Interview
This blog entry will cover the dates of March 4-5.
Well, Wednesday was an interesting day. It is my long day of class. I started off the day with a nice coffee and workout with Carrie and then got ready for my long day. First was my Australian Media tutorial. I am loving this class! We have so much fun. We talked about establishing the idea of nationhood. We also got into groups for the lead the discussion exercise and I was paired with two people I had met before and we got the first week of presentations. Our topic is Australian Cinema. Problem: I have NEVER seen an Australian movie. Solution: I must watch ten in the next two weeks to be prepared. This is going to be fun!
I decided that I did not want to rush to my music tutorial so I went to the second tutorial of the day, which was an hour later. In the gap, I checked my e-mail and lo and behold I got an interview at Asgard Wealth Management Solutions for 4pm the next day! I was so excited you have no clue! So after I got that all figured out I went to my next tutorial.
This one was for my reading contemporary music class. We listened to three songs and had to guess if they were popular or fine art music. I got them all correct. Then we had a mini debate on the argument posed by fine art/traditional musicologists that popular music is not art. I, unfortunately, got stuck arguing that popular music is not art. It is a very fun class and the professor kind of has a hippie vibe, but not overly earthy.
Next was another one hour break followed by my lovely three hour math class. This time we learned about conditional probability and then we had our first tutorial. I think this is the class I will have the most work for but I hope that the work does not get overly hard. We shall see.
So then I headed back home and we had a little 90’s dance party back in good old Parklands and then I went to bed excited for my interview the next day.
On Thursday I slept in, got my coffee and then got ready for my interview. I decided on my black skirt, my white blouse, and my black heels. I did my hair pulled back into a low ponytail, simple make-up.
Sydney is not a heel-friendly city. I about killed myself ten times walking through the train station and over the cracks in the sidewalks. I must remember to bring flip flops in my bad so I can walk up the hill when I get home.
I ended up leaving a little too early to get to my interview so after I got off the train I had bout 40 minutes to kill. I found 400 George Street and then wandered around. The Stranden (spelling) Building was right next door so I stopped in and looked at some of the Australian shops and sat on a bench to watch people, business men/women and tourists alike, wander through the unique building.
Then it was that fated time to head into the very large office building and enter into my first experience of a corporate interview. You walk into the ground floor and you have the stereotypical security guard. Then there is the high ceiling and the comfy looking couches next to a bistro. Then you hit the two sets of elevators that divide the building into express zones. I take the first set and get in with this guy who had just bought his lunch. He was very nice for an elevator companion.
I got out and enter an office building, complete with reception area and a secretary. Wow. It was gorgeous and completely intimidating. I sat between the boardroom (which was labelled “boardroom”) and the front desk. I had to wait for my interviewers to get out of a meeting and it was the longest five and a half minutes of my life.
Antionette finally met me and brought me into one of their few meeting rooms. She then went on to explain exactly what it is that they do and what events were coming up. Chantelle joined us shortly after. The event production side that they were describing was really exciting. I think I am going to learn a lot about what it means to put on an event on such a large scale (and with so much money at stake). They were super enthusiastic about having an intern and that in turn made me excited.
They asked me the standard questions about what I hoped to learn, my experience, why I chose liberal arts, etc. At the end they said “when can you start” and I said whenever you need me. My first day is this next Thursday.
The only awkward part of this whole experience was the end. There was another meeting scheduled in my interview room at 4:30pm so they had to rush me out and then they stopped right in front of the elevators and I kept trying to shake their hand to say thank you and then walk myself out but that did not really work. Ugh. I am glad they had already offered me the job because I am afraid that my hesitancy might have come across as an inability to take initiative. Anyways, I made it out of the building just fine after that.
I was so ecstatic that I called home right away and told mom and dad and I bought myself some good Australian chocolate for the ride home on the train. The only bad part of the whole day: wearing heels.
Friday was relaxing. I will just say a few words about it because not much happened. Dana and I went to Chatswood to look for the Starbucks there. We got there on the train and we tried to find the Starbucks but couldn’t and so we asked someone about it. They closed. I was very sad to learn this.
We then shopped for a little bit, I got a new shirt and Dana got a dress for the Opera House. I still got coffee but at Gloria Jean’s. By then Kelly and Allison had arrived and we had lunch with them. Lunch was not very good, but hey, we ate. Then I was not feeling well and went home. The next day was Mardi Gras so I wanted to make sure I was well rested.