Saturday, February 14, 2015

It Happens to Other People Too

I'm channel surfing through HBO and landed on one of their sitcoms, Girls.

A young woman, a bit geeky, is sitting in a high end conference room finishing an interview.  Exactly the kind of room I'm usually sitting in for an interview.  She is told the they don't think she would be a good fit for their company.  After another minute the conversation ends.  The woman just sits there.  "You're not leaving?" she's asked by the interviewer, a cold professional woman.

"I would like to know what's wrong with me," she states defiantly, "Really, I want to know what's wrong with me and I'm prepared for any answer."

Wow, it was great for me to see this short segment.  This is what I wish I could say when I don't get a job.  "What's wrong with me?"

The reality is there is nothing wrong with me -- I know that.  I've been on the other side of the table hundreds of times.  After all the resume screening, I rarely have someone arrive at an interview who isn't qualified for the job.  At the end of the day, one person must be chosen from three or four interview candidates.  When there's not an obvious standout candidate, it can come down to something very minor or just chemistry that makes the final decision.

Last fall I posted a job online and received over 300 resumes.  I interviewed five people, and hired one.  It's not Powerball, but those are seriously bad odds.  So if you made it to be one of the five people interviewed, you should celebrate that.  More importantly, if you are one of the four who didn't get the job, you shouldn't feel bad about that.  I don't like being one of the four.  Watching this episode it was perhaps relieving (maybe that's the right word) to see it happen to someone else.

One of the four who didn't get the job?  His beard was too long.  It just bothered me.


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