April Kline "Mock Interview"

Client: What do you think are the most important skills you need as an organizer?

April:

• #1 - being a good listener
  #2 - knowing how to help clients formulate objectives
  #3 - being able to see the big picture as well as all the details.

In addition, I am artistic by nature and understand how sometimes, contrary to what one might think, disorganization constricts and bogs down the creative process.  I like to help creative clients free themselves.

Client: Why is listening such an important skill?

April:  Listening is at the center of what I do. By listening, I come to understand what the client truly wants as an outcome - and what the client is willing or not willing to do to get there.

Client: What did you do that would make you a successful organizer?

April: As a litigation legal assistant my primary responsibilities were working on the "discovery" phase of cases going to trial - interviewing witnesses and organizing all of the documentation. I worked on cases ranging from personal injury to securities and from single client cases to class action suits. I have organized almost any kind of documentation, including business and financial. To be effective I had to customize my work to meet the preferences of dozens of litigators. Frequently I was involved in cases where people were emotionally involved in the process and outcome. On a daily basis I used and refined the same skills that a Professional Organizer uses -

• Maintaining confidentiality
• Interviewing - listening, formulating questions
• Identifying objectives
• Focusing on objectives
• Determining sequence
• Categorizing
• Prioritizing
• Breaking complex processes into bite sized pieces
• Setting up customized document handling systems to enable speedy recovery
• Thinking creatively - more than one way to skin a cat
• Customizing my work to fit the styles/needs of my clients/employers
• Time management
• Working with people emotionally involved in the outcome

Client: And, the contract administrator position? What did you do there?

April: Basically I built on all the organizing skills I used as a legal assistant. I was the "keeper" of the "mother" electronic program that controlled all truck and parts sales and service for a nationwide network of heavy-duty truck dealerships. What a dealer was allowed to do was based on contracts that I maintained and how I manipulated the mother program. It was an intense trouble-shooting job involving many companies, product lines, products, inter-company departments and new company acquisitions. It was all about organizing.

Client: And teaching?

April: Aside from what we all know about a teacher's day of juggling and meeting individual needs, the most important carry-over skill is identifying objectives - behavioral objectives. Every lesson had written objectives. Helping my clients craft meaningful and attainable objectives is one of the most important things I do an organizer.

And, as a teacher I began to learn the importance of asking good questions - something I found very useful both as a legal assistant and a trouble-shooter in the contract administrator position.

Client: Personally, outside the workplace, are there experiences that are useful to you as an Organizer?

April: I moved my home in the USA 5 times and internationally 6 times and when my father passed on recently I managed my invalid mother's transition from the family home to a care-facility. There is a lot of organization and emotion involved in that kind of process.

Personally I am energetic, creative and very visual.  I have always involved myself in various projects - from designing and building a new front deck/porch and stone steps to setting up a filing system to manage my mother's trust.