Interview Hell

Hey Guys,

This week I want to talk about interviews and my hate/hate relationship with them. I haven't quite figured out yet how to pass an interview with flying colors. I usually leave them feeling jittery (not in a good way), tallying up all the mistakes I made, and cursing myself for not carrying band-aids in my purse, as my cuticles and the skin around my fingernails is often bloody and raw after an interview.

I have reason to believe that I got my first job based on the fact that I had a car to get there, and I was available in the evenings. That's kind of it. I had no prior job experience, aside from baby-sitting, but the job was part-time in a beauty supply store in the mall. I could be trained easily enough ( I wasn't, but now's not the time for that story!). My second job I still don't know how I got, I just remember that I damn near cried because I was so nervous. This was a job in a dollar store. You read that right.

A dollar store.

Same thing happened with my third job, I was so nervous that I imagine I resembled The Joker with my wide-eyed, ear-to-ear grin. This apparently sat very well with the store manager, who told the head supervisor "Well, she gets the green light from me", before the supervisor took me to her office to go over availability.

This kind of experience is what the norm is for me in a job interview. Well, maybe not the whole getting-of-the-job thing, but the wide-eyed nervousness and overcompensating smile happens more often than not. Doesn't matter how well-prepared I am ahead of time, or how well I've researched the company. As soon as I get in the building, the nervous energy kicks in.

A couple of weeks ago, I had an interview at a department store. While I made it through the interview with the skin around my fingernails intact, I still feel like I looked too overexcited or nervous to be there.

Why?

Seriously, I'm asking. Why is it like that? It might have something to do with being conscious of the fact that I have to impress these people. That's the whole point of the meeting. I've never enjoyed this, and I don't think I've been particularly good at it, not just in the career category, but in most areas of my life. That's why I often cringed when I had to do a presentation in class (especially solo presentations. . . I like having other people to lean on a little bit), or even just hand in a paper.

So my next question is: what does it take? How do I go in there and treat these interviews like they're no big deal? Does it all just have to do with an attitude shift, and that's most, if not all of the battle? Sure. I 'm sure it does. I've had this thought before, and I've had people lecture me on it as well. But this is where I begin working myself into a frenzy. How do I do that??? It's so much easier said than done.

I guess I don't have any concrete answers to the questions I've posed here, and the point of this particular post is to say "Hey, who's with me? You get those feelings too?"  Sorry. I don't know if I should be, but I am. I feel like if I'm taking the time to write this, that I should at least have some valuable advice to offer, but I kind of don't this time. I guess if anyone does have any advice, or even just anything to add, feel free to leave a comment, but otherwise that's what I've got for you this time.

P.S. I realize it's been a while since I've posted . . . or maybe it just feels that way to me. I would like these to be more frequent though, and I've started making a list of topics I can discuss. See ya next time.