Somehow it's the end of August, and after my company was
sold and the entire staff laid off at the beginning of June, I've spent the bulk
of the summer looking for work. Applying for jobs, taking state tests and
figuring out how to navigate the state application process (that particular bit
of fun deserved an entire post of its own) have been at the forefront of my
summer activities. I've revised, re-written or tweaked my résumé for each
application. All of this in the hope, of course, of landing interviews, which
have been few and far between. I did have an interview at the end of July, my
first in ten years. Yes, I survived, no, I didn't get the gig. I didn't even
make it to the second round. Sigh...
A decade (or more) between job interviews is what happens
when you tend to stay put and not job-hop. I've never possessed, or even
understood the kind of energy required to pretty much always have an eye out
for the next gig. I'm not career-driven and apparently never will be, so that
way of thinking will always be foreign to me. Are there really personality
types who don’t mind being the FNG every few years?
Late last week, I received a call and set up an interview
for later this week. So here I am, preparing for said interview, reviewing the
job description, learning about the agency and coming up with answers to likely
questions about my work habits, ability to play nicely with others, blah, blah,
blah. But, in true INFP fashion, the thing that's most likely to make me break
out in hives is the dreaded, "Tell us about yourself." I'm desperately hoping no
one does that anymore. I know I can't get away with saying, "I'm an introvert
and I freaking hate having to do this," but I sincerely wish I could just point
to my résumé. Obviously it was deemed good enough to get me in the door or they
wouldn’t have called me. As is typical of me, I'll worry about this until I
arrive for the inquisition and then come up with something on the spot that I
won't remember later. If the stars align, perhaps at least one of the
interviewers will be of a like Myers-Briggs type. We introverts like to stick
together. Separately, of course...
