A Job Interview

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After becoming self-employed in 2015, I have got myself into a (albeit happy) little rut and daily routine in which I run my business. It’s a nice way to work, but over the last few months I’ve been feeling the need for a new challenge. As if the universe was trying to tell me something a friend tagged me in an advert on Facebook the other week for a major Birmingham website that was looking for Freelance Content Creators for their lifestyle section of the website. It was the perfect opportunity that I had been looking for – I’ve been a lifestyle blogger for six years, it would potentially be a chance to meet a whole bunch of new people within my field, I’d be able to write whatever I wanted about the city I have lived in and loved for most of my adult life and it wouldn’t impact on my social media business and freelance writing work that I already do. 

I applied. 

While I was excited about it, creating a blogging CV and cover letter was more difficult than I had expected. The last time I applied for a job was in 2012, which was a teaching job in a school where I had already worked with the headteacher. This was a completely different thing – I can draft a teaching CV relatively easily in a short amount of time if I ever needed to, but I found it difficult to change my mindset to blogging and social media and the skillset and achievements involved. 

Despite this, I managed to produce something that I was reasonably happy with, and I got an interview. 

And here began my next worry. I like talking to new people (and I can certainly talk about all things blogging and writing for hours) but I’m not exactly the most articulate person when speaking face-to-face. I have a tendency to ramble off into irrelevant tangents (especially if I get over-excited about something) eventually ending a discussion on a completely different point to the one I started with. Why use one word when twenty-five thousand will do? I made sure that I wrote down a list of notes that would hopefully be useful, went through a few answers to potential questions I may be asked, and prayed that I wouldn’t make a total idiot of myself.

I need not have worried, as such. I actually had a blast – my interviewers were nice, down-to-earth people and easy to talk to so I relaxed far quicker than I expected to. I liked the questions, which were a lot more fun than the ‘can you tell us about the schemes of work you’ve done for…’ questions that I’m used to and I got the chance to talk about blogging and social media without anyone’s eyes glazing over.

However. 

In the middle of the questions one of the interviewers mentioned my cat, which caught me off guard for a second – he was scanning through my blog as we were talking. I then realised that one of the most recent posts on the blog was my complaint about my cat being a ‘jerk’, my pointless attempts to administer eye drops when he was grumpy about having a thermometer up his bum and his obvious plans to kill me in my sleep later.

Dammit. 

Out of six years worth of writing with well over a thousand lifestyle posts – some of which I’m actually quite proud of – THAT was the post appearing at the forefront of the blog as an example of what I do, along with a set of happiness quotes that I had forgotten to format properly so it covered a massive amount of my home page.

Again, dammit.

Thankfully, I had submitted a whole selection of posts within my application so I could prove that I didn’t just write about my cat’s bottom, and it was a point I could laugh about by (quickly) explaining his secret plans to ruin my days off, but urgh. 

Still, rambling and discussions about my cat aside, I got the job. I’m now a freelance content creator for a fantastic website in Brum. 

Not a bad way to end the month! 

 

What about you guys? Have you made an idiot of yourself during a job interview?

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58 thoughts on “A Job Interview”

  2. First and foremost, congratulations, that sounds like the perfect fit! Second, your point about how you “live” online if valuable: your personality and POV is in every tweet, Facebook post, blog and Instagram photo…not to suggest that any self-censor, but remember that these posts send out a “who you are” profile all day and night!

    • Haha! Totally – the irony being that I have just spent the last few weeks giving workshops in a few different schools about social media and creating a presence that represents who you are as a blogger haha! Thanks John!

  3. Oh, I’ve had a couple of pretty dismal interviews in my time, but I’m at the point where I don’t even get nervous anymore, thank goodness! Congratulations on the job–you totally deserve it!

  5. I wish I had a love button to hit for this one! I am a terrible person on interviews. I am so backward when I meet new people, I freeze! I can talk while writing to strangers, like on the blog, but, put me face to face with people and I am a doofus! I think I have had maybe two interviews where I totally didn’t blow it. I once had a successful interview and then had to take a typing test (long before computers) I sat down, flew through the test, handed it in and only then did I realize I had my fingers on the wrong keys to begin with and I actually typed maybe one correct word for the whole test. I am much bolder when no one can see me!! Plus, I love your cat post!

    • Haha! I’m the same – doofus is definitely the right word to use when I meet new people! Sorry about the typing, at least you got one word right haha! Thanks lovely

  9. You shine, Suzie, even when you think you’re dog paddling in a swamp. Congratulations on your new position. You’ll do a great job and everything in your wake will be shining more brightly. Now go give your cat the evil eye – and big grin.

  11. I can’t say that I made an idiot of myself but for sure I deliberately did all I could to make myself into an alleged pain in their ASS if they hired me.

    Recently, I had an e-mail offering me an editing job with some publication on the East Coast. I Googled them to find out of they were real, and they looked real but I was still suspicious.

    I wasn’t interested and even suspected it might be some kind of SCAM, but I couldn’t resist. I replied and told them the only job I was interested in was to become that publication’s CEO/Editor-in-Chief/Publisher, and my pay would have to start at $200,000 annually with full benefits, and I would work from home on the West coast out of my home-based office. I added that I was willing to fly east once a year to hold a staff meeting with all the managers and editors that worked under me since I’d be the #1 boss. I also wrote the job also had to come with a Golden Parachute if they decided to fire me and it would have to be five years worth of pay.

    They even replied and said they’d make a note of the job I wanted and keep it on file. That was good for a loud laugh.

  12. Congratulations on the job, not an easy feat to achieve when you’ve been out of the mainstream working environment. I can certainly relate to starting a conversation on one topic and ending on another! Wouldn’t it be interesting we had a self corrector for speech like we do for texting 😉 Animals hold a magical interest for most people and for many animals are more interesting than humans!

  16. Congratulations! You got the job and that’s awesome!
    I have a similar take that happened in my most recent interview, I rambled on and on about a certain project I worked on and that I was totally proud of when the question was simply to speak of the technology used! Lol 😂 I thought I messed it up for sure…long story short, I’m starting with them from Monday, so I guess they didn’t mind me rambling 🤣

  18. That’s great! Well done you! I’ve had loads of interviews in my time with varying degrees of success, I probably have made an idiot of myself at a few,

  22. Congrats! I think the cat post maybe helped you. It shows the more human side of people and the real-life situations we go through. No matter how weird/crazy it may seem to anyone else. 🙂

  25. Well done in getting the job and sharing the process. I hate cv and interviewing in general.

    I appreciate you sharing as a blogger applying for a job… it such interesting thought and how different the cv has too be, and that we cant escape from what has been posted. So many lessons learnt from your post.

    Have fun in new job.. and thank for sharing the process

    • Absolutely – there’s nothing that I have posted on the blog or social media that I consider to be offensive, but it’s certainly a reminder to be aware at all times what you put out there!

  26. Congratulations on your new job!! I recently got a job in marketing (my first job too!) because of my blog and sometimes I look back on previous articles and cringe at the grammar/spelling mistakes but it’s all about content and your content rocks, you’re one of my favourite blogs to read!

    • Ooh congratulations! Yeah I’m totally with you – it’s sent me into a spiral of wanting to delete the lot and start all over again haha! And thanks so much, I really appreciate it!

      • Thank-you! I’m super exicted about it 😂😊 but yep I’ve been there and doe that! It’s so weird sometimes to think someone sitting opposite you has read your blog especially because readers seem miles away from you when you’re actually writing it 😂

      • Totally haha! I’ve always been really lucky when meeting people who have read the blog, but then they mention something and I think ‘how do they know about that?’ and then realise I must have written about it. How is the new job going?

      • 😂😂 that must be a nightmare! I forget what I’ve told people now nevermind what’s on a blog 😂 I start in June, an after uni start date as I’m currently taking my final exams

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