So I have a phone interview tomorrow. Needless to say, I’m both excited and nervous. A friend tipped me off to this job opportunity, and I’ve apparently made it from a huge pool of a coupe hundred applicants to the top 10 or so candidates.
It’s an interesting situation, one that forces me to really challenge my self image and level of accomplishment. Obviously, if I’ve made it as far as the phone interview stage there must me something there the search committee feels is worthwhile, even if I have trouble seeing it myself.
But as you can probably tell, I’m not the most objective when it comes to self-analysis. So this puts me in an odd place: multiple people think I’m qualified, and I’m worried that I’m not.
Compounding the stress is the fact that this is a really awesome opportunity, one that would let me use my diverse range of skills, to say nothing of the fact that I’d be making more than I’ve ever made before. And of course, it would let me get out of the soul-sucking hole of retail employment that I’ve been stuck in since I finished grad school.
But like a shelter animal, I’m overly wary. I’ve been excited about job opportunities before, just to have them fall through (or not pan out). I often get so excited and attached (to the point of fantasizing about being able to give my two-week notice) that I’m absolutely devastated when nothing happens. Usually this has the consequence of driving me directly into a Funk. It’s like you’re treading water, barely able to keep your head afloat, when you spy a life preserver. You swim over to it, using precious amounts of energy, only to have it snatched away at the last second. If you believed in that sort of thing, you’d be convinced the universe was laughing at you.
So am I nervous? Of course, understandably so. I’m also cautious, since you have to grow attached to something to feel excited about it. But I am also trying to account for my personal biases; pretty much everyone else thinks I’m awesomely qualified for this position, so maybe my brain is the one that’s wrong. I’m doing my best to prepare, as well: researching the institution and their recent innovations, looking up buzzwords from the application, and overall giving myself enough to to so that I don’t panic. After all, this is only a phone interview. Assuming I make the cut (fingers crossed), there would still be an in-person interview to weather.
Here’s hoping I’ll have good news for you in the near future.
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