Phone screen.

After revamping my resume and creating a pitchbook for a job, I applied and got an email the same day to schedule a phone screen. A pleasant surprise!

I could have said that I could talk immediately, but gave myself at least a day to get in touch with my contacts to solicit feedback. These people were incredibly helpful, making themselves available before and after hours and they gave me some input I did not expect-- the stuff I needed to hear, like don't talk about family in your time "off" and bring up my energy level.

I practiced and practiced, paring down answers to anticipated questions and believing that I was the best person for this job. I got dressed up for my call and set my materials around for me to reference as needed. My plan was to practice until the phone rang. Only, the phone didn't ring. There was no call.

Was this the end? Did they already find someone and were they too busy negotiating with that person to bother closing the loop with me? Or could this have slipped this person's mind? If the opportunity was indeed dead to me, then I deserved the courtesy of knowing. If this person forgot, he should know. I called 5 min after the scheduled time passed and left a VM.

I went downstairs and unloaded some feelings about the matter to Fat Tony, then resolved to call this guy every half hour until I heard back definitively. I'll spare you the details, but forty minutes later he called back.

He was very apologetic, but otherwise, it was a cut-to-the-chase conversation. I liked how blunt he was about what he needed and I did my best to assure him that not only was I was what he needed but they were what I needed. I really wanted to work for them and these were my genuine reasons why.

He ended with, "I like what I hear" and said he'd be consulting with his boss. So I am hopeful.

What have I learned?
1. Focus on being more energetic and positive.
I tend towards quiet, so cranking up my energy is not easy for me. The rule of thumb I got is to know where I am comfortable, then go a notch or two higher. So I have my measure, The trick now is making sure I am "on". The mind trick I use is to pretend I am on the stage. Stage performers don't speak in their normal voices, and up close, the make-up they wear is garish. But they are playing to an audience far away. They need to project. Just like I need to project who I am. It's not exactly a stage, but my audience is quite a distance away. He or she doesn't know me. I'm not faking something that isn't there, just projecting what I have.

2. Be more rational.
That said, getting carried away with emotions and visions is not helpful and focusing on energy level is distracting. I made some assumptions based on what I heard in this interview and it was a very short conversation, but what I should have done was to pin him down, only I was feeling good about a next interview.

Making myself visibly enthusiastic goes at odds with being rational. Visible enthusiasm is something I have to practice, like practicing my elevator pitch (which never goes the way I practice it, but usually sounds just fine). It's like sports: You practice a move so much, it becomes part of your  unconscious brain, which frees up your conscious brain to think about what really needs to be done. I need to practice thinking about the next thing like uncovering processes, bringing up next steps and clearing objections.

While I am hopeful, the rational side of me says to cool it. I did my best during the interview and in my thank-you email to assure them I wanted to be there and that pay was not the priority. But there are many different reasons why I might not get this job and I might never hear from them again. I've put a follow-up activity in my calendar, so I know what I need to do here, but the most important thing now is to be working on the next opportunity.