Well... I got in a car with Peter Hanff, Gina Wickwar, Atticus Gannaway, and Carrie Hedges, went to a French restaurant, and got interviewed for the position of Baum Bugle editor.
Well, let's not suspend anything. I didn't get it. They instead chose Craig J. Noble, who I recently became friends with, so I was actually really glad to hear that if I didn't get it, it was going to someone who I knew. (I didn't know Scott Cummings when he took over, but we did connect and later met up at Winkies, so yeah, we're friends!) I look forward to Craig's issues, and will gladly offer any services I can.
So, this lunch interview was actually pretty delightful! Despite us being in a very formal setting for a very important job, the interviewers actually wanted me to talk, so instead of feeling like four sets of eyes were boring into me, they kept a pretty informal tone to make it easy for me to talk.
Of course, I've talked pretty openly to most of these people before, so it wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, here's the Club president and three big shots of the Club and they're wondering why am I wasting their time and why do I not know how to eat French food?" It was more like talking to friends. Which is rare for a job interview. It's just that I've never been in a job interview where they decided to stop the questions for a bit so I could finish my appetizer salad... (I don't talk with food in my mouth. My momma raised me good.)
And Atticus was wearing a shirt with this on it, so...
I'd put my name forward months back and had properly turned in a resume and examples of some of my writing (all from my blogs...). The question that really pinned me was Atticus asking how I went about research. My brain completely shut down on that one. Huh, I think, here I am, with all this knowledge about Oz stuff and now I can't even think of how I came across it! I'd say I flunked that one. I managed to say stuff, but I didn't properly answer the question. Sorry, Atticus...
To be honest, I was a little nervous, because frankly, diversity reigns in Oz and Oz fandom, and whoa... Was I different from these people! They got to talk about themselves, and by the time it was my turn to talk about myself in the same context, I was thinking, I'm just a kid from southwest Missouri! I don't measure up to these people at all! Why, oh, why didn't I follow up on that News-Leader job?
My mind is a crazy place. People who read my Twitter can tell you this.
Well, we eventually finished up, chatted a bit on the ride back to Asilomar, and I saw Gina to her room as I realized I was still wearing my Monarch of Mo shoes which are hell on my feet... A true gentleman puts the lady first, even if he's gay. Especially if she's the Club's Royal Historian and has her ankle bandaged.
August 2nd after work, I'm an hour before leaving for my shift when I see I have a missed call and voicemail. From Carrie. I call her back, miss her, and as I'm boarding the bus home, she calls me back, and says I didn't get the job. She did, however, say that she was impressed with me, that I was a valuable member of the Club, and is sure that if I try to gain more experience, I'll be doing it someday.
She also said, "Now, I know you're disappointed," but I actually wasn't. Seriously. I wasn't. At that point, if I had to choose between the guy she'd described to me and myself for the position, even I would have chosen Craig. (She didn't tell me it was Craig, though.)
So, I look forward to what the future brings as The Baum Bugle enters a new era.
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