I had a job interview today. I hate the job search process; I'm really not very good at any part of it, from coming up with appropriate things to say in a cover letter to the vague, open-ended questions asked at the interview. I'm really uncomfortable sitting down face to face and talking with strangers, and I'm sure that despite all efforts to hide it, some shows through.
Today's interview was like none I've ever had before. First off, I've sort of been hiding the fact that I'm looking for another job from one of the people I work for, who has been known to get petty and vindictive when she feels people are leaving her high and dry. She's still very cold to the guy who had my position before me, even though it's been well over a year. My own direct supervisors, as well as everyone else I've talked to about it, have all been really supportive; my boss is the one who originally pointed out the job listing to me. Hiding my interview from her got twice as complicated earlier in the week when I discovered that she was going to be at an all-day training in the same building where I was scheduled to be. I managed to dodge her today, but several other people from the organization saw me there. Things will definitely be interesting when she comes back to the office Monday morning. I've never really had to hide a job search before, and people have definitely noticed I've kept to myself and been quiet and unobtrusive for the last week or so.
This is also the first time I've gone looking for a job when I didn't desperately need one, either due to unemployment or hating the current position. It was really weird to feel no real pressure to get the job. Sure, it would be nice to have the extra money, but we seem to be doing ok on our current salaries right now. I enjoy what I'm doing and the people I work with, so it'd be no real hardship to remain there.
None of my previous interviews required a portfolio of web design work before. I've been a web developer for several years now, but in every case, I applied for a more general IT job, and got the web added to my responsibilities since they found out I already knew it. I spend a crazy couple of days printing out samples of various sites I've worked on and examples of my source code, wondering just how much they'd want to see. Turned out, they wanted to go over each of the sites I listed with me, then have their more technical people review the Perl and VBScript later on.
I think things went pretty well. The lack of pressure helped be to relax a little, and I was in my element when the two technical people in the interview group posed programming-specific questions, particularly about how and why I'd designed some of the sites the way I did. Now comes two weeks of waiting for a call back, which I'll most likely spend second guessing myself. Did I really do as well as I think I did? Am I doing the right thing looking for a new job when the economy is so unstable? Did I remember to turn off the iron?