Job hunting

I am now at a point in my life where I need to get employed. For that reason the last months I have attended career events and scheduled interviews.

In the Netherlands interviews with many companies are casual in a way. As a girl you do not need to wear a blouse and matching 2-piece suit but a tank top with a suit is sufficient. Even big earrings are getting more popular. Small talk on various topics is acceptable. Last week I had interviews with international recruiters. First I was in London, after I had more interviews in Brussels. In the beginning I was quite nervous how the recruiters would approach me. What kind of small talk would be acceptable? And how about clothing? In my opinion differences are small.

In general my interview with Cadbury Schweppes was most challenging. It was scheduled last minute and I could not prepare extensively. Not only did they use a competency-based method, which is always harder than motivational questions, they also applied a “good cop/bad cop” method. One of the interviewers was utterly nice and asked the questions, the other interviewer was pushing me harder to get more precise answers.

During interviews I like to gather my thoughts first before answering a question. The “bad cop” interviewer however did not give me any time to think which affected my structure. I found this very challenging.

I expect results of all the events/interviews soon, a very exciting time. Let’s see what happens.