Let this be a lesson to anyone that is desperate enough to take a job at virtually any place that is hiring. You should always learn more about the company you apply to, but it’s important to make sure that you are a match.
So two years ago, I was looking for a job – any job. I applied to numerous places, desperate because my parents had been on my case about lying around the house. And then one day, it came.
It was an open interview session for a company called Aerosoles. I was excited, even though I knew I had never heard of the company – it was just a job, after all.
So the day of the interview, I spent about thirty minutes in the school library, looking though the company’s website so I would seemed informed. It was a shoe store, I gathered, though one that didn’t seem to carry many men’s shoes. But I still hadn’t caught on.
When I went into the building – it took forever to actually find – I immediately noticed I was the only guy in the room. But, I figured, most men wouldn’t want to work at a shoe store. So, I sat down and waited my turn. Finally, a young lady sitting at a table in the corner beckoned me over.
It was a pretty straight-forward process. She was the assistant manager for the district, and so she went through a sort of “pre-interview.” All was going well until she asked the question.
“So,” she asked, “why do you want to work at a women’s shoe store?”
A what? Oh, man, my face was red, I’m sure. I had known it was a shoe store, but for women? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t embarrassed.
But the lady couldn’t tell because I took it in stride.
“Well, you see,” I said, “I was looking at your website beforehand because I had never heard of the company before. And what I really like about your shoes is the innovative…” Well, you get the idea.
I don’t know what that lady was thinking, but she must not have thought too poorly of me because she asked me to go back to my seat until the main interview. Which, it turned out, was a group interview.
To me, group interviews are the worst. How it works is that multiple candidates gather around the interviewer, and then the interviewer conducts the candidates the same questions. At least, that was my experience.
You know who was asked every question last? Yep, me. So by the time it was my turn, I had to come up with a different answer than the first five candidates, which wasn’t easy. Actually, it was very embarrassing, because all of my answers were short and relatively off-point. It was very different from a one-on-one interview.
So for you bums out there for looking a job of any kind, at least know about the place you’re applying to.
This week, tell me about your awkward or funny interview experiences. Also, feel free to tell me what you want to read about next week!
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Inverted Perception 