach the next day.

2. Have you ever been the interviewer rather than the interviewee? If so, are you a tiger, a creampuff, or somewhere in between?
I tend more toward creampuff. The kind of things I interview people for are very subjective things anyway (I’m not assessing someone’s programming ability, for example), and basically I want to give them every opportunity to shine. Which means that I will get tougher if they’ve demonstrated earlier in the interview that they can handle it. But basically the times I’ve had to do this have been more conversation, with give and take, rather than my grilling someone.

3. Do phone interviews make you more or less nervous than in-person ones?
Much much more, because the phone interviews I’ve had have always been with groups of people rather than individuals. The lack of feedback is difficult because I tend to prattle on unnecessarily without it.

When I had my phone interview with Suburban Pres they asked me about something I’m passionate about. I went on and on way too long and at the end the chair said, “Uh, you’re passionate all right!” Oh well.

4. What was the best advice you ever got to prepare for an interview? How about the worst?
Best advice is to remember that I’m interviewing them as much as they are interviewing me. It’s a question of fit more than “do I measure up?” And even if there is an element of that, it’s more calming to think about it the other way.

I don’t remember any bad interview advice I’ve personally received, although the old “picture them in your underwear” thing, for speeches and interviews, is truly dumb.

5. Do you have any pre-interview rituals that give you confidence?
Nothing fancy. I will go over my notes about the opportunity and think through some answers—not in too much detail, otherwise things will sound stilted.