Tell Us of a Time...

I haven't really decided if the direction of this blog is changing. Hmmm, did I have a direction to begin with? And do I really need to have a direction? These are my random musings after all, are they not? Hmmm...

Anyhoot, since my random musings lately have gotten more random, thought I'd just talk about the job interview I recently had. The job interview that's led to all these changes lately, to begin with. So, I've been doing this position since beginning of May, officially, that is. Unofficially, I've been doing it for almost a year, although at a different office. And the funny thing was for me to be in that position officially, even though I've been doing the same task already, I had to interview for the position just like everybody else...

"So, tell us of a time when you..."

(courtesy of bubblews.com, via Google images)

Don't you love that question?

One thing that most of us already know when it comes to behavioural interviewing is the STAR method. Whatever your response is, it should follow this format: 

Situation 

Task 

Action 

Result

But what did I really learn out of this experience, and from the people who were instrumental in my preparation for it?

• Because I had back-to-back interviews, I had to really prepare. As in prepare! A LOT! I spent weeknights and some weekends just to prep my notes.
• Practice, practice, practice. So practice I did. And in front of a mirror, just to make it a little bit more uncomfortable. HAH!
• In this situation, I learnt it was all about me. It's what I did and accomplished. "I did this... I led that... I presented this... (you get the gist)"
• And because this was an interview where I know the people on the other side of the interview desk, the best advice I probably received was to pretend that I didn't know those people. The devil was in the details, whether they know about it or not. After all, whether they are fully aware of my accomplishments or not, at the end of the day, they cannot rate me on something they know but I didn't say.

I'm just glad that the result was a happy one...