Monday, July 15, 2013

Interviews are not for the faint of heart.

Some of my more memorable interviews through out the years.

Age 18- interview for a sporting goods store... I actually had my mother with me the day I filled out the application. One question stopped me dead in my tracks. I hate to lie.. but I was not about to admit on a form that my mother was reading over my shoulder that I had smoked pot before. So  I checked "no" to the drug question.  
Call back for the interview- was asked if there were any questions I wanted to change my answer for because I would be required to take a polygraph test. Told them about the pot.  During the polygraph test, my heart raced constantly. Still got the job, so guess they recognized a lot of the racing heart as stress?  

Age 19- first interview for medical assistant position. Went to the interview from our celebration lunch (after graduating tech school) where I had consumed an "I got potted" drink (7 ounces of various alcohols and lots of mixers). I was drunk for the interview. I couldn't hear the man very well, so I kept yelling "What?" at him. Needless to say, I did NOT get that job.

second interview for medical assistant job... this time I was in top form. Interviewed for a Cardiology and Internal Medicine group. Business manager had me draw his blood on the spot. I'm good.. I got that job before leaving the office. :)

Interview for a photographer position at JCPenney in 1989. Manager was also from the Phoenix, AZ area and her husband was also in the army (this was in VA). I got the job.. I think it's because of what we had in common. Leigh and I have been best friends ever since.

So last week, I went for an interview for an RN position on an orthopedic floor. I was interviewed by committee. That was a new experience for me. A group of three grilled me for 90 minutes. Guess it went well. Second interview was requested and the position was unofficially offered to me before I left the second time!

I am now waiting for the background check to come back and have the official offer made. Hopefully I'll be back at work very soon!

Monday, June 3, 2013

I thought getting through school was hard.

I can't believe it's been over a year since the last time I blogged. The short synapsis is that I passed my RN test in July in 75 questions!! I injured my left knee during my final semester of nursing school. Initially we thought it was just a sprain and after two visits to doctors, conservative measures were taken to help with the problem. I spent the summer unable to walk normal or for any length of time, so I could not job hunt. We also moved from Ft. Rucker to Huntsville. When my knee didn't improve, they finally did a MRI (wierd procedure, I can appreciate why some people have a hard time with the tube.). Turns out it wasn't just a sprain but a tear in teh medial meniscus. I had a left medial meniscus repair in September 2012.  Rehabilitation took most of the fall.

I started job hunting in January. Since then I've probably filled out about 50 applications and have interviewed once.  I thought getting the job would be the easy part. Huntsville has at least two local colleges that are spitting out 90-100 nurses each semester, and all the contacts I made during my clinicals in the Dothan area are of little use to me now that I am living so far north. Sigh... Well, my plan of action now is to keep up the effort here for the rest of the summer (the time period that Paul is not off on some project or another). If I can't break into a job by August, I'm going to head back down south and hopefully use some of my contacts to start working down there. With a 12 hour shift three days a week, I think it will be worth it. I can stay with one of my daughters during my time down south to work and spend the rest of the time up here. It'd only be for a year. But I'm really hoping to find something here soon.