Sep 27, 2008

How confident is too confident ?

Following my formal-wear shopping spree and 1st day as a 24 year old dude, I I had my 1st "typical" job interview . I've worked since i was...16 i guess, but I never thought about the interview and prepared to it as much as i did for this one ! A good piece of advice i had from an older friend was : "Remember, Interviews aren't about being creative, they're about confidence" ! sweet ! confidence..I've got plenty of that ,which is good ,until now maybe..two days posterior to the interview and they didn't call back yet !

That interview was the last in a chain of mini interviews in which i impressed my interviewers wearing my casual clothes and even wearing a cap once! but for this last one i was told to dress formal n stuff. There was this big shot director guy and my hopefully future direct supervisor too ,whom i totally overshadowed during the interview ,of course i didn't notice that when i was there, but thinking about it now,i think i made a mistake by giving all the attention to the director and ignoring the man who -if i was hired- would be my boss! good grief i even asked him couple of questions during the interview,asked him as in wanting to see how knowledgeable he was !!!not asking about work!! But what can i bloody do ??? thats how i am!I've been running my own show for the past year ,add to that I'm not the most modest guy about his "achievements" and self determination bla bla bla ,and I'm not intimidated by other's success ..should I anyway??

It started to get to me ! I'm anxious now ! A friend of mine told me to curb my enthusiasm and to have a subordinated attitude .I had to use my acting skills to the fullest when asked "are you better a follower or a leader ?" and "can you be a good follower?" honestly ? It felt like he spat on my face when he asked that, holy freakin smokes !"follower"?? wtf can't they find a less humiliating word ???????? follower my ass !

pffft....I really have no idea how that went ,I was super comfortable ,I didn't hesitate to ask questions back ,as if they were my friends, I even asked them about things they didn't know about and i explained to them !!!!!!!! geez I could be so stupid at times ! Looks like i blew it . I'm not sure though ..I'll give it till Monday . but either way.. from your experience people, did i do wrong ? or is that a good thing ? just to clarify ,In my previous work i was in charge of older people ,and for a year now I've been my own boss,thats where his irritating "follower" questions came from. so,shoot me ,where do you think i stand now ?

15 comments:

Waed S. said...

LOOL
wallah I have zero experience bel interviews bs from the looks of it inshAllah they saw ur confidence as a good thing lool

bezzabt what do you do ?!
director ?!

NasEr said...

la sho director :D I'm in trading business (small one :)) .and I'm applying for totally different thing,Arabic interpreter ! but in Jordan i did acting :p but "running my show" was a metaphor mesh literally in here :D

PALFORCE said...

Naser,

Sorry man, I haven't been a good follower to your blog, I mean I knew you were looking for a suit, didnt know you had a job interview.

I have another Blog:
http://hrarabia.wordpress.com

That covers job interviews and Cvs and so on.

darn it, I should have given you the link prior to the interview.

But I think you done pretty well. I did the stupidest things at interviews that I will take to the grave with me, but the more you do them the better you get.

Cheers,

Khaled

Anonymous said...

bdk elsara7a allah la y7otny b mawqef akoon fee interview :S

batswar ra7 aseer ala5em :S

NasEr said...

Khaled its okay man :)))
It went fine but I'm really anxious that they didn't call back yet and I'm afraid the Arabic dude will consider me a "headache" thats it . thx for the link :))
bas yalla tell us about the stupidest things u did here :DDDDDD

NasEr said...

7ota I hear you man :D i can imagine :DDDDDDD

Adoosh said...

Did they say that they expect you to be a follower?
Easy on yourself man :k:

NasEr said...

yea Adoosh,follower as in not manager ya3ne !

LioneSS said...

loool naser :D

Good luck bro ^_^

I hate the interviews, i did more than 10 in the last year and each interviewer has his own Mafsoom mood ×_O

Allah Be3een :)

NasEr said...

Thx Lioness :D el mohem inek shta'3alte a5eeran inte :D

Ali Dahmash said...

Any job interview is yoru chance to sell yourself to the company you want to work for. It's your only chance but it depends on the situation, nature of the job you are applying for, nature of the interview, and the people doing the interview. After a few interviews you will start sensing the nature of it, and how to deal with the people infront of you, some might ne easy (which is not a comapony you want to work for) and some can be very tough.
some interviews are done just to waste comopany time as at the end they will hire someone from inside the comopany. but mostly are there to hire.
my only advice is this:

1. read about the company and its history, management, products and job offered before going to the interview

2.be confident but but not arrogant

3. ask as many questions as you can about the job but not financial, especialy on the 1st interview and that you are a fresh graduate, you should care more about the experience

4. most jobs will require a process of 2 or 3 months to hire an employee and finding thr right job requires 6 months, so plan accordingly before quitting

good luck man

Anonymous said...

I was about to say what Ali said..The interview is your chance to sell yourself, to show what you got and not to come across as arrogant but rather like a team player..
Good luck :)

NasEr said...

Ali Thanks for the tips ,i did ask many questions about the job itself but not financial hoorayyyy :D,i hope that i came off confident but not arrogant,i think i did,we'll see :p and I read baout the company and i showed them bel 3agel ino i did :p so ...halla benshoof if they shall call back or not :))))
thx again ,and welcome to my blog :)

NasEr said...

Noura we'll see we'll see ! I hope i did fine...I'm not worried about the confident part,I'm worried about the arrogant one,I'm scared they'll think this dude is so much of a headache :D we'll seeee :)

Ali Dahmash said...

Naser, did I send you my account number, as I charge for this, hahaha kidding man, good luck

Post a Comment