Wednesday, April 20, 2005
The Interview. Many of which have been had by thousands. No matter how prepared you are, the whole situation is a fluke of happenstance really. A convolution of star alignment, personalities, first impressions, external stimuli, what-have-you.
So went I yesterday to one such job interview. My first interview with a woman I might add. Not only a woman. A certain kind of New England woman. This kind has no fashion pretense what-so-ever. If anything she comes across rather manly and rumpled. Her gait is like that of her ancestors before her -- the one's who chose to trudge across prairies towards Oregon. She speaks without the grating Bostonian accent I've never been able to get used to -- suggesting a good private boarding school was provided to her in her childhood. She is intimidatingly competent i.e. a 30-year veteran in PR, she converses in a seamless stream of high-end techno garble with the IT guy on hand, she can sails with her eyes closed, and talks shop-talk with the contractor renovating her office like one were comparing toothpaste brands. She also has the sexual guile of an armadillo.
OK so I was a bit intimidated. No problem. That's when I dig down deep into my carefully honed ultra-sophisticated Euro persona cultivated from many years abroad, a Euro husband, and an eclectic array of quasi intellectual friends. I don of course the black-rimmed glasses from Switzerland which do a remarkable job at making me look intensely something. Back and forth. Back and forth we go. Though there is really nothing like an interview in the midst of a major office renovation replete with hammering, drilling, and falling plaster. I finally flash my well-kept white American teeth because this certain kind of New England woman tends to have frugally crooked yellow teeth and sure enough she suddenly suggests I send a sample press release to her colleague in Colorado. Ok.... Easy enough. I go to their website and peruse their client base. Hmmm. Let's be creative here. GORE-TEX HITS NEW HEIGHTS WITH NEW WINTER GEAR LAUNCH. And on from there. Just get me away from this manic dullard Irish hot-head I find myself working for now.
So went I yesterday to one such job interview. My first interview with a woman I might add. Not only a woman. A certain kind of New England woman. This kind has no fashion pretense what-so-ever. If anything she comes across rather manly and rumpled. Her gait is like that of her ancestors before her -- the one's who chose to trudge across prairies towards Oregon. She speaks without the grating Bostonian accent I've never been able to get used to -- suggesting a good private boarding school was provided to her in her childhood. She is intimidatingly competent i.e. a 30-year veteran in PR, she converses in a seamless stream of high-end techno garble with the IT guy on hand, she can sails with her eyes closed, and talks shop-talk with the contractor renovating her office like one were comparing toothpaste brands. She also has the sexual guile of an armadillo.
OK so I was a bit intimidated. No problem. That's when I dig down deep into my carefully honed ultra-sophisticated Euro persona cultivated from many years abroad, a Euro husband, and an eclectic array of quasi intellectual friends. I don of course the black-rimmed glasses from Switzerland which do a remarkable job at making me look intensely something. Back and forth. Back and forth we go. Though there is really nothing like an interview in the midst of a major office renovation replete with hammering, drilling, and falling plaster. I finally flash my well-kept white American teeth because this certain kind of New England woman tends to have frugally crooked yellow teeth and sure enough she suddenly suggests I send a sample press release to her colleague in Colorado. Ok.... Easy enough. I go to their website and peruse their client base. Hmmm. Let's be creative here. GORE-TEX HITS NEW HEIGHTS WITH NEW WINTER GEAR LAUNCH. And on from there. Just get me away from this manic dullard Irish hot-head I find myself working for now.
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