Thursday, December 31, 2009
10:22 AM | Posted by
Unknown
I have been out of work for a long time. My last permanent full-time position - the administrative assistant to the Dean of the School of Business - ended in 2005. I spent two years in school, then as I graduated the university where I had been working, they put a freeze on hiring that has been ongoing for more than two years. The university is the main employer around here, and my wife is a professor, so what is a guy to do?
To keep busy I have been volunteering on campus in various capacities. I really enjoy the service, but occasionally there is a surprise job vacancy I can apply for. I jump at these opportunities. They have all been part-time positions, and not something that anyone who would like to support a family would consider, but something is better than nothing.
I have been on the hiring end of the job interviewing process. I have learned over the years that it is not my place to judge how a candidate is choosing to live his life. It is my job to determine if this person is the best qualified for my position. Now I am on the petitioner's side of the process. I am finding that what I learned as the interviewer is evidently not true. At least I have seen no connection to what I have learned to what I am experiencing now.
This week I interviewed for an Academic Advisor position. It is a 3/4 time position that requires a flexible schedule and only occasional full-time work. I haven't heard back from the committee yet. The last couple of interviews I had on campus were roughly equivalent to this one. I go into the room and sit down. We all introduce ourselves to each other, even though we all know each other and have worked together in past capacities for many years. Inwardly I laugh about the formal nature of this dance. It all seems so pompous. Anyway, they ask their questions and I give my answers. The requirements for the positions are well below the requirements of anything I have done before. Knowing that I can't come across as cavalier or demeaning about the position I make sure that I remain amply humble and grateful for the opportunity to interview. I listen politely to everyone make their schpeel about the importance of their position at the university, and watch as they banter amongst themselves, showing me that they have solidarity, something in which I am not allowed to share, being the outsider. After all, it would be inappropriate for me to pretend to be their equal and banter on an equal footing with them. I realize that all these intricate dance steps are subconscious, and I have done it myself before. I guess I just never noticed it for what it is until this week.
Once the lines of demarcation have been drawn, and the power base established, all in the most cordial of manners, the serious questioning begins. This becomes like the Final Judgment, but without the mercy God will be offering us. I have to show them why I am the only clear choice for this position. I spend my time convincing them that I actually can fulfill the obligations and the needs of this position with responsibility and aplomb. I try my darnedest to show them that I am the only clear choice for the position.
Finally, the million dollar question/bomb is dropped. "Mr. Merrill, what are your future plans? Don't you want full-time work?" What a loaded question! What am I supposed to say? Should I lie and tell them that the only aspiration I have ever had in life is to fill this one job vacancy? Am I supposed to tell them that no matter what else is ever offered to me that my faithfulness to this position could never be swayed? Good grief! So I do the only thing I can think of doing, I tell the truth. Of course I would love a full-time job. Who wouldn't? But I hasten to emphasize that there haven't been full-time positions for years, and I am not guessing that there will be any in the near future. This position is perfect for me. I proceed to give them multiple reasons why this position is the one and only way to complete my life at this point. I promise, I do this without becoming sycophantic about my groveling, but groveling is almost always what it comes down to in the end. To appear to be too confident can come across as threatening to the interviewer because then they sense that they don't own you enough to control you, so they turn to less "troublesome" candidates to fill the vacancy.
If this position is like the last few I have interviewed for, the interviewers will feel like they can see into my future and somehow they know what my future decisions will be. Their job is to decide what decisions I will make in the future, based on the knowledge of me they have discerned during this 10 minute interview. They decide whether I will indeed accept full-time work if it is offered to me at some indefinite time in the future, and based on this foreknowledge they decide that it will be too great a risk to train me just to lose me in six months, so they give the job to someone who has convinced them that they couldn't possibly be happy in full-time employment, and this part-time job is the end all to their life's ambitions.
After experiencing the same scenario time after time after time, I have begun to lose hope in the interviewing process. So what are the usual death blows? "He lives too far away from work. We will probably have trouble with attendance." "He is male, and we would be uncomfortable putting him in with all the ladies in the office." Believe it or not I have been told by a director of HR that this is the very reason I was not hired for a position once. She felt uncomfortable with the thought that she would have to work with a male in the evening for business. That is a comfort, because we certainly would not want our male executives working with a female subordinate after hours at work Smirk. The list of reasons that I shouldn't be the one to fill a position for which I am amply qualified are too numerous to fit here, evidently. So I just do the interview, give it my best shot. I smile, try to be properly humbled by the opportunity, compliment the committee, but without trying to appear servile.
I'm telling you that this whole interviewing thing is soooo hard! It should be so simple. You go in, you have introductions, they tell you what you need to know, they ask you some pertinent questions, you ask yours, then they make their decision. But somehow this dance of the of the Deities always seems to sweep into the room and carry the committee away to a loftier realm where they suddenly feel the need to view you as from one who sits on high, meeting out judgments and pronouncements of the future and its probabilities.
Okay, I admit it, perhaps I am just a tiny bit cynical these days.
To keep busy I have been volunteering on campus in various capacities. I really enjoy the service, but occasionally there is a surprise job vacancy I can apply for. I jump at these opportunities. They have all been part-time positions, and not something that anyone who would like to support a family would consider, but something is better than nothing.
I have been on the hiring end of the job interviewing process. I have learned over the years that it is not my place to judge how a candidate is choosing to live his life. It is my job to determine if this person is the best qualified for my position. Now I am on the petitioner's side of the process. I am finding that what I learned as the interviewer is evidently not true. At least I have seen no connection to what I have learned to what I am experiencing now.
This week I interviewed for an Academic Advisor position. It is a 3/4 time position that requires a flexible schedule and only occasional full-time work. I haven't heard back from the committee yet. The last couple of interviews I had on campus were roughly equivalent to this one. I go into the room and sit down. We all introduce ourselves to each other, even though we all know each other and have worked together in past capacities for many years. Inwardly I laugh about the formal nature of this dance. It all seems so pompous. Anyway, they ask their questions and I give my answers. The requirements for the positions are well below the requirements of anything I have done before. Knowing that I can't come across as cavalier or demeaning about the position I make sure that I remain amply humble and grateful for the opportunity to interview. I listen politely to everyone make their schpeel about the importance of their position at the university, and watch as they banter amongst themselves, showing me that they have solidarity, something in which I am not allowed to share, being the outsider. After all, it would be inappropriate for me to pretend to be their equal and banter on an equal footing with them. I realize that all these intricate dance steps are subconscious, and I have done it myself before. I guess I just never noticed it for what it is until this week.
Once the lines of demarcation have been drawn, and the power base established, all in the most cordial of manners, the serious questioning begins. This becomes like the Final Judgment, but without the mercy God will be offering us. I have to show them why I am the only clear choice for this position. I spend my time convincing them that I actually can fulfill the obligations and the needs of this position with responsibility and aplomb. I try my darnedest to show them that I am the only clear choice for the position.
Finally, the million dollar question/bomb is dropped. "Mr. Merrill, what are your future plans? Don't you want full-time work?" What a loaded question! What am I supposed to say? Should I lie and tell them that the only aspiration I have ever had in life is to fill this one job vacancy? Am I supposed to tell them that no matter what else is ever offered to me that my faithfulness to this position could never be swayed? Good grief! So I do the only thing I can think of doing, I tell the truth. Of course I would love a full-time job. Who wouldn't? But I hasten to emphasize that there haven't been full-time positions for years, and I am not guessing that there will be any in the near future. This position is perfect for me. I proceed to give them multiple reasons why this position is the one and only way to complete my life at this point. I promise, I do this without becoming sycophantic about my groveling, but groveling is almost always what it comes down to in the end. To appear to be too confident can come across as threatening to the interviewer because then they sense that they don't own you enough to control you, so they turn to less "troublesome" candidates to fill the vacancy.
If this position is like the last few I have interviewed for, the interviewers will feel like they can see into my future and somehow they know what my future decisions will be. Their job is to decide what decisions I will make in the future, based on the knowledge of me they have discerned during this 10 minute interview. They decide whether I will indeed accept full-time work if it is offered to me at some indefinite time in the future, and based on this foreknowledge they decide that it will be too great a risk to train me just to lose me in six months, so they give the job to someone who has convinced them that they couldn't possibly be happy in full-time employment, and this part-time job is the end all to their life's ambitions.
After experiencing the same scenario time after time after time, I have begun to lose hope in the interviewing process. So what are the usual death blows? "He lives too far away from work. We will probably have trouble with attendance." "He is male, and we would be uncomfortable putting him in with all the ladies in the office." Believe it or not I have been told by a director of HR that this is the very reason I was not hired for a position once. She felt uncomfortable with the thought that she would have to work with a male in the evening for business. That is a comfort, because we certainly would not want our male executives working with a female subordinate after hours at work Smirk. The list of reasons that I shouldn't be the one to fill a position for which I am amply qualified are too numerous to fit here, evidently. So I just do the interview, give it my best shot. I smile, try to be properly humbled by the opportunity, compliment the committee, but without trying to appear servile.
I'm telling you that this whole interviewing thing is soooo hard! It should be so simple. You go in, you have introductions, they tell you what you need to know, they ask you some pertinent questions, you ask yours, then they make their decision. But somehow this dance of the of the Deities always seems to sweep into the room and carry the committee away to a loftier realm where they suddenly feel the need to view you as from one who sits on high, meeting out judgments and pronouncements of the future and its probabilities.
Okay, I admit it, perhaps I am just a tiny bit cynical these days.
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