The events described in the previous post happened a week ago. The time stamp tells it all. But I was traveling without a computer and wrote things down on paper the night after the trip, copying them to digital only yesterday. I got to the airport with no time to spare but made it through security without delay and got to the departure area just on time. Maybe all the construction at Gatwick is actually improving things. Maybe the recession is still working its magic, holding the number of travelers down.
There had been no reason to rush anyway. The strike of lightning that had incapacitated the railroads hadn't passed the airport by without effect. Here, some essential equipment in the tower was knocked out, and no planes were starting and landing for a while. That was before I arrived but I could see the aftermath. My flight was delayed by an hour and a half. I was lucky. The Easyjet flight to Rome, originally scheduled to depart at 3:50pm, was "boarding at 22:00". An even earlier Ryanair flight was only offering "more information at 19:00". What a way to start a vacation.
I wasn't going on vacation, though. I was on my way to a job interview, and it was a big one. It was a job I really wanted, a job that I was well qualified for but in rather short supply of experience. Continuing where a master of the trade might bow out was a scary prospect, but I drew confidence and strength from the fact that I had been invited to the interview, making it past the application stage with ease.
Ease had withdrawn when I started preparing for the talk I was asked to give. The scientific part was easy, but what about my vision? I cooked something up and put it in what I hoped were convincing words, which I then spoke onto a dictaphone, to be replayed and worked with on the trip. I don't memorize my presentations but, like all scientists, speak freely, aided only by the cues on the slides, and like to know roughly where I'm going. I like to think of creative transitions and clever phrasings in advance.
The best implementation of this strategy was my thesis defense. After a nervous first few minutes, I got into a zone. I had two strands of thought unfold in parallel in my mind. I knew what I was saying and where I had to point to make my point, but I also knew, unambiguously and without thinking, what I was going to say a minute or so later. It was like being able to see into the future. I knew what the next slide would be and how I would introduce it – while I was explaining the current slide.
But preparing the presentation was for later, for when I had relaxed in my seat on the plane. I would go through the recording again, searching for inconsistencies while at the same time internalizing the flow of the logic. Right now I was too distracted with continuously updated information and quadrophonic announcements. I took the stack of scientific papers I had printed and tried to get acquainted with the interviewers' work – in between nervous glances to the screens, distractions by restless passengers and finally the walk to the gate and the boarding stampede.
On the plane I immersed myself in my talk. I was singularly focused, my brain burning towards the one goal of the trip, and as it sometimes happens when I think very hard of something very specific, something entirely unconnected jumped up and took advantage of my elevated state of mind. I figured out, just like that, without thinking about it, why two of the workstations in the lab had stubbornly resisted being upgraded. I had troubleshot the problem all week – to absolutely no effect. I knew what wasn't the problem – everything I could think of – but I couldn't think of the problem. And now, the solution stood before me as if it had been written down by someone who knew what he was doing. There wasn't a question or a doubt. It was absolute clarity – and so much more convincing than what I was listening to through a monaural earpiece.
It got late and my work pace slowed. We approached our destination and landed at an airport that seemed to have closed for the night already. There wasn't anyone at the counter that normally sells tickets for the necessary shuttle to the town I was going to, and no one else was waiting curbside, but the coach showed up on time, the driver took my money, and an hour later I lay in my hotel bed, phrases, arguments and metaphors still buzzing my head.
The interview went well. It was tougher on the interviewers than on us three interviewees because presentations, panel discussions and one-on-ones were held in parallel without overlap. The interviewers were thus busy from 9 to 7, while we candidates had occasional coffee breaks and even time for a walk around the block. I learned that the job is even better than I thought and that my chances are even slimmer. The talk was ok, but I'm not sure my vision was entirely convincing. All that remains to do now is keep my fingers crossed.
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