UGH! I had my first telephone interview today with an HR person for a job that I applied for last week. Her assistant gave me the wrong time, so instead of 4:10 pm like I thought the interview was supposed to be at 2:10 pm. I had to run around and find an empty office on my floor.

I think I did pretty well on the interview because the HR woman is forwarding my resume on, but I'm not about the job. They want an analyst who can do do client presentations, and that's something I don't have a lot of experience in. I told the woman that, but she wanted to forward my resume on anyway.

I hate speaking in front of groups. I'm not used to and I get so nervous. I took acting classes to get over this fear, but I'm not still not comfortable with speaking in front of groups. I even took classes in how to present to groups and spoke in front of large groups trying to enroll people in seminars. That was so energizing, but nerve-wracking as well. I even sat on a panel of subject matter experts once, and afterwards this girl asked me if I was in sales.

The job would entail 20-40 meetings a year with clients and presenting data. Some of it would include travel since she said they have clients in Seattle and Denver.

I know that speaking and giving presentations at this stage in my career is the next logical step, and I've done everything but make presentations. But I have the normal fears about it. I know this is silly because people in my job call me on the phone now and I have to explain reports to them, so I know I explain myself. But making a presentation is different.

I also know that if I could get over my fear of speaking in public, I could probably up my income big time because a analyst who can give presentations is a rarity. And it's not like I have to be the best presenter. I've sat in on people who were terrible at presentations.

It's not like quite like sales either because all I would be doing is presenting information. It's not like I was going to be making a presentation to get them to buy something.

I have mixed feelings about this new job. I know I could use the experience and apply it to other areas of my life, like my writiing, but I'm not a speaker I'm a writer and an analyst. I can create the analytics and presentation, I just don't want to deliver it. Oh well. I'm not going to worry about it till the hiring manager calls me. If it's meant to be and the universe wants me to go in this direction and I get definite signs (signs I said not hints), then I'll deal with it.