My friend Micah was in town and came over last night. We were catching up on many things, including how f’ing hard it’s been to get a job in this economy—something I’ve had to put on the back burner because, well… two cancers.

The conversation reminded me of a moment from the Beforetimes I thought I’d share.

Last fall I started actively applying for jobs. One of them was at a very large veteran-serving nonprofit. On paper the job description was basically written for me. I figured I was a shoo-in.

I made it through the first round of interviews and was invited into the office for the second.

I could write ten paragraphs about how weird it was to put on work clothes and commute and go into an office building again, but for now I’ll just say: the whole thing felt strange. By that point in my career I had mostly gotten jobs by being asked if I wanted them.

The setting and the questions were so… corporate. I had gotten used to interviews that felt like conversations. This one felt like an AI-generated list from HR.

And honestly, I was struggling because I just don’t have canned answers to questions like:

“How do you manage your time?”

I just… do?
Do you want my checklist and calendar methodology?

But here was my favorite question:

“Tell us about a time when you had to manage multiple projects at once.”

Uh.

I think I said, When have I not?

I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my professional life when I wasn’t managing multiple projects at once.

But then I had to follow that up with something less snarky (again, rusty on the interview-question front), so I said something like:

“Oh, you know—like when I ran a small nonprofit and had to navigate a legal battle we won without actual legal counsel because I didn’t need it because I’m really f’ing smart, launch a rebrand, build a new website, transfer and revamp an entire online course, restructure an advanced training program, massively increase stakeholder engagement, and delegate a bunch of things to the board–all within about two months–after raising $45K in a week so the organization wouldn’t go under?”

And I’m pretty sure I forgot a few things.

Anyway.

I didn’t get the job.

What the fuck.

Next time someone asks me to describe a time when I managed multiple projects at once, I’m just going to say:

“Oh, like the time I had—and beat—two cancers at once?”

Hopefully the economy will be better by then.