Luck: yes, lucks exist. I was assigned to do my field placement at Centennial. That’s the luck number one. Centennial is proved to be one with better opportunity and better paid. This full-time position came just in time, right at the moment when I was ready.

The manager liked me despite the fact that I was not even able to have a complex conversation with her in English. You cannot beat this.

Match: the job and you. You have heard people complain about their jobs. They stay with the job they hate. I started school with ECE. When I went to field placement, I didn’t like it and I dropped. I felt bad at that time but I am so glad now that I dropped it. I did two field placements at library technician program and I liked them all. The work, the atmosphere, people’s background, everything was just right. It’s for you then and you knew it.

Attitude: positive attitude is the key. It definitely won me the job. I guess I’m born with a positive attitude so I am lucky again, but I think you can learn it from life too. I just naturally see the bright side of people and things. Because of this, again, in spite of my broken English, I was able to build a positive relationship with everyone, colleges and students. The management they like it.

Mature: I maximized my strengths and minimized my shortcomings. I’m actually naturally an emotional person and easy to get irritated. I learned to manage my emotion, and showed my emotion only at the right time and it then became considerate and caring and sympathy.

I talk a lot, and my mouth has always been faster than my brain, so I used to say stupid things and felt bad later. I learned to say only positive and good things at work, especially behind people’s back, so no matter how much I talk, I wouldn’t get into big troubles. Workplace gossip turned into a healthy way. For individual, if any of my colleagues got a haircut or tried a new sweater, I would always say that’s great and I like it. If I really didn’t like it, I shut my mouth up.

After the first unsuccessful interview, my manager reached out to ask if we wanted feedback from her. Every unsuccessful candidate felt disappointed for sure, but I went and thanked her happily. Another candidate didn’t go because she was mad, and she said what the point was to go there. You would say that was immature.

Being liked: This is especially true if you are an internal candidate. They hire you not out of the beautiful words you said at the interview. It is because they like you and they have wanted to offer you the job even before you walked into the interview. There were subtle clues before the interview that I would interpret as I was at least seriously considered as the one.

One of the interviewers from the first interview told me the day before the second interview that I was doing great the first interview. She said I was one of the top three. That was a bit too much to tell, but I was nothing but happy to hear it. It gave me much confidence toward the interview next day. She offered much detail of how I could do better this time. It definitely reduced my stress and helped me stay confident. She wasn’t on the second interview panel and she wished me to be the successful one.

The list can go endless. You have to be hardworking, be respectful, be puncture, be a team player, and you need strong skills and experience to match the requirements, etc.  My point is I got my dream job not solely on the interview. It was the combination of everything, the full myself I had showed them for two years and the opportunity.