Wednesday, September 10, 2014

A marathon runner's approach to interviewing

Posted by Katie

This summer I have been attempting to find a job and have developed a sort of routine (as I do for most things) for the in person interview. In my field and at my experience level the interview typically involves a 1 hour presentation (by me), followed by 7+ hours of interviews usually each 30min-1 hour and with 1-4 people at a time. So in short... it is a long long day and being on your A game is critical.  So below is my routine and for the runners reading this blog it may look a little familiar....

Pre-Interview day
  • Extra hydration all day
  • Choose outfit and shoes, lay out all items for speedy transition
  • Dinner: pasta with pesto and chicken
  • Sleep: as much as possible! old-lady bedtimes encouraged
Interview day
  • Wake up: unnecessarily early
  • Breakfast: bagel sandwich
  • Drive to start: also unnecessarily early (just in case!)
  • Pre interview pit stop: usually a local starbucks to spend the extra 1.5 hours that I accidentally have
  • Emergency provisions: water bottle, and secret stash of energy chews in breifcase
    • Yup you read that right... I bring energy chews (honey stinger aka candy) on every interview
 
#ready
So there you have it, my interview routine, which if you just swapped out the word interview for marathon... would be exactly the same. Personally I find there is something really comforting about routine. Cross your fingers for me that this crazy routine leads to gainful employment soon! 
 
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6 comments:

  1. melissamchenSeptember 12, 2014 at 6:26 PM

    Haha I love this! Job searching is kind of the worst, and I certainly don't envy you, but it's great that you have a fun attitude about it :). Anything that's akin to marathons can't be all THAT bad... Good luck with the rest of the search!!

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  2. RachelSeptember 14, 2014 at 4:56 PM

    Love this post! Glad the interview went well. There is one rule that works here, too- NEVER wear brand new shoes without practicing in them first! Also, I spent 1.5 hours at a Starbucks before an interview, too (and got a parking ticket while I was in there! Oops).

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    Replies
    1. KTMegs01September 15, 2014 at 12:25 PM

      Ha I did make the new shoes mistake once... never again!

      Delete
    2. RachelSeptember 15, 2014 at 12:58 PM

      In an interview, or a race? :p (Mine was an interview)

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    3. KTMegs01September 15, 2014 at 9:29 PM

      Actually I've done both! New shoes for the interview was a super painful mistake, tons of blisters. The race actually wasn't so bad, which was surprising... a half marathon on shoes I had never worn, in a brand I never buy.

      Delete
    4. RachelSeptember 16, 2014 at 10:14 AM

      Haha, yeah based on my new shoes in an interview experience (pain/misery), I probably would've preferred the mistake to have occurred in a half marathon :)

      Delete

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