![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Will work for...money?
Nov. 5th, 2002 10:24 amI am in that terrible job-hunting mode where I'm doing interviews and everyone is asking me how they went. I guess we'll know if they call back, won't we?
Job interviews come in three varieties. The first are those rare occasions when mysterious but unmistakable full-spectrum lighting suddenly floods the room, somewhere in the distance there is the unmistakable swell of violins, and they offer you the job on the spot. Though I did have this happen once, unless you're in retail sightings of Bigfoot are more common.
The second is the Doomed Interview. It doesn't matter what you say or what you do, you know this person will not hire you. "Graduated from Yale, eh? I always was a Harvard man, myself." "Cum laude? I guess you just weren't willing to work hard enough for suma." "God wrote you a letter of recommendation? It looks like a form letter to me..." This person came into the room with mind made up, or just hated you from the minute you walked in. It's disheartening, but at least you can walk away knowing that the situation was completely out of your control.
The most common is the Okay Interview. When people ask how it went, all you can really say is, "...okay." You look for signs in such an interview--they spent over an hour with you, they gave you a tour of the office, they introduced you to upper management. But is that because they liked you, or because they do it for everyone? Is this person really interested in you, or just killing time before going back to a boring project? Do they usually spend at least two hours and you are being shown to the door prematurely? All you get out of such interviews is, "We'll be making a decision within the next few weeks. We'll get back to you." And then everyone wants to know how it went. It was boring as shit, it left me with no particular hope, and I'm searching the newspapers again. Other than that....
...okay.
Job interviews come in three varieties. The first are those rare occasions when mysterious but unmistakable full-spectrum lighting suddenly floods the room, somewhere in the distance there is the unmistakable swell of violins, and they offer you the job on the spot. Though I did have this happen once, unless you're in retail sightings of Bigfoot are more common.
The second is the Doomed Interview. It doesn't matter what you say or what you do, you know this person will not hire you. "Graduated from Yale, eh? I always was a Harvard man, myself." "Cum laude? I guess you just weren't willing to work hard enough for suma." "God wrote you a letter of recommendation? It looks like a form letter to me..." This person came into the room with mind made up, or just hated you from the minute you walked in. It's disheartening, but at least you can walk away knowing that the situation was completely out of your control.
The most common is the Okay Interview. When people ask how it went, all you can really say is, "...okay." You look for signs in such an interview--they spent over an hour with you, they gave you a tour of the office, they introduced you to upper management. But is that because they liked you, or because they do it for everyone? Is this person really interested in you, or just killing time before going back to a boring project? Do they usually spend at least two hours and you are being shown to the door prematurely? All you get out of such interviews is, "We'll be making a decision within the next few weeks. We'll get back to you." And then everyone wants to know how it went. It was boring as shit, it left me with no particular hope, and I'm searching the newspapers again. Other than that....
...okay.
