I had a job interview yesterday with a company in the private sector, for what seems to be a fairly decent job. It was my first interview in the private sector - I have a ton of interview experience, but it has all been with principals and restaurant managers. I was a little nervous. Six years of teaching + no new clothes = I had better go shopping. I bought a beautiful tan jacket to go with a pair of chocolate brown pants, matching pumps and shell that I already had. I was going to be looking and feeling great!
I went to get ready for the interview, pulled on the beautiful chocolate-brown pants, and the zipper was ripped from top to bottom. My undies were peeking out from either side. Oh boy. I have another pair of brown pants, with ugly copper threads running through them. They are old and worn and 2 sizes too small, but I didn't know what else to do. I squeezed into them and prayed they would stretch out at least enough so that I could breathe.
I finished getting ready right on time. My hair was perfectly coifed, nails trimmed and neat, mascara expertly applied, and with the exception of the pants, I was feeling pretty good. I left the house with my purse, portfolio, keys, and diet coke. I got to the building 5 minutes early for my interview. Perfect. I grabbed my purse and portfolio and reached for my jacket. No jacket.
NO. JACKET.
I can't go in there wearing my spaghetti strap shell, especially since it is holding in a sizable bulge from my pants being too tight.
I panicked for a minute but got it under control. There was a Wal-Mart 3 minutes away. On the drive, I left a message for the interviewer telling him what happened, that I hoped to be back in ten minutes or so, and that I hoped he would still see me. I called my sister and sobbed for a minute and got some reassurance that the world wasn't going to end. I ran into the store, saw a dark brown button-down shirt, yanked it off the hanger and put it on, ripped off the price tag, and RAN to the cashier. She looked at me a little funny, but she rang me up quickly. I RAN back to the car (let's not forget it is 108 degrees outside) and drove back to the building. I was 15 minutes late, but then I couldn't find the suite. A kind gentleman gave me directions, and so all together I was 20 minutes late.
I burst in the door and announced myself. The receptionist gave me a tight, curly smile and said the interviewer had been out a few times to ask for me. Then, the interviewer came around the corner. I can't imagine what I looked like. I had cried off my make-up, and I had been running around in the heat for 20 minutes. I was wearing old, worn-out, too-tight pants and a Wal-mart shirt. Wow. Just.... wow.
The receptionist gave me some paperwork to fill out and offered to get me some cold water. I thanked her, took a fist-full of kleenex off the counter, and sat down to fill out the forms. Sweat was quite literally dripping onto my shirt, my glasses, and the application. I did the best I could to mop it up with the kleenex and tried to slow my breathing. I think the interviewer gave me a couple of extra minutes to compose myself before he called me into his office. I calmed down and finally cooled off, and he started the interview.
He had my resume in front of him and had clearly studied it. His questions were well-thought out and specific to my situation. I've never been good at putting on a show, and when someone asks me a question, I tend to just answer it. This aspect of my personality plus my ability to make sentences out of fancy words makes me a decent interviewee, I think. The guy asked me questions for a good 45 minutes. Some of them were hard questions that really made me think. I had answers for all of them, and he seemed satisfied, so that part was ok.
The next part of the interview was with a panel of 5 people. Two of them were in the position for which I am applying. Then there were some regional managers and I don't know who else. Two people were there in the room with me, and three people were on conference call. Thankfully, the conference room was cool enough to be somewhat chilly after sitting in there for a while. All five people had my resume and the list of questions they wanted to ask. All five had clearly studied the resume. It was shocking. That part of the interview took a full hour. It was absolutely grueling. By the end of the hour, the two people in the room with me had filled up their papers with little scribbles, which is always a good sign. When we were finished, one of them walked me to the lobby and said the main guy wanted to speak with me again.
I waited for a few minutes and the main guy came out to get me. We went back to his office and he asked a couple more questions about restrictions on the hours I work, how I felt about coming in early, etc. He said that he thought I did well and that the team liked me. He had some more candidates to "get through" (his words) and then all the candidates would be ranked, and based on the scores, some would be invited back for a second interview.
I think the interview went well enough to make up for the lateness, and one of my sisters said it was good that I showed up sweaty and panicked because it meant I really did have an emergency. I guess we'll see. Hopefully I will get a call next week and go in for a second interview, because I have a dynamite jacket to wear.
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