July 30, 2008

• employment chronicles

  Just back from my interview, with the Wednesday classes ahead, and I can't settle back down to work.

  I met with the owner of the franchise, and quite liked him. He asked me what my life goals were, and I did not say, "Hell, I don't know!" so I get points right there.

  Actually, I told him that my life goals were not mostly about work. In fact, I have reached a point in this process -- not only the process of interviewing for this particular job, but the whole process of deciding what to do next in my life -- at which I nearly just said, "I'm going to do whatever seems most fun. I just can't make up my mind." I didn't come up with any questions to ask him, and that's really interview 101.

  They're offering a nice salary. Half again as much as I made in my last salaried job, plus bonuses. If I had been offered this job in May, I'd have been grateful and happy to accept it. I have been making more than that lately, but I am about to lose most of that income, with no guarantee that I'll be able to replace it.

  However, I have a meeting with a new client tomorrow, and am seeing the mockup of my web site, and I'm doing a workshop next week, and there is the book proposal I just sent in, and the hookworms are still waiting, not to mention all those blog posts, and I told Client #2 that I'd save time for him in September, and here I am so unexcited about the nice steady job that I didn't even bother to prepare for the interview (though I did get dressed).

  And there is the driving.

  I think the reason that I'm normally so decisive is that I get bored with this sort of thing so quickly. It is, I think, two weeks since I met with these guys the first time, and they haven't actually even offered me the job yet -- in fact, they have other candidates, and I may have come off so slapdash in this interview that I won't even be chosen -- and I am completely sick of trying to decide whether or not to take the job if they do offer it to me.

  The man did tell me the results of that personality test I took last week. My extremely high scores were for being analytical, being organized, expecting a lot of myself, and caring about moral values. I was moderate on self esteem (this was a relief, since I strive very hard for humility but don't always feel sure that I manage it), being results-oriented, and self-awareness.

  How they divined this from my views on broken TV sets versus destruction of food crops I don't know, but I didn't disagree with him.

  I turned out to be an "Equipper," and here's what that means:

  "Equippers combine a focus on right and wrong, understanding, and literal meaning with passion, feelings, and attention to individuals. Work combines analytical and personal traits for Equippers, leading them to focus on doing things that reflect their principles and values as well as ideas that make sense for the future. They have strong feelings about what they do, because in their minds, their activities always flow out of their logical understanding and passion for doing the right thing."

  And there again, that's not too far off for an 11-minute test.

  • 4:28 pm
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