Unemployment: Interviews

I have to say that I've been on a few interviews over the past year. One was for a position I really wanted but was three and half hours from where I lived.  Another was for a career practitioner at the local high school and even though I didn't get it, I realized how easy it was to interview for when I was truly interested in the work.  That helped inform my decision to make a career change by the way.

The third position I interviewed for was for the job I'd had for the past year.  One would think that should have been a slam-dunk.  It was not.  I realized after I was told I was unsuccessful in my bid for it that I had focused on what the position could be, not what it was.  Lessons learned.

Now it's not often the case that you get a chance to really prepare for an interview to the full extent (like I could have for my own job...) but I was pretty lucky.  Having spent the past week learning about what work was performed at the agency as well as having two full days of interview prep the week previously, I was in pretty good shape; right after I corrected a grave mistake.

I stopped in to see the manager the day before the interview (because it feels like I'm part of the team already) and when she mentioned my resume I asked to see it.  When I asked to volunteer, she had asked me to forward a copy of my updated resume. I had sent her one that I had used to apply somewhere else (because it was just for informational purposes, I thought).  The cover letter was attached!  I told her I would send her an updated resume (and cover letter) that night.  Yeesh - I can't believe that almost happened!

I remembered one of the other recommendations to prep for an interview: it's not all about you.  Why do you want to work there?  What do you know about what their company does?  I did my research on the company and also what information I could get about the new program as it had been running in another area and there was information on the website.  I had my great examples to answer behavioural questions... I was ready.

IT WENT FABULOUSLY.  I knew the answers, I used the STAR (situation, task, actions, result) method to answer the behavioural questions. I talked about the previous week.  I asked about how easy it would be to make changes to some of the presentation material because a couple of issues had been identified with the new group.  They were open and happy I'd mentioned it. I also told them that I love to be in the classroom providing workshops and they said they had the flexibility to allow me to do both.  Seriously?  I was thrilled! Flexibility, creativity.... And in my interest area??

Oh, and I also found out that there are actually two positions; one is full-time and one is part-time.  Since I didn't realize there was a full-time position, I made plans around the possibility of part-time.  Full-time would be so much easier, and I have a plan if I get that too.

I stopped by later that week to talk about a schedule for volunteering the following week.  I wasn't going to ask about the interview because that's probably not fair.  The manager mentioned that my interview had gone really well so that's good news.  She figures I will hear something early next week so my fingers are crossed.