This is an unsharpened aluminum sword. I'm not a crazy person. Well mostly not.
I had an interview today for a full-time staff photographer’s assistant position. She kept prodding about my history as a martial arts teacher. I don’t know if she was asking in order to see if I would go back to it or to find a relation to the job offer. Maybe both? Every time she asked, I found myself smiling and remembering the good times. Truth is, martial arts is a lifestyle. Even though I may not have a dojo or even be a teacher, I will always be applying it to different areas of my daily life. It’s part of my exercise routine, and my thought process. In fact, my teacher, Joe Moscatelli, taught me about sales using the analogy of a fight. So I thought I’d use an analogy of a MMA cage fight to describe how I feel my interview went. Here goes:
First round – Interviewer finds me in the lobby, early for the interview and invites me in. I sit down only after she asks me to. I make a comment that makes her smile and the conversation starts taking a path away from the regular interview process. I have disrupted her timing and implemented my strategy to the tee!
Second round – She wrenches control back to the interview and suddenly gets very serious. I realize I had too much coffee and I feel myself beginning to perspire. A bunch of questions are thrown in my direction. Some of them I deflect with grace, but one hits me with confusion and I’m caught off guard. There is uncomfortable silence and I end up saying, “Uhhhm I don’t know how to answer that”. Her eyebrows raise and she moves on to the next one. I start answering and while my mouth is uttering some blabber, I’m thinking about how I goofed the previous question. I forget what she asked. Luckily, I pause and regain my thoughts. It comes back to me and I recover from a potentially embarrassing knockout.
Third round – She begins to play down the importance of photography technique. This is a strategy that I was ill-prepared for! This fight/interview started out in my favor but may go down in history as an upset. I focus on my body language and breathing. She finishes her questions and asks if I have any of my own. What a relief! The tide is now turned back in my favor and I ask a series of questions designed to lighten things up. I let her talk about herself. The book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” has a whole chapter on this. We finish on this note and she lets me know that I will be notified by Friday if I will be going on to the next round of interviews. It’s gone to a split decision!
In my opinion, I won the first round, lost the second and the third is either a win or a tie for me. Guess I’ll find out what the real judge thought on Friday. But I think I’m on the right track.
Blue Pack Photo 