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The interview

June 16th, 2017 at 02:19 pm

Yesterday morning I had my job interview. It was with 2 people I'd be working with, one of them being my manager. Both are around my age. They are part of a team of 5 writers.

They seemed pretty nice. I was there about 1.5 hours. He gave me a brief writing assignment summarizing an actual "Situation Report" of what this organization is doing to help with the drought in Vietnam. I did this when I got home and sent it on in to them last night.

My friend thinks I did a great job with the 1st writing assignment (the answers to 5 key questions) and he thinks I'll get the job. But I kick myself for answering one of the questions (what was your favorite job, and why?) by describing several job I liked a lot because they allowed me a fair degree of latitude in how I performed the job and that in some jobs I was able to define my role as I went along. He emphasized in the interview that this job was not really like that. I hope this doesn't make him think I'm not the right fit. I emphasized my strong interest in an email following the interview.

He also did say they will be talking to 3 other people besides me. I'm the 2nd one they interviewed. He's away next week so he expects to be making a decision shortly after the 4th of July. Which I don't mind, as it gives me 3 weeks to enjoy the summer. I am also still applying for other jobs if I see something. Technically I have just a 25% chance of getting the job.

He said it was a given that whoever they hire is a good writer/editor, but beyond that, they want to make sure that the person they hire can get along well with the rest of their team and is "unflappable" in dealing with their field offices in far-flung locations and can deal with stressful situations. He also mentioned that all the writers have to be on call on a rotating schedule on weekends in case some humanitarian crisis situation develops. When there's an emergency, they have to write something up really quick that can be sent to their current roster of donor corporations, asking them to help with recovery efforts. He also wanted to be sure I was ok with an "open office" setting. Which means they all sit very close to each other without much privacy.

The job does sound very interesting, unique, even, and certainly very different than anything I've done. I'm sure it would be a real eye-opener.

In other news, I had my well pump recharged this morning; it services my outdoor water only. I won't have to carry buckets of water from my kitchen to water all my outdoor plants anymore. I let it go too long but was procrastinating as I didn't want to spend the money. I feel like I've been spending, spending, spending. It came to about $130 and I got a 5% Angie's List discount. If I'd had exact change, I could have gotten the 10% discount for paying in cash; I had the money, but only in bigger bills. Darn.

I've schedule my cousin from PA's visit for a few days next week. I need to tidy up the downstairs, go grocery shopping to buy snacks/drinks and maybe even tidy up the front gardens outside. I've done next to no yardwork this year, and it shows.

I continue to get mailed solicitations from various groups addressed to my mother; she was fond of donating very small amounts to lots of different charities, and these charities share their mailing lists with other groups, so it all just proliferates. I had to call another one today to remove her name from their list.

12 Responses to “The interview”

  1. AnotherReader Says:
    1497619821

    Sadly, there is no way to write "Deceased, Return to Sender" on the envelope and send it back. The postage does not cover that. In many cases, there is no way to contact the organization by telephone once you open the envelope. Ten years after my father died, I still get the mailings from a few persistent ones and he did not live here. All I can do is recycle without opening them.

  2. Carol Says:
    1497623089

    The job does sound interesting. Who knew there was a drought in Vietnam right now? ( not trying to be an " ugly American"; I just stereotyped Vietnam as wet.)
    Here's hoping!

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1497623242

    Good luck! It sounds like the interview went very well.

  4. rob62521 Says:
    1497625528

    We still receive things address to my father in law and mother in law. FIL has been gone since 1988 and MIL since 2002. Not to mention all the mailings we receive. Once in awhile we receive something for my late mom. The sad thing is we get it from a local school that I have called and explained she is gone. They still send it out. I figure they are wasting their money. Like Another Reader we recycle most of it or shred stuff that we feel we should.

    Hope your interview goes better than you anticipate. I'm with Carol...didn't think about Viet Nam having a drought either. I continually learn from all of you.

  5. PatientSaver Says:
    1497629234

    The Vietnam drought was news to me too. It was a combination of higher temperatures (global warming) and rising sea levels causing salt water to enter the Mekong Delta, fouling underground aquifers that normally provide water for residential use. It started in 2014.

  6. CB in the City Says:
    1497634752

    I hope you get this job. I think a humanitarian organization would be a nice change for you after all the corporate work.

  7. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1497676610

    good luck

  8. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1497717820

    This sounds like a great job. Hope you get it!

  9. Dido Says:
    1497726278

    Good luck! I hope you land the job. Even if the salary would be less than what you're used to, that gets made up for by having a steady job and benefits. You've done so well in terms of your retirement savings and getting the mortgage paid off early. The key thing now is getting health insurance coverage and hopefully disability coverage, plus having work that provides a sense of meaning and purpose without too many stresses and hassles. Any extra savings in qualified retirement accounts is just icing on the cake--barring a big black swan event, you'll have your million by age 60 just keeping your money invested--and that's with a low return of 4% (calculated based on your "portfolio" total in the sidebar using a time value of money calculator).

  10. PatientSaver Says:
    1497726941

    Dido, you described my situation perfectly, and I agree 100!

    But what is a "black swan" event? A market crash?

  11. Dido Says:
    1497734281

    Yes, an extreme market crash would be a black swan event. The term comes from Nassim Taleb's book of the same name and refers to extreme outlier events--not just ANY bear market, but an extreme AND unpredictable one.

  12. maryadavies Says:
    1498146456

    Have you tried the
    Text is Deceased Do Not Contact List and Link is https://www.ims-dm.com/cgi/ddnc.php
    Deceased Do Not Contact List for your mom?

    We had to do that for my grandmother, who I swear..you could sell her water in the desert and she was donating to some pretty shady charities. (Not to mention she would often just donate to anyone that sent her anything) It worked for us, the junk mail almost completely stopped. Since you sold her house, it shouldn't cause any problems at all. (We had some utilites problems; I guess they got the memo too. We haven't sold her house yet and needed them on)

    I also hope you have good luck in your job hunting endeavors!

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