Interviews and Blood Pressure: A Correlation?

I had an interview on the 38th floor of this Seattle skyscraper today.

You'd think the interview itself would freak me out a bit -- and this one (the position will work closely with the "good" Gates company -- the nonprofit one) should have, as it consisted of over an hour of tough interview questions followed by another hour in which I was to "review" about 20 documents that totaled about 75 pages and then "talk through" how I'd manage a project around the topic -- from beginning to end, resources, timeline, budget, and all!

Or maybe what should have freaked me out was the sudden rainstorm that hit just as I was crossing the bridge across Lake Washington, heading downtown. Waves were dangerously close to sloshing over the bridge itself -- definitely approaching warranted "freak out" level.


But no. I was fine with both the interview and the weather. I was even OK with the horrendous parking fiasco -- something I might post about someday.


What freaked me out were the floor to ceiling windows on the 38th (and every) floor! And to make matters worse, when I was brought into the interview room, I was told that "the best seat" was saved for me... the one right at the very edge of the room, my back almost touching the window, so that when I bent over to get a pen out of my purse that was on the floor next to me, I couldn't help but look allllll the way down to the street, where busses looked like grains of rice! Freaky stuff!


Have I mentioned that I have a serious case of acrophobia? I'm fine in airplanes, but skyscrapers just do it to me! Fortunately, the job itself is in a three story building right in the shadow of the Space Needle -- right about where the fictional Grace Memorial Hospital on Gray's Anatomy supposedly sits. So I can seriously consider the position... maybe. It would be an enormous amount of work and an enormous amount of responsibility, essentially starting and running the Seattle office for this non-profit that's partnering with The Gates Foundation, all for a pretty paltry amount of money. Unless that were negotiable, I can't even consider it... nonprofit or no non-profit.