I got a response from the questions I sent to WaMu. I will be in 3 one-on-one interviews. The questions will be Behavioral type. Oh boy the dreaded behavioral interview. Well at least I know in advance to prepare for the interviews. I also know that while I will likely meet the people who will interview me during the networking event, I do not need to worry as much about buddying up to them. I just need to work the room, talk to lots of people and remain upbeat.
For most people that is easy. I, of course, am not most people. This is terrifying. I can handle and enjoy people one-on-one, but a whole room of people. This is my weakness. This will be the deal breaker, I can tell already.
So here is the plan. I will go to three networking events. One per week until the interviews. This way I can stretch my people muscles and try different tactics to approaching people.
This week there is a job fair sponsored by Dice.com, while this is not a traditional networking event, it will give me the opportunity to learn to introduce myself to strangers.
Apparently the old saying "Don't Talk to Strangers" that I learned growing up had a detrimental effect on me. I think that I still carry a residual effect of that mantra with me. When faced with new people, I tense up and suddenly lose my ability to speak normally. Just this morning I was greeted at the bus stop by another person waiting. It was just a Good Morning!, but I barely was able to mumble out a mornin'. Luckily this person just assumed that at 5:30am I was not sure if it was good or not. I just stood there, gave a little hurmph and nodded my head.
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