salamar's Journal

I had the preliminary interview today... 

I'm not proud of my performance... It was conducted in English, and none of the things I thought would be asked, but one, had been...

I thougth they would look if my values fitted theirs, or if I was really wanting to get the internship, or that they would ask me what my ideas of translating are, or how good am I, or things like that, but the girl asked me how good I was in english, I told her I wasn't as good as in french, she asked me about how good I was on a hundred scale, for speaking, I answered between 80 and 85, I'd say, and in writting? 85 to 90... and in french I have no problem in french... a clear 99,9 percent...what the hourly wage I was expecting was, why I wanted to get the internship (that one I prepared). She said she didn't understand french, so she wanted me to tell her what was on my CV, and I was so lost, gosh, I don't have it it front of me to translate it to her, I thought, and so I remained silent for a few seconds, searching my mind for what to say, so she asked me what school I was going to, I told her, what experience I had in translation, I answered that rigth, but then lamefully added that at the school I'm in, we're doing lot of translation compared to other scholls I heard of, like 100 to 500 words a week, though it's not professionnal experience, it is some kind of experience at translating...

She asked me what was my knowledge of Word, I have no problems with 2002 and 2003, and I'm presently working on the 2007 what are the funtions I use? well, pretty much all of them... (I thought lettres et publipostage, en tête et pieds de page, mise en page, edition), then, not knowing what were the terms in english, I attempted to explain them, well, I'm able to send the same letter to different people, their names automatically being put in the lettre, I'm able to put the text in place as I wish, (you mean formatting, she said? yes...), to make headings and footnotes then she interrupted me (not the first time...) and how good are you with excel? "I worked a bit with the version before 2002, but (interruption) so begginer, intermediated, advanced? Beginner... And PowerPoint? Intermediate. The functions you know? I Have no problem changing the text of a presentation (did you ever made up a full presentation?) yes, a few times. And outlook? intermediate... What are the functions you used? I use it to plan projects, and for my contacts, Did you use it to email? yes, of course...

She also asked me when I could begin, I said I needed to be told ten day in advance, to make arrangements... 

I don't remember any more questions she asked me rigth now, but when she asked me if I had some, the ones I prepared just flew out of my mind, and I couldn't remember them, so I just said no, I don't think so, so she told me my file would be sent to the head of the team that is looking for a coop-translator, and he would contact me for a formal interview if I was fit for the post... so I asked in how long I'd hear from him, given I'd be chosen, she said by Wednesday or thursday, I'd have news...

looking at my answers, as written, they don't seem so bad, but add to it that I was stressed, off-balance, searching for the right words, sometimes repeating up to three times a few words that wouldn't come out of my mouth properly, and that my dreaded stammer was impeding my speach, it was horrible... (I used to be unable to speak a word up to 6 year old, then I worked with an orthoĥonist, and since I'm 7, just think before I speak, so words get out properly) 

Really not a good interview... I'm angry at myself for not having thougth about the questions she asked, because I thought it was all in my CV and my introductory letter, but now I guess I should have looked at what is usually a preliminary interview... 

 When My mother came back from work, she asked me how it was, I didn't have it yet, she went to sleep a bit, got up 45 minutes later, and I told her it was a mess... She said the woman wanted to know how I understood English. At supper my little brother asked me how it went (that surprised me) and my older brother kept interrupting me, and my little brother said she wanted to know if I was able to communicate in english and think fast enough to deal with interruptions, looking hard and bad at my big brother.

My bf just said, when I called him, that I sure did good and I'm stressing over nothing, as usual, he had to hang up because of an unexpected practice with a jazz band...