A few weeks ago at work, our admin assistant set up times for everyone in my organization to have official NASA photos taken. Check me out! So official!
Also geez I need a haircut. I haven’t had one since last summer and have been happy enough letting it grow out because when it’s short, I don’t like that I can’t easily pull it back without also using clips or a headband. (When I’m not at work, I basically always have it pulled back.) But I also think it looks better when it’s shorter. It’s time for another chop.
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I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this here — maybe alluded to it? — but since last August I’ve been acting in two different management roles at work. (One was from August-October, the other was from November through this month.) Well, the time has come to officially interview for one of them, which would be a permanent promotion for me and y’all, I am freaking out a little.
This is actually a bit unusual for me. In past interviews for various positions, I’ve never gotten particularly nervous. I’m confident in my interview skills, in my ability to talk about my strengths and weaknesses, and to sell myself as the right person for the job. And I usually have a good sense of where I stand — I’m able to pretty accurately tell myself either “yes, I am very likely to get this job” or “I am probably not going to get this job but it is worth trying.”
But this one. Ugh. The position is Branch Chief of the branch I have worked in for the last 8+ years. I’ve been a team lead for the last 3+ years. I should be a shoo-in. But there is another team lead in the branch, who also happens to be a good friend of mine, and she should be a shoo-in too.
So! One position. Two shoo-ins. There could always be a dark horse 3rd person who swoops in, but it seems a fairly safe assumption that either my friend or I will be selected…and I honestly have no idea which one of us it will be.
There are pros and cons to each of us, and we each have our own strengths and weaknesses. I’m nervous, but keep reminding myself that at this point, there is actually very little I can do. The only thing I can control is simply putting my best foot forward in the interview, and let the chips fall where they may after that.
I do not envy the panel that has to make this selection. I really hate that I have to compete for this job against someone who is my friend. But I also hope they choose me.
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I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed and anxious this week, and this looming interview is not helping at all. My brain’s been running a mile a minute with all sorts of things big and small that require some level of planning or attention — finding summer care for Emma, figuring out annual spring lawn maintenance, providing input to the Disney planner helping us with our summer vacation, Jose’s mom arriving on Saturday for a visit.
I’m also having another third round of this dental work today. It really sucks, but barring any complications I will be fine by Tuesday for my interview. In the meantime, I plan to thoroughly enjoy the temporary milkshake-as-a-meal diet plan.
Wish me luck. With all of it.
Good luck!! You can do it.
Doesn’t sound like anything you can’t handle. Job stress is the worst though.
Thanks Stephanie! I had the interview earlier today. I did my best, so it is what it is from here on out I suppose!
Good luck with the interview. Those sort of things, it just is what it is. But I am thinking of both you and the friend :), its a tough situation to be in — but here’s the thing, if she gets it you don’t have to be just bummed you can also still celebrate your friend’s accomplishment. That’s way better than being annoyed some jerk you don’t respect getting the job (which sadly happens all too often). if Stuff like that used to really get under my skin. Now I feel pretty zen about it. There are good things that come with age I suppose?
That said, hearing about this, and some other recent movements I’ve heard about at JSC have been making me kind of wistful. It was nice knowing what well-trodden path I and others close to me were on and what I could and couldn’t move into from a given position. I am so baffled as to what my career means right now. Where I am, most people don’t spend a full career in government service. The people who have been here more than, say, ten years or so, and there are very few of them, are all managers (which really isn’t a manager in the NASA sense of the term, thits more like group management by committee, its hard to explain, but I have never so keenly felt the absence of a manager really …)