The interview

Today was The Day. My first job interview in more than 6 years. I didn’t think about it during the weekend, I didn’t dream about it, and I hadn’t told anyone but P (and the blog).
First thing on my mind this morning : what am I going to wear? I almost fell into the same old trap by choosing black trousers, black high heels, and white shirt. Standing in front of the mirror I knew : this is not me. This is “business N” whom I tried to be for x years. And I almost begged myself not to make the same mistake again. If an employer wants to work with me, it has to be really ME. So I just went for my favourite outfit : the gorgeous jeans skirt I bought in France last year, my blue knitted sweater – matching the colour of my eyes perfectly, and my blue leather boots. Looking in the mirror again, I was more than satisfied : this was me, nicely dressed in what I’d like to call “fashionable & cool teacher-style” :-).

As the language school is only two blocks away from our apartment, forget the stress of roadmaps, traffic jams, and finding a parking spot that usually goes with job interviews. I walked out of the door 15 minutes before my appointment, and arrived 10 minutes too early.
What happened next was a strange inversion of the roles. The interviewer, a teacher and “pedagogic advisor” was clearly a bit nervous. I on the other hand, felt completely at ease in this situation : a job interview? So what – I did nothing else for six years! So even if I was sitting at the other end of the table, I just couldn’t help it : before I knew it, I was more or less leading the whole conversation – which didn’t seem to bother the nervous interviewer. I happily provided all the answers to the questions I knew he wanted to ask , but didn’t dare to.
The gutsy side of me which started this whole process continued when I told him that I didn’t want to work full-time, I didn’t want to work on Saturdays, and evenings were ok, but only one or two a week. I guess this was the first interview ever where I so clearly stated what I want, instead of telling them what they want.

Miraculously, it worked! I’m invited to sit in on a few lessons next week to see if their didactic approach suites me. If that’s ok, I can give a “test-lesson”.
We’ll see how all of this continues, but I’m on a slippery slope towards becoming a teacher again! And I can’t stop smiling…