Help me prepare for my upcoming job interview

I just had a whole mess of interviews last week (resulted in job, so yay!) so I'm feeling where you're coming from although I didn't have to travel like you do. Do whatever you can to make sure you get a good night's sleep every night. If that means bringing your own pillow and white noise machine for the hotel, do it. You're going to be useless if you can't sleep because of a lumpy pillow. Also, make sure you take a break at the end of the evening to clear your mind. Get a pay-per-view movie, buy a mindless magazine, call an old friend, etc. Do something so the last thing on your mind before you sleep isn't your interview. That seemed to help me last week when my head was spinning with all the things I didn't want to forget for the interviews. You may want to consider some light exercise in the morning when you're there. Gets me energized for the day and makes 9 a.m. feel not so early. Just be good to yourself when you're not at the interviews.

If you get a chance, visit St. Augustine. It's about 50 miles away, a lovely little town on the beach that also happens to be the oldest city in the US (founded by Spain).

A friend of mine once told me to just ask to use the rest room if you need a brief break. I've done this in the past without any problems.

I've used the restroom for breaks, as well. Good idea there, substrate. I would advise to lay off the caffeine, if for no other reason than it can be hard to "come down" from. If you feel you need to, I'd really try hard to avoid it the first day to avoid messing up the sleep schedule (which will already be borked from travel) and limit it to the second day. You're probably already familiar with the effects of caffeine on your body, though, so let that guide you.

This may sound like an obvious suggestion, but when you're nervous, or when you really just need a minute to yourself but can't quite get to have one right then: take a big breath. And another one. Just take a second and let your whole body focus on that. Then return to the person who is talking/place you have to be/plate of food you have to eat etc. Usually it helps me by giving me a few seconds of me time and then I'm much sharper. I second the suggestion to be gentle with yourself - maybe get a massage at the hotel for after the first day? or a steam room? Whatever would work for you to relax and make yourself feel better. I used to take bath salts with me on what I knew to be pretty stressful and long business trips. There is nothing so relaxing as a hot bath after a long day and most of the big hotel chains have bathtubs in the rooms.

eBags has http://www.ebags.com/business_cases/womens_business_totes/category_search/index.cfm?N=2006693&seeall=true devoted to Women's Business Cases & Totes... and if you still find nothing there, jump up a level and look in their general business category. There are many options available under $50!

I can't imagine a 2-day interview process. The concept just boggles me. I have a cousin who went through a full-day interview process with Microsoft for a paralegal job that pays barely 45K a year, and I thought that that was excessive. There is a whole 'nuther culture out there that I have no experience with. It just seems very strange to me. :) Best of luck with the process, though; I hope you get it. That said, make sure to keep a bottle of water with you ( to keep hydrated) and a roll of Life Savers -- something with sugar for a little energy kick -- would almost certainly be useful. At the interview-meals, pick dishes that are easy to eat in polite company. Ribs, burgers and noodles: bad. Boneless chicken bits with vegetables, good.

I don't know if it's possible, but it might be worthwhile to start shifting your current schedule to eastern time. Having only one day to adjust to the time shift would be killer.

I agree about the jet-lag. You really want to be adjusted and ready to go early on Monday morning. And you don't want to be dipping into a lull as the morning wears on. So I'd second the "move to eastern time" advice -- just go to bed early and wake up early for the three or four days preceeding. I would NOT read much into Jacksonville culture based on Miami. Florida is a weird state -- a common saying is "the further north you travel in Florida, the further south you get." Jacksonville will be more like Atlanta than Miami, or even more like Mobile Alabama. I've been there, but only as a kid, so I didn't get a good sense of the town or the corporate culture. The beaches are pretty far from the city center (45 mins), so it's not like being on a beach all the time, fwiw. As far as the rhythm of the days goes, I have the following anecdotes about 2 (separate) days of interviewing at a microsoft. Though they say the entire day is scheduled, there will be downtime. There will be times that they person you're due to meet is not ready / had a meeting run late / can't be found. Use this time to your advantage and feel free to say "great, I'll just wait in the lobby" (or where ever). This gave me 3 or 4 stints of 15 minutes each to chill out, shrug my shoulders, get water, etc. This was very helpful to me. I'd also start each interview with intensity and try to be (my usual, animated) self. Most interviews are decided on two things "skills" and "likeability / cultural fit." So I tried to start off on the best foot and then settle in, instead of saying "wow I'm tired, what an exciting and exhausting day!" at the beginning, I'd say it towards the middle or end of the interview, but then it's easy to keep talking about your skills or experience. At MSFT, your most important interviews come at the end. You do 3 or 4 interviews and then begin to meet the higher-ups at the end of the day. The first time I didn't know this, but the second time I did. So try to find out when you're meeting with the CEO / big-wigs / etc. And then plan your day accordingly. You could even buy an extra 10 minutes by cutting short the interview right before the most important ones. As you wind down your conversation, you should just say, "My next interview is with XYZ, so I'd love to get 10 minutes to freshen up and chill in the lobby." Nobody would deny you that. I won't give bag advice, because I'm a guy, and I have prety much no idea what a girl needs, though I know it's more than will fit into your pockets. Because your suit won't have any.