FaceBook Luck

It all started when my friend Dawn invited me to join the FaceBook Event: 21 Days No Negativity.. Allowing Career and Professional Success! Hey, I like challenges and 21 days of positive thinking sounded pretty good to me. So, August 11 at 8am, I purged my thoughts of any negativity, preparing my mind for positive affirmations and all that other law of attraction "stuff."

Well, at 10:43am, I got an email informing me I'd won entry to the Muddy Buddy.

Now winning entry to the Muddy Buddy may not sound like a great prize to all of you, but for me it was perfect! I had planned to run in The Great Urban Race in June with my son. Scotty and I had both really been looking forward to it, but when I lost my job, I told him I couldn't afford it. The Muddy Buddy will SO make up for it! Scotty and I can't wait!

Later on that first day of positive thinking, I got a request to come in for a second interview (the "technical one." Yikes!) for a job I'm very interested in. The interviewer, Mark, gave me some dates and times. I opted for the earliest, Aug 12 at 1:00, despite the fact that that would give me no time to study (or even get the much-needed dye-job on my hair that is scheduled for today.) I had no idea what kind of technology questions I'd be asked, and I did not want to be cramming for a "technology interview" all weekend. I'd either know it or I wouldn't

I updated my status on FaceBook, letting my friends know about the interview. The outpouring of Good Luck notes was incredible! Dawn even blogged about me! Wow! You can't imagine how heart-warming it was to get such public support. I got good luck wishes from people I barely knew...even from one of the head honchos of Communications at Sun, Terry McKenzie. I went into that interview feeling so supported!

The interview started with a hardware question about processors to which I answered, "I have no clue." Just because I was an EE major doesn't mean I know a thing about hardware. And despite what might have been considered a rocky start, I've never enjoyed any interview more! Mark asked me all kinds of questions covering my whole career. It was almost like a Trivial Pursuit game (No, I didn't know Grace Hopper was the person who invented Cobol. Programmers who code Cobol compilers aren't required to know those historical facts.) What really got fun was when Mark started asking me some design questions. My days of fiddling with code are long past, but his questions sparked my memory of the good 'ol days when I was trying to piece together a solution for a seemingly impossible requirement. This was a game of MindTrap and I'm much better at that then Trivial Pursuit.

Despite my dusty mind, I could tell Mark wanted me to succeed. When I stumbled, he gave me hints, much like a wise mentor... just enough of a clue to trigger a memory of a past programming concept. The lightbulb would go off and I'd answer. He'd smile and nod, as if to say, "That's it, Grasshopper. You're remembering."

At the end of the interview, he told me I'd "passed." He was going to recommend I come in next week for a final round. I had the technical knowledge required for the job. Yahoo!

It's hard to explain how positive I feel about this experience. Even when I got the questions wrong, I didn't feel panicked or upset. I felt like this guardian angel was with me, letting me know that whatever happened, it would be OK. If I was meant to get the job, I'd get it. I don't know if it was the power of positive thinking, the law of attraction, my Facebook Friends sending me messages of luck, or an interviewer that wanted me to succeed. I just know that it felt great.

So this is a big thank you to the Universe and to all those that are supporting others with positive thoughts and wishes. Keep doing it. It does make a difference.