20th
It’s a funny story, actually
On Monday I happened to meet one of my competitors for the job, the day before my interview. It was a total coincidence and a total coincidence that she is exactly 3 days younger than me. She was a petite dark Asian girl (not that that’s important, mind). Her interview time was half an hour before mine. When I first got the interview I was told I will be competing with two others for the post.
She asked me for help on her interview and tips to do well. That put me in a difficult situation. I believe one of the few times in life you can be selfish is when you are going for a job. A job shapes your life, feeds and clothes you.
The day of my interview came and I was very nervous. So nervous I forgot to have lunch. I arrived 15 minutes early and sat down in the waiting hall. The petite girl had finished her interview and I could see her leaving. A smartly dressed young guy came in and sat down. “Having your interview too?” “-Yeah.” I asked him what he knows about the company - he hesitated and looked embarrassed. He clearly didn’t know much! Great. Less competition. He hasn’t done his research.
A senior guy came in, shook my hand with a smile and led me into the interview room where I was greeted by a lovely middle-aged woman.
One thing you have to know about me is my tummy starts rumbling loudly when I’m hungry. And I was seriously hungry. I tried to cancel out my tummy’s first groan by talking but it wasn’t going to work because I’d have to talk over the woman who was introducing me to the company at the time. I tried pushing my stomach but that didn’t work and must have looked strange, too.
I thought to myself either I somehow bear with the uncomfortable stomach grumbles for the whole interview and just pretend I don’t know anything about them even though they’re loud enough for everyone to hear or I just tell them and make a joke about it. “May I just say, for some reason my tummy is making noises and today out of all days, I apologise.” I smiled. They both smiled and we shared a little laugh. Still, I was thinking I hope that doesn’t lessen my chances of getting this job. I relaxed from then on though because now atleast they’ll know what the noises are when my tummy is talking.
The interview went well. All that going through the job role, research into the company and mock interviews paid off. You could tell they were really impressed when I said certain things, especially when I [rudely] interrupted the lady when she was talking about the company, as I proceeded to tell her about her own company. They were very impressed with my typing speed too haha. 60WPM. 60 words per minute. My typing speed is actually 70WPM when I came home to test it again. Anyway, they said they’ll make a decision on who gets the job very soon, maybe even within an hour.
The interview was over and the guy led me out, shook my hand and said “all the best.” He said it in a way that I’ll never see him again and he wishes me the best of luck to find a job elsewhere. I wasn’t feeling very confident as I went down the elevator and on my way home. Whether I was successful or not I was expecting a call to tell me either way.
I got home, got the cordless home phone and my mobile phone and sat them down on my bed next to me. About half an hour later I get a call. The guy is delaying telling me the outcome of my interview. And then “I am pleased to tell you that we have offered you the position. You start on the 1st of February”. Thank you thank you thank you.
I will take great heart from this and am very proud of myself considering this was my first ever proper interview. Maybe the petite girl didn’t talk enough. Maybe the other guy’s long tie was too long (it actually reached his belt). But I’ll stick with maybe I did well.
