New Kid on the Hallway

My week of three interviews

Interview 1

OMGOMGOMG, I really really really REALLY want this job.

Ahem. So.

I can't really tell how it went. There's nothing I can think of that I wish I had answered differently (thankfully, there were no killer hypos involved). So they got a decent representation of me, and if I don't get the job, it's probably because I'm genuinely not a good fit, or other candidates are just better. However, I was a little out of practice interviewing, and I was nervous because I REALLY want this job. Hence, at least in the first (and most important?) part of the interview, I "um"-ed was wordier than I'd like.

I got some very positive reactions from some people (e.g. one guy called my writing "fantastic" - wish I could have recorded that for future reference!). But I've been doing this too long to read anything into that - nothing means anything until you get an offer. (Thank you, Ask A Manager, particularly posts like this - I mean, I knew this, but it's always helpful to see someone spell it out.) I may be a good candidate - but so are lots and lots and lots of other people. 

On the flip side, other interviewers were stone-faced or skeptical in tone - but I can't read much into that, either. The stone-faced ones were stone-faced from the start, but since no one made them interview me, I figure that has to be an approach to interviewing, rather than an assessment. And I think the skeptical/challenging one just wanted to see how I would handle it. (I actualy enjoyed those questions.)

So, I just have to wait and see. But I reeeeeeeeeeaallllly want this job...*

Interview 2

This, for the position I least want, went probably the best. It was one-on-one, but the interviewer was fairly intense, so I was able to maintain a good energy. (I usually interview better before a panel than one-on-one because there's more energy in the room; one of the worst interviews I've done was one-on-one with a woman who'd traveled literally 24 hours to get there, arrived about an hour before the interview, and couldn't ditch because no one else on the committee was able to even get there. The interviewer was perfectly nice but wow, the room was dead.) I was back in interview mode, and at some points it felt more like a conversation than an interview. (The interviewer was clearly listening really carefully and was really good at follow-up questions, which I appreciated. Interviewing is definitely a skill!)

But again, that doesn't guarantee anything. And this is the position I least want - although I think I'd be pretty good at it.**

Interview 3

Really not sure how this one went, in part because I think the position isn't quite as good a fit for me,*** and in part because the interviewers were fairly low-energy and following a canned script. The job goes in a different direction than what I really want to do, and I think that came through. I also got some "how have you handled situation x?" questions that I didn't have a lot of direct experience with (like, a question about handling poor supervisors. Well, I haven't been in a legal job long enough to have to deal with bad supervisors - the jobs end before anything is an issue. And in academia, you don't really HAVE supervisors). So I answered those questions the best I could, but felt like I was spouting cliches a bit.

* * * * *

Anyway. At least they're done, so now I can think about something else (until it's time to worry about hearing back from them, but I have a few weeks on that). It was kind of a whirlwind experience, entailing 12 hours out of 36 on a plane, plus more time on public transport - tiring, but also fun.

You know, though, I worry a little about what my attachment to job applications: they're semi-addicting because they provide an external measure of self-worth. You apply (which is at least a measurable accomplishment - a task completed). Then, if you get an interview, that's another achievement collected. When you interview, everyone is focused on you and nothing but you, and you spend a lot of time talking about yourself (and how amazing you are). Finally, if you get the job, that's another affirmation of your wonderfulness. I worry that collecting job offers is, in some ways, more exciting than actually doing the job I get - and I don't want to tie up my self-worth in getting other people's (employers') approval, rather than in my own assessment of whether I'm growing, learning, and doing a good job. Mind you, clerking - while wonderful - doesn't really give you anywhere to go; you do the same thing over and over again, and the job is by definition short-term. So it's hard not to focus on the next thing rather than what's in front of you. I look forward to having a permanent job, where I can formulate longer-term goals beyond "get another job."**** 

* Really really really amazingly cool work that's hard to break into. The people all seemed really great and I loved the atmosphere. I know this is secondary, but I loved the building and its immediate location in the city. The city itself has pluses and minuses - a good part of the year, the weather sucks rocks. But when the weather doesn't suck rocks, it's amazing.  LDH loves the area. And the cost of living is low - everyone kept pointing out that you could have a decent life there on the salary. Plus, it's a permanent job.

** It's less desirable mostly because in some ways it's very similar to experience I already have (although this is why I think I'd do it well), and because it's temporary, and doesn't lead as directly into a permanent job as the other temporary job. Also, the location is kind of a wildcard.

*** It would be kind of taking a different direction - which could be really really interesting, I might love it - who knows? But I'm a bit hesitant, though it would probably be great experience. It's technically a term position, but it sounds like if they like you, they expect to hire you permanently. The city is amazing in many ways - a great place for legal work, lots and lots and LOTS of things going on. Also closer to my family. But way more expensive and congested, and its own share of crappy weather. And, though this shouldn't matter, the building where I would work was fairly drab. 

**** And I just found out I have a phone interview with another place. Wheee!

Weekend update

I don't buy the idea that people from the east coast are brasher, ruder, more arrogant than people from other parts of the country. (I think it's just different communication styles/expectations.) But if it were true that east coast people are more arrogant than west coast people, I'd be tempted to blame the landscape.

Saturday I drove to the northern part of my state for a fiber festival (hey, I'm a yarn geek). Towards the end of the drive, you wind through some mountain passes, following the bends of a river, and then start climbing up and up. Then you come to the top of the peak, and a vast green plain opens up before you. It's ringed with mountains - and I mean, mountains; there are, ostensibly, mountains where I went to college, for instance, but these look completely different. And dividing the plain is a huge crack in the earth, a jagged brown gorge ripping through the green. 

I felt very, very small. Not in a bad way. But small. 

The northeast is beautiful, and grand, but on a more human scale. And in the built-up cities, what towers above you is an artificial landscape made by humans. 

The west just seems to put you in a completely different relation to the universe.

* * * * 

The fiber festival was fun - it's always neat to be surrounded by beautiful yarn, and fleeces, and wool and leather products. There were alpaca, and fluffy angora bunnies who looked used to being waited on hand and foot. It's also a highly feminized space, without being about beauty or fashion or other things relating to one's looks. (I was going to say "or shopping," but at least it's shopping for the raw materials from which to make things. It's consumerism, but consumerism that facilitates beautiful craftwork. Or even half-assed and not very attractive craftwork, but still something productive. Well, okay, most knitters I know have ridiculous stashes of yarn, but still, the potential for production is there.) Also, there are a lot of older women. Really, it's very different from the average media portrayal of women, which is quite lovely.

* * * *

The town is beautiful - historic, artistic, physically gorgeous. But it was a little jarring to drive through some very impoverished parts of the state, including lots of Indian country, passing lots of little beat-up towns with rickety mobile homes - and then land in this middle of this highly touristic, precious little town filled with wealthy older white people. I mean, I'm white, and in the grand scheme of the world, I'm not badly off, and soon enough I will be one of these people. I'm not saying they're bad people. Just that it was jarring. 

* * * * 

The trip left me a little torn, actually. One way of looking at it is: I drove 5 hours to spend 3 hours looking at things to buy, and I spent $30 on a (large) skein of yarn, when I could have driven 10 minutes to the yarn store nearby and bought the same amount of yarn for probably less money.

Of course, the other way of looking at it is: I got to see quite a bit more of this state, I did something with my weekend besides sit and stare at the TV or the computer or both, I mingled with other people who love the same hobby that I do, and I commemorated the day with lovely yarn dyed by a local/regional dyer whose products aren't sold in your average yarn store. 

(It is awfully pretty yarn - see? Though LDH was like, "Oh, it's purple - I'm SHOCKED." I kind of have a thing for purple yarns.) 

* * * *
So, that was my adventure for the weekend. What about you? Did you do anything fun? 

 

Update, AKA insight into my personal neuroses

1. The wackadoodle shirt (i.e. the first one in the last post) is a truly beautiful shirt. I love it. But the colors don't work with my navy suit. (Still not sure it's interview-friendly, but now I don't have to decide.)

2. The third shirt in the post below sold out before I got one (but I ended up seeing it in the store in another size and it looks less nice in person, so that's fine).

3. The linked, fourth shirt is still en route (man, UPS is sloooowwwww. The first 2 shirts got here from England before that one's made it from Indiana).

4. I really, really, really like the second shirt with my navy suit, and think it looks interview-appropriately formal and tasteful (first, it's actually chiffon, so a more formal fabric, and second, most of it's hidden under the jacket. Which is good as I'm not wild about the sleeves, but would really only ever wear it under something, cause that's the way I roll). However,

5. I would prefer to wear gray shoes with the top, and I don't have any. And,

6. I took my fattest-weight black suit to be altered today because I can't decide between black and navy. So "goes with navy" tops might be right out, anyway.

7. What this really means is I'm assembling two entirely alternate universes of suits, tops, shoes, and bags. These universes keep expanding. (For one thing, I found out I'll be staying overnight, so that complicates things sartorially and luggagely.)

(8. I might have ordered a gray suit out of pure curiosity about whether it would work on me and perhaps provide an alternate to the black/navy dilemma. Shhhhh. Let's pretend this never happened. Until it shows up in my mailbox.)

9. For something ENTIRELY different: does anyone have any suggestions for stretches etc. that would help a tight knee? I started running more (that is, more than not at all), but on Sunday my right knee started feeling tight and today it was worse. It really doesn't hurt - it just literally feels tight, kind of like it's just a little out of alignment and something's pulling on it - almost torquing it like twisting a rubber band. It still doesn't hurt, but feels like if I keep running on it it will pop, or the rubber band will snap? Or at least it will lock up? I can't even really identify where this feeling is, to work on it - maybe just above my knee in the front, and stretching my quad seems to help more than stretching my hamstring (which actually feels a wee bit hyperextended?). But for all I know it's transferred from somewhere else in my body, like my hip or ankle is the issue and my knee just the innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. Anyone have any ideas about this?

Okay. End of highly self-absorbed post! Someday I may actually address something other than myself here. But today is not that day.