I’m up before my alarm and my stomach is already churning with anxiety. I can feel that my resting heart rate is much higher than usual. It’s interview day.
Let’s be honest, interviews for jobs you actually care about are just as stressful as they are exciting. It’s important to find the balance of these emotions and prepare yourself to put your best foot forward.
Prior to the interview I grab my notebook and begin to write down my questions. It looks so much better to a prospective employer to have at least one question when they ask. In order to make sure I can’t forget my questions, I pre-write them before the interview.
If you’re anything like me and both interviews and driving make you anxious, see if a family member or friend is willing to give you a ride. Personally, I had my dad drive me to this interview and it relieved a little bit of my nerves.
The anxiety starts to hit again about 3 miles from my destination. I can feel the bile rising in my throat as I bite down hard on my lip. The questions start racing through my mind now “What if I get lost? What if they hate me? What if I hate them?” Five big deep breaths later I’ve reached my destination. It’s now or never.
As soon as I have made it to the right suite and met the hiring team, I can feel my nerves melt away. They’re playing Drake in their waiting room, and one has a full sleeve of tattoos on display; they’re very relaxed, I can relax.
In the actual interview the notebook serves a dual purpose: it has the questions I want answered, and I can use it to take notes on what the interviewer is saying. As long as they can’t see the notebook, it doesn’t matter what I actually write, they’ll just see I’m taking notes, which makes me look more serious.
The actual interview itself is a blur. I don’t remember much of it at all other than just how blue his eyes were and that he didn’t ask very many questions. That, in hindsight, was a massive red flag.
When I got home and searched some of the things he had bragged about, I could find no evidence of any of them being true. This company, as it turned out, was a multi-level marketing scheme. This is why you should always double check the information given to you; sometimes it’ll save you from a messy situation.