Pre-interview jitters and preparation

My interview is set for 9:10am tomorrow morning, and I've spent much of the day bouncing between getting ready for it and trying not to think about it. See, I'm one of those people who gets nervous when they phone to order pizza. I even get nervous when I phone the machine at vodacom to check my airtime - thank goodness for the wonders of *100#. Of course, this leads to tension when my mom asks me to make calls for her when she's driving... I digress.

Preparing for your Epik Interview
The night before last I sat up looking at pictures on pinterest of amazing studio apartments, and daydreaming (at night) of having piles of money and decorating my Korean apartment in a creative, whimsical and yet classy way. I think I ended up getting about an hour's sleep. So yesterday I was a bit of a nervous wreck. And then the email came in, telling me when my interview was. I decided to make sure to get a good night's sleep last night, and got as much as possible, waking up round 10ish.

Since the interview is on camera, I decided to spend a little time giving my skin some TLC:

I recommend washing the face mask off BEFORE the interview. Otherwise your interviewer might have a heart attack.

I also picked out an outfit for my upper half (black blouse, black pin-striped blazer) and found a location for my interview. My room is a mess and with only one window, my desk wasn't an option as the window would cause me to be silhouetted. So I have opted for the floor, with my laptop on my trunk at eye-level, angled so that all that is visible is the wall and a bit of book shelf - the same view as in the image above. I tried out some different hairstyles but apparently my hair isn't cooperating today. I'll straighten it tomorrow and probably stick it in a bun or something. Fancy. Not.

I also test-drove skype for the bazillionth time by calling my recruiter to test my settings. I'm working on speaking more slowly, and she said my current speed is perfect. Although our internet has been bouncing up and down for the last two days, she said the quality was perfect, so that's another worry sorted. If my internet is crap tomorrow then I cannot vouch for the continued safety of my housemates, who tend to kill all bandwidth with whatever it is they do.

During the call, I realised that I struggle to maintain eye-contact while talking, so I have MADE A PLAN. It's pretty hard for me to make eye contact with a tiny built-in webcam so I have drawn a picture of my interviewer (based on her Skype profile picture) and am sticking it to my laptop's lid. I have tried to make her as friendly and non-threatening as possible. Ain't she cute?

I'm currently going through the questions that my recruiter said might pop up and thinking up clever answers for them. I'm also practicing my Korean pronunciation on 'Annyeonghaseyo' (hello), 'gamsahapnida' (thank you) and 'hanguk mal eul jal mora yo' (I don't speak Korean very well).

Now all I need to do is print out my application form, which I'll have to do tomorrow because I've lost my student card AGAIN and can't get into labs, and that's it. I'm all set. And still terrified.