These were thankfully rather normal interviews.
I had the chance to interview for where I had interned. You know that saying “You can never go home again”? Well, it seems that once you leave where you intern, they really don’t want to see you come back. I have obviously been looking for work for awhile, and I have kept in contact at least peripherally with people I worked with at my internship. They knew I was looking for anything, I had made the range of the subtle to the obvious statements relating to working there if anything opened up. I felt confident that if something did open up, they would drop me a line. (You’ll have to trust me that my internship went well and I was well liked while I was there.) Anyway, it was with a bit of surprise that I ran across the job listings from my former internship online on a job board. No one dropped me a note, no mention of it from the multiple people I had known. Maybe it was an oversight… somehow. So I dropped my resume thru their online system. Within a day or two I got a phone call from them.
They passed me thru the first round of interviews and straight to the second, but I had this odd feeling that something was strained and not quite right. I didn’t give it too much thought until later. I had the interview with the senior figure, and I will admit that I may have made one fatal misstep. I acted very familiar. I mean, I had been working with everyone there for 2 years. We had gone for lunch and drinking and to a couple events together. I was friends with people. It’s hard not to act familiar, but I got a bit of a sense that they didn’t want me to be friendly and familiar. After the interview I stopped over and spoke to people I knew in the office. I had a vague impression that it wasn’t an oversight that I hadn’t been contacted, and that I had created an uncomfortable situation they didn’t have an ‘out’ from when I found their job postings.
I question what I would do if offered a position.
Job interview 13 was amazing. It was in DC, I drove out and stayed overnight. It was the best interview I have ever done. I was stoked. Federal employment, directly on point with several of my specialties. I was incredibly excited by the prospect of this job. I continued to be excited for the next few weeks. A month out from the interview and my sense of excitement has turned a bit sour as my best interview apparently wasn’t good enough.