Interview Stupid

I used to think that I was a really good interviwee. I honestly did. I thought that if I could just get an interview, people could see my personality and want to hire me right away. Turns out that I was either dead wrong OR my interview skills have gone straight downhill in the last nine months.

Today I had the first interview that I have had in eight months (even though I have applied for 35 jobs). This interview was with Lamar University in the Education department. They are launching a new Master's program that you can do through distance education. The job is basically to supply support to people all over Texas who are enrolled in this program - making sure they get the right classes at the right time, collecting fees, organizing all of their information, etc. I thought that I was a good candidate.

First of all, I had to park in visitor parking and walk to the Education building, which seemed at least three buckets full of sweat away. I was interviewed by two women (damn my luck anyway. I'm much better with men), who only had five questions. I was fine on the first one - tell us about yourself. I felt like I was charming and informative.

Then came the next one - Tell us about your organizational skills.

I had an out of body experience and started talking about how I do the important things first and then something or another about boxes and an emergency boxes and not emergency boxes...I can't really be sure.

And the next question - Tell us about your interpersonal skills.

Again, another out of body experience wherein I started talking about putting people in boxes and not trying to understand their differences or something like that.

And the FINAL interview question - Tell us about your computer skills.

I'm pretty sure that I didn't talk about boxes during that answer, but again, I can't be sure.

Then, they explained the program and wanted to know if I had any questions about it.

By that time I was so flustered at my lack of ability to answer their questions AND my ability to put normal sentences together WITHOUT thinking in Japanese (seriously. I have no idea why. I haven't lived in Japan in over a year. It's like a defense mechanism or something) that I couldn't think of a single question.

I looked like the biggest ditz when I replied, "Ummm, no, I don't have any questions."

They just looked at me like I was crazy and told me that they were happy to meet me and that they would "get back to me".

What has happened to me? Am I destined to be a bookkeeper for the rest of my life? Am I really not qualified for any other job where I would actually have to articulate my ideas OR talk directly to real people?? Am I the worst interviewer in the entire world? Today it sure felt like it.

And I have NO IDEA why every answer that I gave had something to do with boxes. I blame it on Stephen Covey and his damn "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", which I am sure talks about a box of some kind or another.