Oh look - might that be a job for me?
So, it happened again - I got called in for an interview. This Monday, I might get that new work that I so feverishly want. The funny thing is that each time this happens, I get the jitters - even when I?ve tried it maybe 10 times by now. I get excited, blabber-mouthed (yes, more than I am usually) and begin thinking of what to say at the interview.
You?d think that a 28-year-old would be able to just go in and take it as just another conversation? but you know what? It?s too important for me to take as just another conversation. I know, I?m supposed to be cool and relaxed - but I just know, I?ll end up sweating, having shaking fingers and spill half of my coffee on the tray when I?m served.
Of course, it isn?t as bad as the first interview I went to - and then again, it is - just in another way. The first time, I had the job before going in - I even had enough peace of mind to crack jokes just from knowing this - and just avoid the served coffee all-toghether. Still, I sweated like a little pig in the oven, had uncontrollable shakes and such.
The problem now, is that I know too much about what happens at a job-interview - I?ve held a few myself by now and been to maybe 10 of them. I know what they are looking for, I know the top-10 things, I shouldn?t say - and I have a fairly good idea about how, I can land this job. The problem is that if I do that - I?ll have sold my soul. If I went in there lying as fast as a horse can run, I?d land the job in no-time at all.
And then I?d have landed myself in that problem with the bent stick that turned out to be a boomerang after I threw it. I?d have to keep the job long enough for the lies to be forgotten, before I was able to do my job properly. By that time, I?d probably have bent myself out of shape, become miserable and be on the lookout for a new job.
No, the problem is being myself and still avoiding the pit-falls. There will be versions of the truth involved that can barely hold water with me angling what I say just enough for insinuations to take hold convincing them that I?m the right guy for the job even if I?m missing a few of the criteria they have. I have to be persuading yet not manipulating - be sincere without being totally honest.
And they say ?Just relax, this is just another nice conversations between gentlemen??. ?Bah, humbug,? I say - I?ll be there analyzing everything I say and do, over-enterpreteting everything they say - and soiling myself in coffee? cross your fingers out there - the gobbo is about to land a job!