I call it “running the interview gauntlet”. Today, I had my second interview with the engineering company I want to work for. It was mildly successful. The interviewer asked to give an example of a time I had to make a decision in a short time. I blanked. I had used up all my cool examples, like the time I had to fire a dance teacher, dealing with a horribly mutated final year project, working with international students who couldn’t understand me…

So, I said, “Well, I suppose you’re more interested in my thought processes and the steps I take rather than the actual decisions. I’ll use the example of deciding how to get to this interview…” And I talked for about three minutes about why I ended up taking a train to the city instead of driving.

I’m CRAZY.

I also had to do a group exercise with three fellow gauntlet-runners. I was the only engineer. The others came from finance, marketing and law backgrounds. The exercise was meant to test our ability to work in a team. Now, normally I am a very capable group member; I’ll take charge if there is a leadership void and sit back if things are chugging along without me. Today was almost overwhelming, though. As soon as the exercise began, the other three immediately took over — Rapid-fire talking, scenario analysis, statement of assumptions… They didn’t speak over each other but I could almost hear them tapping their feet impatiently until there was a break in the discussion so they could interject something insightful. I could barely get a word in edge-wise.

“Hmm,” I thought, “There needs to be quiet people in a team. I’ll be a quiet person.” I have learned that if you are quiet during discussion, then when you do talk, your words carry more weight. The importance of your words have not been diluted by previous waffle. However, I suspect that in a twenty-minute show-off-fest, being strategically quiet does not win you brownie points.

Don’t worry, friends. I did manage to say some things. Heck, I managed to use the word “promissory” completely in context. Who wouldn’t give me a job after that? 🙂