Interview as Improvisational Acting

Job interviews are quite possibly some of the worst times anyone could have in their life. I hate them.

The judging looks, the questions with "no right answers" that really have only one "right" answer, and the improvisational acting.

Yes, Improvisational Acting.

You might not know what I am talking about but I am almost positive you have had at least one interview experience in your lifetime when you were asked to make a fool of yourself pretending to sell a pen to a poster, or imagining what your response would be to a orange who was unhappy with the services it had received.
These types of questions to me are better classified as acting exercises. I understand that employers are trying to figure out if you can think on your feet and are honestly curious to see how your reply would apply in a real life situation, but a small part of me just can't get past the nagging concern that they are internally reveling in your desperate humiliation.

I mean, if I were in their shoes, I would be. Who wouldn't enjoy the poor unemployed specimen's desperate attempt to impress through performance art?

Job interviews can also be like bad dates.
The nerves, the sweaty palms, the search for the perfect outfit and the ultimate rejection after trying so hard to impress. My worst date ever was much like my worst job interview ever.

Allow me to explain.

My worst date ever happened to be with a young man who liked to refer to women as "females" in conversation. Don't ask me how he got past that but he did. We went on a double date with a couple friends of mine and after this guy had made several cell phone calls at dinner I mouthed to my friends "bad...bad."

Big-O Mistake-O.

My date lost it.

He slapped some money down on the table, shook my male friends hand, said, Nothing personal," and left without giving me a second glance.

My worst job interview went down much the same minus the discussion of "females."
This interview played out like an audition. I was asked to come in for the day to show the bosses how good of a receptionist I could be. I ended up not answering a phone that never rang and then like a bad break up was called at home later to be told that my services were no longer needed.

O, the shame! What did I do? What did I say? What went wrong? Sometimes we will just never know. We live to date and interview another day. We practice our best answers and keep our fingers crossed that this will be it.

"IT."

Much like we date in search of the "one" so that our days of bad dates can be put behind us, I, for one, am eager to put interviewing behind me.