Interviewing is like Dating

by DRM2

dating and interviewing

Two months ago I was laid off from one of my favorite jobs to date. This wasn’t my first time being laid off, it was my third, yet this time was by far the most surprising. I remember leaving the office with my box of stuff in my hand dreading my least favorite part about being laid off, interviewing.

Interviewing for a job is like dating. It can be full of awkward moments, weird questions, and an ever present need to impress people. When the date is over you are left wondering, “Did I do it right?”

When you think about it, there is the online dating, the blind dates, or you call up the girl that you grew up with because they’re like a security blanket, a safe choice. Interviewing is the same; you start plastering your resume to the interwebs, and hope it will stick. People call you out of the blue to see if you are interested in an obscure position with a company you never heard of. You then go and call all your buddies, old colleagues and everyone you did business with in the past to see if they have something for you. The dates start lining up.

Personally, I don’t mind the actual interview. I don’t struggle with meeting new people, but interviewing isn’t haphazard conversation. Like a first date, everything is calculated, what you say is scrutinized, and with every answer provided you wonder if it was the right answer? Never having met the person before the interview, you decide whether to play it cool, or keep it close to the chest, or let it all hang out, letting them get to know the “true you.” Meanwhile, you question yourself as the person you interviewed with raises one eyebrow, chews on their tongue, or starts to flick their pen around their finger.

Finally when it’s over you leave them, you head to your car, close the door, put your head back on the head rest and sigh relief. The stress is temporarily over, but it doesn’t last long. By the time you get home the only thing you can think of is “will they call me back?”

Personally, I can’t comment on dating too much as I married my high school sweetheart, taking me out of the dating scene for some time now. However, I suppose life is humorous, and decided that I needed to have dating experiences through job interviews. Here’s to hoping that I’m out of the dating scene for a while now.

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Also read about why I’m writing.