I woke up yesterday at about six. Six in the morning is dark, cold, and makes you really feel the need to be in a bed. Having recently left one, this yearning brought with it a certain bitterness. I had an interview for a position in the Quality Assurance department at work, which handles how customer service handles customers assures that quality is maintained. So, I got some spiffy clothes from the closet, which meant turning on a light because it was still dark, of course, and went to work.
I knew the interview was with the head of that department, and had a good idea that the manager would be there too. What I didn’t figure in to the equation was that I would be interviewing with my old supervisor, my new supervisor, and the supervisor for the tech/photo department. So, 4 supervisors and a manager on one side of the table, just me on the other side. I mean, I knew that each of them got an email about the interview, but then a few people got emails about my other interviews too, and they didn’t show. Everyone attended this party, apparently, and I was the guest of honor.
Once firmly planted in the hot seat I answered a good number of the standard questions. I went to a good many of my standard “go to” answers, and even coined a few new phrases. Seriously, on the fly, I described the ideal QA department as “The R&D for the front lines in Customer Service.” Having made my nose properly brown, and singing my praises, and making awesome impressions, I proceeded to go over a phone call and an email giving constructive criticisms, and making standard corrections.
Everyone smiled afterwards, shook my hand, and left the room feeling like I had given the best interview of my life. Sure, there were moments when I was fumbling words a little, but seeing as how I was in front of ALL THE BRASS, I did extremely well, and that’s saying something as I don’t tend to get nervous in those situations.
After class, I grabbed a bite to eat, then went to school an hour early to learn my monologue for my theater class. I am doing the scene from Amadeus when Salieri denounces his alliegence to God, and swears to destroy his incarnation on Earth (Mozart). This is a heavy scene, and a long monolgue. I had 3 sentences commited to memory at the beginning, and by the beginning of class had it almost 100% down. I only left out one small bit, but nothing was lost. The teacher had some really good notes for me, and helped me along. When you take a community college course, it’s a crap shoot as to whether or not you’ll get something from the class in any way, but I have to say this teacher rocks. I am giving her outstanding marks.
After giving this performance, I was completely shaken. The emotions of anger and bitterness were coursing through me, and it took me a moment to collect myself and calm myself down. On top of that, I then had rehearsal, which meant going back in to “laid back funny guy” mode. Rehearsal went really well, even if we did go over some sections dozens of times before getting it down.
So, at 10pm I leave class, listen to Loveline which is no longer co hosted by Adam. I have mixed feelings on it, but I say good for him. I get home, have a club soda, then go to bed, exhausted and fulfilled.
This morning I woke up at 6:30. I figured I earned that 30 minutes, and slept away. I kissed Milca goodbye, several times in the off chance that the first few kisses didn’t stick, or were defective, and went to Starbucks. The holiday season allows me to stray from my usual order and have eggnog instead of my standard soy milk. Sweet, sweet eggnog.
I’m sitting at my desk just wrapping up a call and see the supervisor for QA who asks to talk to me for a couple minutes. They always smile when they ask for this, regardless of whether they take you or not, so the first sign of any kind of an answer is that first word when you get in to the office with the door closed.
His first word was “Congratulations.”