Not Another Phone Interview, Head Honcho, Fear

I finished two different interviews within the last two days.  The first one was a phone interview with an economics consultant company.  They have visited UCSD multiple times in the past and apparently they have been looking for some "data systems" programmer since January.  Since the position was listed as wanting someone with 0 to 3 years of experience, I applied for it and received an email from a recruiter who set up the telephone interview.  The telephone interview was not good to say the least.  It lasted less than 10 minutes and I got the feeling the guy on the phone was unimpressed.  Safe to say that path is a no go.  On the positive side, I was doing a lot better on this phone interview than the ones before, though I pretty much said all the wrong things.

Second interview was with the regional manager of the government internship.  I felt the interview went poorly.  As stated before, I didn't have physiological reactions during previous interviews and it was same for this one.  My mind however was the complete opposite, it was like it was too static and hardened.  Any deviation from what I expected, I would stall.  When he asked some of the questions he asked, I got the feeling he expected a longer answer.  Even when asked something as basic as "tell me about yourself/what are your hobbies?", I froze up and gave a very short and simple answer.  Facepalm.  I should have prepared myself for that question.  Despite my craptacular answers, I did not sense anything from the regional manager.  His body language, facial expression etc. did not show any signs of annoyance or disinterest.  Either he wasn't annoyed or he's really good at hiding it.  How this path will play out is up in the air.

After applying for all these internships and doing these interviews, I've come to the realization that I am really, really screwed.  I'm not getting any responses for the internships I applied to for some reason, and the ones where I do get interviews are either denied or can't be determined if I'll get accepted or not.  If this is the case then I really need get a masters in computer science instead.  The pharm company already found someone and Another government internship finally got back to me and I applied for a payroll position at my school, hopefully something comes from it.

Note to self:  Practice interviews more.  Make mind more fluid and dynamic.

Da Gubermint, Internships

I finally heard back from the federal and city government internships I applied to several months ago.  Surprisingly, they wanted me to take the first parts in the interview process.  For the city internship, I have to take an "exam" to see what knowledge I possess at 8:30 am on a Saturday.  The exam was brutal.  It was four hours long, consisting of two parts with 140 questions total.  It was like taking a final exam that I never studied for. While I believe I did well on the English/grammar portion, the accounting portion was a whole different story.  The accounting portion consisted of knowledge of the laws of government accounting and accounting calculations.  The calculations I can do, but questions regarding laws were nothing more than luck.  Whether I passed or not, I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

For the government internship, I had to do a face to face interview with four different people.  Two of them were assistant managers and the two other were employees.  It was a pretty normal interview process even though it was for a government agency, and like the interview at the large tech company, I didn't stammer that much.  However, I may have given unsatisfactory answers to their questions and I may have actually smiled too much, which may have freaked out the first female interviewer.  My body language and eye contact was decent, aside from what I listed above there wasn't anything of note when I analyzed my own behavior afterwards.  In the end it was okay.

After doing the interviews at the government internship and the tech company, I realized something odd.  I realized that my body doesn't react during the interviews.  I don't sweat, my breathing and heart rate doesn't increase, I don't flinch or twitch or anything physiological that would indicate nervousness. Really weird.  Seems like I conditioned my body better than my mind for situations like interviews.

On another note, the response rate for the internships I applied for have been absolutely disappointing.  I applied to probably a little bit over a dozen now and there has been only one response aside from the government ones.  Ironically, I keep getting responses for full time jobs that I apply to.  Don't understand what's up with that.

Face To Face

I went to the interview at the large tech company yesterday.  I had to do three back to back interviews with three different managers.  Surprisingly, I did a lot better than I thought I would.  I didn't stammer as much as I did when I was doing the telephone interview with the manager at the pharmacy company nor did I freeze up.  I was even able to immediately answer questions I wasn't expecting.  I guess four years of psychological and social self-training is starting to pay off.  Though I felt it went well, I think I should ask more questions when the interview is nearly over.  I ask the second interviewer several questions and she asked if I had anymore, when I said no, she asked me if I'm sure.  I may not have made a good impression for that interviewer. I also could have improved my body language.  I realized that I was slightly slouching the whole time when I should have sat up straight.  I also think I was looking out through the corner of my eye when talking to two of interviewers when they sat next to me rather than across from me.  Amount of eye contact was good though.  Whether I will get accepted or not will depend on them.

Despite the scorching weather in the Bay Area yesterday and having to wait almost an hour before the interview, the experience I gained from the three interviews will be helpful in the future.