It's been three months and twelve days and I sent out 49 resumes. I know that doesn't sound like a lot considering it is 100 days...but I am being selective on where I apply....if I get a call, I want to be sure I like what the job entails. Interview #3 (not counting the two informative ones) makes it 16% rate of call back. I need to get that number up a little bit.
I received an email stating that a company wanted me to come in for an interview in two days, here is the time slot, please respond back with what hour would be best. I was a little surprised that I got an email and not a phone call...but I pushed that aside and responded with my preferred time frame.
The following day I did some research on the company, made a few new index cards with questions and reread the job description over and over again. Honestly, this job wasn't one of my favorites....which is why I am selective. But after I kept reading and thinking about it, the company might not be my favorite, but the job itself would be good for me.
We had this polar vortex and snow, so on the day of the interview, I kept hoping the interview would be rescheduled. It was not. Originally I planed to wear a skirt suit, but decided that wouldn't be good, I was not sure how far I'd have to walk to the office since it was downtown. Thankfully I purchased a pant suit at the thrift store two weeks earlier and dug out my winter coat that I had my parents ship to me. Still it was an interview, I felt high heels were still required, but I guess I could have gotten away with dressy black boots under the pants, as long as there was a heel.
I am not used to driving in the snow, so I left 2 hours early to go 12 miles. The roads were not great, but they were not horrendous either. A lot of people were out and about. I find street parking at a 2 hour meter, pay for an hour and get back in my freezing car for an hour and reviewed my index cards. I'll be honest, I did not prepare as long as I would have liked for this interview, but I knew my basic examples and responses. After the hour, I put in two hours worth of quarters and headed for the building. I still had 30 minutes, but I needed to pee. I found a bathroom then took a seat in the lobby.
I headed up to the office and met with my interviewer, the second interviewer was unable to attend. She briefly told me about the history of the organization and her position and the position for which I was there. Then she went through pre-made 10 questions about how I do work. I had to respond with my answer and then provide an example. For the most part, I didn't hesitate. But there was one question that I really needed to think and eventually came up with something.
But it got me thinking...in my work career, let's span that to about 15 years, how I am supposed to recall something that was so long ago? The example from above was from 5 years ago - but I couldn't remember all the details. So what, not only do I need to track my work for what will be put on a resume, but I will have to start to write down projects, work, and examples of all things in between. And with each job being a little different, we are talking about having a pretty big range of scenarios and examples.
So after her 10 questions, it was my turn to ask questions. I opened my portfolio where I had my questions written and selected a handful that was not yet answered. We then had a bit of a conversation with other questions and information and my turn to tell her something about me that we didn't discuss. That threw me off...so I stated something about my work that was in the job description but that we did not answer. Then when I thought about that, we really didn't touch upon any of the job description duties. Those ten questions were more general - missing deadlines, prioritizing work, taking initiative, etc.; they were relatively easy and straightforward.
At the end she told me about her process and her need to work fast. She was finishing up the interviews this week and would have an answer by Friday who would make it to round two where we would discuss the duties of the job. I thanked her for her time and 58 minutes later I was walking out of the office; fairly confident I'd at least make it to round two.
When I got back to my temporary home, I shoveled the snow again, ate an early dinner and started to work on my thank you. But I wasn't loving it, so I didn't send it until the next morning after I tweaked it some more. I figured it was still within 24 hours, hopefully that would be OK.
Update: I was not called for round two of interview process, but the lady did email a nice email stating that she could tell I was smart and efficient and since I was new, if I needed a reference she would be happy to do that for me, but she went for someone who had more experience (even though she had low expectations for the job!). She also gave me a lead to look into, which I thought was very nice of her.
No comments:
Post a Comment