I had another 2nd job interview today. Again, it was a mock training session. That’s been the pattern lately: do a standard interview, then be asked to come back to do a mock training so they can see me in action. The third step of the pattern so far has been “and then never hear from them again.” I’m hoping for a different outcome this time.

I switched things up for this presentation. Usually they ask me to do something on Microsoft Office: one place wanted me to do a presentation on pivot tables in Excel, another had me do something in Word. This latest place left the choice up to me, so I decided to “think outside the box” and do something completely different: I trained them on how to use a pen.

I felt a little bit silly, standing there in my monkey suit, doing 15 minutes on “here’s how you hold a pen” and “now let’s try drawing a circle,” but I figure it was something none of the other candidates were going to do, so it would make me stand out. I wrapped the presentation up by having them perform an exercise in pen usage: a game of Hangman, where the phrase they were deciphering was “Let’s hire Chuck!” It got a lot of laughs, at least.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed as I wait to see if it also gets me an offer.