the postponed interview

so i spent my final precious days at home before classes started researching places to send my resume so i can get some experience before graduation. i worked on my resume, printed out cover letters, addressed and mailed them to about 10 different companies in the athens area.

turns out, only one really responded to me, which is still in itself exciting because it has potential. she got my resume the second day of classes and i called her for a follow-up. she seemed very friendly and wanted to set up a lunch interview...and me to pick the place. now i wasn't sure if she was leaning towards expensive italian or over-priced fast food mexican, so i went with the in-between sandwichy-lunch place called trans met. of course, she had never heard of it, so i tried to explain where it was without knowing exactly what the street names downtown are. i'm sure that looked great on my behalf. anyway, we got that nailed down and it was supposed to be august 27.

well, i spent the week trying to prepare and get things in order so that i would have something to impress her with. a portfolio of sorts. though i didn't have a trendy little folder or bound graphically designed booklet with my work in it. i went out shopping for a button-up shirt to wear to my interview. i got home sunday night before my interview and played model for the roommates as they tried to get my as professionally-trendy-and-grown-up looking as possible. we finally decided on an outfit and i was off to bed to get some rest.

i had a 9 am class and my interview wasn't until 11:30 am, so i had plans to go to class and then come home to get prettied up for my interview. but while in the midst of burning my tongue on some freshly nuked instant oatmeal, my phone began the annoying random i'm-not-sure-why ring of "hello moto" (i never even selected that as a ring tone) around 8:30 am. it was an unknown number, so i tried to pretend my tongue was less burned and like i didn't just spring accross the kitchen to my bookbag and dig through colored pencils, umbrella, wallet and ipod to get to my phone as i picked up to casually say "hello?"

well, it was the woman who i had my lunch interview with and she sounded a little distraught.

"i'm sorry, Jeannine, but i'm going to have to postpone our interview for today..." she kind of trailed off.

of course, i'm a little stunned...at first i thought of "postponed" as meaning "cancelled" which are two separate words, and when i came to that realization, i was able to tune back into the phone call. i quickly said that it wouldn't be a problem at all, curiosity most likely oozing from my tone. well, it was soon satisfied, but was certainly bad news. i could tell it was painful to tell me that her father had passed away unexpectedly over the weekend and that she needed time to take care of things. my previously curtious "no problem at all" was then replaced with a sympathetic one.

i guess at first, i may have been thinking that the last minute phone call was due to a double-booking or business issue...something that would push me back because there were more important things to do. but the fact that she had suffered a great loss made me wish that it was the reason...it would be better for me to get my feelings hurt than for someone to lose a father. i really felt sorry for her and told her she should take all the time she needed.

we re-scheduled for two weeks later. so, i sent out my resume in mid-august and don't get an interview until mid-september. i guess that gives me more time to get my outfit in order, more time to organize a portfolio, more time to practice my interviewing skills. of course, i haven't gotten much of that done, even though it is now less than a week away. i'm hoping this interview goes well...it looks like a really great place to work and get experience, she seems like a friendly lady, i just don't know if on an interview you should ask how someone is doing since they lost someone two weeks prior.

anyway, my interview is on monday. hopefully it will go well and she will see how much i want to work at an interior design firm.