Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Interview Day: Highlights

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

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