THE RANTS OF AN UN-MATURED LEGAL AND POLITICAL MIND. A MIND AS CONFUSED AS THE PLACES WHERE IT HAS RESIDED, NAMELY, GHANA, THE UK AND THE U.S. ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU MAY FIND VARIOUS THOUGHTS ON THE STATE OF THE WORLD, THE FACTS OF LIFE AS I KNOW AND SEE, AND THE AUDACITY TO BELIEVE THAT AFRICA WOULD SOON LIVE OUT ITS DREAMS!

Friday 4 April 2008

Personal Time: The Vindicating Interview!



“So why is it that after all your human rights experience you are heading into the corporate arena?” she asked with an ostensible certainty in her eyes that said “hah, I’ve got you now, see how you would get out of this one.” “Well,” I confidently exclaimed while I hurriedly searched for the right words, ”yes it is true that I have had ample experience in the human rights field, with my background training, and an outstanding fellowship with the Commission on Human Rights in Ghana, at which point I gained tremendous insight into the world of advocacy, and experienced the dramatic impact lawyers made in the lives of their clients on a daily basis. I enjoy my work in the field, however, the human rights field also enabled me to realize that for a person with such drive and ambition, I would need a fast paced competitive environment where I can gain more substantive insight into the diversity of practice areas. Your firm seems like the best fit. I was particularly impressed with the firms’ international expertise in cross-border transactions and mergers, acquisitions and the excellent work it is currently doing in the energy sector in Ghana. As for my human rights experience, I do not believe it will be wasted, some skills gained can definitely be amalgamated with new skills learnt in a corporate world, however, for those specialized human rights skills I am positive that when hired my experience would prove to be a much welcomed addition to your firms pro-bono team” I secretly sighed. “Yes as a matter of fact we have a very lively pro-bono department here, and we have a great wealth of human rights work in our profile” she said, and I smiled.

At that point I was sure that all the weeks of hard work had paid of. Yes, I still had the numerical reasoning test to do (of which just the though of frightened the heck out of me, I had only started recapping on the little mathematics I knew about a week before), but I knew that the point at which I needed to really impress was over, I reasoned. “Well if this interview doesn’t get me the job I don’t know what will, I mean I’m sure the numerical test is just a formality, lawyers are not great at math anyway” I tried to reassure myself. I went back to the room where the other candidates were, “how was the interview?” the guy from Oxford asked, “oh it was good, or at least I think it went well, I was able to answer all their questions with some level of ease and funny enough I did not get any commercial awareness questions.” He looked at me as if I had told him a lie but I reassured him that it was not as intimidating as would be expected. “Just be conversational and you’d be fine,” I said.

When heading home from the interview I knew I had performed to the best of my ability, however, I was still unsure of how the other candidates had performed (they sure enough sounded extremly intelligent). I mean I was competing with some seemingly smart guys and I was the only woman in the room (black woman). Albeit, it was incontrovertible that I had put in a tremendous effort the sight of my competitors succinctly brought me back to reality. I was sure that I would not get the position, however, surprignsly the thought of it did not bother me nor made me feel sick to my stomach. I sank into a deep sense of pride for I had pushed myself to a level I had never done before, and I now knew my limit. On the two hour train ride back home from London to Exeter, I gazed at my reflection in the window next to me, sighed and fell asleep.

I woke up prematurely and realized I nearly missed my stop, ”Exeter St. Davids” said the conductor and I quickly grabbed my bag and rushed out. I was exhausted. I had two hours sleep the night before and was ready to head home and crash into bed, “oh contract law can wait till tomorrow,” I thought to myself. Upon opening my door and dropping my bags, I kicked off my shoes, un-hooked my bra and jumped into bed. It felt as if I was reliving Iyanla Vazants’ “Yesterday I cried”, except I wasn’t crying I was sleeping. “I came home, went straight to my room, sat on the edge of my bed, kicked off my shoes, unhooked my bra, and I had myself a good cry.” But in my case substitute the “cry” for ’sleep.’ It was going to be a good sleep.
I was in my REM sleep (rapid eye movement), when I heard the phone ring. It was either a class-mate who needed some answers to workshop questions, a family member or a friend who just wanted to chat unnecessarily, at which point I did not want to speak to neither. Surprisingly I picked up the phone (it was an unknown number, which is rare, even my mum’s calls from Ghana does not appear unknown). “Hello” I said trying very hard not to sound tired and defeated. “Hello may I speak to M” the sophisticated voice on the other side said, she sounded familiar too. “This is she, how can I help you” in my sweetest tone. “This is L from D&L” she said. “oh gosh, she is from the firm and is already calling me to tell me, you were a great candidate but we are sorry the others were better than you, but I was ready to accept it” I reassured myself. “Hi L, how are you? long day huh?” I tried to slip in a joke, obviously, it did not work. “M, I would like to say, that we were very impressed with you today, and would like to invite you to our summer clerkship program.” My heart skipped a beat, I searched for the words, they were not coming out, my mind stood still and in a very controlled manner I managed to utter “It would be an honour to join you this summer,” gosh “an honour??” I thought to myself, “that’s so corny.” I hung up and let out a huge "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" (in the most feminine tone I could amass) it felt good. The sleepy feeling was gone. I sat up and thought about the course of events in the day, it seemed unreal, I knew that at this point I had been vindicated.

1 comments:

What I love about this story is you're stronger than I've ever seen you...and you are because in it you are honest.

It's a pleasure to see you this way.