In which I finally get to breathe a bit
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had two campus-visit job interviews and one phone interview in the space of eight or nine days. I don’t know exactly when the Great Job Search of ’08 will end, but I should know more next month. Most of it is unbloggable at this point, but I’ve been a bit surprised to discover how much easier it’s gotten for me to be "on" all day when I’m being interviewed. I still want to collapse and sleep for twelve hours afterward, but being interviewed isn’t the big intimidating energy-drain it was the first time I tried it.
Other things I’ve learned: interviewers’ questions are much easier to answer with several years of relevant experience plus most of an MLS under my belt; I’ve lost all vestiges of the fear of public speaking, if indeed I was ever afraid of public speaking; and ironing my interview-day shirt in the hotel room the night before the interview is a surprisingly calming thing to do. Polishing my shoes has the same effect.
Last weekend was for interview-prepping. This weekend is for decompressing, getting my suits dry-cleaned, doing a bit of knitting (a clever collapsible baby hat for a friend who’s having a baby this summer), catching up on homework, watching bits of Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, and seeing the final Met HD broadcast of the season (Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment). Also, on the recommendation of Kristine from Serendipities, I’m reading Scarlett Thomas’s The End of Mr. Y, which is kind of like Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow meets Being John Malkovich (a cursed book that supposedly kills its readers, a plot that involves portals into other people’s heads), only more British and with a lot of quantum physics thrown in.
Catch you all later. I may even have time to blog a bit more in the next few weeks.
Comments are closed.