An object that sums you up

I agree fffin. It's a bit like 'Show and Tell' at primary school!

Imperfect yes, I agree. They might have expected a bribe, especially if I had put the credit card on the table!

The very best of luck Imperfecta27 I have come to the conclusion that I am unemployable.

I'm really at a loss to know why one needs to take anything. Wouldn't just asking the question 'to start a discussion' work? I think it's rather limiting for the interviewee and somewhat lazy of the interviewer.
It sounds like a Gestalt exercise - as if you were the child. I can see this being used with children in a classroom environment, but not at an interview, adult to adult.
A serious question, by the way.

Well, cynicism aside, the latest fad interview "ice breaker" has made for interesting reading. greyduster my SIL is a sea fisherman and when he is fishing, he is just as absorbed as you describe. Watching him cast is seeing poetry in motion.

I'd have to take a bottle full of water from the Indian Ocean and describe "a shabby little hut, by the dock, down by the sea, it is nothing fancy, but ... it's paradise to me". (Song lyrics from back in the day, growing up beside the sea). My happy place.

Thanks for all the good wishes .

For the purposes of my interview, after running through all sorts of 'grown up' book titles in my head over the past day, I think I might take a board book I have bought for my GS for Easter. Books are so central to our family and I created a really good library for my own children - and visited the library with them so much too (thinks ...could take library card...) They have all gone to uni and two have careers founded on their literacy skills. So a children's book sums up my passion for reading to and with children and nurturing their life-long love of reading. Mind you - DS2 NEVER wanted to read for pleasure and NEVER wanted me to read to him at bedtime You can lead a horse to water, but ... He is a very contented chef!

Perhaps I ought to take a post-it pad - need to write myself little notes to prevent senior moments ... don't I think that would go down too well though ...

Probably either one of the small plant 'children' propagated from one given to us by my MIL over 45 years ago. Or a photo of the original. A constant through 8 house moves and an observer to our lives. Though if I were really honest a tangled piece of string as I am often in a muddle. Wouldn't help me get the job. . As well I'm retired perhaps. Good luck Imperfect.

A quote that sums me up is from The Canterbury Tales.

It's the Clerk of Oxenford:

"and gladly would be learn and gladly teach."

I taught adults for 20 years and learnt a lot from them - as much as they learned from me.

On a soppier note and something I wouldn't take to an interview is a pink rabbit soft toy I bought in a Charity Shop. It has a much loved look, it's a bit bedraggled and has a bemused expression - that's me.

Good Luck Imperfect27.

Yes Tiz, I am the sum of all the parts !

etheltbags/reikilady which one are you being today?
(It's like Grayson Perry!)

My iPad

My house or a photo of it! It is the most important thing to me as it represents a place where family and friends come and feel welcome. It has historic significance in our village and to the partners of two of my off spring and, therefore, to some of my DGC. Its contents are my history and the history of my family. Other than that, it would be my kitchen and/or dining tables where friends and family gather.

Or my car, which represents freedom to leave my home and to come back to it.

Luckily, as Ann said, I'm not looking for a job either.

I would be a tree as I would live to several hundred years old (oak Im thinking), I would see the world changing and I just love trees, I too bend with circumstances like the tree bends with the wind , I love the wind through my hair and the changing seasons so yes a tree would be my object.

I think of myself as the sum of all the things in my life. OH, children, grandchildren, dogs, our business, my books, my friends. Not one of these things is me, but add them all together and that is me.

I hate that sort of a question - somehow I can't think in those terms. I thought it meant "if you weren't you, what object would you be?" or "What object represents you best" (Doormat?, Sharp knife? Brick?)

But, having read everyone else's suggestions, and seeing that you are expected to think of a possession which sums up the way you spend your time, I would probably produce a tuning fork.

That needs an explanation Galen

Probably my cat

A dustbin

It's quite difficult to choose isn't it as I think I sum my self up as having a good sense of humour and friends and family are my joy but they are not tangible. I don't think my grandchild would be happy to turn up at a job interview with her Nan.

So apart from photos the only other thing I can think of is a box of 'keep sakes' that belonged to my parents as that would be the first thing I would pick up if my house were on fire. What that would tell them I haven't a clue. It could mean 'she lives in the past', 'she is an emotional person' 'she's an idiot it should be her jewellery box'.

A good question Imperfect .

My passport. Over the last 4 years since being widowed, it is my lifeline to family. I have travelled thousands of miles to be with them

I might take along a card that I'd made ... I also knit, but card-making is my main enjoyment in the way of hobbies. It also lets me escape upstairs to the attic room when there's football on tv!
Or a photo of our beautiful wee GD who lights up our lives!!!! :-)

I would take my journal, which I write up every night, before bed, to record the day just passed. I am 73 this year and have been doing this every night since I was 14 so I have a record of my life which perhaps someone may read and find interesting, long after I am gone. I was inspired to do this by Samuel Pepys.

I think that a garden fork is a good idea- you do your thinking time in the garden, it is obviously close to the house which you love and you could be close to family and friends there.

I probably would not be employed to clean the loos!

Probably my Nursing Registration documents- being a nurse is and has been my identity.

Jings cake tin full (good bribe) or empty??? Mine would probably only have a few crumbs left by Monday ...

My fly rod. I came late to fly fishing but it was something I'd wanted to do all through my life, but time, other commitments and, particularly, money, made it almost impossible. It is not a sport, but an obsession. You get absorbed into the mechanics, the entomology, the psychology of it, and when life is getting on top of me, a few hours on a river or lake - or even just an hour practicing casting a line - can put everything back in perspective for me. And you meet some truly lovely people !