I Had An Impromptu Job Interview Yesterday

About a month ago, I emailed my resume to a law office in response to a job posting they had created on Craigslist.

The position was for a Legal Secretary, and although I have no legal experience, the posting said that they would consider a candidate with non-legal experience if they typed 60+ words per minute.

Well I happen to type about 63 words per minute, so I emailed my resume in. No one from the law office ever contacted me, so I just forgot about it.

Well yesterday morning, I got a phone call from a lawyer from the law office. He seemed very nice and he introduced himself by his first name, "Bill." He said he had my resume that I had emailed in and he would like to meet with me.

(Wow, exciting, especially since I've emailed my resume all over the place and this is the first time anyone had called me back.)

This lawyer, Bill asked if I could meet him that afternoon and if I could bring in some of my writing samples and references. So I spent the rest of the morning getting everything together and trying to figure out what to wear.

I was very nervous because I haven't had a job interview in over 5 years, so I thought I'd be a little rusty. But at the same time, Bill had seemed so friendly and informal so that eased some of my worries.

I got there about 15 minutes before our appointment, and as I waited in the small waiting room, I began to get very nervous. I kept thinking, what is he going to ask me? Maybe I should have prepared a little more before coming in..

Bill opened the door and showed me to his office which had a big desk and a couch and numerous piles of paper on the desk, floor, and couch.

And then the interview began...

As soon as I sat down, I wasn't as nervous as I had been before. Bill made me feel very comfortable. The interview actually felt like 2 people just having a conversation rather than a very formal question and answer interview.

Bill was an older man, and he started by telling me that he had been practicing law for over 35 years. He told me that he was in practice by himself. He had no partners. His office was busy at times, but most of the time it was pretty quiet. He said that although I had no legal experience, he thought I could learn the job quickly. He then told me about all the job duties the position would entail: typing up his correspondence, creating drafts of letters and other legal documents. He said that he mostly recorded what his letters should say and that I would be transcribing his recordings. I would also be helping him maintain his rental properties and typing up correspondence for his tenants as needed.

So far, so good...

Then he looked over my resume and asked me about the previous position I held at an elementary school. So I told him all about it. While I was talking, he asked me basic questions about the social skills program I used to work for and if I ever saw results with the kids I worked with. (The answer to that is yes, but I explained it more in depth.)

He looked over some of my writing samples and one of them was about the mass deportations of Mexican-Americans during the Depression Era. Then Bill started talking about a movie made during the 50s with Charleston Heston which was about that.

Again, it felt just like we were having a conversation, not an interview because we were very casually talking about a movie. I kept thinking to myself that Bill seems like a very nice guy to work with. I also kept thinking that I had been so nervous, but it was actually going pretty well.

Then Bill and I talked some more and he said that some afternoons there was a lot of dead time, so I could probably even bring in a book or something to read during those times.

By this point, I was sold. I wanted to scream "HIRE ME, HIRE ME!"

He then asked if I would be willing to take a little typing/computer skills test in which I would use the Microsoft Word program to type out a 2 page letter (which was already printed out, so basically I was just copying it) but I had to copy it exactly, all the margins, formatting, indentations, everything. It wasn't that hard to do, I finished it in about 15-20 minutes. I looked it over to make sure everything was correct, no misspellings, no typos. (You know how meticulous I am.)

Bill then had me print it out and he looked it over and said that it was perfect. (Thankyouverymuch) He also said that he had interviewed someone else that morning who didn't quite know their way around the computer.

So by this point I was thinking that the interview had gone just about perfect. I liked him. He seemed to like me...

But there was one last issue to discuss, one I'd been dreading: salary.

I've never been in a position to negotiate salary before. With my previous job, I knew how much the position paid before I even applied, so it wasn't an issue. But having to name my price, so to speak is a very stressful subject for me. What if I say a number that's too high and they laugh, or what if I aim too low and I could have gotten more?

So I tried to side step this question when Bill asked me, and I told him that since I had never actually been a legal secretary, I wasn't sure what to expect as far as salary.

So then Bill threw out a number for me to consider.

And this was the point that the perfect interview turned south, very, very quickly...

I'm not going to say how much Bill offered me, but let me say that the number he said is actually $2.00 less per hour than what my old job paid, and I did mention this to him and he said he would make a note of it.

So I'll just have to wait for Bill to call me back.

But if I don't get the job, or if Bill is not willing to raise his offer then at least I got some experience in interviewing, if nothing else.