So who wants to hear about my interview excursion last week? that's right. I never go on trips, I go on excursions!
I was set to fly out last Tuesday at 3:30PM. I got all my stuff together, copies of my resume, copies of my updated reel, pretty much everything that I needed to have when having an interview in my industry. So, I packed a bag of stuff for my overnight trip and headed to the airport. Before going, I had checked the weather and it looked pretty nasty all up and down the east coast. I got to the airport a little earlier than I normally do, but I don't usually fly united, so I was sure how their check-in procedures were. I parked my car in the economy lot and walked into the main terminal here in Denver, which is always fun. I get in the united line and as I get up to the lady directing traffic, I come to fine that you can't actually check in at the airport, unless you have four different things, which I had none. Normally, I just walk up, tell them my name, give them my drivers license and they give me a ticket and we're done; but not here! United has to be all fancy and use their computer systems and I can only imagine what kind of trouble a 70 year old man has, let alone me! So I call on the "you're so dumb, that you have to speak to an indian" phone and figure out what my confirmation number is. Well, I get it and finally get my ticket. Next I head to the security line.
The day before leaving I knew that since I was going to be taking everything as a carry-on, that I would have to have travel size everything and so I did....except my facewash that I use, which was practically empty anyways, but it didn't meet the 6 ounces or less requirement and the lady threw it out. I made it through security and went and got onto the train to head to terminal B, where all the united flights leave out of. I went and I sat down and chilled maintained my excitement and smile on my face. We finally got onto the plane, which turned out to be a 767 and bound for Frankfurt after our short stop in DC....or what was suppose to be a short stop. So, we get everything situated on the plane, only to hear that we are having maintenance check something out on the nose of the aircraft, which turned out making us leave about a half hour late.
The flight was good. It was only suppose to be about three hours and fifteen minutes, which means we got a movie! YAY! Well, I had justed watched it about two weeks prior when I went with my parents to Idaho, but I was bored enough and watched "Becoming Jane" again. The whole flight back to the east was pretty bumpy. One of those flights where you'll finally settle and then you'll hit an air pocket again and your stomach drops like crazy. We start to make our decent into Dulles, only to find that we have to loop the airport about four times before we can actually set the plane down. The weather was getting worse, which in turn made the bumps a lot worse and it was one of those flights where not only your stomach sinks down, but so does your brain! Finally, the plane sets down on the runway and we are about twenty minutes late. We taxi in to our gate. Next, we all get up and those of us who have connecting flights are given the right-of-way to exit the plane first....however, our next announcement informs us that they are having a little trouble getting the door open, so ten minutes after that, people finally start getting off the plane. As I was waiting, I had checked the departure gate for my next flight and figured out which way I needed to bolt to when I got off of the plane. I finally get off the plane at about 9:50 and make it to my next gate at 9:52, as it was suppose to leave at 9:55 and find out that the flight was closed. I knew of about three other people that were suppose to be on this flight, but apparently united doesn't care and they'd rather spend their money to put us on another flight, so it turned out to be about seven or eight of us and we all missed the flight...the last one of the night.
I head to the customer service counter there in the united section and I dig out my laptop and call ESPN afterhours travel and book a new flight out of National Airport in the morning on another airline. My interview was scheduled for 10AM, so I really wanted to make sure that I could get there in time for that. So next I call my dad and tell him that I need him to drive out to Dulles and pick me up in the pouring down rain. I get up to the counter and tell them that I already have a new flight booked and that I just need them to credit my stuff over and they give me a receipt and I am on my way! I have to wait a little bit for my Dad to get there, but that's not bad, since their house in quite a ways away from Dulles. I end up getting back to my parents house at about 12 Midnight and end up just then getting something to eat for dinner and staying up a couple minutes to chat with my dad. I head to my room there to sleep, but I am still so excited and worried that I really didn't fall asleep that easy and I don't even remember sleeping at all that night? I get up at a quarter to six and start getting ready. Since it was the day of my interview, I went ahead and put my new suit on to wear on my flight....which has its repercussions in a second. My mom and I head to the metro and get on in Springfield and I ride up to National Airport and get off there. I check in easy....with a different airline where I can just enter my name. Next, I head to security and guess what? Yep, I got to be the lucky person to get bent over and raped. They pick me out of the line, which I'm convinced is because no 22 year old is aloud to wear a suit on an airplane and that instead this is their dressing up of their final/casket clothing. So, I go through the process...get patted down and everything and then having to take a couple more minutes to get my mind back in the game. So, by now I'm realizing that I need to get something to eat, so I stop and get some airport food and go over to a table and sit down near my gate and watch the TV monitor for information. As I was walking from Security, I hear the first gate change, so I made sure that I went to the right place. As I'm sitting there, watching the word "delayed" pop up onto the information screen, I bang my fist onto the table out of frustration. I went ahead and e-mailed the guy who I was scheduled to interview with my new flight information, so that he could check the status updates online. I sent him an e-mail the night before, letting him know what happened and so he did call me earlier in the morning to see how things were coming. So, I finally finish my morning snack and decide that I am going to go and get some coffee. I head over there, only to hear the next announcement, that my gate is changed once again and so I finally get my order and head over to that gate. About ten minutes after that we finally start boarding, but it has already been about 30 to 40 minutes from our initial time of departure. So, I get on the plane and I was very fortunate to have an empty seat next to me. It was a beautiful morning flight up to Hartford and it really only took about 45 minutes, but they still had to circle the airport at least once there too. We land and I get off the plane. I pop in my contacts and head down to Baggage to meet my driver. I get into the car and he tells me it's about 35 miles to ESPN, so we chat a good amount in the car and he tells me a little about the city of Hartford and I was actually impressed by the State Capitol Building, but I don't think I could live there if I get the job?
We get over to ESPN and believe it or not, I was only about 15 minutes late. Yipee!! It could have been so much worse! So the guy comes out to meet me and then takes me back to his office. We sit there for a few minutes and then walk over to his bosses office and we talk with him. He pops my demo reel in and I explain everything on there that I did. He looks at my resume and tells me that I do have a good amount of production experience, which is a good thing and that I am definitely a good candidate for the position. So I shake his hand and we walk back down the hall to the other office and chat for a couple seconds there. Next, my interviewer takes me on a tour and shows me a bunch of the graphic rooms there in ESPN. He takes me into this one called the "CAGE" and I meet some people in there and I get thrown onto this graphics system that I know how to use and show that I can use it. There was like one thing that the guy who tested me asked me to do which was above my head, but that's not a big deal. So, we head back to my interviewer's office and we talk a little more there. He pulls out a couple generic interview questions that he wanted me to answer and so I did. One was like give three words to describe myself and so I gave them to him and then he asks "are these words that I would use or three words that other people would use?" My response to that was "well, both. I view myself the same way as everyone else does and that if I didn't, I'm not being truthful to who I am?" I think he liked that answer, so he said that I did well in the interview and then he walked me back to the Lobby and we shook hands and then he said that he would be in contact with me in a month either way. So, now we wait......
I headed straight back to the airport and changed in the bathroom out of my suit and went and grabbed a slice of pizza. I got on my flight down to Dulles and changed planes there to head back to Denver and didn't have any issues then.
Now I'm home and I am just completely relaxing. I had to work about eleven hours down in Pueblo, Colorado on Saturday for some Division 2 conference championship, but it was really easy.
I watch the GSC Championship game that Harding played in online over at my brother Larry's yesterday and it was a good game. Now they're in the Div 2 NCAA Tournament and so that's really awesome for them. I don't think that I'm going to take any trips anytime soon. I'm a little traveled out right now. I've got a couple friends coming to see me soon, so I'll just stay here.
Chatboard (0)