Lack of sleep

Had my interview with the Oxford deanery on Friday for a training job, to begin in August 2009. It's basically for general medical training for 2 years, followed by another recruitment process for specialty training later on.

As my interview was at 10am in the morning, I had planned to go to Oxford the night before, stay in a hotel just adjacent to the interview centre and have a good night sleep. I was fortunate that my consultant let me leave work early to prepare for my interview.

Unfortunately, despite his good intentions, I misplaced my SatNav charger, thus couldn't drive to Oxford. I doubt I was in a safe state to navigate myself there via the AA map. Thus, I took the train instead. Trains from Oxford to Cambridge are really annoying as it goes down south to London, and then one has to change train to get to Oxford. Extremely time-consuming, hence my earlier decision to drive to Oxford.

As it turns out, I reached my hotel at about 10pm and was extremely exhausted by then. As I had not prepared for my interview, I started to get really stressed over it and was unable to sleep well the whole night.

And it showed during the interview. I was asked a very straight-forward clinical scenario. A scenario that I come across daily in my current job. A scenario that I knew from the back of my hand (well, almost!). But I messed it up. Badly!

I was very disappointed with myself. Extremely disappointed. Have only myself to blame for not preparing earlier and getting stressed about it.

Well, interview results will be out in a week's time. I am not hopeful, but at least I have another interview with the London deanery, which is my first choice.