Bugger...

Ok so I had the interview. I'm going to break it down to good bits and bad bits.

Bad bits first (cos it will make me feel better at the end):

I sent separate emails to both partners saying thank you and I should have sent just one, and also copied the HR director, this became apparent when one of them replied, copying the other partner and the HR director. But I'm hoping they compare notes and the other partner says I sent her an email also...

I knew the firm works with ID cards. I knew they would ask me about ID cards. I did not read up enough about them and when they asked me specific questions I had no idea.

The ethics question. Full stop. I had to ask them to explain like two parts of it to me because I had got it slightly wrong. Could have answered that SO much better, I'm pretty sure I even changed my answer half way through the question. The follow ups were what killed me - they made me feel like the original answer was wrong. And then I got worried and started talking crap.

I had a really good rationale for wanting to work there but somehow managed to compress it into about two sentences that said absolutely nothing of my original answer and left out all the best bits.

The only question I genuinely had no preparation made for was asking what three companies I would invest in in the stockmarket. I had no idea. None. Zero. Zilch. Nothing clever, no logical up and coming firms, no cool new funky targets... I completely and utterly fluffed that one up but I hope that that I still came across like I had made an informed decision, not come up with it on the spot, even if they guessed that. Or something. This is probably how I was talking too.

I felt like I was waffling too much. Concise answers and all that? Nah. More I thought I wasn't saying what I wanted to be saying the more I felt like I waffled which was probably not good, and am worried I didn't get across everything I wanted to.

Good points:

Both the people were nice - I didn't feel like the other firm where I was grilled to within an inch of my life. At times there was "conversation" rather than Q&A.

I wasn't late

They said they really liked my question (this could also be a bad thing) as I asked about the proposals to shorten the TC and they hadn't heard about it.

I think one liked me, the other not so much. Had slightly similar vibe to first firm interview by the end, as felt like I wasn't coming across in the best possible light

Ok thats not really finishing it on a positive... but there you go, that was my experience. They will let me know within two weeks. In other news, Gavin also had interview news, and I had two rejections from other firms waiting for me in my inbox.

Toodles!