Down the Line With Mira: My First Job Interview

Not too long ago, I participated in a Zoom interview for a summer job. I guess you could say I was unprepared. To my surprise, the interview was conducted in a very strict manner (so much for conversation-style). She got right down to it with pen and paper. Oh god, I thought. I'm really in for it now.

For someone who basically winged it, I thought I did all right. Perhaps I should have anticipated the “three strengths and three weaknesses” question, but for some reason I didn’t think they would go there (bad on my part, right?). I’m not really sure what they want me to say when they ask about weaknesses, as I’ve really not contemplated all the things I'm bad at. Anyway, I didn’t expose myself too much, and, if I did, I tried to make it sound at least a little heroic, because, as they say, nobody's perfect (I hope you are interpreting my tone correctly with that one).

As for questions about the job position, I tried to play up what they wanted to hear, and play down what they didn’t. I didn’t lie, but to be honest, I was put on the spot. At one point, my interviewer asked me to share two things in my life that were funny, and, surprisingly, I drew one FAT blank. I REALLY did not expect her to ask me that question, and everything is funny until you actually have to explain it to someone else, right? I don’t even remember how I answered, but I’m pretty sure she (by the awkward smile she gave me while I was racking my brain for literally anything funny) felt my pain.

After barely getting through the funny question, she then asked for two things that happened to me that were silly! *Sigh* Here we go again. If she thought my last answer was bad, wow, prepare for me to outdo myself. I don’t think I’ve ever done something in my entire life where after a long moment of retrospection I’d smile to myself and say, “Wow, Mira, that was so silly!” The seconds were adding up, and that's how you enter the danger zone. If you start thinking about how much time you’re taking to answer the question instead of looking for an answer to the question, you are royally screwed. Fortunately, I did not let myself say that I haven’t done two silly things.The idea clawed at me for a moment, but that would have marked my defeat.

I dredged on through the hour (longer than expected) and finished off the interview to the best of my ability. I mean, for my first interview I thought I performed just handsomely, and nothing online could have prepared me for some of the more “out of the box” questions that were asked. All in all, I'm happy for the experience, and It’s something I get to check off my bucket list, which I'm very excited about. Hopefully, in the future, when I’ve crossed more items off my bucket list, and if someone asks me about two silly things that I’ve done, I’ll have the perfect answer.