52:10 So... tell me about yourself

I apologise in advance for this blog; my brain and body are drained. I feel like someone has stuck a needle into my brain and sucked it out. Ew. The reason for this is that I had a job interview yesterday. The interview itself was actually in London so my day was spent traveling to and from the interview (at mid-week prices we couldn't afford to spend the afternoon seeing the sights. Those train tickets ting the wallet a bit, I'll tell you that much), which, thinking about it, probably stopped me from getting as nervous as I would have had I lived right next to the interview location.

I get extremely nervous at job interviews. I sweat, I shake and I get dry mouth (luckily there was water though - something that not every interview panel thinks off so you spend the whole time with a mouth feeling worse than it does after a heavy night's drinking). In anticipation and downright fear of these things happening during the interview I prepare to death. The only trouble with this method is that you spend the following days after your interview being asked "Did they ask the questions you prepared?" and me replying "Yes but I forget to say X, Y and Z" or "I was meant to tell them about blah when I talked about myself gosh darnit".


That is a fun one isn't it? So... tell me about yourself. I guess for rather egotistical people this question is like birthday and Christmas in one. For stupidly shy people like me who deep down want to say "You have my application, I already told you about myself" you then have to pick out the most interesting details from your life so far being careful not to talk too much about completely irrelevant things but also not to bore them with solely work related history. Shiver. At least it is the first question so you can get it out of the way!

In total my interview lasted an hour, which I personally think is a pretty long time to be answering questions about yourself. Again, I really am not that interested in talking about myself - although the fact I blog about myself every week does somewhat say otherwise doesn't it? - so interviews are always a challenge. In addition to this gruelling length there a total of four people on the panel, which is always pretty daunting, but luckily they were all rather lovely people and did their best to make me feel at ease. Unlike in interviews I have had before I managed to get a good rapport going with the panel and even cracked a few jokes. In the past I am way too nervous for jokes and instead have opted to squeak and look terrified. Then again that worked before... maybe my utter lack of self confidence was appealing... maybe not.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, I am gazonkoed. Yes it is a word. And my silly arm that likes to play a game to see how many daily activities it can prevent me from doing is being a bugger. So I am off for a cup of tea on the sofa and nice big chillax.

__________________

Live news on Japan: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698