I would like to talk about an interview I had roughly three years ago for a junior project coordinator role at a large logistics firm in central Manchester. It was actually my very first formal interview after finishing university, so the stakes felt incredibly high for me at the time.
When I arrived at their head office, I was shown into a boardroom where three senior managers were waiting. Instead of a casual chat with an HR representative, it turned out to be a panel interview led by the regional operations director, who had a rather stern demeanour and did not smile once when I walked in.
During the session, they put me through my paces with a series of competency-based questions. They asked me to describe how I would manage conflicting deadlines, handle difficult suppliers, and resolve logistical bottlenecks. Halfway through, they handed me a hypothetical crisis scenario on a sheet of paper and gave me just two minutes to outline an action plan. My mind went momentarily blank, and my hands were visibly trembling, but I managed to collect my thoughts and walk them through my strategy step by step.
Looking back, the main reason I felt so on edge was simply the fear of the unknown. Because I lacked corporate experience, I had built up the scenario in my head to be this terrifying ordeal. On top of that, the formal atmosphere, combined with the panel taking furious notes every time I spoke, made me feel intensely scrutinised. Happily, I actually received a job offer a few days later, but the build-up and the interview itself were definitely nerve-racking.