Just got off the phone with someone at a company somewhere in a southeasterly direction of here, in a city known for its great salsa. Job interviewing over the phone. So nervous. I think I should have consumed some alcohol beforehand.

I'm honestly not sure whether I made a good impression or not. It's so easy to get tongue tied, and have mind blanks, especially when I get an open-ended question like, "So is there anything else you'd like to tell me about yourself or your experience?"

Duuuuuuh. I almost wanted to mention the address of this web page and/or the Content Collective, because both would provide a decent demonstration of my capabilities in the area of web design, scripting, database-drivin web sites, etc.

But I didn't. I guess I'm just too paranoid these days. It's not like I don't have good reason, given the way I got bit in the ass at my last job. This site is personal. I write personal stuff here. I don't mind having people read it. In fact, I like having an audience.

What I don't like is the thought of having certain people combing over my day-to-day thoughts in an official capacity, looking for some kind of ammunition to use against me. Think I'm too paranoid? Try getting hauled inito an HR office, and having some words you wrote on the spur-of-a-moment shoved back in front of you as "evidence" of something-or-other. It ain't fun.

However, I refuse to let fear of that sort of thing stop me from expressing myself. I'm way past that point. If I was really going to give in to that sort of fear, I'd have to carefully guard every word I ever said to anybody, because the secret police could be around any corner. (Yes, the bulk of the "evidence" used against me did not come from this public web page, but from emails I had thought were private. The secret police could be around any corner.)

Bah. Enough regurgitating the past. The point is that I have learned from it. I have learned: (1) Don't try to treat coworkers as friends by sharing personal information with them, and (2) Take reasonable precautions to make sure that personal web pages are not easily found by people at work. It sucks, and in a perfect world, maybe such measures wouldn't be necessary. Maybe if I wouldn't the sort of person to make rash or controversial statements online, it wouldn't be an issue either. But I am what I am, paranoid HR departments are what they are, and neither is going to change anytime soon. Moving on....

With regard to this interview, I think did a reasonably good job, but it's hard to tell. At the end of the call, I honestly had no idea whether the person interviewing me was about to hang up and say, "There's no way that person is ever going to work here. Next?" Or, "This is definitely somebody we need to hire, so let's make an offer ASAP."

I just don't know. It sounds like it would be job well-suited to my skills. It also sounds like a good company to work for. (i.e. One that's growing, as opposed to shrinking.) We'll see.

(It occurs to me that this entire attempt to keep my web page a secret might be yielded null by another person I know who also might seek a job at the same company. Being less of a paranoid cynic than I, he might reveal the address of his web page, which in turn contains links to my web page, making this entire thing seem ridiculously silly. But if they happen hire both of us, they will have two content-posting loonies to deal with, which actually might be fun.)

Unclear, the future is. I wanna be employed. That's all for now.