job search, pt. 3

dude. so i did not get the call this afternoon that i'd expected.

instead, i was awakened at about 8 a.m. this morning by the singing of my cell phone (i've got avenged sevenfold's "bat country" as the ringer :-T). i let it go to voice mail since i was in absolutely noo condition to exchange morning pleasantries at the time, and when i listened to ithe message later, i found the message to be from the executive assistant of the office that wanted to hire me. i was told that i should expect a call later that afternoon.

oo-kay. so i hung around, waiting for the call to come. if the call came, then i would cancel another interview appointment that i had set up for today; if the call didn't come, i would proceed with that other interview.

well, i didn't hear back from that office. and so i headed downtown for yet another interview. my fifth? my sixth? i don't know anymore; i've lost count. :-P

but i'm seriously on a roll now -- today's interviewers totally loved me!

for the first time ever, i was interviewed by two men -- one a youthful-looking japanese-american guy and the other an older, portly, tall hispanic man.

i've decided that i really like being interviewed solely by men. :) they were won over by my personality. and i have to say that i did milk it a bit by smiling a lot at them. so by the end of it, yup, i could tell they liked me.

there were some odd moments, though. like, there was this one question that they asked me about my ability to get along with even crusty, ill-mannered people. i had originally answered quite honestly that i get along with everyone. and i totally do! but they totally pushed it -- in a light-hearted manner, of course -- but it still leads me to believe that there might be crusty people who work in that office and they wanted to gauge my ability to either diffuse situations or not get caught up in that kind of office drama.

how i finally resolved the question to them was like this:

even if i was around a crusty, mean, or ill-mannered person, i don't let that sort of thing get me down. usually when a person acts in a negative way, it's probably for the sake of getting attention and also because of a desire to be heard. so in such a case, i listen to the person and, instead of going down to that person's level, i engage with him/her and bring him up to my level.

cheesy answer i know. but they liked it. LOL and the hispanic man said, "i'm sure your bubbly personality would work to defuse any situation."

i have never in my life been accused of having a bubbly personality. it made me laugh.

i wanted to say, "dude! bubbly personality my butt! i'm a total bitch and don't you forget it!"

and then there was another odd moment when the younger japanese-american guy asked me about my education -- and by this time, i've learned to expect that kind of question. his question was, "why? with the education you have, why this job?"

and what's a girl to do but be honest?

i told him pretty matter-of-factly that i'd make more money in that position than i would doing anything else at this point. i told him that i'm not a full-fledged attorney because i haven't passed the bar and that it's pretty expensive taking the bar and that i do have bills to pay. and i told him that my education has been more of a handicap to me than anything else lately. he seemed to understand and appeared to be satisfied with my answer.

oh, i should mention that there was an exam, too -- before the interview.

OMG. it was the most stressful pre-interview exam i've had up to this point!

it required me to use . . . .

microsoft excel.

O_O

basically, for the exam, i was ushered into an unused computer workstation in the office where an excel spreadsheet was already open on the computer screen. i was given the test situation on a sheet of paper in front of me:

a total amount of $ xxx,xxx was given to Entity A as part of its budget request, and Entity A apportioned this money out to six programs that it administers at certain percentages. then, for each of the amounts doled out to the programs, there was yet another set of percentages dictating how that money given to each of the programs that should be allocated for federal, state, and local purposes.

i know -- like, huh?!

ugh! don't even ask me. i've no idea. i sat stupefied for about a good 2 minutes, reading and re-reading the sheet of paper in front of me and then at the spreadsheet on the monitor. the spreadsheet already contained three tables pre-formed for me, and they were only half-filled with data. my task: complete the tables and determine the correct amount to be allocated to each program using excel's formula function.

good hell!!

and the reason why there were three tables on the screen instead of one was because after you determined the original values and allocated all the money based on the given percentages, there followed two other questions that required you to alter the data -- decrease total budget by 10%, increase the hourly rate by 10%, something like that -- which of course would affect all the other values that were in the original calculations.

what the --! holy fuck!!!

i did it, though. i hauled ass and finished the tables with about 6 minutes to spare, but i felt a bit desperate and frenetic whilst doing so but also felt like wryly laughing out loud to myself. i did use the formula function, and i think i cheated in some ways. but ugh! i got it done.

i'm so glad i used to be an auditor, though. i never, ever thought i'd say that. but it's probably the only reason i was able to pull crap out of my butt for that damned excel exam.

i later learned from my interviewers that some applicants have actually left the interview when they saw that they were required to, like, do math and be familiar with microsoft excel. :-T

anyhow, after i left that interview, i felt really good about it.

and i didn't hear back from that other place that had been interested in hiring me at all . . . .

. . . until 9 p.m.

yes, i was called, after business hours, at 9 p.m.

i didn't actually hear my phone so didn't know that the lady had called me -- but in her voice message, she apologized for not getting back to me and repeated that she wanted to hire me. she's still waiting on number 4 for his decision, but she hoped that i had not taken employment elsewhere yet.

LOL ugh. what a whirlwind. seriously. i think i'm done with interviews. i'd rather not do anymore. they just take so much out of you! you really have to be on your toes and alert, and there's also a bit of adrenaline pumping through your veins. so when it's finally over, it just ends up leaving me quite limp.

and yet i cannot stop now -- not when i've yet to have a firm job offer.

all i know is that i have to work a.s.a.p. i hadn't counted on such a long delay between the end of the bar exam and being able to start working. if i start working in april, which looks to be the case, i'll be hit pretty hard and be even more strapped for cash. the idea of not being able to see a first paycheck until may?? omg. it really makes me fret.

ay de mi. ah well.

things will work out. they always do.

if not, i can always go the ashley alexandra dupre route and get a pimp to get me some business.

;-T