Well, today I have a job interview - actually the first step of one. If I don’t get this job I won’t be able to remain in Newcastle University, as a funding proposal submitted by my supervisor has been rejected. So, I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but I’m sooo nervous.
Good luck! I’d suggest you need to think of it as more “Boy, are they missing something if they don’t get me while my price is low” verus “Gosh am I nervous, what am I going to do if I don’t get this”. Many of us underestimate our true value, which is not our best interests.
Wooohoo! Knock 'em dead!
Good luck! I agree with ShibbOleth. Remember, you can do the job, the job is perfect for you, just tell them why. The best thing is also the hardest, relax, be yourself, and treat the interview as a conversation.
Well, it looks like they have an internal candidate - a student of the lecturer heading this project. That means I’m probably going to get the “you’re so good but we have someone better suited” speech tomorrow at the actual interview. Well, it’s understandable (if the guy was involved from the start, who better than him?). It’s just annoying that it happened here and now.
Oh, and another candidate was my first office mate here in the Uni. Bit of a surprise, that, and he didn’t seem pleased we were competing for the same place. But he cheered up and said he hopes we impress the boss so much he hires us both, which is a nice thing to say but won’t happen.
Unless they start you off with the speech, treat the interview as normal. First, it is good practice. Second, you never know what might happen. I beat out an internal candidate for my current job.
I once went to an interview where the lady gave me a spiel before my ass could even warm the chair about how much they’d prefer to hire internally. It was a pretty big let down, and put a bummer on the entire interview for me. There were phone calls and e-mails, before I finally drove out to East Bumblefuck Nowhere just to be given a whole song and dance within seconds of sitting down that they’re looking to hire internally.
They ended up going with an internal employee, and I’ll never know if it’s because they already had their minds made up, or if I was so visibly dejected that I spoiled the interview myself. I certainly *felt *dejected by her disclaimer before the interview even began. So yeah, don’t let it get you down.
I’m back from the interview (and a cup of tea afterwards). There was no we-have-someone-better speech, and it looked like they were genuinely interested in what I did. It looks like there is some overlap between what I did and what they want to do, so while I cannot just reuse the whole work I did straight, I am used to think in that domain, and there are lots of concepts I can reuse with no modification.
The interesting thing was that I was the last to give a presentation yesterday, but I was the first to be interviewed today. It’s probably a random occurrence, but wonder if it means anything?
Today I happened to meet a friend who works in the same research group of the lecturer I was interviewed by. Actually there was an internal candidate, they had already assigned him an office and announced his official hiring yesterday. That’s actually ok, because it would make sense that the guy just knows more about the new project since he was working on it for a long time.
What bothers me is the length the interviewers went to tell us applicants how the competition was open and it was a level field and so on. I think it’s not professional to tell us this kind of lies.
But hey, any interview is good practice.
Good luck.