one heck of a summer finalist: maybe it’s my lucky day?

July 27th, 2009

In the second of our series of blog posts, from our 10 shortlisted applicants for the Globe Trotter role, is Nick Green’s story.

It begins with his account of a sleepless night mulling over the day ahead.

….I climbed into bed, looked up at the ceiling and thoughts turned to one heck of a big day tomorrow…

An adventure of a lifetime was at stake – the opportunity to visit a load of amazing places with my mates.

All I had to do was impress at this interview tomorrow.

Must sleep, need to sleep, can’t sleep.
More twisting and turning.
Need sleep and eventually zzz…

The morning came, I got ready and made my way down to the train station.
No delays, signal failures or bodies on the line – maybe it’s my lucky day?!

I arrived at Westminster station and headed to Victoria Street.
I spent 15 minutes looking for number 36 before realising that I needed number 39 – if I do win this prize I must remember to pack a map!

Met the other candidates at the lastminute.com offices. We mingled in reception, making small talk and sizing each other up. This actually helped in a weird way, the light banter helped calm the nerves a bit and put us all at ease.

We then made our way upstairs for the pre-interview interview on video camera. Not an everyday situation but I manage to answer all the questions reasonably well. Thankfully we were spared a Jeremy Paxman style grilling from the interviewer!

Then it was time for a sit down as trays of biscuits and strawberries were brought out for us all to stare at. Not many of us seemed to have much of an appetite at that moment. Each candidate went in and returned 10 minutes later, taking me a step closer to the moment each time…

Eventually it’s time for the main event as Tom leads me through to the ‘holding area; (the lastminute.com kitchen). As I waited, I felt relaxed and determined to give it my best shot.

I walked through the ’stage curtain’ and was met by a set of welcoming faces – thought that was a good start. I then sat down and had to field a completely random collection of questions. In just 10 minutes we covered TV, dinner party guests, Twitter, Facebook and even Jordan! As we darted off at different tangents every few seconds, I felt quite relaxed and was able to banter back with the panel and answer as honestly as I could. 10 minutes flew by in what seemed like a 10th of the time and then it was all over.

After saying my goodbyes, I left the offices and reviewed the answers back in my head.

Should I really have said I would invite the Plymouth Argyle manager as one of my top three dinner party guests?!
Should I really have said I would approach Jordan in a bar?!

Ah well, I decide that I gave it my all and the end result is in the lap of the gods.

So, fingers crossed that I can forget the whole unemployment thing for a while and enjoy one heck of a Summer instead!