The second interview lasted two hours. Originally, I was a little nervous because I had to fill out an application (it seemed my resume wasn't enough), and the receptionist wasn't very friendly.
If you're a receptionist, shouldn't one of your goals be to make people at ease? The receptionist at my first interview asked if I would like anything to drink with a wide smile. I instantly relaxed, which helped me relax and ace the first interview. This one pushed paper at me and said, "Fill this out, read this, and give it back." That just screams happy. My response was to flush bright red (I don't know if I actually did this to the point that they noticed, but my face was hot), so the potential interviewer could've read into it that I'm a boozer. After all, it was late afternoon.
I started to panic just a bit more when the guy started zeroing in on my college days. What was my hardest psychology course? What was my GPA? Was I involved in any psychology clubs? What did I do as a teenager? Seriously? I looked at him, blinked and said, "Most of the teenagers I knew and know go to the mall." It's like a rite of passage. That's where you cruise since you can't drive. Don't shy away, I know you know what I'm talking about.
The rest of my questions, and his, were more on-target (how do you keep your workers safe? and how thick is your skin and how much experience do you have dealing with difficult people? ha, I say to this), and I even took away some maps of the city to help with my housing search. I think both interviews went well, though I was infinitely more nervous about this one. I hope to hear back tomorrow about the next step in the interview process.
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
I'm in Bloomington, Baby
Bloomington, Minnesota? No. Bloomington, Illinois? Close. I drove through there, but a little further east. Bloomington, Indiana? That'd be the one.
I arrived last night after a 7.5 hour journey in the car. Instead of following Google maps to the letter, I detoured so I didn't have to drive all the way to Indianapolis, and I went through some little towns that ordinarily would've been nice stopping points, but I just wanted to unpack and get a little settled, so having Ma & Pa Slowmyazzdownonthetwolaneroad was a slight annoyance. The night before I left, anxiety struck big-time. Here I was, loading up my car for the third time, to go to another city another 7.5 hours away, with not much of a plan for what I do after the interiews. This is where I'm hopefully going to land permanently, but until that time comes, I'm just another nomad in another city. This time, I am staying in a beautiful apartment while the owner is on vacation. The apartment is nice, but the door to the outside world is a bit on the thin side. You can hear everything in the hallway. And last night, as I tried to sleep, I kept hearing someone's car alarm, and I'd wake up and wonder if it was my car being broken into (nevermind that I don't have an alarm that sounds like the one I heard). I tried to find an iron so I could pertty-up my suit, but all I found was wrinkle-releaser, and these creases were too big for that. I figured I needed a new iron anyway, so I ran to Target to get one, and picked up milk as well.
I got to my first interview today about five minutes early, and it is in a prime location - downtown a block or so off the square. If you have a thriving downtown, then you know how fun it can be to actually be downtown (KC's getting there, slowly). And I left my nerves at the door, answered all the questions truthfully, talked about this and that - it felt like the administrator and I were old friends. But I'm overqualified for the position, so there's a greater than likely chance that I won't get it. I'm the first one interviewed, and Administrator isn't sure what the next step is in the hiring process. This is what I'd really have fun doing: being the one-woman HR. It really is perfect. Other than being overqualified, the company looks really good to me - it's a small place with less than 30 employees. Coming from a job where there were over 2000 of us, I kinda like the idea of smaller. But with smaller companies comes smaller benefits, or at least that's true in this case. Employee-sponsored health plan. 401k after 6 months, and it takes 5 years to be 100% vested that the company puts in your plan. 1 week of sick time, 1 week of vacation, and 1 day of personal time, which is pretty good to me. I don't need a lot. Salary is much less than in KC, but again, I expected this, so it was not a shock. But when Administrator looked at me and said, "This may not be as challenging for you as your last position, so I'm not sure if this would be a good fit for you," I pretty much figured game over, back to square one.
And now I'm preparing for interview number two. This one I am completely unqualified for. Isn't that nice, to have two opposite ends of the spectrum in the same day? When I say completely unqualified, I mean unpaid experience. The goal is to sell them on my unpaid experience so they pay me to get the experience. I'm up to the challenge, just as soon as I finish my soybeans.
I arrived last night after a 7.5 hour journey in the car. Instead of following Google maps to the letter, I detoured so I didn't have to drive all the way to Indianapolis, and I went through some little towns that ordinarily would've been nice stopping points, but I just wanted to unpack and get a little settled, so having Ma & Pa Slowmyazzdownonthetwolaneroad was a slight annoyance. The night before I left, anxiety struck big-time. Here I was, loading up my car for the third time, to go to another city another 7.5 hours away, with not much of a plan for what I do after the interiews. This is where I'm hopefully going to land permanently, but until that time comes, I'm just another nomad in another city. This time, I am staying in a beautiful apartment while the owner is on vacation. The apartment is nice, but the door to the outside world is a bit on the thin side. You can hear everything in the hallway. And last night, as I tried to sleep, I kept hearing someone's car alarm, and I'd wake up and wonder if it was my car being broken into (nevermind that I don't have an alarm that sounds like the one I heard). I tried to find an iron so I could pertty-up my suit, but all I found was wrinkle-releaser, and these creases were too big for that. I figured I needed a new iron anyway, so I ran to Target to get one, and picked up milk as well.
I got to my first interview today about five minutes early, and it is in a prime location - downtown a block or so off the square. If you have a thriving downtown, then you know how fun it can be to actually be downtown (KC's getting there, slowly). And I left my nerves at the door, answered all the questions truthfully, talked about this and that - it felt like the administrator and I were old friends. But I'm overqualified for the position, so there's a greater than likely chance that I won't get it. I'm the first one interviewed, and Administrator isn't sure what the next step is in the hiring process. This is what I'd really have fun doing: being the one-woman HR. It really is perfect. Other than being overqualified, the company looks really good to me - it's a small place with less than 30 employees. Coming from a job where there were over 2000 of us, I kinda like the idea of smaller. But with smaller companies comes smaller benefits, or at least that's true in this case. Employee-sponsored health plan. 401k after 6 months, and it takes 5 years to be 100% vested that the company puts in your plan. 1 week of sick time, 1 week of vacation, and 1 day of personal time, which is pretty good to me. I don't need a lot. Salary is much less than in KC, but again, I expected this, so it was not a shock. But when Administrator looked at me and said, "This may not be as challenging for you as your last position, so I'm not sure if this would be a good fit for you," I pretty much figured game over, back to square one.
And now I'm preparing for interview number two. This one I am completely unqualified for. Isn't that nice, to have two opposite ends of the spectrum in the same day? When I say completely unqualified, I mean unpaid experience. The goal is to sell them on my unpaid experience so they pay me to get the experience. I'm up to the challenge, just as soon as I finish my soybeans.
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