I had my first employement interview since being laid off this afternoon. Meaning a FTF interview as opposed to a telephone interview; I've already had a few of those. It was slightly out of the ordinary; at least it seemed so to me.

The interview was scheduled for 11:00 and I arrived slightly early, about 13 minutes before the hour. The interview took place at the company's world HQ building downtown. I signed in at the front desk and told the receptionist on duty I was there to see the hiring manager. He called upstairs and told me to have a seat in the lobby.

I think I remember the instructor of the Career Transitions workshop I attended saying that one should be prepared to wait, but not longer than half an hour. Well that's what I did. I didn't have a watch on me, but there was a telephone in the lobby with the time on it, so when it seemed like it had been too long, I went over and glanced at it. 11:29.

I went back over to the front desk and reminded the receptionist that I was there. He called upstairs again, and apparently talked to the man who was to interview me. He said he would be down in a few minutes, so I went back to my seat.

And waited. And waited. I finally got up to look at the time again, and it was 11:50. Hmm. By this time I was definitely forming a not-so-good first impression of this particular company. I resolved to wait five more minutes. At 11:54, I put my coat back on and began gathering my things to leave, assuming that something had gone wrong or whatever and it just wasn't a good time. Then just as I was starting to zip up my coat, the interviewer finally showed up. It seems the administrative assistant was out to lunch, and the hiring manager didn't even find out I was there until 11:30, and then someone "tagged" him, as he put it, before he could get out to meet me. So my 11:00 interview started at 12:00.

He asked first to see my portfolio. In my past experience, interviewers have always asked their questions first, and then asked to see my work, so I thought that was a bit unusual, but proceeded. I expected that he would start asking me questions once we were finished going through the portfolio, but instead he asked me if I had any questions. I had a list of questions prepared of course, so I went ahead and asked them, and he answered them all to my satisfaction. After he responded to my last question, I waited a few seconds, because I was sure he'd want to ask me some questions, but he didn't. I flat-out asked him if he wanted to ask me any questions, but he said no. We said our "it was nice meeting you"s and shook hands, and I departed.

I think I made a good impression. I must have, at the very least, demonstrated how unflappable I am by not getting visibly upset at how long they kept me waiting. He seemed to like my qualifications, and said that I should be hearing again soon from HR. The interviewer didn't make it incredibly obvious, but I sort of got the feeling that he was a tad nervous (more than I was) and not used to interviewing people. (I wonder if he's an introvert like me?) I did find out some good things about the position and the company. I actually almost felt like I was the interviewer, not the other way around, which is something my workshop instructor said might happen.

Whoops. I seem to have written a book. Hope you didn't mind reading it. I tend to talk a lot more with a keyboard than I do with my mouth.

Gri"Job Hunter Extraordinaire"shny