Season finale!

Hopefully by the time I'm done with this blog, I should be able to blog about current affairs! Won't that be great!?

So after the surprisingly fabulous mini-cruise to Spain, back to the real world! Resumed work at Chiswick the next day. Colin and Aleka were away on holiday to Greece, and Natalie was having some time off, meaning I was the only one around. It's amazing how trusting the Sheppards can be, allowing a relatively complete stranger in me have complete access to their house! I'd only been with them for about 3 months, and they didn't even blink twice about leaving me with pretty much full access to their house. What if I was some Nigerian crook (won't that be surprising!) merely biding my time? Would have had a field day selling all their stuff and stealing all their money, if indeed they keep any money in their house. But in a way, I guess it was nice to know that they trusted me that much! They are pretty decent and nice people, and you sometimes wonder why there aren't more people like them in the world!

So yeah, everything was back to normal early January with everyone back. But I was nervous pretty much every time I got an email, because I was expecting either an invitation to interview or a failed application notice from the job I applied for. I hadn't mentioned the application to Aleka or Colin, even though I'd used both of them as referees. Didn't think it was necessary, especially as they'd have been expecting me to make applications, anyway.

An email eventually came, but it was to Colin's email. With Colin not being fully computer-literate (the only gadget he uses is his Blackberry), Natalie saw the email first, and already my heart was thumping! It was a letter asking Colin for a reference. Aleka also got a similar email. They obviously had no clue what for initially, but I told them the details and we discussed it briefly, and Aleka seemed very sure I'd get the job! My brain obviously went into overdrive! Were they asking for references because I was definitely going to get interviewed? Was everyone's referees getting the same email? Couldn't get much work that day, and just kept on checking my email over and over again.

With interviews scheduled for 19 January, I finally got an email on the 6th. I remember when the email came through, I couldn't bring myself to open it, and had to get Natalie to open and read the email for me! You can imagine the relief when it turned out that it was good news! I could finally breathe!

Can't really remember much of what happened in those two weeks (probably because nothing much happened!), but I tried to prepare for the interview as much as I could. Read my cv and cover letter again just to remember what I wrote in it! I emailed my lecturer-friend, Johanna, to see if she had any idea what it'll be like and stuff. She didn't really know much, other than that there'll be a panel of 3. Filippo Lorenzon, Yvonne Baatz and Charles Debattista. I was a bit relieved, because all 3 of them had taught me during my LLM. Not that they knew me personally, but at least I was familiar with them, and kind of knew what kind of characters they are. I also called the Secretary, Anita, to see if I could find out anything from her, but she pretty much told me what Johanna said.

I also remembered from checking the website, that they had someone, Matt, who was filling in temporarily, as Jennifer had left almost suddenly, so he was filling in until the next month or so, when he started his training contract in a Law firm. So I called him up the day before to find out more about the job, what he's been up to, so I could casually mention it in the interview when they asked me what I knew about the role that I spoke to Matt, blah blah blah, just to show that I had done my research well, haha! And also in the hope that might know what type of questions they might ask, as he most likely was interviewed before got the job, you never know! And he actually did tell me one of the questions they might ask! He was like they might ask you what you'd do in a situation whereby one of the lecturers wants you to do something for them by a particular deadline, and another person comes to you with a similar deadline. How would you deal with it? My initial answer to that would have been that I'd prioritise and try to do the most important one first, etc, but Matt was like the answer they would be looking for is communication. That I should mention that I'd let both of them know about the other person's deadline, just so they both know what's going on. So I filed that in my brain, just in case.

Since he was being very chatty, I also asked him if he knew anything about the candidates they were interested in, how many people were being interviewed, etc. And he actually knew! I think he said 8-12 or so people were being interviewed, out of about maybe 120 applicants or something, can't really remember the exact numbers, although I wrote them down. He also said there was some guy being interviewed who was coming all the way down from Australia or something, and he was like that person wasn't really a strong candidate, seeing as they'd like someone to start immediately. He also told me that they were interested in two candidates in particular, both of whom were Yvonne Baatz's former students. And seeing as I'd be taught by Yvonne Baatz, that made me even more nervous!

So interview the next day. Got there about 30 minutes early, tried to read the the articles I'd had published, which were on my cv, as Johanna had told me that I'd probably get a question about it. I was too nervous, so was only able to browse through all but one. And you guessed it, I got asked about it! It was a very simple question though, about what the article was about. I knew it was on arbitration, but couldn't for the life of me remember the exact bit it was on. Talk about embarrassing! That question was from Charles. He also asked me another question, this time on a specific area of maritime law, and I did not know the answer! What made it worse was that the next day at work, the work I had to do was on the answer! If only the interview had come after, not before! Sigh. I answered Filippo and Yvonne's questions well, at least! Yvonne did ask me the exact same question Matt had told me about, and thank God, I remembered the answer the Matt told me was more important. She kept nodding her head all through, so that was a good sign, I thought! I was worried about not answering Charles' questions right. Oh yeah, I also got asked where I saw myself in 5 years. Although Johanna had told me that I'd be asked that question, I still stumbled!

 I remember thinking to myself that maybe I'd be the only black girl being interviewed, and who knows, they might hire me just so as not to seem racist! What a silly thing to think! And ofcourse, the next person being interviewed turned out to be a black girl! That was that theory out of the water, straight away!

All in all, I wasn't too happy about my interview, as I didn't think I did well enough. But I'd done all I could do. The rest was in God's hands. All I could do was wait.

Okay, this post is getting WAYYY to long! And like every good season finale, there has to be a Part 2! But not to worry, it's a double-bill, so it's coming up right away, after the obligatory advert break... ;-)