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| This is how I feel. |
We have 50 weeks left - counting down to 09/30/2013 - then the door closes. We are RIF'd. I agreed to take an early morning telephone interview. Today at 5:00 a.m., I interviewed with the U.S. Army in Virginia for a position as a Visual Information Specialist. The job looks perfect for me. Taking the conference call, I was immediately at ease hearing their southern accents (I grew up in northern Florida).
"Tell us about yourself. What are 3 things we should know about you?" ... "I'm creative, an achiever, and I also keep up with new media technologies." Asked what I was looking for, I answered that "I want to work with people that I like and who like me"....There was silence at the other end... "How would you lead a team?... How do you describe your work procedure to someone who does not know how to do what you do?" I answered that, as a project lead, I like to ask team members what they do well and what they really want to contribute to the project. I also ask what they need in order to accomplish their project goals. I ask about their communication preferences (email, telephone, or both), and I ask for a time estimate. The only question which was difficult for me to answer was, "What would your coworkers say about you?" I answered that they would say I am a "nice person". However, I really don't know what my coworkers think or feel about me, I never asked them...
Maybe all that matters is that I want my coworkers to feel I am a nice person. I researched why this question is asked. For example, if asked by a manager, he/she wants to know if you are self-reliant or if you run to the manager for help about about every little thing or can't solve your own conflicts. If asked by a potential coworker, that person just wants to know if they can tolerate working with you day after day. So, in any case, I think my answer was reassuring because interviewers can already see from a resume if an applicant is qualified, they just want to know if they can stand working with the person.
Just for the record, I am posting the logo, website,
and marketing collateral I designed for the
"Bureau of the Fiscal Service"
- these were created by me in August, 2012:
Sounds like your interview had some of the standard questions and it also sounds like your had good creative answers. By the way, you are a nice person (as long as you like my baking!) anyway I want to write about my very first actual interview with about ten questions from the vast applications I have in the job hunting soup. Most of the questions were directed at application systems development and the certification and accreditation process. I appreciated the interview and the fact that someone showed interest. It is a smaller agency located in the DC area and sounds like a good place to work. I don't think I did very well in my answers. I do think I covered what they were asking about but I think I was too wordy! Anyway, there were no tell me about myself or requests for examples of strengths or weaknesses or even any customer relations type questions. It lasted about 40 minutes and had three people present but only one person asking the majority of the questions and one of the other two people did interject on one of the SDLC questions (software development life cycle)
ReplyDeleteAll in all I think I need to be more condensed in my answers with better descriptive terms.
Anyway thanks for setting up this blog
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ReplyDeleteAnneMarie, I as one of your coworkers, do like you. You're a joy to be around and everytime we chat I learn something more and interesting about you. You are a creative soul with a great spirit and I believe that good things are headed your way. A potential employer would be crazy if they didn't hire you right away.
ReplyDeleteBTW...Great blog.