Interviewing

One of the privileges of life as a student, or at least live as a student of private colleges and then grad schools, is that there isn’t much interviewing for jobs outside of school. As an undergrad, I had two jobs - first I worked in the kitchens, a job guaranteed to all first-year students, and for my last three years I worked in the computer labs, first as a lab consultant and, in my last two years, as a manager of sorts. The kitchen job didn’t require an interview at all, and for the lab position the most stressful aspect of the event was deciding which jeans were most appropriate for the interview. Of course I’ve had interviews for internships and volunteer work, but none of them were really high-stress because I wasn’t getting paid; it was always something that I either genuinely cared about, or would boost my resumé (or CV, as I’m apparently supposed to use now).

Today I have an interview for a job at a nearby bookstore; it’s one of the larger chain bookstores in the country, a place I’m pretty sure I’d adore working at. However, I’m pretty rusty on my interviewing skills - the last time I went for an actual interview was when I was 16, for the job at Baskin Robbins (now that I think of it, I wore jeans to that interview as well). The man interviewing me didn’t ask any particularly hard questions, in part at least because they were desperate for some new hires.

I know that the place I’m interviewing at today doesn’t really hire everyone, but how selective are they? Can I hope that, since I received a call back, they’re very interested in me? Or do most people who apply get a call to interview, and it’s the interview process that separates the wheat from the chaff?

Most importantly, how in God’s name am I going to make it to the bus stop wearing heels?