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Thursday, February 05, 2004
Just got back from a job interview in Albany—whew—it’s been a whirlwind. These job talks are reminding me of getting my first job after college. I had just gotten back from Sri Lanka and was working for a feminist newspaper in DC and was hoping to get a job at a local university so I could take some classes for free. I interviewed for a position as an administrator in an office & got the job but before I could be officially hired I had to pass a test that proved I could type 35 wpm. Now I was a notoriously bad typist in college—hunt and peck, hunt and peck all night long to much teasing from my friends—so 35 wpm seemed an impossible goal. But I practiced on my friend’s computer game called “typing tutor”—a typing version of space invaders where the words would come down from the sky and you’d have to type them before they landed. They’d start out slow and then end up raining down incredibly fast. I got pretty good but when took the test a couple of times I still couldn’t crack 35. I noticed though that the test stayed the same and realized that what I needed to do was just memorize the test. So the next time I took it I concentrated on memorizing the script, and finally could just type away without even looking at the prompt screen. Eventually I got the job and now 35 wpm seems slow as can be! Hopefully that’s what’s going to happen on this job interview circuit. I know I’m a strong teacher etc. so that I could do a good job in places but one of my weaknesses is the Q & A (like typing, the hurdle that I have to get through). The more I go on these though, it seems like they ask me basically the same questions. So, hopefully, what I can eventually do is more or less memorize my talk and responses to questions and then go on autopilot. Too bad there’s not a public speaking version of typing tutor—“talking tutor”— though. |