Interview Completed
I had my interview today. I left the house with plenty of time to get there and arrived 20 minutes early. Had to pay $7 to park, ugh! I also did not have any liquid beverages in the car, period. I did not want to wear my coffee again today. The gig is located in a federal building, so I had to sign in and get a modified cavity search, and they tried to tell me I was at the wrong building because they hadn't heard of the folks with whom I was to interview. Oy! I told her the room number, and finally talked her into just letting me go in without an escort. Of course, when I got to the fourth floor, the dude's office was right there. He wasn't actually doing the interviewing, but he's the one who called to make the appointment, so we chatted for a bit about Timothy McVeigh (the federal bldg is adjacent to the courthouse where McVeigh was tried) and all the hassles of having McVeigh tried there.
The folks who actually did the interviews were a bit peculiar. The female had a bad cold, so she wasn't at her best. The dude was just... odd. The questions were mostly straightforward. I did have a bit of trouble with the question about writing written reports, only because I've been an adept writer my entire life and thus have no real means to quantify how I write a performance review from start to finish.
The gig isn't what I expected. It's 95% reviewing, which means being chained to a desk reading grants and taking them apart bit by bit so you can develop a review plan, then doing the actual review, then doing the post-mortem. My experience is more grantee-direct and hands-on, where this is more removed from the actual grantee (this agency is like an independent entity, so no "fraternizing" with the locals). The closest thing I can equate it to is like being a CPA or a statistician, without all the numbers.
This round of interviews was Round 1 to weed out the losers (my word, not theirs!) and then they will do a second round of interviews with a smaller applicant pool. They don't expect to hire until mid-summer due to a "soft" hiring freeze. Funny how I feel like I did well this time, yet I'm having thoughts that this gig might not be it for me after all. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'll keep looking for gigs (I have a written exam for a state WIC gig due Monday).
I looked great in my outfit (although I managed to slobber on my yellow blouse, so I changed and wore the lime green one). I didn't think to try on my pants with the new shoes, and they are a bit long because the shoes are lower than the ones I wore when I bought the suit. Darn basset hound legs! Also, how did this happen -- the pants are already an inch big in the waist! Must be the ab crunches. Thanks for all the support! I'm sure it helped keep me relatively calm. You are all my heroes! Kix
on 4/30/08 8:07 am - San Antonio, TX
I'm so glad things went smoother than last time, and even though you may not want the job as much as you did, its still a job, and still vaguely in your field, and you never know.. if you get it you might like it. 
436/401.8/277/175
