It was around 20 days since I submitted my application and by then, I thought I wouldn’t get anywhere near this opportunity.
But then an email came with an online assessment that included a work simulation task and a personality quiz.
I went ahead to go through the online assessment and promptly submitted it an hour or so later, not expecting much to come out from it.
I had been here before, submitting pre-interview assessments but not hearing back from them.
To my surprise, the recruiter for this role reached out and wanted some additional details, which included two existing writing samples as well as a short writing task.
It turns out this was a technical assessment of this application process. Again, I tried my best to write something readable and didn’t really think much of the submission.
A few days later, I moved into the next stage of the process, setting up a first interview with the hiring manager.
The first interview seemed to go well, and surprisingly, I was moved into the next stage (and final) stage just a day later. This was to be the loop interview, basically 5 x 1h interviews with different stakeholders for the role.
I had to schedule my loop for just the week after (due to the nearing holiday season), so I spent most of the weekend preparing for these interviews.
I really had to dive deep into my then 7-year career and really think about all the things I had done, no matter how small the task might be, no matter how insignificant the impact of my work. It was interesting to remember some parts of my career that I had almost totally forgotten about.
The loop
Fortunately my 5 interviews were spread over 2 days. It was beneficial as I could take my learnings from the first day of interviews and try to improve for the second day. It also made it less intense and I had the chance to think about more examples from my career.
When these 5 interviews ended, the immediate feeling was much more of relief — not really thinking if I did well enough or whether I would actually get a job offer.
What struck me was how nice every interviewer seemed to be during this loop, probably as they have had the same shared experiences and appreciated the intensity of it as well.
They enjoyed speaking with you… but?
I received an email from my recruiter for a short chat. I was nervous leading up to the call, wondering whether my preparation and efforts had gone to waste due to my interview performance.
As my recruiter started sharing how the interviewers “enjoyed speaking with you…”, it felt like the longest moment.
I was just waiting for the but, but thankfully, she shared that it was to be an offer.
My mind kind of went blank at the second part of the short feedback she was giving me about the loop interview.
The relief then was immense, as at least my efforts didn’t go to waste.
I don’t think I’ve ever prepared so much for a job interview before.