So far in my life, I’ve only had one real job interview. And one that didn’t happen. I will start my story with the second one. It was a period when I was actively looking for a job. And so, sitting in a park, my phone rang from an unknown number. I picked up the phone (which I very rarely do) and on the other side of the phone a quite nice girl started talking to me. She looked through my resume, which she had found on the email of her company. After telling me about the job for five minutes, she immediately asked if I could come in for an interview, to which I agreed, and we even agreed on a date and time.

And here I want to tell you right away about my mistake: I immediately agreed, not giving myself time to analyze the company and the vacancy. After the phone call, I immediately went online to read what kind of company it was. As it turned out, this Internet news platform was founded by the famous politician medvedchuk. As soon as I read this, I immediately realized that I would not go for any interview. Because it would be a direct job for russia. Working for such a company equals an end to the editor’s reputation, and you automatically become a traitor to Ukraine. In the evening I also consulted with my mother, and she fully supported my opinion. The next morning, I texted this woman that, unfortunately, due to my political views, I was refusing an interview at your company.

And here I can point out the second point: do not be afraid to refuse an interview; you do not need to go there because you first agreed and then realized that it was absolutely not your thing. The day before the scheduled interview the woman called me again to clarify whether I would be there (she did not see my message.), and I had already given a phone refusal. She did not even ask why I would not come, although companies with a good reputation and a more or less known name always specify the reason for refusal.

My second interview did take place, but it was not successful and also had its shortcomings. And that was partly my fault.

It all started when my father sent my resume to an IT company. He had always wanted me to do something more in demand. Another problem was that I only found out that he had sent my resume somewhere when I got a call asking me to come in for an interview. I did not refuse, and here I will underline right away another mistake: if you understand even on the phone that you do not like it, or the job is not suitable for you and you just do not want to do it – immediately refuse the job and the interview.

The day came, and I went to the center of Kyiv for an interview. What important I did: I dressed in clothes acceptable for the interview and, of course, as always, was not late. I’m never late; most often come even 30 minutes before the appointed time. This is terrible, because 80 % of my acquaintances like to be late ? but I take pride in my ability to always show up on time. I was invited into the office and asked to wait, because the girl who was supposed to talk to me was having a meeting in Google Meet. I calmly waited until she was free, and we started the conversation 15 minutes late from the appointed time (I did not particularly like it, but she apologized and said that there were some problems, so I had no complaints to her.).

First, she told me about their company, after that about the position, then she looked at my resume and asked a few questions: what I study, where I study, what skills I got from my studies, she also read on my resume that I knew how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. and said these were very good skills. But fortunately (yes, fortunately), we both realized that the job they were offering me was not what I needed at all. Why luckily? Because working as someone who is not interested in a position is the worst thing a job can be. We both said this to each other, after which she said that if they had an opening related to my profile, she would call me. I thanked her for this interview, for the experience, told her my opinion on why you shouldn’t work as someone you don’t want to be (she separately noted that she was very impressed with my mindset.), after which we said goodbye, and I left happy. Why happy? Because I got the most important thing – the experience, the interview experience.

So that’s a little story about the beginning of my career journey.