Rueing my call for more ambiguity in the world
The interview was ok. Quite brief, and a bit distracted (him more than me). He seemed disappointed to discover that I was the same person who had a quick and not good conversation with him last week. I re-adapted my "here's my 10-point plan for Burma" speech on the fly as he started frowning, and quickly turned it into my "here's 10 reasons why I'm a great manager" pitch.
He was slightly encouraging at the end, though possibly not more than politeness dictated. The impression I was left with was that I was too ____ (female? inexperienced? short?) and they'd like to leave the job notice out longer to trawl for ____ (a Burmese-speaker? a Burmese? a tall man in a pin-striped suit?), but, should one not turn up, I should definitely consider myself towards the top of the "B" team.
It's a position that's fairly familiar to me, quite frankly. So, fine. I wrote a brief, graceful thank-you email that restated my main selling points. We'll take the cats in for their rabies shots this week, just in case (not a non sequitur; for travel through Asia, the shots have to have been given more than 30 days but less than six months ago). And then we'll forget about it, and focus on GREs and grad school applications. And if the offer comes through*, then and only then will we argue about the degrees of "realness" of a potential hypothetical future marriage, and whether marriage is a condition conferred by the couple or by the State (or by the State Department).
*Um, ok, something I was hoping to avoid, but now won't be able to: because they're drawing out the process, if I want to continue my candidacy for the job, I'll have to formally submit something essentially saying that they can send me there involuntarily even if I change my mind. But, really, there'd have to be a pretty unlikely sequence of events for that to happen.
He was slightly encouraging at the end, though possibly not more than politeness dictated. The impression I was left with was that I was too ____ (female? inexperienced? short?) and they'd like to leave the job notice out longer to trawl for ____ (a Burmese-speaker? a Burmese? a tall man in a pin-striped suit?), but, should one not turn up, I should definitely consider myself towards the top of the "B" team.
It's a position that's fairly familiar to me, quite frankly. So, fine. I wrote a brief, graceful thank-you email that restated my main selling points. We'll take the cats in for their rabies shots this week, just in case (not a non sequitur; for travel through Asia, the shots have to have been given more than 30 days but less than six months ago). And then we'll forget about it, and focus on GREs and grad school applications. And if the offer comes through*, then and only then will we argue about the degrees of "realness" of a potential hypothetical future marriage, and whether marriage is a condition conferred by the couple or by the State (or by the State Department).
*Um, ok, something I was hoping to avoid, but now won't be able to: because they're drawing out the process, if I want to continue my candidacy for the job, I'll have to formally submit something essentially saying that they can send me there involuntarily even if I change my mind. But, really, there'd have to be a pretty unlikely sequence of events for that to happen.
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