Three winners, and I always lose

Over the past few years, I have been through a lot of interviews. I believe my previous lay-off sent me through 20 over the course of five months. It would always get down to me and one other person, meaning I might go back to the same company two or three times. Every time, the guy (literally, a man, every time) with more experience got the job. To keep myself from getting terribly depressed, I started ranking my interviews. My favorite catagory was most awkward. I had two winners:

1: The guy who showed me the Will Ferrel/cussing baby video during the interview. If a video falls under the NSFW catagory, I would imagine that will also apply to interviews. So, there I was, in my carefully planned outfit, holding my portfolio that I took a lot of time preparing, waiting to discuss a mock-up I spent hours on, and he's showing me some video with a baby dropping f-bombs. I'm pretty sure none of the interview guides talk about that.

2: The horse people. They were awful. They made brochures and booklets for horse breeders in Kentucky. It's a big, multi-million dollar business, if you are unfamiliar (I was. I know nothing about horses). I drove down there (6 hours) on my own time and with my own money. I kid you not, they did not smile once. Not even a hint. They didn't even smile when they said, "We really like working here" or "We really like your work" or "Have a nice drive back." Maybe it was unfair to assume that people who worked on horse brochures would be a bit more cheery? I felt very okay about not getting that one.

This weekend added one more to that list. At this stage, I consider them less awkward and more amusing. You just have to laugh and enjoy the moment for what it is. That said, I present No.3:

The interview was cool. Nice guy, a photographer who is leading a pretty exciting project. We had gone over my work, and his work, and the project details. Near the end of the interview, Mr. Man got quiet and kind of looked at me. He started of with, "I'm not being weird, but...", and then silence. I glance over at his assistant, who glanced over at me. " You look just like my ex-girlfriend, and her name was A* too".

Oh. Uh. Hmm.

His assistant asks him if he has any photos, and Mr. Man runs back to his studio. He yells back that he is trying to find one where "she has some clothes on" (remember, he's a professional photographer). We go back and I did, in fact, look very much like said girlfriend (who was clothed). They looked back and forth for a few minutes and I wondered how this effected my chances at the design work. Props to Mr. Man and the assistant, because it technically could have been more awkward given the circumstances. What are the odds?

Enjoy your day and all of the strange, funny, awkward, memorable moments that happen along the way.