Interviews of Past and Present

Like many people out there, I am preparing for a job interview and just the thought of getting back into the workforce is daunting.   

Things are so different since I left my job to take care of my family. In the past 10 years, things we take for granted today weren’t around back then and I am more than certain that I have missed out on a lot, especially since I was just introduced to Angry Birds yesterday by my 5-year-old son.

Ten years ago, I would dress in a black fitted pencil skirt, with a neutral colored top and trendy fitted blazer. My leather portfolio perfectly coordinated with my Montblanc pen and my resume paper matched the color of my eyes. My nails were perfect and admittedly, the length of my skirt was often correlated to the gender of my interviewer, too. 

Back then, I was well-versed on all the latest and greatest products out there and I knew the social scene pretty well. Heck, I was single, in my 20s, had few commitments, and the economy was great. The world was my oyster and I took it by storm.

Today, I am 40 and the economy bites. I have been married almost 10 years, have two kids and I am a student who binges while I study late at night. Every job application, interview or offer has to be over-analyzed to see if it is a good, conservative fit for my family’s future or well-being. It can no longer be a whim like seasons' past.

What once were super long and sexy dancer legs are now long and, dare I say, a bit dimply and not so fit. My leaner body style is long gone, and no matter how many layers of Lycra I put on, I am not going to get into the pencil skirts of days long ago—nor should I. 

My social life is null and void. It took me three years to learn to navigate Facebook and now I find myself being projected into the Twitter world. Was there a “twit” or has it always been a “tweet?"   

Why do we need to talk with #’s and @’s? Who is Antonio? How did he find me? And why does he want to follow me from Italy? How on earth will I successfully hold a conversation about social media when I just don’t get the point of having random pointless thoughts of strangers bombarding me 24/7?

I feel so lost in today’s world. I bought a new watch when I broke my Android phone trying to find out what time it was. Seemed smart to me, but now I am told that watches are dated. Great! When did watches become a thing of the past?   

What happens if I get a whippersnapper to interview me? Will he or she look at my watch as if it were some curiously hideous and ugly mole on my wrist? Or will it bring them comfort because I remind them of their precious grandma who always knit the perfect scarves while rocking in her chair of wisdom?

Do I dare admit that I have commitments outside of work hours and that two of my commitments like to be tucked in snug as a bug at night by their mom?

How could something that a lot of women out there yearn for turn out to be such a roadblock when applying for jobs? Doesn’t the arduous task of being a mom, showing up for an interview on time, fully dressed and without a hair out of place show perseverance in itself? 

As I fret over the big three of Interview Day: What to wear, what to say and how to say it. I am already exhausted and ready for a nap. I don’t even know how to begin to market the new me against the latest and greatest cookie-cutter products coming out of grad school these days. 

What does it take to be a good interviewee these days? I guess the School of Hard Knocks (aka interviews) will teach me soon enough.