Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sigh of relief....it's over!

I can breathe again without hyperventilating! I've done everything I can and now all that's left is to sit patiently and wait. I'm just going to try to forget about it so the weeks don't drag by!

I wasn't nervous driving to the interview. I had left the radio on the public radio station the night before and was pleasantly surprised by the music when I turned the car on. What was on was something I call "bayou music." I heard the likes of it a few years ago when Jon and I ate at New Orleans in Seattle. Anyways, the music made me feel good, on top of the cloudless sunny day and warm weather at ten in the morning.

I got to the place a lot earlier than planned so I decided to drop off my old toaster oven at my office. It's been sitting in the trunk of my car for a week and I work really close to where I interviewed at. Can you picture me in my suit carrying around a toaster oven? I think I was just putting off the interview because come on, that didn't need to be right at that instant!

I still wasn't nervous when I arrived to check in and turn in my ranked choices of hospitals. I even drank some orange juice and ate a small apple pastry thing. Interviewees were gathered into a room to wait until they were called, so I sat down and listened to what everyone else around me was chatting about and talked to a couple people. Then the volunteer pre-nursing undergrads came to round us up and we made the small trek to the building where the interviews were being held. We were all in groups of three and all three of us would go in at one time. I got nervous as we sat outside our room and waited until the interviewers were ready.

I got really nervous when the interview started. Thankfully, I wasn't the first one who had to answer the first question! My heart was pounding so fast and I was shaking! It had nothing to do with the demeanor of the interviewers--all three of them were so nice and friendly! It was just a lot of pressure to make a good impression on them and watching them jot down notes as we all gave our responses. I think I remember all the questions that were asked, but I may be missing one.

What career are you transitioning out of and why did you decide to go into nursing?

Why the U of A? Why Arizona?

What are your plans if you don't gain acceptance into the program?

I don't remember the other part of the question and what specialty are you interested in going into?

What words would you use to describe yourself and what will you bring to the College community?

What does a two year work commitment mean to you?

We each alternated on who answered the question first and the interviewers also alternated on who asked the questions. Looking at them now, they're cake. I know the answers to these questions! I could have gone on and on answering most of them, but when put on the spot I completely forgot what I wanted to say! I hate to admit that I stumbled on one question: the one where I had to talk about myself. You see, I hate talking myself up. I'm not good at it and I had a hard enough time doing it on my statement! I could have totally quoted myself on what I wrote for my statement because that's what was asked! But like I said before, everything I wanted to say was forgotten. For the last question, I even brought up TMC's inability to offer jobs to all the students they sponsored. One of the interviewees was from TMC! Yeah, that one just slipped out. I was kicking myself about that one as I walked back to my car later.

After the interview was over we were led back to a room where current students of the accelerated program were waiting for us. We were given the opportunity to chat with them and ask them questions about the program and just unwind. That was fun....if only I were able to talk to the interviewers with the ease I talked to the students.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. We should be finding out the decision mid-March. Now I should be able to catch up on blog reading with this out of the way! I've missed blogging!

4 comments:

d.a.r. said...

I am so sorry I didn't see your post earlier to wish you luck!! I am glad it went well and I will have my fingers crossed that you get good news :)

Rachel said...

WOW! It sounds like you went on a job interview! I'll keep my fingers crossed also and hope to hear that you get in :)

Your school process is different from mine...what's all this with ranking hospitals? Is it hospitals to work at, or are you ranking hospitals where you wish to complete clinical coursework?

The hard part is over...sit back and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Casey (@ Chaos and Cardboard) said...

Yeah yeah yeah! I'm glad it went well. I can totally relate to the joy in having it finished. Now the wait begins :)

loqi said...

I don't know -- sometimes I think the wait is worse than the anticipation before doing something like that! But I hope for you sake it isn't. :)

Keeping all fingers crossed for you!