• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Interviews and Blood Sugar

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
KookyCat

KookyCat

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I'm having a bit of an issue with job interviews that honestly I'm not entirely sure how to handle. Normally an interview will give me butterflies which is fairly normal stuff, but I'm suffering from some fairly extreme anxiety and I need to get me a job before I go absolutely box of frogs. The tricky bit is its not the interview that's causing extreme anxiety it's my blood sugar. I've had three and none of them went terribly badly but I didn't get any of them so clearly they didn't go terribly well either!

Blood sugar wise this is what happens, about three hours before the interview my blood sugar shoots up to 10 (always 10), I eat my lunch as normal and it stays at 10, no spike or anything just stubbornly stays there. The first time I tried to do a correction with my lunch but nothing budged until I was mid interview and I felt it going towards the drain, I was 2.9 when I got out of the interview. The first one was the worst because I lost the ability to string a sentence together towards the end! The second time I didn't correct at lunch but by the time the interview was over I was 3.5, the third time I was slightly calmer and returned to a 4.8 at the end. I have absolutely no idea why it suddenly plummets other than I tend to calm down when I actually get into the interview at which point I'm assuming Patty pancreas decides she'll try and do something about that 10 point something. I stay pretty low after the interviews as well usually resulting in a small overnight hypo. So any ideas? I was wondering if maybe I should eat some oat biscuits before the interview to see if that delays the drop, but that feels counter intuitive when my blood sugar is high. The double figure worries me if I'm honest, I have only been in double figures 5 times since I got control and three of those were interviews, 2 hospital emergencies one mine, one my uncles.

One of the interviewers actually said they were worried about how I'd deal with stress, it's tricky to convince someone that I wouldn't find the role they were offering stressful when I'm clearly stressed by an interview. I'm determined to work a way round this just not sure yet quite how to do it, so any advice much appreciated 🙂
 
Hi Kooky I don't usually try to advise as know so little about type 1 even though I read on here about some of the difficulties. I've been thinking about your problem and have an idea which may help but please forgive me if it's totally rubbish. Could you take something (like a jelly baby) into the interview to eat when you think bgs could be going down? Maybe mention at the start that you find interviews can cause problems? Also has the actual timing of the interview had any effect ie would early morning be better (or worse) What you really need is for a type 1 D to be doing the interview! Will keep thinking and it's positive that it could be improving with practice You're doing well even getting the interviews 🙂
 
Thanks Lindarose, it's a right faff all this interview business and so far they've all been at 3pm which is not great because it gives me a lot of time to fret about it, so I'll try a morning for the next one if possible, I am an early bird much better at 5am than 5pm. The last one was better so maybe I'll just get used to it by the 100th interview 😱 I have my jelly babies with me I'm just not sure I'd give the right message if I popped one in mid interview. Why is this all so flipping complicated. I did have a nice but frustrating phone call after the third, where he basically said I was over qualified and if he was recruiting for a second in command he'd have snapped my hand off but he thought I'd probably be very bored with the position they were interviewing for. So nice feedback but I think he sensed I'm a bossy britches and I think it was the last ten minutes that did it, I was chomping at the bit to get out and test my blood sugar which might have come across as a lack of interest 😱

Onwards and upwards as they say 🙂
 
Perhaps the simplest approach is to accept that the odd reading in double figures isn't too serious. So, go into the interview with little or no risk of needing a jelly baby - you're right, it wouldn't give a good impression.

Considering that around 6 people are interviewed for each job, probability suggests that you may have to attend more than 3 interviews, so keep trying. Hope you get the right job soon. Good luck.
 
10 isn't so bad - my daughter has been off school with a nasty virus this week and for 3 days was sitting stubbornly in the 12-15 range nearly all the time - despite loads of corrections, basal increases and cannula changes I couldn't get it to shift! If you're 10 or so for a few hours it really isn't going to make any difference to your health so don't panic about it. Next time I think your suggestion of eating a biscuit before you go in is a good one, even if it increases your BG briefly you know you are going to drop again so it won't hurt. And if it goes completely wrong and you are sky high afterwards well once isn't going to kill you!

Pleased to add that daughter is better now and her BGs are coming back down nicely now she's moving around again!
 
Interviews are difficult for everyone. The fact that you have had three is actually brilliant. Think of all those who did not get that far. I am sure that the right job will come along. Sounds like a morning interview would suit you best. I know it sounds easy but is not so, but try to stay focussed on the job and what is being said to you and put D to the back of your mind. I have interviewed a lot of people in my work. What many candidates do not realise is that the employer has to look at the team as a whole and how the interviewee will fit in with those already in post. Sometimes although a person is good you know that they will not fit in. I remember interviewing a lady with a PhD for an assistant post for which she was grossly overqualified, I said this job will bore you very quickly. She replied I need a job please give me a chance. One of the best people I ever employed. You have to show that you are really keen if you want it. Keep your chin up, you will get there. Good luck 🙂
 
Thanks all, I'm going to try an oat biscuit experiment to see if that works for me. I'm more used to interviewing that being interviewed I suppose, I've been the interviewing manger in hundreds of interviews so you'd think I'd know all the tricks by now. The one good thing is it does mean I'm fairly philosophical about it knowing that most of the time all applicants are good when interviewed it's just that certain something that makes them stand out.

I'm actually considering going back into recruitment after this experience because some folk need a helping hand with their person specs, one of them had 35 items on it and even I was bored by myself there was so much duplication 😱
 
I'd just allow my glucose to be higher than usual for the whole day.

Not too high mind! Gibbering hypers are just as bad as can't~stringa~sentence~together hypos. I know you'll find a way - you have a knack, methinks.🙄😛 Good luck.🙂
 
Well in some ways he's right actually - when you can do the job better than your manager and you know it, it's really hard to keep your lip zipped, and that leads to frustration which plays havoc with my BG.

I was once asked the 'in' question (these things go in phases in every industry) at 'second' interview by the director of the department I was applying for. I answered it - correctly LOL - but then asked him to tell ME honestly how many times he'd actually come across that hypothetical situation in his career? he did answer me the 'right' answer - ie 'Never - but hypothetically I spose it COULD happen one day to somebody' and we both had a good laugh - and then both realised the lady who was to be my Manager was absolutely fuming under her clip-on grin by the two of us being pally-pally (well he and I had been in the same business for 30 years, and both knew each other socially anyway - but just never worked together before)


Ooops.

Interviews are dead tricky, you're right!
 
I think job stress and interview stress are quite different animals, so may affect you differently e.g. in how your stress hormones react, and whether you are consequently high or low during one. Personally, I tend to go higher, but as others have suggested, if you tend to go low then it's probably better to prop yourself up a bit with some extra carb - the odd high won't harm you, nor will it affect your brain function to anywhere near the same degree. How about having a sugary soft drink available rather than the usual tea or coffee they offer? That way you could take a sip without any indication that you are actually treating any hypo symptoms? 🙂

Good luck with future interviews! 🙂
 
trophywench said:
Well in some ways he's right actually - when you can do the job better than your manager and you know it, it's really hard to keep your lip zipped, and that leads to frustration which plays havoc with my BG.

I was once asked the 'in' question (these things go in phases in every industry) at 'second' interview by the director of the department I was applying for. I answered it - correctly LOL - but then asked him to tell ME honestly how many times he'd actually come across that hypothetical situation in his career? he did answer me the 'right' answer - ie 'Never - but hypothetically I spose it COULD happen one day to somebody' and we both had a good laugh - and then both realised the lady who was to be my Manager was absolutely fuming under her clip-on grin by the two of us being pally-pally (well he and I had been in the same business for 30 years, and both knew each other socially anyway - but just never worked together before)


Ooops.

Interviews are dead tricky, you're right!
Click to expand...

Yes I'm fairly sure I put the nail in my own coffin when I told him I thought he was wrong in his assumption that most software projects fail because they underestimate the cost, but it was either disagree or say "erm ok" 😱 I'd have been his basic nightmare I reckon so onward and upward :D
 
Northerner said:
I think job stress and interview stress are quite different animals, so may affect you differently e.g. in how your stress hormones react, and whether you are consequently high or low during one. Personally, I tend to go higher, but as others have suggested, if you tend to go low then it's probably better to prop yourself up a bit with some extra carb - the odd high won't harm you, nor will it affect your brain function to anywhere near the same degree. How about having a sugary soft drink available rather than the usual tea or coffee they offer? That way you could take a sip without any indication that you are actually treating any hypo symptoms? 🙂

Good luck with future interviews! 🙂
Click to expand...

What a fabulous idea, I'll give that a try, plus I like the idea of a stealth hypo guard....the under cover diabetic, sounds like a good name for a series, or perhaps a blog for all us unemployed folk. My first post will be challenging the usefulness of a 35 point person specification that mentions time management five times 🙂
 
KookyCat said:
Yes I'm fairly sure I put the nail in my own coffin when I told him I thought he was wrong in his assumption that most software projects fail because they underestimate the cost, but it was either disagree or say "erm ok" 😱 I'd have been his basic nightmare I reckon so onward and upward :D
Click to expand...

I would have agreed with you KC! 🙂
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top