A Taste
The Interview
Irrespective of the format and content of a job interview, a common thread may afflict you (the interviewee) as it interweaves and underlies the frailties of your humanness …
Whether this affliction presents as self consciousness or over confidence, disinterest or over zealousness, its propinquity is undeniable. It is an affliction that subtly undermines and overpowers your encounter with the interviewer from the handshake that may or may not precede the inevitable comments about the parking, the traffic, and the weather. Then once the small talk is out of the way it’s time for the body language and eye to eye contact to take over, sending signals to the brain for instant evaluation, inept conclusions or inequitable judgment. There is that sense of ‘going through the motions’ as you face a barrage of questions while you simultaneously listen to the internal conversation. ‘Did I wear the right clothes?’ or ‘if I am offered the job would I fit in here?’ or ‘I wonder how many other people are to be interviewed?’ and so forth.
Then just as it all seems to be going okay and you think that you’re on the right track, you inexplicably mention something about the French Revolution! Okay, it’s not outrageous but it is completely out of context, so now you have to rely on your sense of humour to get you out of this one. And then just like that, you’re shaking hands, mumbling about the traffic and the weather again, ready to step outside into the big wide world.
Safely back home, it is time for the post-interview waiting dialogue to begin. ‘Will I hear back?’ or ‘when will I hear?’ or ‘will they call or will they email me?’ As the days pass, you jump every time the phone rings, and you fly to the inbox at the sound of every incoming email: until suddenly the wait is over.
You are offered the job, you accept the job, and then in anticipation of your first day, you go back to that all too familiar common thread that interweaves and underlies the frailties of your humanness …
