My Interview in the Twilight Zone

I got a phone call yesterday while having lunch with a few lovely ladies I used to work with. It seems that a real estate-related company I sent my resume to wanted to interview me. I cleaned off my ironing board and got an interview outfit ironed and ready.

I googled the company...and found some really negative stuff about the company. The negatives I found were all a few years old and I did see some positive comments, but I was a bit troubled nonetheless. I really want whatever company I work for, whatever their field, to operate ethically. I don't want to contribute to dubious practices. I decided to go into the interview with an open mind and, if anything, it's interview practice.

I got about 8 hours of sleep, got up, went out and grabbed coffee and breakfast, showered, slathered on some makeup and hair product and did my best to look like I haven't spent the last six weeks in pajamas, and headed out with plenty of time to get to the interview.

I got to the neighborhood where the interview was to take place pretty early, so ducked into a store and bought a couple cds. I ended up getting to the office about 10 or 15 minutes before the interview was to start and I was invited to sit on the couch in the front of the office. I looked around for a bit and kind of got a weird vibe from the place. It was...nice, I guess, but not great. I had the feeling that if you were in charge of managing property, you shouldn't have visible water damage and chunks of the wall coming off.

The interview itself was fine. The woman interviewing me seemed nice, but a little nervous? I answered the questions well and apparently came off as professional and punctual (ha!). They like their staff to look really professional, which I think I'm going to keep finding as I do this whole looking-for-a-job thing, so I should probably get a couple more pairs of nice trousers. Also, she didn't answer my question about visible piercings or tattoos, but I suspect she wouldn't like the ink on my arm to be visible.

The job posting I'd responded to had asked for desired salary and I'd asked for a couple thousand more per year than I'd made at my last job. I noted that that was negotiable depending on benefits offered. They'd pay me about a dollar less per hour, but pay 100% of medical insurance. I'm not sure if that cuts it for me, which seemed like a relief at the time because the woman definitely approached it as, "We can only pay you this much..." like she knew that could be a deal breaker. I told her that I wouldn't be available to work for a couple weeks, she told me she had a couple more interviews lined up, and that I'd have a few days to think about if I'd like to get into this line of work.

She saw me out and, knowing that the office looked out on the sidewalk I was walking on outside, I didn't run away down the street, as much as I felt like I should. I actually felt relieved to get out of the building.

So.

I do want to get off Unemployment and get back to work. But I guess I need to consider some standards. I don't want to commit to a year of work that I know I can do but would probably be bored doing. I'm fine with monotony if there's the payoff of it being for a company I believe in, staffed by a bunch of cool people. But I don't want to dread going to work. I can't afford to be too picky right now, but, jeez, feeling relief upon leaving an office? That's a bad sign.