You don't have to be a STAR, baby

Today was interview day. Last night I realized I had to get ready. I went and got a haircut at the walk-in place. I needed it BAD. Then I looked in my closet for something to wear. Everything looked so worn out. I really stretched it with my wardrobe near the end, once I thought I might be leaving I stopped buying anything new even if I needed it. I settled on a yellow dress shirt that I had gotten on clearance at the Brooks Brother's outlet, and my standard black pants. And my scuffed up clunky black shoes that have not touched my feet since I kicked them off on my last day. And my pearls, always a good choice. I thought I should wear a jacket, but the black jacket I still own was last used by Timmy on Halloween to complete his Billy Joe Armstrong costume (from the band Green Day) and had smudges on it. Then I set my alarm, something that I have not done for months now. Ugh.

I got up in the morning and did the getting ready thing, feeling like I was running late, and hating it. Then I did the eating bagels and drinking coffee in the car thing while I drove through the miserable traffic, and hated it. I did get to listen to my new Hairspray soundtrack, but I turned it off after a while because I had no more time left to put off preparing for the interview itself.

I had realized that this might be what is called a "Targeted Interview" which is a process that GM has for selecting candidates where you have to provide examples of how you handled certain situations. They even offer a course on how perform in these interviews, and I know people who have done extensive preparations to anticipate all the possible questions and have handy anecdotes all ready to spew out. My preparation was to go to a website where I knew I could find out a little about it, and the advice was to be a STAR, which is the acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Results. I really didn't feel like thinking about my past experiences at work to come up with some of these. Could I use the time I fixed the pond fountain? How about the extra Cardamom purchase? The bread Result was a success! I was going to have to wing it.

So I got there and parked and walked the 1/2 mile across the parking lot to the lobby, and the man was standing there waiting for me (but I was on time!) No chance to use the bathroom, and I had just downed a large car-mug of coffee on the way in. They had changed the security procedure for this building and now you had to watch a safety video if you didn't have the green sticker on your badge. I had one, but I'd turned my badge in. So we stand there by the TV with some other people and of course there is someone I know, Kristine from Validation. Awkward!!! She wanted to know what I was doing there and I said "Long story!" because I hadn't gotten to talk to my interview guy yet, who was standing there with me.

Finally, we got to the interview room. The man was very nice, and he said that the other person who was supposed to be there with him had another place to be. He said if the other guy was there he'd insist on doing the targeted process, but he'd prefer that we just talk. (yay!) And so we had a very good interview, I think he liked me enough. The job itself sounds like a good fit for me, I would have wanted to do this if they would have let me make a move when I was in my old position. Near the end we even did some of the easy targeted questions, so he could have the paperwork filled out right. Then he suggested that we walk around, he wanted to introduce me to some other people. Not too many of them were around but then we went around the back, he wanted to show me something. So he swipes his card and opens up a door in the back and tells me to look outside, and he shows me the special secret parking area for the people who have desks in the building. "That's my car, right there." It was just steps away from the door. I guess I gaped in amazement a moment too long because it set off the emergency alarm and then we had to frantically figure out how to make it turn off. A close parking spot! It was a lovely thing to behold. A distant dream in my last location, where my walk from car to desk added another 15 minutes to my commute. The hard sell.

There are other people under consideration for this job, so until I hear something I don't have to make any decisions yet. I'm going to pull a Scarlett O'Hara and think about that tomorrow.