The Real Postgrad Life: Interviewing

It’s sometimes good to treat this blog as, well…a blog and write about my personal life as opposed to didactically crafting entries that come off as preachy when done in excess. So here goes nothing. Take what you will from it.

Some of you might know that I’ve been looking for another job. I’m sort of in transition. I’m freelancing to get by but I’m looking for something solid that allows room for growth, but this slumping economy is doing me no favors. Somebody call the waaaaambulance and save me from my own self-pity. Anyways, I’ve been scouring the interweb for job opportunities and have done my fair share of applying. The lack of callbacks has been disappointing so this whole process of getting a new job has been pretty darn depressing.

I finally got a positive response two days ago. In the span of eight hours, I had sent in my resume, got a email response asking for a writing sample, punched that out and was scheduled for an interview. Things were moving along quickly but I wasn’t too stoked because I’d done this dance before and it had led me to nothing.

I wasn’t really nervous heading into the interview. I was much more nervous going to my interview a couple months ago and even though I had interviewed well then and moved on to the second round of interviews, a spontaneous hiring freeze prevented me from getting hired. So I figured even if I interview well for this position, the likelihood that I’ll get hired is still pretty low. Not the most positive outlook but it helps me quickly move on, I guess. Maybe because things moved so quickly this time, I didn’t really feel settled in to the interview until I was sitting in the conference room in my crispy clean suit, filling out some paperwork and waiting for the interviewer to make her appearance.

From the moment she walked in, it was sink or swim. She sat down, handed me her business card and the interview officially started. We talked about my resume, why I feel qualified, what responsibilities come with the position I’m applying for, the history of the company and so forth. I thought it was going rather well. Every question she shot out, I had a response for. I couldn’t believe how smoothly it was going. As the interview was winding down and I was getting my things together, she stopped and asked one final question.

“What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

I froze in my tracks. My stomach knotted up. How could I have been so stupid to not have thought this question through? I stumbled through a strength and froze when I got to the weakness. It felt like such a loaded question. The only thing that came to mind was, “My weakness is that I care too much.” but that seemed too much like a punchline to a joke so thankfully, I didn’t say it. I really had nothing to say but I ended up saying something about how I always need to be proactive, even within my job, or else my motivation will decline over time. I know. Lame.

So we’ll see if I get this job or not. Even if I don’t, I personally learned a valuable interview lesson. Be better prepared. Or more confident in my ability to BS and especially work on my delivery.