Face-to-Face Interview

After the phone interview, I was finally called for a face-to-face interview with the global business development manager.  The interview was scheduled at 10 AM but I decided to arrive in Makati two hours earlier.  The traffic can be quite terrible in the morning and I would not want to be late. 

I did not want to appear overexcited (I wasn’t actually) so I had breakfast at Jollibee and ate my meal leisurely.  I was calm and composed when I left the restaurant 30 minutes before my scheduled interview, which was what I really wanted.  What I was not able to consider was the weather.  The building I was to go to was just across Ayala Avenue but it was hot and I was wearing a long sleeved shirt with tie.  Factor in the fact that I perspire a lot at the least physical exertion.  That short walk in the underpass made my sweat trickle down my face and neck.  The result – a dark ring of sweat around the snugly fitting collar of my shirt.

The interview lasted an hour.  After the pleasantries, when I mentioned that it was hot outside to account for my sweat-drenched collar and he said that he also felt hot when he arrived, we got down to business.  The interviewer first made me recite what was already on my resume (quite a waste of time, I thought).  Then it was all situational questions. 

The questions themselves were not really that hard because I have quite a number of personal experiences to choose from.  After all, I have graduated more than a decade ago and I have worked in a number of different fields.  What was difficult was to think of the best example that would highlight my strengths, my decision-making skills, and other personal characteristics that would also be useful in the job I was applying for.  I had to sift through all my experiences in just a few seconds.  My mental faculties, especially memory and quick recall, seemed to have declined sharply these last few years and it was a bit of a struggle to come up with the examples in such a quick span of time but I was able to cite examples I believe to be the best.  It was in the delivery where I had some bit of a problem. 

I am not that articulate to begin with.  As a self-confessed introvert, I am more comfortable writing down my thoughts when I can pause and reflect on how I can best express an idea.  Especially now that I had no real practice speaking in English.  Writing which could have been the next best thing would have been nice, but I couldn’t find the time nor the mood to sit down and compose my thoughts.  In the end, it was just plain laziness, I think.  I read an article just a few weeks ago (I don’t know how true) about women being more likely to be nervous before a job interview but this makes them more prepared than men to face the interviewer.

I thought I was able to answer the questions right enough, at least to the best of my abilities and whatever experiences I had.  Perhaps, I should have played more of an actor and tried to charm my way. But hey, I’m certainly no actor and as charm goes, I’m probably as charming as a grinning skull and bones.