Dancing Wrong…

I wonder.

I had just attended another potential job interview recently. I submitted my application, and I got an email from them a week later, scheduling a 30 minute phone interview. Instead of that, I got a call from them the very next day, and got called in for a 2 hour face-to-face. This shocked me a bit as I had never ever gotten past the first round of any interview before, much less skipped it.

So, I travelled down for that interview. It all happened quite fast, so I wasn’t 100% prepared for it but I did whatever I could. I studied about the company and their products as well as prepared answers for every bit of information that I wrote in my CV. I also discovered one useful thing about interviews – remember to read the annual reports provided at the reception, because they contain useful information about the company not easily available publicly.

I think that I fielded the questions well, although I’m not sure if I gave the best possible answers or if they were totally happy with me. The interviewers did do their homework though. They had copies of my CV printed, with hand written notes all over it in red pen. They had also looked up the various web references that I provided in my CV, with regards to my work. So, they had quite a lot of questions to shoot me with. I had to go out for 3 cups of water, as I kept talking and talking.

However, there was one question that I simply didn’t have an answer for. I didn’t think that they’d ask me this question so soon. I had thought that I would get at least another round of interview. The question just came out of the blue: how much I’d like to be paid. I was stunned and I gave a really lame ass answer. I hope that they don’t take that as an indication that I’m not seriously interested. It’s just that, I didn’t expect to be asked that question today. Nevermind, lesson learned. I now know, the exact figure to give. I’ve just worked it out with my calculator.

Anyway, I was told to wait a few weeks for a reply. They said that they would have to consider a few other people. What, no more interviews? Damn, it was a stealth final round! But after a few more days, they emailed me to tell me that I failed to get the job. I asked them for some feedback but have yet to hear from them in reply. So, I’m not quite sure where I went wrong, yet again.

I think that it should only be fair for the companies who reject me to tell me where I went wrong. If I don’t get any feedback from job interviews, how am I supposed to improve at them? All I can do is make random assumptions and that doesn’t do me any good.

But at least, I got further than I have ever gotten before, this time around. The difference is that I left out some bits about my previous experience and I did not apply for an entry level position, but a position meant for experienced people. I guess that I’ll need to try things differently again, for the next job.