I need to keep up with interviews for practice because it can be so easy to slip out of the relaxed state that attending many interviews can give you. Call it "Interview Nirvana". Time away from interviews is one step further from "nirvana".

Wohoo! One interview down, how many more to go? (update as of 12th May 1998)

Well I have had the interview. Thank goodness it is finally over! I did not really get too stressed about it beforehand which sort of surprises me in retrospect. I was quite calm in the actual interview and I think I answered most (if not all) of the questions satisfactorily. There was much nodding of heads, smiling, grinning and scribbling of notes which I took as a good sign.

I was first at the interviews because I got there dead on 10 a.m. and one member of the interview panel had not arrived yet so I had to wait a few minutes outside the room. There were three on the panel (as opposed to the four stated in the letter). The operations manager looked very young which surprised me but also gave me confidence because age is one of the issues I thought I might be held back on. I mean if they can have him as an Operations Manager (and he only looked in his mid to late twenties I guess) then they can have me in a lower position. They were all very nice but I started getting the impression that one of the Directorate Managers did not like me...only to realise a short while after that his blank expression and low rumbling voice were in fact just who he is rather than how he feels.

I don't know whether to feel confident or not. As usual in an interview I did not get the chance to say half the stuff I wanted to say but I was pleased with how it went. My concerns are that it is very likely they have an internal applicant (and we all know that internal applicants will be favoured if they are at least moderately suitable for the position), that I could have come across as more assertive, that I don't really want the job subconsciously but that I am just doing it to get out of where I am now and also that if I was given the job how hard it would be to fit into the office as a manager from outside and have the staff accept me in that position. I am supposing that these are real concerns that most people would have and it would be nice if I knew soon so that I could either dismiss these concerns (if I don't get the job) or start thinking about how I am going to deal with them (if I do get the job).

I am just waiting now....but be sure I will let you know in here (or in the "Knockback" section) what the outcome is.

I'm going to get this one! (update as of 2nd May 1998)

"Dear Mr. Hull,

Thank you for your application for the above post (Business Support Team Manager). I am pleased to be able to inform you that you have been shortlisted for interview. The interview will be held on Monday 11th May 1998 at 10.00 am..........."

I am feeling very conifdent about this job. The application arrived at its destination a day late because of the Royal Mail strikes in my area so I had resigned myself to the fact that it probably would not even be considered. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to receive this letter today! The job is an amalgam of lots of jobs I have previously done so I know I can do it....and do it well. All I have to do now is push myself forward at the interview and let them know I am the right person for the job. Of course you realise that if I get this job, then it negates the need for this website! What will I put here? Hmmmm.....

Sometime back in February.....

February was a wild interview month! I signed up with an employment agency in London called "Brook Street Recruitment". I am sure they have a website somewhere if you are bored enough to look one day. I had intended to sign up with a few agencies but on the strength of the the hassle I had with just the one I am glad I didn't.

I took some tests at the agency to assess my keyboard skills. My scores were as follows:

Excel 5 - 100% (God I am good! hehe)

Word 6.0 - 86% (damn that stupid test! I messed up trying to fit a frame around a paragraph. I could have worked it out properly but hey in this test you only get ONE chance to get it right....so I was not too disappointed with this score. Especially as I had never used Word 6.0 before in my life. Hehe....but I didn't tell the agency that!)

Data Entry (numerical) - "Good" (wohoo! After the brief practice tutorial I launched into this with a passion and rattled off numbers like there was no tomorrow. God I love that little square keypad on the right hand side of a keyboard. I just have this affinity with it and....well......ok I will shut up now <g>)

Data Entry (alphanumerical) - "Crap" (I am not kidding....I was furious about this one. I rattled off over 25 datasets and I only knowingly made a few mistakes but the damn thing must have been rigged because it gave me some ridiculous score of about 30% correct entries. The only thing I can think of is that I should have been keying in the data in capital letters and the 30% I got right was the numerical entries....but the instructions said to copy the text "exactly" and the text was NOT all in capitals. Stuff them....I never wanted a crumby data entry job anyway!)

Yeah right......

So there you have it. After a couple of weeks waiting and two phone calls they finally contacted me with an interview date for somewhere. The job did not sound too hot but I was desperate. I swear I'd have given a toilet cleaning job a try. The interview was with "Beanstalk Ltd." or something....anyway they do the licencing for Coca-Cola in Britain and Europe. The interview went well and the lovely Malvinder at the agency informed me that they said I "came across well in interview". Give me some credit! How many times do they think I have heard that after being knocked back after interview? Sheesh.

Party of Five....

There were a couple more interviews within two weeks of one another and in between all this I had an interview with the Imperial College of Science and Medicine in London. It was a statistics job based around a research project known as ASCOT (Anglo Scandinavian ...err...Cardiovascular....err....something or other). What the research project is about is not really important now. The fact is, I didn't get the job. The interview was the shortest I have ever had. It lasted all of about ten to fifteen minutes and all they did was tell me about the job (each person in a panel of FIVE!!!!!!) and then ask when I was available to work and if I had any questions. I was so stumped because they did not ask the "usual questions" such as "What are your strengths and weaknesses?", that I froze and could not think of a single thing! We shook hands and I left knowing as soon as I stepped out of the door that I had not got it. Damn! When I look back though I think the job would have been very isolated with not much contact other than via a phoneline or with a very small group of people. The money was nice, the offices were nice and the people were....the job was not all it was cracked up to be. Can't have the best of both worlds I suppose!

Well now you are suitable bored to death I will finish. When I have another interview you can be sure I will post a big flashy sign telling you all so that you can check back here to see how it went!

Website created by Rich Hull, 1998.