Job quest – Part 1
Normally switching jobs is quite a liberating experience. You get to say goodbye to people you don’t like, things you don’t like doing, places you’re sick of eating lunch at, and commutes that have become repetitive at best. Typically the worst part of switching jobs is saying goodbye to people you like, things you like doing and of course interviewing. The latter probably being the most dreaded.
In my final months at my current company and job, I have taken on the sometimes dull task of being the technical interviewer for job candidates. The task was brought on by myself though, partly to break up days of staring at screens and partly out of pure self-interest. Knowing that I was going to be looking for work close to the end of the year, I wanted to brush up on my interview skills. What better way to do that than to be the interviewer as opposed to the interviewee? No pressure, no expectations, nothing to memorize and you get the answers to all the questions. Better yet, you get to make up the questions in the first place.
This is what I wanted. I wanted to go through with my most respected (and smart) colleagues and create a dirty, nasty, difficult interview. Not because I’m mean but because I wanted to prepare myself for what might come in my own job quest. The questions weren’t out of the ordinary though. In fact, I would like to think that if I were in my own interview, but on the opposite side of the table, that I would appreciate both the questions and the style in which I interview people.
So after a few months and a dozen or so interviews, I was starting to feel good about the prospect of becoming the interviewee. Until I started applying for work that is. More to come…
