Career Hunting and Practicing Presence

In a recent interview, my divinity school training helped and I believe humorously hindered the first rule of job-seeking: boast about yourself. Christian history and the diversity of persons I encountered in divinity school certainly temper the individual's pride in "knowing" the breadth, depth, and creativity of spiritual wisdom. Theologians trained in divinity schools with rich liberal arts underpinnings avoid absolute statements about their insights into the knowledge of God. This "default" training created an amusing situation when I was charged with offering a 60 second statement of why I was the best candidate for the position. Listening to the experiences of other candidates and my lack of detailed information, I was sure multiple persons in the room could perform the tasks of the job. So, I ended my statement with myself as "one of the best" instead of "the best" candidate. My interviewers caught this slip and pointed it out. I smiled and nodded toward the interviewer as I was unable articulate a short and uncomplicated retort. Since I was in the final three for candidacy, it is likely my slip painted me as a generous and humble individual. Or it was a unique answer that made me stand out in the group interview. Either way, I choked and couldn't help laugh to myself how divinity school has uniquely formed me. This formation catch the eye of many in the business world as a curious individual.

Theological training has formed particular phrasing on my tongue which may be my undoing in the job hunt, but it also helped me articulate concise, deep replies to words an institution uses to describe the core responsibilities of a position. For any sales position "presence" is a practical word with deep theological depths. My excitement of theologizing presence in the interview process, however, exposed me to unknown emotional dangers. The frustrating and lonely endeavor of job hunting illuminates the dangers of full presence in the interviewing process. I invested too much in the interviews as an attempt to embody the kind of presence I told the interviewer his description envisioned. In the end, I did not get the job and am trying to evaluate why the rejection felt more like a stab than being kindly discharged from the process. The sincerity of my presence is likely one dimension to being in the top 3% of the candidates, but I never quite envisioned the implications of rejection. The question now is how will I proceed in future interviews and balancing sincere presence with caution.... ...if that is possible.