Awkward Situation

Yesterday definitely could have been dubbed an "awkward turtle" moment.

Yesterday was a busy day for me, which is unusual considering the minimal job activity I have been experiencing. On the agenda was a second interview for a retail sales position and a lunch meeting with an HR representative, set up by a family member, to help give me some insight into job hunting and offer me a bit of advice and perspective. The lunch meeting went really well -- it was fun and informative, and I got a lot out of it that made me feel a little better about my job hunting situation. However, my interview earlier in the day got off to a bad start, which leads me to this question: what do you do when you know the person interviewing you is wrong and their mistake makes you look bad?

My second interview had been set up on Thursday, almost immediately following the first one. I got a phone call from the person who interviewed me saying that she'd like me to come in for a second interview, suggested Monday and then offered a choice of time: "10:00AM? 10:30AM?" I had agreed on the second one saying that "10:30 would be great", as overheard by my mother eavesdropping in the kitchen, and upon hanging up the phone, proceeded to plug the appointment into my phone and write it down on two different notepads so as not to forget.

Come Monday morning, I wasn't feeling great. It first started with my dad getting sick, then my mother, and the bug had worked its way to me. I had skipped my morning workout to insure some extra morning shut-eye, but finally pulled myself out of bed because if there's one adjective that would describe me: it's punctual. In elementary school, I used to wake up about an hour before I needed to get ready for school, and then wake up both my mom and brother so as not to be late. In college, no matter what I was up to the night before (late night of duty, too much fun), I would be in class ten minutes early getting my notebook out. Even at the movies, if I'm not there with time to spare before the previews, I feel like I'm sneaking in to class late and deserve detention.

So you can imagine that I took all the precautions to make sure that I'd be at my second interview on time. However, at 10:15AM, as I was getting ready to leave the house, I get a phone call from the woman interviewing me asking me if I was still coming to the interview. My stomach dropped -- was she serious? I then explained that I thought we had agreed on 10:30 as opposed to 10:00 and that I was sorry for the miscommunication and would be there in fifteen minutes. I was embarrassed and angry. I was never late and especially not for something like this. I don't think it's respectful to keep someone waiting when they are taking time out of their schedule to meet with you (whether it's for class, an interview, or even just a lunch date.) Certainly, things happen, but you need to do whatever you can to be prompt.

I arrived at the interview a few minutes earlier than what I thought had been our agreed-upon-time and again, apologized incessantly, explaining how I had been sure we agreed on 10:30 and how I had written the appointment down in a million places. My interviewer was obviously irritated, insisting that we had said 10:00AM and that she had written it down as such, and that was the time.

Now, I knew I had to bite my tongue, but I also knew that she was wrong. I had repeated the time out loud while on the phone with her when we had previously talked and my mom, later, had said that she heard me say 10:30AM (and my mom would tell me if I was in the wrong.) I am someone who prides herself on being extremely organized and on schedule. I have time management down pat and in however many years I've had a job and been in school, there has only been one time when I was mistaken about a date and time -- and that wasn't even important. So then I was faced with the question: what do you do when you know someone is wrong and the mistake makes you look bad?

You really can't do anything. I wasn't trying to make an excuse when I told her that I thought our appointment was at 10:30AM and that we must have had a miscommunication. I was being sincere, but that was all I could do. Apart from that, I had to suck up my pride and know when to stop defending myself because it was a losing battle. I did what I could to insist on my "innocence" in the situation, but if she was persistent in her own views and that was what she believed, neither of us had the evidence to back our point up (well, other than my mom's eavesdropping) so I had to just take her aggravation and salvage what was left of my interview.

The rest of the interview went okay. I think the woman was clearly irritated with me, which I could understand to a certain extent, but it only frustrated me. I kept a smile on my face, gave my best answers and rose to the tasks she assigned of me, but I couldn't help thinking the whole time that she would hold our scheduling mishap against me. I wasn't left with a good feeling post-interview, but I'm hoping that my answers and performance were enough to prove that I am a good candidate.

It certainly was an interesting interview experience, and hopefully, a lesson learned.