Philippians 4:13

I think I'm close to celebrating my 150th application soon and out of the 150 tries, I think I got maybe 25-30 interviews. Ever since I've been applying to jobs it feels like college apps all over again except 150x more difficult. At least college apps gave you a direct "yes or no" response whereas jobs just leave you hanging for a while. I specifically remember 3 interviews in particular very well. Why? Because I was interviewed in Korean.

One such interview was at MBC. Now the person who called me spoke english perfectly well without any hint of an accent. I knew this person had to be either a naturalized citizen or a Korean American by birth. This skyrocketed my hopes. This is MBC we're talking about, one of the Big 3 Korean broadcasting studios alongside KBS and SBS. Ironically I got the call during one of my other interviews at an accounting office. In the end, I was excited, nervous, and eager to go in for the interview. This was THE interview I've been waiting for. Not just another job where I want to go because I need a job, but something I actually can see myself doing 50 years down the road, somewhere I can learn more about the broadcasting and studio world. The office was located in DC so I left an hour prior to my scheduled time and I literally got there exactly on the dot at 11:30 (hate traffic..) I walked in proudly and ready to knock'em dead, then it just went down hill. There were 3 interviewers, all of them were probably my dads age, and they started the interview in Korean. Now my Korean is not bad at all. I can read, write, and speak proficiently enough, but its definitely not native level. The usual questions such as tell me about yourself, what are you looking for, personality, I knocked down easily. They even asked me to read an article from a Korean newspaper and summarize it for them, twice. I guess they wanted to see and hear my Korean. I felt like I semi-butchered up the Korean language and I could tell at least one of the interviewers were not impressed. Then they took it up a notch, they started talking politics.

I didn't know that I was applying for MBC News in America. They started to ask me stuff I vaguely remember from US History and Government classes. I for one do not like talking about politics but given the need I will. I think I can hold a decent political conversation. But talking politics in Korean is...for lack of better term, gg. I literally got GG'ed. They started asking my opinion on the US/Korea Free Trade Agreement, the relationship between President Obama and Lee, the on going economical crisis and how it has a collateral affect on Korea. If I heard myself answer these questions, I think I too would've rolled my eyes and let out short sighs. By this point I could tell I was losing them. From what I can tell two of the interviewers were the ones that handled the stories and one of them was a videographer, the one who does things that I can related to. I felt a glimmer of hope though when the videographer started to ask me non-political questions. He also had a very nice demeanor. I didn't feel nervous at all when I answered any of his questions. The other two, one was a lot more open about his dissatisfaction and completely stopped asking questions. The longest hour of my life came to a close and they sort of just shooed me away. To end things on a good note I went around thanking them and shaking their hands. It was a good gesture of admitting defeat and believe me, I was literally defeated after that.

Never felt so stupid in my life. Oddly enough, a couple of days later they gave me a call back for a second interview. In my mind, "wthail??". I immediately remembered the living hell I went through in that interview and instinctively declined. I had officially become stupid. I spent the next couple of days in full regret that I let that smidgen of pride take over and declined maybe a God-given opportunity. It was miserable. I prayed about it hoping to find some resolution to that issue and forgiveness if it really was a God-given opportunity and I pridefully declined it because it didn't suit my needs.

No use crying over the past, whats done is done. I've gotten over it and I guess God told me to move on to new and better places. I'm currently waiting on my second interview with Customink.com as well as another design company. Customink seemed to like me as they've stated they want to bring me in for a second interview soon and the other company I just got referred to from chubbers who got the position, congrats to her! I learned my lesson from the MBC experience. No matter how odd, difficult, and unfitting the position maybe, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Looking forward to the upcoming interviews and maybe my jobless days in the desert will come to an end. Just maybe.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bible Progress - Galatians 5