Let's just say I didn't do too well in a recent interview...

*Rant. Ish.*

The employer was not amused.

It was late and this was the final interview candidate for that day. Ten more minutes of precious time wasted. To be honest, she really didn’t fancy that. Most of the interviewees had been relatively okay, though many statements had been repeated, many explanations used over and over again. “I want to join because of…I enjoy doing this because I…” So many similar answers, only different ways of presenting them. But it didn’t really matter, at the end of the day. She was bored, she was tired. If this candidate wasn’t exceptional in any way, she wasn’t accepting her.

The girl was young. Probably inexperienced. She seemed bright though. Then again, everybody else had high credentials too. What they were looking for was passion, something strong enough to have had already driven her to read up on the topic. She had to have a large pool of existing knowledge and it could not be limited to simple information found from, say, something as simple and unreliable as wikipedia. She had to know her stuff well and she had to enjoy the process of finding this information, researching, reading research journals, going for science forums. That was the kind of girl they were looking for. Was this the one? She doubted so.

The candidate was nervously tapping her foot and that annoyed her slightly, though she wasn’t going to let that tear the plastered smile on her face.

“So, can you tell us about yourself?”

The girl hesitated a lot and repeated most of her statements. She was going in a roundabout manner, probably not really knowing what she was saying at all. There were many pauses and it felt like she was trying to feign existing knowledge when she hardly knew anything. The smile stayed but as she ticked things off her list, she already knew this wasn’t who she was searching for. Sure, she had credentials, she was smart but the interest wasn’t there. Either that or she was simply too lazy to conduct her background research. Whichever it was, this girl wasn’t going to be selected. The passion simply wasn’t there. At the most, all she had was a small bit of confused interest. This wasn’t her stuff and as the candidate left the room, near anxious hyperventilation, she was quite sure the girl herself knew that too. It wasn’t a fantastic performance. It was mediocre. Simply mediocre. Had she been in a nicer mood, perhaps she would have had given her another chance at the position but at the moment? Heh, she needed coffee.