Form PC-2135 Peace Corps Response Interview Assessment Form

Peace Corps Response Interview Assessment OMB Control Number: 0420-0556

Expiration Date: N/A

Peace Corps Response Interview Questions

1. Peace Corps Response candidates are considered for highly specialized positions that are developed by post staff and local partner organizations in our countries of service. Peace Corps Response Volunteers are fully expected to depart for their assignments on a timetable that works for local partners and to complete their entire term to ensure completion of assignment tasks and deliverables. This position is scheduled to depart on (DATE) and is a (# of months)-month term of service. Do you have any commitments (family, personal, or professional) that could prevent you from fulfilling your obligation to the Peace Corps, if invited?

   1. Follow-up: Is this Peace Corps Response assignment your highest priority? If selected, would you forgo other opportunities in order to accept it?

2. Where did the candidate hear about this position? (drop-down menu and text box)

3. Having reviewed the position, what knowledge, skills, and abilities do you feel a PCRV would need to successfully fulfill the requirements of this position??

   1. Follow-up: How does this assignment fit with your personal or professional goals?

4. What are your expectations of the work you will be doing in this assignment?

5. Briefly tell me what makes you a competitive candidate for this assignment.

6. (For RPCVs only) What do you see as differences between service with Peace Corps Response and your previous experience as a two-year Peace Corps Volunteer?

7. (For RPCVs only) Did you successfully complete your two-year service? If not, tell me more about why you were unable to do so.

8. In this Peace Corps Response assignment, you and your counterpart will develop a work plan related to your position description. How will you approach collaborating with your partner organization to develop this plan?

   1. Follow-up: Describe a time when you’ve had to build a professional relationship with a new team in a short amount of time. How did you address that challenge?

   2. Follow-up: What would you do if you did not feel that you would be able to complete your work plan in the time available?

9. This assignment is scheduled to depart in (month) for (duration of time). Tell me about any commitments that could interfere with your ability to accept and/or complete this assignment.

   1. Follow-up: Have you had any major life changes in the past six months?

10. Working in a foreign country can highlight cultural differences that can be challenging to adjust to and accept. Tell me about an experience where you worked outside your culture or comfort zone. What are your strategies for dealing with stress, isolation, and loneliness?

11. Tell me about a situation where you were involved in a conflict or disagreement while at work. How did you resolve this situation?

12. As a Peace Corps Response Volunteer, you will be a minority in the country where you are serving. What are some opportunities and challenges of serving as a minority and how would you respond?

13. Peace Corps Response Volunteers live in urban and rural settings, and this can mean different things from region to region, country to country, and site to site. Are there any living and working conditions that could negatively impact your commitment to service?

14. Volunteer safety and security is the Peace Corps’ number one priority. Please tell me your approach to staying safe in a new environment. What do you expect the role of the Peace Corps is in securing your safety?

15. To help ensure safety and security during Volunteer service, you will have to follow rules and regulations you may not completely agree with, such as notifying Peace Corps staff when you leave your site. In the past, how have you responded to rules that you did not agree with?

Guidance on Scenarios

• Applicants without previous Peace Corps experience: two scenarios

• RPCVs who served over 10 years ago: one scenario

• Recently returned Peace Corps Volunteers: no scenarios

Scenario #1 (Motivation in different culture)

It is early in your assignment and it is already obvious to you that your counterparts are not accustomed to working at the same pace as you. People are often 45 minutes late to meetings and counterparts struggle with what you perceive as easy tasks. You know you only have a few months to get a lot accomplished and you are worried that your service could be a failure.

How would you respond to this situation?

Scenario #2 (Lack of work partner support)

You are provided with a specific position description about your assignment. The partners’ roles and responsibilities are well defined, and so are yours. You arrive at your assignment and discover that your assigned partner with the organization no longer works there and there is no one else at the organization to provide you with more specific structure or support.

What do you do?

Scenario #3 (Gender)

You have been working in your assignment for about a month and everything has been going well. You get along very well with the head of the office, Jacob, and the project manager, Beth, with whom you work closely. You’ve been invited to join them for a meeting in one of the villages where your project will be implemented. When you all arrive at the meeting, you notice that Beth is mostly ignored by the village elders, while Jacob is treated like a king. You know that Beth is really the one who is doing most of the work and is the best source of information on the project.

How might you respond?

Scenario #4 (Diversity 1)

You are asked to attend a weekly religious practice. Your counterparts worship regularly together and repeatedly ask you to worship with them; however, you do not practice their religion.

How would you manage this situation?

Scenario #5 (Diversity 2)

You are serving in a country that values a general set of social norms for all people. The people you meet are not accustomed to large degrees of individual differences in race, religion, career options, family traditions, dietary habits, dress, behavior, choices available to men and women, or the age at which people marry. They expect of you what they expect of each other and are not anticipating your sense of individual choice.

How would you explain individual choices and differences to them as an American?

Scenario #6 (Global Health Service Partnership Only)

As a GHSP Volunteer, you will be asked to work in facilities with limited resources, students with a low knowledge base, and local colleagues who have other demands on their time that may limit their ability to improve and deliver medical education. Which one of these—limited resources, low student knowledge base, and colleagues with other priorities—might be most difficult for you during your Peace Corps service, and what in your background has prepared you to work effectively in spite of this challenge?

Wrap Up Information:

During the time remaining before departure, you would need to be available to complete your medical clearance, passport and visa paperwork, and answer additional questions regarding legal clearance if invited. Are there any periods during which it might be difficult to contact you before the projected departure?

Passport information (type, number of blank pages, and date of expiration)

Home of record

Next steps in process (legal, medical, references)

Do you have any questions or concerns you would like to discuss?

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PC-2135