Nana Prepares For Another Job Interview

Remember Nana’s last job interview? The one where I forgot how long it takes your tongue to wake up after a visit to the dentist and scheduled my interview a half an hour after I left the chair. (Click here) I’ve got another interview this week and decided that this time I would prepare carefully.


Because I am interviewing for a position in another state, we’re going to do the interview over Skype. This will be my first Skyped interview. I’ve only used Skype once and that was to talk with my granddaughters. I thought I’d practice on them again before the interview.

Since the interviewer will only be able to see me from the waist up, that makes some of the pre-interview preparation easier. I did need to get a haircut, so on Monday I went to the stylist. I figured getting it cut a few days early was smart. I didn’t want that just clipped look. I chatted with the beautician and told her about the interview. “Oh, you’re so brave” she said to me. “Doesn’t the camera add like ten or twenty pounds?”

Damn, I hadn’t even thought about looking fat and I don’t have time to drop twenty pounds before Thursday.

My daughter gave me suggestions about where to setup my laptop. “Be careful about what you have in the background” she warned me.  I’ve got a couple of rooms in my house that are messy, but nothing approaching what you see on “Hoarders.” What does she think I’d have in the background?  Oh yeah, since she left home I turned the back bedroom into a crack house. I’ll have to clear out those junkies before the interview.

I decided to hook up a web cam to the computer in the back bedroom. I had purchased it several years ago and never taken it out of the box. I was using the camera to see which shirts and dresses looked best on camera when my son walked by the room and asked what I was doing. He rolled his eyes and said, “Maybe you could just hire someone younger and more attractive.” Yeah, that’s a vote of confidence! He also suggested I could hire a minority to do the interview for me and then sue if I didn’t get the job.

The down side to doing an interview on Skype is that there’s really no excuse to buy cute new shoes…oh, and the ten to twenty pounds the camera adds. I always try to dress professionally. I’m more conservative than trendy. My closet is full of black and white. My wardrobe isn’t very camera friendly. I’ve decided to wear a navy print dress and a bright fuchsia jacket. Perhaps I’ll post a sign on the wall behind me that says “Caution, camera adds ten to twenty pounds.”

Wish me luck...Nana's ready to come out of retirement!