Before you think it’s all got too much and I’ve resorted to the oldest employment in history, this post is about those embarrassing interview questions we all hate. Last week was all systems go for me, lots of phone conversations, interviews and meetings after the Christmas break. I no longer have the security blanket of the full time job nor the ability to rely on my reputation as I am working with all new clients this time. Interviews are almost like embarrassing first dates, they don’t know you, and you don’t know them. My usual response to nerves is humour and luckily the new clients I meet are usually creative or entrepreneurial types who are up for banter. However my comedy juices always run dry at the following question...’how would your work colleagues describe you?’ At this moment all I can ever see is David Brent lolled back in his executive padded chair describing himself as a ‘chilled out, laid back entertainer’. Nowadays I’m a bit more honest when I get this question and say that I find it cringe...but still try to answer it.
Anyway Friday last week was a big day I had a few interviews and so spent Thursday checking that I had all of my folio up to scratch, had researched into the clients and tried to mentally prepare for an onslaught of meetings. I wasn’t quite so prepared for Thursday evening though which was more of a shock. It was the first night of adult tap classes for me and a friend (I shall call her ‘C’), I was more nervous about the lesson than the impending interviews the following day, having not tapped for about 20 years. Let’s just say I knew things were going badly when it appeared that there was only one other student, a guy, who appeared to be about nineteen and was obviously an extra from ‘Stomp’. The teacher then arrived who also seemed to have only just reached the legal age for drinking and began chatting with the guy about Pineapple Dance Studios ( to be honest at this point I was expecting Louie Spence to step ballchange into the studio and to find myself in some sort of reality game show with Ant n Dec). Were it not for ‘C’ I think I would have legged it but she cast me an ‘It’ll be alright’ look and I felt in safe hands. Alas I was only able to do the soft shoe shuffle as I was couldn’t find my tap shoes in the loft so danced the evening away in my Bertie brogues (which I may consider attaching taps to as they did cut rather a dash.) ‘C’ suffered most of the dancing teacher’s eager ears as she could hear every sound her feet were making and whether she was missing a beat. I on the other hand could use the smoke and mirrors of jazz hands and a smile that would penetrate polar ice caps. As we sweated and wheezed our way through, what was titled as ‘Grade 5 warm up’ on the cd player I began to doubt whether this really was the advertised beginners class that we were promised. But ‘C’ and I refused to be beat by children at least 10 years our junior and soldiered on, even in extreme conditions, when ‘C’s tap shoes split during some extreme ‘riff-in’. By the end of the class we were broken women but have already vowed to go again next week, maybe tapping produces the same hormones produced post child-birth??  |
| For those concerned, it's not a cat on my head. It's my hair, I have a double crown that's all...OK |
Friday morning I could barely walk and managed to miss the train thanks to a serious case of jelly legs. All I could remember from the previous day was the dance teacher telling us that a 12 beat riff was just like walking, I was walking more like I had had an accident Friday morning. But when the cheesy questions came up about how I would describe myself and what hobbies I had, I felt I could put my hand on my heart and say that I was an entertainer of sorts and I had the tapping injuries to prove it.
Anyway must crack on, have exciting work on the go. Can’t wait to tell you more about it, but need to wait until it launches.
Keep Dancing
x
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