Mark's puzzling job interview

[marky]

I went to this job interview today that I just found baffling. I mean, I was so well prepared. I studied common interview questions, bought a new shirt, pumped myself up, felt great about it.
So I get there and these three people, a man and two women...just seemed so...indifferent. They didn't really ask me any questions at all beyond a few simple shit ones like "where do you live?" etc. etc. It was so twighlight zone-ish, these people were so indifferent, they just didn't take any of it seriously, blah blah, man I left there feeling both relieved I hadn't been held under the microscope with questions, but also feeling let down, like it was just a total crap shoot who was gonna get that job and I hadn't been able to have much of an influence over the outcome at all.
Those people were from outer space, man, robots. Where were the interview questions they were supposed to ask me? I had to butt in just to name a few of the reasons why they should hire me!

It's not like I'm going to die if I don't get it, at least I'll keep my health insurance, so I win either way, but I remain confused by the experience.

Other than that I've felt this need to reveal that the new roomate in my building just so happens to be from Wales and has a cool little sturdy Union Jack lunchbox that says "Made In China" in tiny letters on the bottom! Ha ha!

This was really something him being from Wales, because you see I've been trying and trying to guess his accent for about 2 weeks now. As an anglophile I have to do this, you see. It's a compulsion, a test, a challenge. At times his accent was southern England, at times it was northern England, at times it was very possibly Scottish but not very Irish, and mostly if I had to guess it would have been Austrailian although usually Austrailian folks' accents hit me fairly quickly, I usually recognize Austrailian straight away. I also couldn't pin it on New Zealand, though I did toy with the idea. I just couldn't place this guy, and it bugged me. So of course it's Wales he's from. What a trip. I visited a Wales castle once, but don't believe I've actually met someone from Wales before.

One day he said "So you like some of the English music, huh?"

He's okay, I just wish he were about 10 years older and 5 years older than me so he could talk about more of the real PUNK STUFF, but he's okay.

I have fantasies about perusing vinyl in some record shop in the U.K. probably way out in nowhere...boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of 7" punk vinyl. It's my dream record shop in the sky. It's got all kinds of 7"es (45's, rather) from U.K. circa '77-'82 and they all cost nothing! Yes that's right, they cost nothing. In my fantasy record store in the sky in the U.K. Every time you go into the next room there's billions more and they never end, these little vinyl records in the sky. Oh okay, maybe they don't cost nothing, but less than $8 apiece would be spectacular.

Dream on, is a tedious song, by Aerosmith.

You guys think I'm being funny but last night I actually dreamt I was an overnight guest in Saddam Hussein's palace. No shit. His two sons were dead like they are right now, but yet he was still in power in the dream, and looked like he used to. There was a woman there, but not his wife, that I didn't like for some reason. I was terrified the whole time that he would kill me because I was an American, but also began to suspect he was letting me live as a diplomatic maneuver for other reasons. Even though I stood in the same room with him a few times during the dream, I escaped alive and unharmed, checked out of the the Saddam Hussein mansion, and that was it. When he spoke it was as though there was no expression on his face. No emotion, animation, nothing.

Jeez. Last time I had a job interview I just dreamt the night before I didn't get the job. What's next?

[Maverick]

Maybe the dream means you should get a job in Iraq.

[mccutcheon]

I also want to say this is brilliant writng and I think it is just great that you post it hewre, istead of other placers where you might get paid for it.

[marky]

Thanks, McC. It had kindof occured to me as an afterthought somewhere along the way that I had written it in your narrative sort of style, but I wasn't trying to impress anybody with my writing, just wanted to get the ideas across.

I think some of the stuff you have written on the New York thread has been great and fun to read. I liked that one where you started it out talking about Spalding Grey and suicide and then came back to that topic at the end, almost like songs sometimes do. I bet there's a real technical musical term for that but I don't know it.

Anyway, the real reason I'm posting on this thread is I got the job of the interview I described here. I feel kindof bad now though because when they asked me in for a second interview and the guy asked me how much pay I was looking for, I deliberately shot it pretty low (but still more than I've ever made) because I was just so fucking desparate for the damn job. Since then I have come to believe that they would have expected to pay me more and this nice lady there kindof hinted that they should pay me more. SO in a month's time when they realize I'm reliable (the guy before me was really unreliable, so they keep expecting me to bolt any minute or really fuck up) I'm going to ask for a pay increase.

I'm not stupid, I mean, I know how it goes, when someone asks you how much pay you're looking for, you're not supposed to say anything, let THEM tell you what kind of pay they're willing to give you, but I was like a tightly wound ball, I was willing to do anything to get that damn job. Hell, it may have been my only chance to edge out the competition, who knows? Maybe if I'd said a higher amount, they would have given the job to someone else.

[Dr Balthazar]

Mark, that is possible. It is also possible that employers would respect you more if you asked for more money. The trick is to know what the market rate is and be able to give believeable reasons why you would be worth it. But congrats on the job!