Map Reading Skills Required...

Despite my incessant need to turn up to everything 15 minutes before expected, I managed to be late for interview H. Why? Because I got lost. In central London. With a map.

This is clearly not good.

I had to ask three people for directions and do a lot of running in high heels (which led to blisters and rather sore legs!) I don't even want to think about how silly I must have looked. Even worse, when I came out of the interview and tried to get my bearings, I realised that I must have walked straight past the office to begin with, just on the other side of the road...

Despite turning up about a minute late, then being sent to the wrong floor in the elevator, I think the interview itself went well. I managed to answer all of their questions at any rate and they seemed interested in my time at Avon (which is a plus since it was a Sales job).

Throughout the week my mum had kept asking me if I knew who their major competitors were. I did, but having gone to seven interviews without it being asked, I thought it was unlikely to come up. It did. Turns out Mum's are sometimes worth listening to.

Interview I was the very next day, which meant putting the (rather painful) shoes back on and heading back up to London. This interview was for an internship with a Literary Agency. A very small agency. So small that it's run out of the agent's apartment. This definitely put me out of my comfort zone - it was my first (and probably only) interview to take place on a sofa in a living room, with a couple of other employees tapping away on laptops at the dining table behind me. One of the interviewers doodled me as I was talking, so that he could remember who I was afterwards.

I think I was a little thrown off by the setting, or maybe I just don't have a very good memory, since my mind kept going blank on names when I was being asked questions, which I am sure can't have looked very good, especially when a job at an agency is all about people and networking!

I haven't heard back so I'm assuming that I didn't get the internship, but I'm OK with that; it was unpaid, so would have actually ended up costing me money in travel. I really want a job, but I don't want to pay to work...

I should hear back about interview H either tomorrow or next week, when they will be arranging second interviews.

In other news, I didn't get long listed for the Young Writers Prize. I'm extremely disappointed about this, but they did send me out a very nice email and I am now spending my time looking up agencies and agents (if I don't hear back from Interview I, I'll send it there too!) I'm also going to redraft the first couple of chapters again and start putting them up on some creative writing forums to see if I can build up a readership and get some feedback.

Watch this space.