Maryland

Free trip to DC! The only catch is that I have to go to an interview. Just kidding! I'm interviewing with a company in Maryland at the end of next month, and I just got off the phone with their travel office to make my arrangements. It seems like a really good company to work for - their representatives at the career fair were incredibly nice, and they couldn't stop talking in these amazed voices about all the benefits that their company provides. It's a relatively small place, which I like, and they're a non-profit, which I also like.

The only downside is that I think the work may be a little too established for my taste. The projects seem to be very long-term, at least in the fields that I'm interested in, and due to the nature of the work, relatively inflexible to big innovations or other things that might gamble with the reliability of the system. But this is all what I've heard from other people, so it'll be interesting to find out what the deal is for myself. I'm just not looking forward to the 8 hours of interviewing.

The last time I flew to an on-site interview was three years ago, and it was really stressful. Spending the afternoon, evening, and following morning in a hotel room by myself was really unnerving, and I spent the entire time just getting nervous about everything that was coming up. It was a half-day affair in which each of the interviewees got passed around between several different employees, but I completely relaxed by about the third interview when it became abundantly clear that I didn't want to do the types of jobs that they were hiring for.

I'm hoping the Maryland interview will go well, but I'm also hoping that I might be a little more relaxed, considering that right now I don't think it's the job that I'm dying to have. But I'll have to try hard to remember that when I'm sitting in my hotel room alone, getting nervous.