I've just been reading an interesting article about going to youth ministry interviews. It's written from an evangelical perspective, but it gives a few tips which probably apply across the board.

I haven't been to an interview for a few years now and if I'm honest I was actually turned down for the last two jobs I went for! They were both a bit of a wild punt though, so I wasn't too gutted.

Interviews are a very weird experience. I've been on both ends of plenty - interviewer and interviewee, that is - and so maybe I'm in a position to give a few slightly off-the-wall tips that you might not find elsewhere...

Appearance and posture matters - I once turned down a guy because, knowing that there were two candidates and two positions, he turned up scruffy, unshaven and sat in the chair like he was in a cinema. We had to wonder just how conscientious he would be on the job if he was that slack at the interview!

Sometimes interviews are completely random - Yes, sometimes you will be turned down for reasons that you just don't have a clue about. It might be something about you that reminded one of the panel of somebody they knew years ago, or it might be that they're looking for something very specific. Also, sometimes - a lot of the time, really - interviews are just a little bit fixed. Nobody likes to admit it but it's true. Even in the Church!

The key word is 'likeable' - Don't try too hard to appear smart, or experienced or to nail a certain point. Just relax. If you are smart and experienced, believe me it will come across, and if you try to hard to spin a certain image, then it could well backfire. Just try to be likeable. That goes a very long way.

Don't imply that you will single-handedly transform the whole organisation if you're hired - By all means talk about how well you will do the job, but it's very important not to give interviewers the impression that hiring you would mean you making them look bad by trying to change the world. Maybe the organisation does need a bit of a kick up the pants, but here's the thing - a lot of interviewers have egos, and they won't hire people who they think will come in and show them up! Interviewing can be as much about massaging the egos of the interviewers as about publicising yourself.

Don't have a pop at your current employer - I was always suspicious of people who sat in interviews and told me how awful their current job was. It doesn't make you look hard working, yet persecuted, and it won't explain away that bad reference. Make sure the people you ask to give you a reference actually respect your work. If you have to carry a bad reference to an interview, the best thing to do is a mea cupla. Acknowledge your mistakes, talk about what you would do differently in the future and, above all, be likeable!

If you are completely beaten by a question, don't try to waffle - If you don't know the answer it will quickly be apparent. Obviously it's better to know the answer, but we're all beaten by a question occasionally. The key thing is not to lose your cool. Interviewers want to see that when you're in a difficult spot you don't lose your cool. Frustration, nerves or waffle are all to be avoided here. Okay, so you don't know the answer, but you're not going to lose any sleep over it!

If you can think of any more, feel free to use the combox...

Stuff you might find interesting that isn't quite worth a whole article...

The (US) National Catholic Register has an interesting article on the US Ordinariate.

David Ellefson, the Bassist from Megadeth is to train as a pastor.

CathNews.com is plugging the Pope John Paul II Facebook Page.

ChurchLeaders.com has an article about how to start a students leadership team.

The Catholic Youth Ministry Blog takes a look at some of the Oscar contenders.

The awesome MYMission launches an e-newsletter.

A high school in Cincinnati starts paying students to come to school.

The Catholic Herald takes a look at why British people have become so alienated from their faith.

And finally, PBS take a look at why China's youth are fascinated by western culture.

[image hotlinked from Flickr user NS Newsflash]

A top peer and co-chair of the Conservative party, Baroness Warsi, has warned that Britain is under threat from a rising tide of militant secularisation. She believes that Religion is being "sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere."

You can read more about her thoughts on the BBC News website and also in the Telegraph.

Baroness Warsi's thoughts echo those had by a great many of us in recent years. Indeed, it's a topic we've touched on here more than a few times. Like here.

That there has been a reinvigoration of secularism and atheism in the last decade (read: since September 11th 2001) is in no doubt at all, but I wonder if we are now starting to see the first strains of a backlash. I wonder if we are starting to see religion pushing back and telling the world that we still have something positive to offer and that we're a very long way form being defeated.

Maybe something to talk to your young people about...?

[image hotlinked from BBC News]

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News)—Christian families should be a happy and loving environment in which young people can discern calls to the priesthood or religious life, Pope Benedict XVI says in his message for the World Day of Prayers for Vocations.

"Families are not only the privileged place for human and Christian formation; they can also be 'the primary and most excellent seed bed of vocations to a life of consecration to the Kingdom of God,' by helping their members to see, precisely within the family, the beauty and the importance of the priesthood and the consecrated life," the Pope said on Feb. 13.

The 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be celebrated on April 29 with the theme "Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God." The Pope's message, which was released Feb. 13, comes at a time when vocations to the priesthood in most Western countries are on the rise.

In order for that to continue, says the Pope, the Church must...

The National Catholic Register has an interesting piece about a Pro-Life movie called October Baby which opens in March in the US. Here's a slice

When filmmakers Jon and Andrew Erwin tackled October Baby, they knew that their movie was imitating life. The film is loosely based on the life of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen.

What they didn't know is that their art was imitating life in more ways than one, through the story of one of the film's actresses.

The part road-trip, part-romance drama follows the journey of Hannah, a college freshman who learns that she was adopted and the survivor of a failed abortion attempt. She sets out to find her birth mother and ends up learning a lesson about forgiveness. The film is being distributed by Sony's Provident Films and opens in theaters nationwide March 23. Among its stars, it features actors Jon Schneider and Jasmine Guy.

Go, read the rest...

I've just seen an interesting piece from Lifeteen.com which will probably make a good resource for a session on relationships.

Have a look...