How did the Interview Go?

As a job seeker, one of the questions I hate to get asked is, "How did the interview go?"  The only question I hate more is, "So, how's the job hunt going?"- but that's a story for another day.

I went on an interview yesterday!  Therefore, I've been hearing the dreaded question quite a bit.  The reason this drives me crazy is two-fold.  First of all, I must be a bad judge about interviews.  I've gotten jobs from interviews that I've only felt so-so about.  And I've had interviews that I felt really good about, but the job went to someone else.  Secondly, it's not for me to decide if the interview went well or not.  That's a decision for whomever is sitting on the other side of the table.

That being said, this is how the interview went (in summary)...

• They asked me to arrive 15 minutes early and I was exactly on the nose 15 minutes early.  Actually, I was more like 40 minutes early.  I sat in my car and read through all my notes before walking in the door exactly 15 minutes before the interview was supposed to start. 
• When I signed in at the front desk, I noticed that the person who had signed in before me had done so 2 weeks ago... and I recognized her name.  We went to school together at the Art Institute.  Is she my competition?  I start to panic because I know she's super nice and hard-working and good.  But then again- that was two weeks ago!  My mind is racing...  Calm down calm down calm down.
• I sit in the chairs by the front desk and wait and wait and wait.  The woman at the front desk can see me and I imagine that my interview has already started.  Those front desk people have a lot of power, you know.  I sit very quietly and smile when people pass and stare intently at the giant poster on the wall that gives a year-by-year synopsis of the company's successes.
• Finally!  I'm greeted by one of my interviewers and ushered into the conference room.  There are three people on the interview panel.  They introduce themselves and tell me the structure of the interview:  They talk about the job, I talk about my resume, they ask me questions.
• Their description of the job tells me that this is some place where the skills from my first career as a lab analyst may be appreciated!  That is not always the case.  I highlight my scientific and analytic skills and I get to talk about working with color.  I show my portfolio paying special attention to the color stories.
• Questions they asked- When did I disagree with a decision from a higher-up and how did I handle it?  An example of a time when I was called out on a work-realted problem and how did I handle it?  What process do I use to learn new tasks or take on new responsibilities?  What strength would I bring to the role?  For the first question in this list, I talked about a time very early on in my internship (as in the first week!) when I was asked to double-check someone's lab dip results and I disagreed with her analysis of one color.  She said the red was too dark compared to the color standard, but I found it to be a perfect match under every single light condition.  I  was very nervous about bringing it to her attention but she agreed with me, told me she didn't trust her eyes, and changed her results.  By the end of the internship, I was running lab dips without assistance.  One of my interviewers said, "That's a great example."
• At the end of the interview they gave me four diffeerent sets of embroidery samples.  Each set included three different samples with the same logo placed on the same colored fabric.  Each sample in the set had a different color scheme for the logo.  They asked me to go through each set and talk about my favorite and my decision process.  One of the sets was a pale yellow fabric.  The obvious "loser" from this set was embroidered with thread the color of baby poop.  I called it as I saw it and they laughed.
• I asked two questions, "I noticed that this organization is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the big giant parent company {Of course, I used the actual names of the companies when I asked the question.}  What does that mean in terms of culture or other differences?" and "Can you tell me how this job is evaluated and what is expected for this role in the first 30 days or 60 days?"  After I  asked the second question, the manager said, "That's a great question!"
• The interview ended exactly one hour after it started.  I was ushered out of the conference room.  When I was about halfway through the front door I remembered that I needed to sign out.  I turn around and walked up to the reception desk.  I said to the woman at the desk, "oh, I almost forgot to sign out!"  I look up to see if there's a clock but all I see is her grinning back at me with a look almost like, "Ha-ha!  They'll hear about this!  Gotcha!"  There was no clock so I had to ask her for the time.  Her silly grin greeted me in return.  She delayed the tiniest bit- just to torture me a little bit more, I'm sure- before looking at her computer and giving me the time.  I thanked her and left.

And now the crazy hair-pulling waiting process begins anew...

Lady Luck and the Job Search

A strange thing happened to me this week.  I got an interview.  For an entry-level job.  From a company that generally does not hire entry-level people.  A job I applied for the day before.
The job- a great job that I would be perfect for, that happens to come with a for-real actual salary and real-live benefits.

The company- a major player in the sportswear field where I have applied approximately 1,426,823 times before and never heard a single blip from. This time they replied mere hours after I hit that "submit" button on their Taleo site and scheduled the interview for the following day.

This turn of events is so strange and unnatural to me that I naturally came to the conclusion that some form of luck must be involved.

Luck has to be involved.  It just has to.  I have friends with fantastic jobs because their best friend worked at the company, or because they happened to intern at a company that was ready and willing to hire soon after the internship ended.  (One of the companies I interned with had a position come available, AND they were interested in hiring me... but... in the middle of the interview process it was announced that the company was moving out of state.)
Here's the rundown from a great article on The 8 Secrets of "Lucky" Job Seekers, and my analysis
1.  Truly believe you are a lucky person- I have not been thinking luck has been on my side, in fact quite the opposite.  But, as you know from my previous post, what I have been doing is working on believing in myself.  And I've taken steps to change my Debbie Downer mood:  I've been dressing the part, I've changed my weekly schedule for better organization (Friday is "blog day"), and I had lunch with my biggest networking supporter.  All of these things impacted my attitude in a positive way.
2.  The grass isn't greener on the other side- Oops.  I was doing this two paragraphs ago.  I enjoy supportive and loving family and friends, safe and comfortable shelter, and good health.  There are many people WITH good jobs who do not have these things.  And, as I know from experience, sometimes the circumstances of your job are detrimental to those good things.  Count your blessings.
3.  Don't be a Negative Nancy- It's true.  No one wants to be around a person shrouded in negativity, so why in the world would anyone want to hire someone who has a black cloud hanging over their head?  I'm no Negative Nancy.  I'm Kinetic Kristina!

4.  Embrace Spontaneity- This is one of my strengths, and the whole reason I applied for this job when I did.  I had gone to the unemployment WorkSource office that morning, because I had received a letter that my unemployment benefits had run out and I needed to apply for an extension.  When I explained why I was there, I was told, "We can't help you because we're not the unemployment office.  We're the WorkSource office.  Our job is to get you a job."  This prompted me to go on a little rant about how I was feeling unemployable- career change at the wrong time- no one will hire me for the old career because I clearly don't want to do that any more- no one will hire me for the new career because I don't have any experience- etc.  They were very kind in listening and letting me get it all out.  Then they directed me to telephones kiosks that are directly wired to the unemployment office. While I was on hold, I thought, "What the heck.  I'm right next to a computer kiosk.  I'll just lean over and do some job searching."  The rest is history.
5.  Be Prepared- Yeah, I still need to work on that elevator speech.  Why is that so hard?  But, as I have mentioned before, I do know how to be prepared for an interview!
6.  Strive to be a Connector- I know I've mentioned before that I'm a Myers-Briggs INFP personality type.  I can't think of another personality type least likely to be a "connector" according to this article.  Thankfully, they are only suggesting that lucky people strive to be connectors.  Every day I do just that- I strive!

7.  Always Think of the Glass as Half Full- I think this goes along with #2. 

Special note- while originally typing this blog entry about luck, rather ironically, my computer suddenly turned off and stopped working. How's that for luck?

8.   Keep Your Expectations in Check- The article ties this to patience and persistence.  "Lucky" people don't take all those setbacks and negative responses personally.  "It must not have been meant to be." and "Everything works out.  You didn't get this job because something better is waiting for you." are two sentiments I hear a lot.  However, as a longer-term job seeker (since May), it becomes harder and harder to see things this way when your opportunities seem to be fewer and farther between.  My expectations with this super job I'm interviewing for were low.  I've applied to approximately 1,426,823 of their job openings with no results.  I had no reason to believe that application number 1,426,824 would be any different.  Lesson learned- it may not seem like it but every job application has a chance of getting noticed.  With a little bit of "educated luck" (similar to an educated guess?) that one application could be your foot in the door to something fantastic.

And I have to add- what about expecting that your computer is going to keep working?  Huh?  I think my computer has been bad luck.