Wednesday, October 05, 2005

gotta love those interviews

i can’t help it – i’m honest. i’m direct. you ask me a question, i’ll answer it. i try to be diplomatic, i really do. i try to know the best thing to say, the words to use, the phrases that will sound the most polished. but I can’t really sustain that. i don’t hide who i really am very well. i used to be great at it. but i can’t do it any more.

so… i’m sitting in interview #2, and there’s a human resources woman, and really smart guy asking lots of challenging questions. i happen to be enjoying the interview, cuz i can tell the guy is really trying to figure out if i’m a fit for the firm. if you’re going to expend that much effort on me, i’m going to be very responsive… so yeah… i accidentally mention the 4 years i was out of school before coming to law school. it’s not like i’m ashamed of that time – it’s actually what brought me to school… but there’s just a lot in there that’s hard to explain to a person who doesn’t live by faith.

so i’m like yeah, i’m working in the inner city, my funding source fell thru and i left.
(they’re thinking, was she fired? was she the only one let go? is that the real story?)

and then… i went out to Colorado just for fun to work at a camp because working with inner-city kids was so stressful and i needed a break.
(stress… she thinks the inner-city is stressful! wait till she works in litigation! will she be able to handle the stress of being an attorney?)

so i ended up in law because i wanted to help fix the systems that are broken, and use my mind to do it… i wasn’t using my intelligence, i wanted to use my mind
(she’s thinking – did you just say i’m dumb? you were doing social work, i’m a social worker, so now i’m dumb)

so i leave that interview feeling both good and bad. good because i actually enjoyed talking with these people, and being challenged to explain who i am. bad because i said some really dumb things and think there's no way i'm getting a call-back - chalk that one up to experience.

but today i had my second interview with the firm, so i must not have made as bad an impression as i thought i did!

and as a side note - i'm so happy to finally be doing something with my life where my personality, passions, strengths, and propensities are viewed as desirable. i know that i'm blessed, because not everyone finds their place like that.

No comments: