In recent times I had once again found myself running the job interview gamut. For the first one, I was a little nervous. It went well, but I felt afterwards that maybe I'd tried too hard.
Driving to the second one a few days later, I decided that no matter what, I was going to be honest. Just me. What you see is what you get. No games. It didn't hurt I suppose that I wasn't even sure I really wanted the job anyway. I was completely relaxed and even enjoyed the whole thing. Well, as much as you can enjoy a job interview. When they called me back for a second interview with the V.P. of Finance, it went even better. The third interview was a telephone one with some big shot in Detroit. We talked for some time and then he asked me to explain the career path that my resume indicated I had taken. I almost laughed at that.
Let me explain. I have always worked, and I've always had reasonably good jobs, but my resume doesn't exactly read like a skyrocket to success. After a steady climb of a few years, I went part time for awhile. When I went back to fulltime, it took awhile to regain some ground. That kind of thing. I knew at once what he was talking about. So, I answered him honestly. It wasn't a question of a career path so much as it was a question of 'life'. You go to school, you get a job, you get married and have kids - you do what you have to do. Life.
Maybe that answer was a little too honest as I didn't end up getting that job. But lately, I 've begun to wonder if maybe that isn't the whole answer?
One of my favourite movies was on tv late the other night and I stayed up to watch it: You've Got Mail.
There is a part where Meg Ryan's character wonders if she has stayed working at her mother's store all these years because it was really what she wanted to do, or if it was because she just hadn't been brave?
I've started to wonder lately myself if maybe I just haven't been brave. Maybe it was partly 'life', but maybe it was also doing what was safe, and familiar.
Don't get me wrong. I don't have any regrets for the way I've done things, or the path I've taken, but maybe it's time to be a little bit brave.
Driving to the second one a few days later, I decided that no matter what, I was going to be honest. Just me. What you see is what you get. No games. It didn't hurt I suppose that I wasn't even sure I really wanted the job anyway. I was completely relaxed and even enjoyed the whole thing. Well, as much as you can enjoy a job interview. When they called me back for a second interview with the V.P. of Finance, it went even better. The third interview was a telephone one with some big shot in Detroit. We talked for some time and then he asked me to explain the career path that my resume indicated I had taken. I almost laughed at that.
Let me explain. I have always worked, and I've always had reasonably good jobs, but my resume doesn't exactly read like a skyrocket to success. After a steady climb of a few years, I went part time for awhile. When I went back to fulltime, it took awhile to regain some ground. That kind of thing. I knew at once what he was talking about. So, I answered him honestly. It wasn't a question of a career path so much as it was a question of 'life'. You go to school, you get a job, you get married and have kids - you do what you have to do. Life.
Maybe that answer was a little too honest as I didn't end up getting that job. But lately, I 've begun to wonder if maybe that isn't the whole answer?
One of my favourite movies was on tv late the other night and I stayed up to watch it: You've Got Mail.
There is a part where Meg Ryan's character wonders if she has stayed working at her mother's store all these years because it was really what she wanted to do, or if it was because she just hadn't been brave?
I've started to wonder lately myself if maybe I just haven't been brave. Maybe it was partly 'life', but maybe it was also doing what was safe, and familiar.
Don't get me wrong. I don't have any regrets for the way I've done things, or the path I've taken, but maybe it's time to be a little bit brave.
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