Just for Placement Purposes...

When she first received the email from the Peru office, Becca felt the nervousness attack her immediately. A half an hour interview entirely in Spanish, a language in which she was hardly conversational. And even though the email assured her that the interview was only for placement purposes and told her repeatedly not to be worried, she felt no relief.

At 9:30 am, PST, Becca awoke, dressed, poured herself a giant cup of coffee and set up a space in the living room to review verb conjugations and vocabulary. At precisely 10:56 am (four minutes before her phone interview was scheduled to begin) she found a place at her mother's desk and reclined in the office chair as she sipped her coffee. Her heart thumped in her chest as she awaited the call. 

At 11:12, just as Becca was beginning to think she'd gotten the time wrong, the phone rang and she nearly jumped out of the chair. On the line was a very nice woman who talked her through what the next few minutes would hold. She would ask Becca questions and have a short conversation,  all of course in Spanish. The following twenty minutes were difficult, frustrating, and terrifying, but Becca used her limited language knowledge to answer simple question and attempted to keep up.

In the end, the interviewer thanked her and reminded her not to worry, this was only a placement interview and she did just fine. Becca felt more and more worried each time she was told not to worry, but still relief rushed over her as she thanked the woman and hung up the phone.

Mentally and emotionally exhausted she took off her glasses and crawled back into her warm, cozy bed and tried to calm her heart. It wasn't going to be easy but she at least felt confident in knowing that she could carry on somewhat of a conversation.