Whoohoo (again)!
Good luck tomorrow - keep us updated.
And I completely blew the interview. Oh well, best to consider it a learning experience.
Oh, geez, I’m so sorry – what went wrong?
Details! What do you think you did wrong?
I’ll take the opportunity to follow up Hi, Neighbor’s post with one of my own… I do recruiting of engineering and other technical personnel in the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus areas, as well as restaurant/ retail management recruiting on the side. We are actually seeing a small uptick in jobs coming in, but it is not as robust as it has been in previous years. But keep your head’s up dopers, it does look like things are improving a little.
If anybody knows of openings for a new lawyers in central Ohio, you would have my eternal gratitude. I am sending out resumes and following every lead, but apparently everybody has the lawyerin’ needs filled at the moment.
Looks like I picked the wrong time to change career fields.
Hey, me too. Woo hoo!!!
If you feel comfortable, please share so that we, too, may learn from this experience. Plus, perhaps the teeming millions could give you some constructive criticism. Actually, interviews sometimes go sour at no fault of the interviewee. Mysterious, they are.
Try one of the political parties. They seem to need a lot of lawyers to challenge elections these days.
In no particular order:
The first problem for me is simply that it’s been a long time since I’ve interviewed, and even though I’ve had a few interviews over the last few months, that isn’t enough “sustained practice” to get me into that mindset.
The second problem was that I went into the interview with a lot of ambivalence, for a couple of reasons. First, the interview was through a headhunter and she was very vague about the position so while I had some sense of what I was interviewing for, it turned out to be quite different. Additionally, she was very clear that the head honcho is tough to get along with–the kind of guy that some people love and others hate. In that case, it’s a total crap shoot, because you never know until you’re in the door if you can work with the guy. I’ve had it go both ways–currently, there’s a guy I like working with that everyone else hates and another guy I hate working with that everyone hates also, so it’s definitely him and not me.
Third, as it became clear the position was quite different from what I thought the position was, it threw me off–it shouldn’t have, but it did. Which leads to…
Fourth, because I misunderstood what the position was, the questions I was prepared to ask became meaningless, and I didn’t have back up questions.
Fifth, I didn’t have a good set of generic questions to ask.
Sixth, I didn’t have a good mindset as to what I wanted to convey in the interview–if I had, I think I would have been able to shift gears once it became apparent that the position was somewhat different from what I’d been led to believe.
Seventh, I need to try to get to more interviews, because I definitely need the practice.
Also, it was interview by committee and I didn’t think they did such a great job at drawing me out–“So, why are you looking?” type questions…
I’d love to hear thoughts on what people think are good and bad questions. I think I do OK on answering questions, particularly when trying to explain why I’m a good fit, even if my experience isn’t quite what the interviewer is looking for. I do think I need to have a better mindset, and even if I’m ambivalent, treat it like I’m interviewing for my dream job…
Sorry to hear the disappointing news all. Here’s hoping the next interview goes more smoothly!
My interview this morning went really well, I thought. It was less “interviewy” and more just a good conversation about the business. I think I really clicked with the person I talked with, who is also the person making the hiring decision and the person I would be directly working for. I know she needs to talk to a few other people, but I also know she wants to get someone into the job quickly so it shouldn’t be a big drawn-out process. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me, please!
At last! One good story!
Sending more luck thoughts your way HelloNinja
I wasn’t sufficiently open. I’m normally rather reserved anyway which doesn’t help, but I kept giving closed answers to their questions where I should have given open answers, asking questions of my own.
And how might you prepare to do it differently next time?
I’m in the same situation in CA. Just got sworn-in last month, but I’ve been job hunting for almost 7 months now. I’ve had interviews for government jobs, but only 2 with private firms – both of them specializing in bankruptcy. A sign of the times, perhaps?
I actually got a second interview with one of them, and hopefully I’ll hear back something in the next couple of weeks.
I’m sure you’re aware of this resource, but just in case: at martindale.com you can do a search for law firms by location, practice area, size, etc.
I just wanted to let you all know that I got the job I posted about a few days ago!!! The salary was a bit higher than I was hoping for and I start on Tuesday! Thanks for all of your support. 2009 is going to be a good year for all of us, I know it. Good luck everyone!
I’ve got a test scheduled with the Census Bureau next week.
I’m also going to start an SDMB group on LinkedIn.
Robin
Woohoo! Congratulations. Wishing you joy and luck in your new career. 
The LinkedIn group has been established. The name is “Straight Dope Message Board”.
Robin