Interview with SLP

Today I interviewed my mentor Karri Stallman who is an Speech Language Pathologist at DMS. I asked her four questions within this interview with hopes to gain a better understanding of the career as a whole.

I started by asking her "What do you see as the Pros and Cons of SLP?"

She stated that she feels this job is very rewarding as you are able to see the progress in the students or clients depending where you work. She said not many careers offer the ability to see direct progress. Another Pro that she mentioned was that there are constant puzzles that you have to figure out throughout the day causing everyday to be different. On the flip side she said that in most cases you will be the only SLP in the building which means you have to fend for yourself. She used the analogy of being on an island.

I then asked "Did you always know that you wanted to work within a school?"

She said No! She always saw herself working in the medical side of SLP, Specifically in a Neuro area. However a school district in the cities came to MSUM while she was in Graduate school and did on the spot interviews. The offered her a job and she took it thinking that later if she wanted to switch the the medical field she could. When Karri told me this story I got excited because it is a prime example of all the opportunity within SLP.

Although she someone answered it in the second question I still asked "What was the Interview process like?"

She said that there is such a need for SLP that hospitals and school districts often time search you out. Obviously you still need to be prepared and professional but finding a job will not be a challenge due to the high demand.

Lastly I asked her "What is an important lesson you've learned throughout your experience?"

She said that something that took her a while to catch on to was the relationship side of SLP. She said relationships are the key to good progress. For instance If you are not able to form a good relationship with the student they wont want to work for you nor with they feel comfortable. This relationship will also provide the student with a connection causing them to more likely use the skills you are teaching them in the classroom and everyday life.