The 49-year-old was placed in temporary charge at St James' Park on Monday after Pardew was granted permission to speak to Palace about replacing the sacked Neil Warnock.
Carver - along with Steve Stone - has been asked to organise training and prepare the squad for the Premier League match with Burnley on Thursday, and possibly their weekend FA Cup tie with Leicester City.
Asked whether the chance to step up and take to the top job permanently interested him, Carver responded favourably, but stopped short of confirming he would be in the running this time around.
He said: "I think you always have those ambitions don't you, but you've got to wait for the right opportunity.
"Now the manager looks like going, what's my situation? Only time will tell. My head's going 100 miles an hour here, as you can imagine.
"I think that every coach who goes into football wants to be a manager, and there will be a day when I want to be a manager again, there's no doubt about that.
"I'm a local lad and it's a dream job, but the manager's still the manager at the moment."
