Aiming to Impress

Today I went for Part 1 of an intensive interview process. I showed up at the indicated time, looked around at the twenty odd other nervous looking people sitting in the reception area and thought "wow, we can't all be applying for this job, can we?" Indeed we were. Twenty-two candidates were short-listed for the position! We were all herded into an exam room and were given instructions for the exam and then were given two hours to write furiously. It felt like being back in University. I looked around the room and wondered if everyone else was writing more perceptive, more impressive, or more intelligent things than me. Maybe, but more likely we were all coming up with the same ideas and the job will come down to who has the nicest smile or something equally inane. I've learned that it's silly to take the outcomes of job applications too personally because the most qualified/best person for the job is not necessarily the one chosen for any number of reasons that you will never be privy to nor understand.

Part 2 of the process is to return next week and receive a copy of the writing that I did today. I will then get 20 minutes to prepare an oral presentation. At that point I will give a 15 minute presentation to a panel and a formal interview will follow. It's quite the process! I am certainly not holding my breath and am not even sure I will accept the position if it is offered to me. Applying for a job when you have a job is much less stressful than applying for a job when you are unemployed. In a worst-case scenario, you just keep doing what you've been doing. So, who knows...everything could change for me or everything will stay the same. I'll be happy either way, I think.