Today wasn’t quite a normal Wednesday, I got up and put on a
suit to start, which is completely unusual, I've never worn a suit before and
although this one came with a pencil skirt it still counts! The day started
well – I realised I couldn’t walk in the shoes that I’d bought for my
interview, and had to stagger down Elm Grove in my teeny-tiny heels, wishing
with each step that I was wearing my vans, even to the extent where I was
staring at someone’s feet for a while with complete shoe envy until I realised
what I was doing. I got really strange stares walking through Brighton in a
suit at 10am, particularly through a muddy park (really didn’t think this
through!) and I had (still have) my trademark fringe scraped back in order to
look a little more professional, and although it’s nice to not have to scrape
my hair out of my eyes at every given opportunity, I feel self –conscious. I
got to London at around 11.30am. This was over 2 hours before my interview
therefore, resisting the urge to pay a visit to the science museum, I went to
Starbucks to do some last minute research. All of which was pretty useless. I
was so nervous, I actually forgot to remove my coat. Literally, I just took my
scarf off then stopped. I think I sat correctly, I remember giving it thought
when I sat down. My interview lasted 25 minutes, 5 minutes over the allocated
time, so I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not and it was in front of a
panel of four. Now the most useful preparation I did for the interview was
preparing my technique, the questions asked were pretty okay, nowhere near as
bad as some of the ones I prepared for. I held my wrist, as on the advice of
the careers advisor, to slow my pulse rate and calm my nerves. Whilst saying
the questions were okay, I unravelled a little on the ethics question. Of
course coming out of the interview, my brain’s kicked in and I now know exactly
what I should have said, but obviously I can’t do anything about it now. I
think I’ve had this at every single job interview, so I really shouldn’t expect
this one to be any different in that aspect. I spoke fast as well, I couldn’t
help it, not super-speed, but I was aware of it. At least I managed to keep it
flowing, I didn’t stop after every few words, which I was also extremely
conscious of.
All in all the experience wasn’t amazing, I’m not coming out
of it thinking I definitely have the place, but it also wasn’t bad, & I
don’t think I screwed it up by any means. It was also nowhere near as bad as I
was expecting from a medical school interview, which is positive. The only major thing that has come out of
this experience so far is the confirmation that I really, really want this.
So what am I doing right now? I’m sat on a bench in Hyde
Park, typing away, because they bought up my blog in the interview, and I
didn’t want to neglect it on a day as momentous as today. Plus I’ve never
actually been to Hyde Park before, I completely forgot about winter wonderland
being here, but aside from that being absolutely massive, there’s still a large
amount of open parkland here too, it’s beautiful. I really love London. I can
picture myself here, I can picture myself being so happy here.
So I need to head back to Brighton and finish off my
literature review for my project, it’s just nice to have the opportunity to
remember exactly what I’m working so hard for.
I’ll keep you
updated, no matter what the outcome is,
XOX
