I have had three, rather intense interviews since wednesday and I am pooped. In the last five months, I have gotten zero calls and then 'BOOM'--All or Nothing, I suppose.
My last one was just this morning and it was no different than the other two. Same old boring questions; 'can you tell me about a time when you had to handle a difficult negotiation' and 'why do you want to work for us?' and 'what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses'. Same old, same old. Human Resources should try to be, well, more resourceful, if you ask me.
As you ask the same questions over and over again, are you not going to get the same canned response? I think so. I try not to give the usual answers but sometimes, when you just want to end it all, you tell them what they want to hear.
On Friday I had a very intense and nerve-racking interview with the Vice President of merchandise for a large, well-known retailer here in Toronto. I had a migraine, I was almost late and it was freezing cold that day so needless to say, I was not in the best of spirits. He asked me where I wanted to be in the future and all I could think of was the south of France, sitting by the water, eating bread and sipping red wine. I didn't tell him this, of course but I really wanted to. I also wanted to tell him to stop bombarding me with the interogation questions and to move out of the way, I'm about to jump out of that window behind you.
Interviewing has got to be the worst thing about having a career in anything. When you have a job and you are 'playing the field' it's a bit different. When you are like me, out of work for six months, you can come off as desperate, if you're not careful. The last thing I EVER want to be is desperate. Life is way too short to feel desperation and to take a job simply for the paycheck. IMHO.
So, that's it for the interviews for awhile, I guess. I haven't applied for anything in a couple of weeks as there is not much out there.
Regarding work, I have also made the decision to commute, if necessary. The downtown Toronto market is saturated in my field of work; I can't find anything. So, these three interviews I was just blabbing on about are actually just outside of Toronto. Therefore, if I do become gainfully employed by one of these companies, it's back to commuting via a four-wheel-prison (aka:car) for me.
I used to commute a lot when I first got back from New York in 1999. I was living just west of Toronto with my parents for awhile but was working and going to school downtown. I can't tell you how bad my road rage was. There was no amount of drugs that would cure me of it. Even caffeine (my best friend) could not help me in my daily struggle. Picture this: it's 8:45am, you have to be at work by 9am. You are about five minutes away from the office in traffic so dense, you feel claustraphobic and can hear all the other cars' radios blasting the traffic report. You are sweating, you are hungry, you are ready to drive your car through the back-end of the idiot in front of you. Now, picture going through this every morning for about a year. That was me. I hope the new Sheri, the one that has lived the easy life (taking the subway) for the last six years is no longer suffering from automobile psychosis. After all, doesn't aging make you less impatient? I could be wrong.
