Job Interview

I had an interview today!

My interviewer is a partner at a "boutique" firm for a particular area of law in Downtown Portland. I am being purposely vague. If this gig does come my way I will then be more forthcoming.

After arriving at the firms office up in one of the towering buildings in downtown we went to a nice little restaurant nearby. It is one of those places where at least a sport coat is recommended, if not required to eat there. Yet it was not overly spendy. I think with tip it was close to 80 bucks. Well that does sound sort of spendy. Neither of us had anything to drink either, just water with a lemon.

After a bit of conversation we ordered. The soup was made largely from pureed potatoes and asparagus. Very good. Then the main lunch course was some concoction that had lots of fancy foreign words in the title. It was basically a bed of wide noodles covered by finely shredded beef that had been stewed in a tomato-ish sauce. There were quite a few herbs in the sauce and it had a very fresh flavorful. On top of all of this was a lightly steamed green leafy vegetable that I was not familiar with. Again it was very good. Dessert was amazing as well.

During the interview we ate. It was more like a long conversation with random questions thrown in. He even admitted that they were off the wall questions. After several of these questions I asked him how it was that he came up with these particular questions. Did he think of them randomly as we were eating or had they been refined over time. He said it was more the later. He likes to ask similar questions so that he has a way to compare how interview went later. The questions were never about the law. One was, "If you had to go back to law school for one year at Lewis & Clark what would you change." Another was "Have you ever had someone think that they were an adversary of yours, but in reality you were on the same side? If so, how did you convince them of this fact?" Or "How would your best friend, other than your wife, describe you?"

I think I made it through the minefield at alive, but I have no idea how likely a job will be forthcoming. The lunch interview lasted about 2 hours. It actually went by pretty quick. I will take that as a good sign.

There is no timetable for when I will hear back, but hopefully soon. I would really like to work for these guys. But if nothing else I had a great lunch.