Sometimes you have to wonder. Yesterday I had a phone interview for a job for which I would dearly love to be considered as a serious candidate. It was to be a Skype video interview. Knowing Skype, one of the main prayer requests I sent out was that Skype behave. It didn't. 10 minutes or so into the interview, it crashed and refused to come online again. Then my mobile wouldn't pick up their call. I ended up running outside to see if it would work better, then having to dash back inside once the call came through, by which time I was flustered and out of breath. Instead of being able to see their faces and have that visual feedback, we ended up on the phone. Bummer. And then it's easy to wonder why? Why me, why that interview, why couldn't it have just worked in my favor?
But then I think, well, at least I did get to see their faces at the start - it was easier for having seen their smiles and getting their initial visual feedback to me - I could still picture them all later when we were just on the phone, know who was asking me a question, etc. So I can be grateful that Skype at least started by working. And really, I'm not sure it threw me out all that much - somehow I was raised to be able to shift gears relatively easily (not sure if it's innate, rather think it was forced into me!) -- what if another person they were interviewing that way wouldn't have been able to handle the shift of media? In the end, it was fine for me -- one way or another I had at least made it to this stage with a school that is a very high aim for me! I got to thinking, it could have been worse. What if my mobile never had gotten reception? What if we hadn't been able to message back and forth during the period of trying to connect and I lost the whole interview? What if it had been a hostile committee rather than one I genuinely felt wanted the best experience for me? Really, it could have been far worse.
All that to say, I have no idea why Skype didn't work. It's just one of those things. I'm just glad it started by working!
About Me
- GreekGeek
- I am a PhD candidate in Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. At least on paper that's my title. Allowed free reign, I tend to be a travel yuppie or an outdoors bum. On days when I concede to my purpose in living over here, I work on the epistle of James. Other days I just pine for the mountains. On all days I miss my family.
4 comments:
Technology is wonderful when it works as intended. Unfortunately, it has many moments when it does not. Thankfully, God is not only God of this City, but of technology, too. Maybe that quick prayer helped out. If anything your quick thinking ability, "roll with the punches moves", and "not giving up on this interview" attitude may come across as very positive.
*** Beware: Computer Nerd Representin' ***
Video conferencing is one of the more complex tasks your computer might ever do!
Without going into detail, here are some (somewhat educated) guesses at why it crashed:
1) Incompatible Skype versions: easily fixed by making sure everyone is at the same release -- choosing the most stable one for each platform (PC, Mac, etc.).
2) The volume of data (video needs a LOT of bandwidth) overwhelmed the operating system's TCP/IP stack or exposed a rare bug: not much you can do about this...unless there are others experiencing the same problem. You might have a shot at Googling for communities who are trying to fix the same issue you experienced.
3) Your computer had a hardware (memory/overheat/low voltage) issue which will be difficult to reproduce & fix. This is also rare, so don't let it keep you up at night. (However, if this is the root cause, other programs might be randomly crashing for strange, unprompted reasons.)
In the end, while people are annoyed when communications technology fails, they don't hold it against each other unless it's chronic. I wouldn't worry about it.
Phone interviews just give everyone a decent idea of whether you will fit in -- without the effort & expense of in-person interviews. Those usually come later. I'd say 80-90% of my last job search was over the phone/internet.
Perhaps similar to Graham's first comment, one could take an optimistic (although somewhat conspiracy-minded) view that your interviewers deliberately crashed the Skype to see how you would react to a "crisis"; and it sounds as if you did well.
All I know is that before i received your email, I was stung into prayer for you, and then checked my email and realized you were at the interview point. :) Yeah for angel stings! I know God is working at all levels. Now we just wait, sigh, to see where He leads and what He is up to! :)
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