Job Interviews
Aug. 9th, 2006 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljpliceaseAs a rule, I hate job interviews. I often feel flustered and end up leaving thinking that I have given a pretty poor impression of my ability to communicate. My job interview with Sydney Uni's Faculty of Dentistry was a complete disaster, and it is still fresh in my mind, unfortunately. So it wasn't with relish that I woke up this morning with the prospect of an interview with my current indirect employer: Company 2. Right now I am a contractor, the primary disadvantage to this is no paid vacation or sick leave; there aren't any advantages that I can think of.
Yesterday I got one of those e-mail invites to a luncheon for "Rory" who is taking a year off to have a child. I knew of this person, but I didn't know her. Her year off was in fact part of the reason there is even a job for my to apply for. Since I didn't know her and I haven't been feeling especially social lately I let it sit in my inbox.
But back to this morning: For a lot of reasons I have been feeling like I didn't want this job. e.g.
So who knows what I was feeling when I walked into that room for the interview, but I am pretty sure I was past caring if I got the job or not.
To my surprise Rory was there (pregnant lady who is taking off for a year shortly), and she introduced herself and we started to chatting friendly like about things going on at Company 2. It was going pretty well when the department head came in and the interview started in earnest. Experience tells me that everything should have fallen apart here, given how I usually perform in interview situations, but hope won out this round because I feel I not only addressed all of their questions well, but I also addressed some of their unasked questions. They talked about the position and made sure that I understood that it isn't just a programming job, but also involved people skills. I don't have any people skills, but sometimes I can fake it.
I also went into detail about a highly positive experience I had at IBM doing technical legwork for lawyers between when I was on the GUI team and when I was on the Timing team. About how I enjoyed the change of assignment, where some programmers had grumbled, and that I had a good working relationship Tiffany (who is a great person, and I have to believe a great lawyer as well). I think part of what made it a powerful story is the fact that it is so true. In some ways that episode is no more than a footnote on my career, but I think I grew a lot in the way that I interact with people because of it.
After the interview I was looking through my e-mail again and I re-discovered the e-mail invitation to Rory's farewell luncheon. I clicked on "accept" because now I can't say that I only know of her. I guess I haven't completely killed off my aversion to being social. Damn it.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the interview went extraordinarily well to the point that I felt like for the first time ever I hadn't shot myself in the foot in a job interview, and that my poor interview skills for the first time wouldn't be the weak link in my overall application. For the first time, I felt if I don't get the job it is because there is someone out there who applied who is technically more qualified than myself, and I am pretty comfortable with that possibility.
Yesterday I got one of those e-mail invites to a luncheon for "Rory" who is taking a year off to have a child. I knew of this person, but I didn't know her. Her year off was in fact part of the reason there is even a job for my to apply for. Since I didn't know her and I haven't been feeling especially social lately I let it sit in my inbox.
But back to this morning: For a lot of reasons I have been feeling like I didn't want this job. e.g.
- I let someone talk me into applying for the "senior" permanent position which has opened up as apposed to the more technical one year appointment. I think this may have been a mistake because the last thing I feel like is anything resembling responsibility.
- Some days I like it at Company 2, the people seem pretty good-natured and the pace of work is reasonable. But there are irritants that continue to get to me. I hate the equipment that I've been given to work with and the way IT is handled at Company 2 (I'm not used to not having administrator privileges on computers that I work on). I realize that I was somewhat spoiled at IBM, and especially so at home, where I have spent more money than I care to admit on my computers, but I am comfortable with the way I've set them up and I am a hell of a lot more productive at home as a result.
So who knows what I was feeling when I walked into that room for the interview, but I am pretty sure I was past caring if I got the job or not.
To my surprise Rory was there (pregnant lady who is taking off for a year shortly), and she introduced herself and we started to chatting friendly like about things going on at Company 2. It was going pretty well when the department head came in and the interview started in earnest. Experience tells me that everything should have fallen apart here, given how I usually perform in interview situations, but hope won out this round because I feel I not only addressed all of their questions well, but I also addressed some of their unasked questions. They talked about the position and made sure that I understood that it isn't just a programming job, but also involved people skills. I don't have any people skills, but sometimes I can fake it.
I also went into detail about a highly positive experience I had at IBM doing technical legwork for lawyers between when I was on the GUI team and when I was on the Timing team. About how I enjoyed the change of assignment, where some programmers had grumbled, and that I had a good working relationship Tiffany (who is a great person, and I have to believe a great lawyer as well). I think part of what made it a powerful story is the fact that it is so true. In some ways that episode is no more than a footnote on my career, but I think I grew a lot in the way that I interact with people because of it.
After the interview I was looking through my e-mail again and I re-discovered the e-mail invitation to Rory's farewell luncheon. I clicked on "accept" because now I can't say that I only know of her. I guess I haven't completely killed off my aversion to being social. Damn it.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the interview went extraordinarily well to the point that I felt like for the first time ever I hadn't shot myself in the foot in a job interview, and that my poor interview skills for the first time wouldn't be the weak link in my overall application. For the first time, I felt if I don't get the job it is because there is someone out there who applied who is technically more qualified than myself, and I am pretty comfortable with that possibility.
