stage 3

Stage 3 - the interview. Today I had my interview for the Analyst 2 postion. This was the final stage in the hiring process. The journey has been long but I feel confident that it went well. When they scheduled the interview for 1.5 hours - I was astonished. What in the world could I say or do to fill up that time?! So anxiety set in. Luckily they only gave us 2 days notice for the interview - not enough time to get really paranoid. I expected it to be the standard panel interview consisting of behavioural based questions ("give us an example of when...."). I walked into the room after having a filling lunch. Shook hands with the panel, straigtened my suit, smiled and sat down to begin the grilling. I was happy that it was only 13 questions. Lucky number 13! From past experience with panel interviews, I was not at all nervous or surprised with the methodology. I got into my comfort zone and ended up talking for more than 1.5 hours. :-) Ooops...I can go on a tangent if someone doesn't keep me in check.

I know many of us have gone though many interviews. I've been working since I was 15 years old. The majority of my teenage working life consisted of 2 jobs at a time therefore I have an array of interview experiences. Here are some of the more interesting interview scenerios I've gone though - just for laughs.

• Canadian Airlines - 5 stage interview
• stage 1 - reaching for a box up high without shoes. There's a height requirement for all airline attendants. Yah - finally something that I am good at...being tall! Imagine hundreds of pretty girls lined up with high heeled shoes on having thier dreams of flying around the world shattered when told that they can't do the test with shoes on! Good bye mile high club!
  
• stage 3 - panel interview - this was my first experience with a real panel interview where 8 other contestants were present. We lined up in a row and the 6 judges asked each of us the same questions. Really sucked if you were first or last as your answer had to be "unique" so that it didn't appear that you just said the same thing as the person before you. It was more intimidating as the recorders were walking around the room taking notes on what we said.
• Banquet waitress - balance test
• unlike regular waitresses, banquet waitressing requires you to serve 30+ people food at once. Which means you have to be able to stack an absurd number of plates down your arm. Amazingly I had the ability to do that and even survived it when the plates were COOKED to provide maximum heat for the customers. That's when you layer your left arm with cloth napkins and pray to god that the 4 dinner plates you have stacked on that arm don't burn through!
  
• Behavioral therapist - video taped interview
• I was invited over to interact with the child - basically try to engage him in "play". They forgot to mention that they would video tape the whole thing so that they could review it later. :-) After I worked more with austic kids I realized how important it is to select the right therapist as that person plays an integral part of your child's development.
  
• ICBC - mail services
• part of the selection process involved a physical test. It was like highschool gym all over again! I did a reach test, lifted a 50lb weight and carried it a metre.
• ICBC - help desk
• voice test - yes...it's not just what I know about computers...it's also how sexy I can sound while instructing you to reboot! Just kidding - my line of work is all about how you convey information...not about what is actually said.