Finally, after months of trying to work at home, I went out for a job-hunting yesterday. There was a job fair at the
Forum and I thought it best to turn up well-dressed. I prepared and ironed my smart attire but in the end decided to put on a casual shirt with a smart jacket on top. I thought it was going to be a warm sunny day but it was forecast to be raining. The smart attire I had prepared didn't look warm enough, hence, the change. Anyway, I also took with me some updated resumés and photos as I was also planning to disseminate my profile to employment agencies around the city.
Everytime I go for an interview I always seem to forget to prepare my answers. I'm such a lousy communicator in person and it's one of my weakest points. Knowing and using more than one language at any time, I get the disadvantage of not mastering any of them. I love to write, this is my passion. But even in writing, I sometimes have to mentally rehearse the sentence before scribbling it down. Similarly, when I go for interviews, cognition gets in the way and I'd get panicky and unable to focus.
I had never been to any job fair so I didn't know what to expect. When I got there, there was a long table on one side with people filling in their application form. I sat on on one of the chairs opposite a staff to fill in mine before handing it to the staff for checking just in case I missed some parts. There was an initial interrogation then she directed me to sit next to the other applicants and wait for my name to be called. Feeling a bit surprised that there was an interview on site, I felt fidgety. A young-looking guy, probably in his late teens was dressed up like a lawyer and I blamed myself for not dressing up like I had planned but I tried really hard to look confident. Throughout the Q&A portion, I struggled many times to form my thoughts in words. The last question was, "
We've seen many people today. How will I remember you?" I grappled for words to best describe my answer and after some explanation with gesticulation I finally came to an awkward end. I shook hand with my interviewer and left.
As I walked away, I was mulled over the answers I provided especially for the last question and was thinking of alternative answers I could have given like, "
Can I leave a photo? Pause.
Crap! Why didn't I remember it?" I wanted to run back and say, "Hey, I was supposed to leave my photo!" :D
Anyway, I may not be chosen for any of the jobs they were offering but at least I got my butt out there and tried.
Photo credit: http://www.tutorials.com/tutorial_images/09/0957/09571bg.gif
