Job Interview #7 - Post Mortem

I'm not entirely proud or entirely ashamed of my behaviour today. I think I can partly blame it on the insane heat here and the fact that I had to travel without a portable air conditioner. Today TPTB issued an extreme heat advisory - I'm not sure what this means exactly, but it means that it's hot enough to warrant opening up cooling centres around the city. This posed a serious problem for me in dressing for my interview as most of my suits are double lined - ordinarily this does not pose a problem as most office environments are sub zero in temperature and when travelling to/from an office usually it's early enough in the day that it's tolerable or I strip down to skirt/tank top. Also, I accept that I'm going to get the dreaded back sweat. Today I went without pantyhose and wore a knee-length black dress with grey pinstripe lab coat-esque jacket [I love it - it was part of the first suit I ever bought and succeeds in making me look professional and a bit tall...errr - taller]. By the time I got to the office I was wet with sweat. So gross. I tried to clean up a bit by blotting with tissues and such, but I still looked really shiny [the office did have a/c but it was not very cool]. While making small talk with the interviewer they were shocked to hear that it was even mildly warm outside...so I think they didn't understand why I was so overheated. I have no idea how they got to work, but every single person I saw was wearing black and things like long-sleeved dresses, skinny jeans, crazy heels and even...sweaters! Others wore Converse trainers. Fiji Water was offered. The whole vibe was hipsters meet The Pussycat Dolls [the CEO looks a bit like that Nicole woman from PCD and others seemed to be emulating that style to varying degrees of success]. I had to force my eyeballs into the correct and upright position as they were busy rolling out of my head.

The interview went quite swimmingly [okay, other than being asked if I had ever been an office manager - to which I struggled valiantly to not say "why yes, I have - I just decided to not put this on my resume or cover letter when applying for an OFFICE MANAGER JOB] until we got to the rather predictable, although perhaps does not crop up as often as one might think - where do you see yourself in five years? *sigh* I struggle with this, I really do. How to answer this in a situation such as this? Allow me to provide background on the job - it is a dual role - part office manager [yknow - the person that tells you if your wardrobe has gotten too casual for casual Fridays and to clean up after yourselves in the communal office kitchen and who also orders office supplies and tracks your holiday time], part executive assistant. No room to move in the organization and certainly not to be involved in the media/public relations side of things. This is the only reason I applied for the job - to possibly get involved with the client side of things, even if way on the periphery. So - how do I answer the question? If I end up being an EA to a Pussycat Doll/office manager in five years, please remind me to throw myself in front of a train poste haste. Instead I pussyfoot around the answer a bit, but then the interviewer makes the mistake of saying "that's perfectly okay - a lot of people don't really know what they want" and bam - I make the mistake of telling her exactly what I want. The thing is - I can't have what I want - I've been terrifically unsuccessful @ pursuing a career in both fine art and journalism, but the bottom line is that I still need a job. I really need to think of a better lie for that question. And practice saying it until I'm entirely convincing.

This experience has given me pause for thought. I feel no closer to getting a job than I did six months ago. In fact, in many ways I feel even further away. Not that I'm entirely discouraged. I just feel like if I only apply for jobs that I'm jazzed about, I will be applying for precious few. I feel a bit like an aspiring actress or comedienne or performer of some sort - yknow, working as a waitress or whatever while trying to chase down their dream. I feel like that might be an option for me right now as I'm going a bit mental with my three days @ home each week. Go work in retail or coffee or food/beverage service until my dream-ish job pops up to rescue me. Thoughts? Concerns? Suggestions? They are most welcome.