A tale of two interviews

last week i had my first ever interviews in singapore. two of them! a monday 11:30 a.m. with bda, and a thursday 11 a.m. with a (from the looks of it, new-ish) women's beauty/fashion/wellness portal called beverly, where i applied as a freelance editor.

i was so excited, i planned both of them obsessively: departure times, routes and modes of transportation, background research, and of course, the all-important outfits. i even printed a copy of my cv to bring with me to the actual interviews, which i NEVER did for an interview back home.

anyway, this is how it went.

interview #1: BDA

departure time: 9:30 a.m. (yes, two hours in itty-bitty singapore. can you say praning? this at least gave me time for a hazelnut latte at tcc.)

mode of transportation: shuttle bus from condo to mrt station, mrt to somerset, taxi to bda's office on kim yam road

background research: hooo boy. major kapraningan here. apart from looking up BDA's clients and viewing their showreel online, i wrote down in my little notebook (just to refresh my memory) how i worked in gma, what i contributed to the team, how i came up with ideas, the challenges that i faced getting each of the 10 plugs on my showreel produced and how i overcame them, positive feedback from my boss... GAWD. what a geek.

outfit: black architectural-cum-smock-type dress from jonker gallery in malacca (my sister has the exact same one in white and told me not to wear it to an interview) plus a cobalt blue shrug with gold nautical-type buttons. wore it with my favorite vintage gold rose necklace and very new open-toe black patent wedges, which killed me -- i had major breaking-in blisters by 11 am. thankfully i am a whiz at minimizing a blister-induced limp, so nobody at bda even noticed.

the proceedings: it was less of an interview and more of a very, very nice long chat with lilian, bda's business director. i started to relax when i realized that there was so much to learn about producing promos outside of gma and the philippines -- and i might as well just soak it up. she didn't even ask to see my showreel!

after an hour-long gabfest, i found myself getting flutter-in-the-guts excited about getting the chance to do promos for all these different shows from all over the world. yup, it's confirmed: nothing gets me going like tv does. i felt vindicated that i stuck to my guns about holding out for work that really, really gets me excited -- such a huge departure from the "i'll take anything" me of yore. i was just overwhelmed that i was even just sitting there. i wonder if lilian got even the slightest bit creeped out by my shining eyes and dopey smile.

and... they have a cat in the office! a huge fat gray adorable cat! it was sleeping in a basket under lilian's desk the whole time i was there. when i saw it, i just melted. it was like... hot damn, can it get any better than this? hahaha!

outcome: i am now part of their pool of freelance creatives! yay! go me! basically it means they'll call me if there's a script to be written or produced that their in-house team can't take on, or if they want me to pitch an idea for a project. super excited to see what will come my way!

verdict: worth every single feckin' blister.

next up: interview #2.