I’ve often said that job interviews are like dating. And, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who knows me well, I’m not terribly fond of either.

You get dressed to impress. You put on your best face, make sure to say the right thing, use the right body language, smile and nod in all the right places. At the end, you part ways and hope for a phone call.

And you wait. You hope that they don’t meet someone else that they like better.

Or sometimes, it just doesn’t feel right, and you actually hope that they don’t call at all.

To take the analogy a little bit further, job searching while you have a job feels a little bit like cheating, doesn’t it? Secretive phone calls. Vague excuses for your whereabouts. “Oh, I was…at an appointment.”

And when you leave a job, it’s kind of like breaking up. Getting fired, for instance, has a lot in common with getting dumped. Quitting voluntarily is like saying “It’s not you, it’s me. I’ve outgrown this relationship, and I need to move on.” And on rare occasions, both parties involved mutually agree to part ways, and the split is amicable.

More than once, I’ve run into someone I knew from a job that “dumped” me, and it was every bit as uncomfortable as running into an ex-boyfriend. What to do…do I lie, and tell them all about my fabulous new job? Do I say nothing, just smile and exchange pleasantries and be on my way?

All of this pondering was inspired by my interview this morning. I think it went well. It’s certainly not “the one,” but it could be a decent start to my teaching career. Freshman and sophomore English. I got a copy of their summer reading list…could be more to add to my ever-growing list! I started “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” so as to form my own opinion of it…and I still have to read “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” not to mention the five other books that Jen has that I want to read! I need a few more hours in the day…