does anyone have a spare spy cam?

seriously. i think i need to start recording my interviews.

thursday: i narrowly escaped what could have been an excruciatingly awkward situation. the office i was interviewing at had no running water due to a water main break that occurred the day before, so the interviewer suggested we go get a cup of tea (it was 4 p.m. some british people are programmed at this time to need tea. i'm not complaining). cool. interview goes well, he mentions he still has other candidates, but that i'm definitely on the short list for people to call back for a second interview. woo hoo! i'm hoping it wasn't just something british people say, because the company and position look great. okay, so he gets up to leave after the tea, and i don't know if he saw what i saw--a young woman stood up near the door to leave, and was, i don't know, putting her jacket on or something, but her very-short skirt was in need of some smoothing--all i could see was ass. no underpants, just ass! and she stood there for what felt like an eternity--it was to the point where the radius of tables around her were all looking at each other, somewhat horrified, with that 'are you seeing this?!' look on our faces. i was so relieved that at that moment, i wasn't expected to tell the interviewer where i wanted to be professionally in 5 years, because it would have come out, 'oh my god look! she's just standing there with her ass out!' which would have either clinched the interview or left me without a hope.

friday: i sort of thought the eye-rolling troll at my last horrible interview would forever be untouchable in the ranks of rude and awful interviewers, but no. i showed up 20 minutes early, and the woman comes down to meet me, shakes my hand and says 'you were supposed to be here 2 hours ago.' um, really? i had 4 p.m. in my email confirmation. 'no, i have 2 p.m. in my calendar.' the guy who set up the interview is conveniently out of the office, so it's my word against hers, and she's hearing nothing that i'm saying. she shrugs her shoulders and says, 'well if you're still interested in the position, perhaps you can email the confirmation you received [subtext: she thinks it will say 2 p.m.] and maybe we can re-schedule. so i stand up, visibly pissed off but remaining calm, to take off my visitor's badge, and she asks if i've come far. yes, guildford. with that, she walks off! no kind word, no nice gesture, no, hey sorry for this mess, we'll get to the bottom of it, blah blah blah, NOTHING! just WALKS AWAY!

i can handle inconvenience. i find it intolerable that she just completely insulted me! i am a candidate for a position in her company, they've checked out my CV, so obviously they're interested in me, i'm interested in the role--who would ever do that? i could never treat someone that way, especially when she has no idea what emails/ phone calls i've received from the HR dept. i immediately call the husband before i even leave the building and have him open my email to verify that indeed, i was 20 minutes early and not 2 hours late. yes, that's exactly what the email says. so he meets me and we storm off, livid, for coffee and bitching. i sent the forwarded email back to her--totally objective and not full of obscenities like i would have preferred--and she writes back, 'sorry for the misunderstanding.' yeah, there was no misunderstanding on my part. she wrote back again 'if you're still interested...' yeah, like i want a chance to meet with you again, you cow. i'm waiting until next week to see what HR has to say, as i forwarded my email back to them, too. i'm thinking formal complaint. it was so out of line.