Interviewing Is Hard!
2006-12-07 12:02 - General
As I mentioned back when it happened, I was laid off and have since been more or less unemployed. I had some, consulting I guess is the best descriptor, work in here, but despite my early hopes, it didn't turn out to be something long term. Early/mid November I realized I just had to find myself a "real job". Good timing, cause that happened to be just about when the money behind that consulting gig dried up.
I was rather lucky to end up in both a very populous, job dense, city as well as a very strong job market for my line of work. It's pretty safe to say right now it's an employee's game. For the first time, when I posted my resume on Monster, I didn't just send it to apply, but was actually contacted by interested companies directly.
So, over the course of just over three weeks now, I've been in contact with CityRealty.com, Ehire, MTV, Yamaha Music, Club Mom, Flying Point Media, and Quigo. Those are the leads that I didn't or barely pursued. I met and interviewed in person with Money Media, Modern Consumer, Zotero, and OnForce. I also applied for one listing that turned out to be a placement agency, who got me interviews with ExpoTV, Takkle and Miva. I also, just yesterday, interviewed with the New York Times.
The exciting bit is that I got a job offer from Miva, and rather expect to get one from the Times. I fear it will be a tough decision between them.
The interview at the Times was, put simply, grueling. I arrived around 1PM and didn't leave till around 5:30PM. I met quite a few people, and had a couple waits in between meetings. One ended up being rather long, and I came dangerously close to falling asleep, as I sat in the relatively comfortable chair in the lobby for around 20 minutes.
As I was struggling to remain conscious, I recalled a blog post I read a while back, about introverts becoming extroverts. One of the main points made there, largely in the comments, is how much effort it takes to be social and extroverted for some people. Comments commonly expressed that when an introvert stretches their social muscles, they "find it exhausting" or they "perform very well with the socialization, but it really is exhausting."
Yep. I knew it as soon as that thought wandered back across my mind. The process of interviewing for a job is a smaller scale, in number of people, than a party for example, but the level of interaction is all centered on you. For an introvert like me, it's extremely taxing to smile and be friendly, to constantly dredge up all that small talk when meeting person after person. I also found explaining the same general details of my experiences day after day, people like to ask the same questions about the same topics overall, to be a real trial. Even worse in a situation like yesterday, basically running six interviews back to back, and still telling each person most of the same stuff.
Thank goodness this search lasted weeks instead of months!
