Tag Archives: Interview

The Call

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I’ve received a call yesterday about an interview this week. Actually I received several phone calls about job offers. One all the way down south which will be a three hours commute back and forth, two days a week. The other three days I would be working in Amsterdam. Well, I told them those are my terms. They’ve actually asked for me, no idea why but it was kind of flattering. So I told them, show me a solid proposal and I will think about it. Funny thing is that in the meantime I received the other call.

It means that once a client puts an option on me they claim me for about five days, they will organise the interview and then they’ll have three days to decide if they’ll take me for the job or not. After those three days, another client has the right to put an option on me but in between they’re not allowed to take business away from eachother, hence this solution. It also means that if they decide after the interview that they won’t hire me I will automatically have my next interview down south.

Anyway. I wanted to accept one more assignment so I’ll time to sort out a parttime job. And this assignment is a really good one, it will add to my portfolio which is much better than all the consultancy stuff *boring!*. I will have to come up with good designs ;) The downside is that I’ll probably will have to postpone my summer vacation because it’s a half year contract. I won’t be going on vacation during their summer break. I don’t mind though, perhaps it’s even better that way…

It has been a weird month of March, very chaotic and unusual. I’m still considering everything I wrote about earlier, but I’ve put it on the side for now until I know for sure what is going to happen next, once I’ve had the interview…

(Update: the interview went extremely well, but it was planned on a Friday which -in my opinion- is a bad day to have an interview. Especially when you’re the first and they’ll be seeing others the week after. They will forget the impression you’ve left that day because of the weekend. I was called the week after the interview that I was a great second choice. It means that if at some point the same opportunity arises again they will contact and hire me.

That opportunity will arise because I know they’ll work on a major project that will need to be finished within the next two years. It’s not important though. What’s important is that I realised that morning -although being disappointed- that everything happens for a reason. Perhaps it was never meant to be after all. My dreams have been telling me the same lately. Perhaps I should face fear and cut some ties, finally…)

The Beauty of ‘Pear-shaped’

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As I said in my previous post, I had an interview last Friday and the reason why I didn’t write an update yet is because I had to let it all sink in. The interview was supposed to take an hour but it took two instead. If I look back at all the interviews that I’ve had so far this was the most relaxed one in years and definitely the best one. I had the opportunity to ask all sorts of questions and because of my enthusiasm and the other person’s passion for his work we easily could’ve talked for another hour.

I think this is the biggest company I’ve applied with ever since I started my ‘career’. People often think about where their careers take them. I never had to, because I turned my hobby into a job and I was very much enjoying each and every opportunity that I got. Halfway I did change into a different direction though but I was still linked to the job that I love so much. But over the last three years I was forced to have a good look at my life and where I was heading since things went pear-shaped.

I ended up in a situation that I had been trying to avoid all my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Au contraire: what I’ve learned over the last couple of years is priceless. Yes things have been scary and yes I’ve seen the bottom but I’m climbing because that’s what Goats are meant to do. So I can only be grateful that I can have my own dreams again. Dreams that others might take for granted, like having my own place to live, being able to unpack the boxes and redecorate my ‘home’…

This might have been the toughest period in my life but I’ve gained so much having to deal with this emotional whirlpool. It forced me to have a good look at myself and where I was heading. I’m not there yet but I am taking tiny steps to find my balance again. Part of that has been looking for the confident ‘me’ that I’d lost along the way. I’ve found her and I’m enjoying her presence whenever she is there smiling at me, telling me it’s going to be alright. She was there last Friday at the interview.

She smiled and she felt like nothing could stop her from reaching that goal. And it was good, it was perfect the way it was… The other person told me that he wanted me on his team and become part of a company of 3500 people. So I went home, high on sheer happiness. I was on the train for an hour and half smiling… I didn’t care that I had to change twice because of delays. I didn’t notice that everything around me was chaos… I was just sitting there smiling and enjoying that very moment.

I was also aware of the fact that I wasn’t there yet. You see… I need to pass a test first. An IQ test which is not just the regular kind of test but a more complicated one. This morning I received a phone call from the company’s HR department to schedule this test. There’s only three people that I’ve told about it because I don’t want to be pressured by others telling me ‘I can do it’. I would like to be realistic and positive at the same time, there’s a 50% chance of success so I will try the best I can.

After all, that is all I can do, try the best I can and live ‘now’… not in the past, not in the future but in the present. That’s what I did that Friday, make the most of that moment and it worked out just fine. So I’ll be doing the same next week when I’ll have to take the test and it’s no point speculating about the actual result. It’s a win-win situation because no one could ever take away that moment of perfection during the interview and after. There is a bigger plan for me and I have no clue what it is just yet.

I just have to accept it and embrace it… {to be continued}

‘You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.’ ~Henry David Thoreau

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