Well, Friday capped off the last full week of August, and with it my busiest job interview week yet. I had four interviews this week, on T, W, Th and F, capping off the 9 interviews this month, five phone, and this week's all in person. Two went.......not so well, one was good but I didn't leave feeling confident, and Yesterdays was the best I have had since becoming unemployed last September.
For those of you playing along at home, according to my information, I have sent out over 700 applications/resumes, have 246 replies of various nature (from "Yes we acknowledge we have received your resume" to "Thank you but the post was in error and we are not hiring at this time", with "Your qualifications do not fit our needs at this time" and the much less frequent "would you like to schedule an interview"). The grand total of phone interviews has been 17, with 8 sit-down face to face interviews, 4 of which were misleading in some way.
Now we're all caught up to speed, let's get down to this week's fun, shall we?
Interview number one, on Tuesday, was with Coca-Cola, as part of their small call center staff.
I did a phone interview last Thursday with them and it went quite well, and was scheduled to come in Tuesday afternoon.
So I arrived my customary 15-25min early for the interview, and did some writing while in the lobby. (It calms me down to do so.)
Promptly at interview time I was called back by two of the managers (I like promptness. More on that later.) and the interview began.
It was one of those Behavioral Interview sessions that have become so popular in the past five or six years, that I, bluntly, suck at. An example of the kind of questions they ask in these interviews is "Tell of the most difficult customer service experience that you have ever had to handle-perhaps an angry or irate customer. Be specific and tell what you did and what was the outcome."
That is not exactly what the question was, but I looked up the TYPE of questions asked online and most fall into that style.
We ALL know I am honest and blunt....which is TERRIBLE for these kinds of questions, especially if, like me, you don't recall specifics about your workplace conversations and don't tend to hang onto negative conversations and such.
Let's face it, I haven't liked that many of my jobs and have worked in call centers the last 8yrs of my employment, taking over 100 calls a day.
There's no way on Earth I'm going to remember a specific call, or what I did in response to it.
And I'm not just going to lie and make up an answer.
I mentioned those things to the two managers, then, in a typical Bri way, fired off my return salvo of "I know what kind of answers you guys want me to give, but, if you look at it honestly, the only kind of people who can answer this question truthfully are generally the kinds that hang onto experiences that have angered them, and therefore these people are holding a grudge against your customers. Is that really what you want in an employee?"
From the looks on their faces noone had ever brought anything like that to their attention before, and one of them even mentioned that she'd never thought about it that way.
Thrown, they shifted tactics and started talking in generalities about the kind of work environment they have. When the interview was over thy stated they had a couple more people still to see but would contact me Monday or Tuesday.
Leaving the interview, I felt good about the easy way I was able to interact with the two managers, but not at all sure of my footing on the job itself. We will see next week, I guess.
Wednesday I had an interview for the same damn thing I used to do at GEICO, but for Progressive. Now, those of you that have known me a few years may remember that I interviewed at Progressive back in 2006 BEFORE interviewing with GEICO but left the interview with a bad taste about the people I interviewed with. But it has been a while, maybe things had changed, and I know how to do the job.
This time was even worse.
The interviewer seemed to be in his late teens and made it clear from both tone and mannerisms that he felt he was superior to everyone else in the room and that he was doing me a favor just being nearby.
Reading over my resume, there was a comment about "so how well has that Bachelor's in English worked out for you?".
Now, I'll bemoan my own degree all day long in a humorous way, but damnit, I spent 6 years and a lot of money and time on it. I've never liked superiority types and I'll be damned if a kid whose parents are probably my age is going to give me crap. And since I already knew I didn't want to work at a place with this guy as a front line of admissions, I somewhat politely asked which college he had been to.
Of course, he hadn't. Had come to Progressive right from HS into the billing department.
Which i had kind of already guessed. I further found he was working in hiring because he hadn't been able to pass the state insurance licensing exam, which I MAY have mentioned to him was easy. I then told him I would like to see the hiring manager to explain why I was stopping myself in the interview process.
Of course I didn't get to talk to them, but I also didn't waste any more time in a job interview where I knew I would be miserable.
Thursday's job interview was just a farce on so many levels.
I was interviewing for an IT Customer Support position for Verizon Wireless. The base pay was going to be 22K a year....which was roughly half what I was making before, but........stopgap measures, right? I could deal with that little until a better job showed up, I reasoned.
Finding the place in the first place proved problematical, since they have rebuilt all the interchanges in that area and my GPS tried to take me on all the old roads. I finally found some streets I knew in the area and backtracked over, arriving at the office on Hillsborough Ave at 8:40 for a 9am appointment. Considering I left the house at 7:45 because it was raining and I know how bad drivers here are in the rain...and period (don't let me get started), the 22mile trip took most of an hour.....some because of backtracking but mostly on the last 5 miles of Hills which was just a traffic mess.
So i get there, sign in, and take a seat.
Over the next 20min a few more people show up for interviews as well, and, knowing call centers, I figured this was going to end up being a group assessment test and mass interview.
Nine rolls around.
Nine ten.
Another applicant shows up at 9:15.
9:20. Still no interviewer.
I start talking to the girl siting nearest to me, who looks a LOT like Celine Monif looked back in high school. Which, honestly, made me look a little closer at the rest of the applicants. Which scared me a little because i realized I was likely the old man of the group.
9:25. Guy in his 40s shows up in a full suit and tie, even though the email about the interview had specifically stated business casual. I started to relax a bit as obviously I wasn't "That guy" anymore for this group. I also start wondering if this is some sort of sick "Let's see how much patience these people have" kind of thing. I've seen it before. So i just kept writing in my little notebook. Much of which is now part of this blog.
9:27 and someone finally shows up to take us back to the interview room. My thought, and a couple other people's from the look on their faces, is 'So, the interviewees have to be on time, but the interviewer can show up whenever they please? Nice."
Those of us that expected an apology or possibly an explanation for being kept waiting were to just stay expectant. It never came.
Instead, the woman who came to get us launched into a brief description of what the job duties would be and started into an overview of what the assessment test (knew it) would be like when a cell phone started ringing somewhere behind me. Mine was turned off and in my pocket. This ain't my first rodeo. Instead of blushing and turning the phone off, a cute blonde two rows behind me (there were 11 people, three to a row), pulls the phone out and starts chatting away on it.
The interviewer/test proctor kind of cocks an eyebrow at this as the girl gets up and walks calmly out of the room.
We didn't see her again.
So, the explanation of the assessment test begins. It's one of those multi-part ones with reading comprehension, typing speed, and a multi-tasking where you listen to calls, type in info, and act like you are transferring to another department while checking another document for matching information in another window.
I LOVE these kinds of tests and tend to smoke them. I mean, right on out of the park.
We were to be given an hour to complete this test, and then would go on to one on one interviews afterwards.
As usual, I rocked out the assessment test in just over 20 minutes, and went back to the lobby as instructed to wait for them to grade it and get set for my one-on-one.
Small snag. They thought I had to have cheated to finish that fast and the proctor and two others demanded I retake it, leaving all my possessions with security first.
I tried to explain that I have been working call centers for 8 years, can and do read at 100 pages an hour, and type as fast with my hunt and peck method as most data entry pros, at around 60wpm. They looked at me like I was lying to them and asked me to retake it again.
I agreed, but told them it was going to be a BIG morale breaker for the other testers when I went back into the room, RE-TOOK the test and finished before any of them got done the first time.
Which is exactly what I did, but even quicker the second time because had JUST taken it and remembered what i had just read and heard.
Five minutes after I finished for the second time, the Celine lookalike finished her test. Some people were still taking it well after the hour was up.
All through High School, College, and any other testing I have ever done that involved reading and typing I'm always the first done. I can't help it, i just comprehend, type and read really fast.
Still somewhat skeptical, but realizing my marks on the second time through were just a smidgen better than the first time, they put each of us into little cubbyhole-like meeting rooms to meet one on one with interviewers.
So I go into this antiseptic-white windowless room to wait for my interviewer.
After five minutes pass, I pull out the notebook.
I'm scribbling in my notebook on ideas for a Stanley story when the windowless door opened and this model walks in.
Just stunning woman, about five-nine, blond, wearing jean shorts and, of all things, a low cut tee with a Superman logo on it. Geek killer.
"Brian?" She asks, reading from her clipboard.
Severely unprofessional of me, I was looking at her legs, but managed to snap my eyes up to her blue ones right about the time she lowered the clipboard. I'm male. Sue me.
"Yes ma'am."
"How do you pronounce your last name?" She asks me.
Mind you, I'm trying to figure out where the hidden camera is at this point, but, used to this question, my mouth answers it on autopilot.
"Depends on where you're from. It's Coop-fair in Germany, but most Americans pronounce it Cup-fur." I reply with my little grin I always use to acknowledge I have an unusual last name.
Recovering my normal sense of humor, I state with a laugh, "You know that's just not fair." Nodding to her clothing.
She must have caught a vibe off that, or she is used to the reaction.
"Yeah, we are having a casual Thursday."
I knew from the kind of questions she asked that I didn't have the job, so i asked her what was wrong.
Apparently, i was "overqualified" for the position.
Which means that somehow, they still think i was cheating.
I thanked her for her time and headed back into the traffic.
Friday morning I had an interview at a little mom and pop insurance place that was looking for office help.
Interview was supposed to start at 9:30, and so I left the house with plenty of time to get me there by 9:15. Only 6miles away it's through some pretty good congestion areas and has been known to take 30min to get there. I knew right where this place was. So i left with plenty of time.
And, of course, managed to hit all the lights right and there was almost no traffic.
I was there by 9.
So I told the receptionist my name and time of my interview, she mentioned that my interviewer was in with another candidate at the moment but would come get me when that was done.
So i found a chair and out came the old notebook.
Going off the vibe of the place, I decided not to be the severely professional person I can be for most interviews, and, due to a general lack of sleep from the night before (three hours nonconsecutive), decided I would just be me.....just a little toned down.
I mean, really, who hires an Ace Ventura that can curse like a sailor at the drop of a hat to work in an office?
Exactly. So toned down a little.
At 9:15 we started the interview, and she had a series of "feel you out"-type questions about hobbies, goals, ect. She saw I had worked in auto ins and asked if i knew anything about cars.
My favorite question of the entire interview, "So what is your favorite car."
Repeat it with me folks. 1969 Dodge Charger R/T SE with 426 Hemi.
It went really well and I felt comfortable the whole time. Since it was a Friday, the owner was off but she told me they'd call Monday with their decision. IF it went as well as I think it did this would be the first 9-5 type job I've ever held, lol.
So, that's the updates on the job situation. An ongoing adventure just a couple weeks shy of a year on now.
I was going to write and post this up yesterday, but I went and saw the Expendables with pops and then went to a Red Sox game with a couple friends. Technically, the game was at the home of the Tampa Rays, but there are never as many Rays fans in attendance as the team they are playing, sad to say.
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