life of andyman

A quick entry: I had my Formal Interview for the BCATS (local tv station) production assistant job. I think I did a pretty good job. There’s a few things I forgot to mention, but others that I thought of on the spot that I think worked well. But…there is one thing that I forgot. I was slightly nervous about all sorts of things, like how do I dress, what do I put on the resume, what sort of things will they ask, what should I say–all these things made me slightly nervous. But there was one thing that I only thought of this morning, and it was the first thing to really give me something to worry about.

The Battle of the Bands Factor — aka the BOB Factor.

In my life, I’ve been to perhaps a half dozen Battle of the Bands competitions. In every competition, without fail, there has been one consistent phenomenon. The band that plays last always wins.

The Manhammerers are familiar with this, but let me explain to the others. If we reason the BOB Factor out, it somewhat makes sense. The judges typically aren’t paying huge attention to all the bands, they’re just storing away brief, abstract memories like, “Ok, that band’s pretty good. not bad. I like that sound all right.”

By the time the last band plays, you can be certain they don’t remember more than “Not bad” about the first band that played–it’s long since deserted their short-term memory. Whereas, as long as the last band to play isn’t awful–and even sometimes when it is–the final band is fresh in their memory and without fail, is chosen as the winner.

Knowing this, and only remembering it this morning, I could not believe how foolish I was to take…the…sigh…first interview slot available this morning.

So please, pray for me. Let us together pray that the interviewers kept good notes, or that I perhaps told a story that was memorable, or that perhaps I’m just leaps and bounds better than the other applicants, or perhaps Anne Peterson’s hook-up as a former employee will prevail, or some other unforseen, incredible miracle will occur to ensure that the interviewers don’t forget me and hire the last applicant they see.

Please, I need your help to, somehow, overcome the BOB Factor.

And don’t forget to read the next post, just below this one, that I wrote yesterday.