Chapter VI 
THE INTERVIEW 
Ordinarily the appointment for interview is made by post 
card. The applicant is advised to come to the selecting agency of¬ 
fice at a specified time. He is instructed on the post card to bring 
with him, if he has not already done so, his application blank and 
his age verification. 
It is important that the appointments be so arranged that 
applicants will have to wait as short a time as possible. There 
should be places to sit down for applicants who must wait. It is 
well known that almost any applicant who has had to stand and wait 
for a considerable period of time is likely to be tired and nervous 
and unable to do justice to himself in the interview. 
General Principles 
Many CCC applicants, as the result of vain search for em¬ 
ployment, may be quite discouraged. It is the job of the interviewer 
to uncover what lies beneath the discouragement. Each applicant must 
be put at ease in an interview. If it is at all possible to arrange 
it, the interview should be conducted in private. No other factor, 
except the apparent personal and sympathetic interest of the inter¬ 
viewer, is quite so important or quite so conducive to putting the 
applicant at ease as is privacy. Likewise, it is important to reduce 
distractions to a minimum; distractions which arise from disturbing 
noises; distractions which arise from objects in the room which may 
arouse the curiosity of the applicant. 
The skilled interviewer will always set an example to the 
young man he is interviewing by demonstrating what is meant by being 
relaxed and composed. The applicant should be encouraged to think 
that he has perfect freedom to say anything about his background, 
experience, and interests which may have a bearing upon his applica¬ 
tion for the Civilian Conservation Corps. The interviewer will not 
allow the applicant to take up a great deal of time by random talk¬ 
ing; the process, however, is not that of cutting the applicant short, 
but of diplomatically redirecting the course of his conversation. 
The process of the interview has three purposes: 
1. To make certain that the applicant understands enough about 
the CCC program so that he may feel sure in his own mind that 
it is the kind of opportunity he is anxious to obtain. 
2. To determine whether the applicant meets the legal and ad¬ 
ministrative eligibility regulations of the Corps. 
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