Monday, March 21, 2011

Interviewing After College

One of my first interviews after graduating was in the big city. It seemed promising, because I was qualified according to the advertisement. I secured two other interviews in the same city and signed up for a job fair, which almost justified driving a couple hundred miles and checking into a hotel.

I interviewed for a job with a state agency. Despite my having a degree in IT, they made me take a test, which was unusual, regarding my knowledge of computer skills, as though my degree had no meaning. I thought I did pretty well on their little test. It took about an hour to complete, and then I proceeded with the interview.

The interviewer had a smirk on his face and took a decidedly negative tone. He had a co-worker as his partner during the interview, a woman who said little but laughed at his stale jokes which were directed at me--I was the butt of his jokes for some reason. He looked at my resume for the first time and criticized me for having graduated summa cum laude. He didn't like the fact I did well at university, because he said he didn't. His eyebrows were pointed down toward his nose, and it seemed to me like he had made up his mind to dislike anyone interviewing for the position. Or maybe the problem was that I was male, and he had not known I was male prior to the interview, and he wanted a female that he could have fun with, maybe a fresh young thing straight out of college. At any rate I lost all interest in the job after spending twenty minutes with what would have been my future boss.

It is rare to find a good job advertised anywhere. I'm not sure it is at all possible to secure a good job through classified ads. Most jobs that are available are available because people already at the company don't want them and would not touch them with a ten-foot pole. I suspect the reason the state agency was hiring was that his previous co-worker had left, not wishing to spend another day with creep-o.
by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

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