My first month out of work was spent attending a transitional company my previous employer was good enough to send me to. While I was not fond of those who were late to class and attended unprepared, there were a few things I got from this company. I guess that is all you can really ask of any class or conference. Not to pick up every little detail, rather get a few nuggets that will get you through.
My nugget was this - always take the interview. Even if you don’t really want the position and it is not the right fit there might be an opportunity that presents itself later.
So the first interview I took was with the worlds best Renaissance Festival in Michigan.
If you have not seen the movie “Role Models” I highly recommend it. There are bits of that movie that capture the spirit of what many must think of these festivals. The organizers do not share that same level of enthusiasm.
My siblings first question when hearing this story “what did you wear to the interview?” It was not armor, nor was it anything from another time period. They may well have kicked me out the door for such shenanigans.
This was actually a job I would have found very enjoyable. There were many things I could do for this organization - increase attendance, create a marketing campaign from scratch, broaden my skills and network. But they needed to set the pay to something higher than what I earned scooping ice cream in 1988.
Another interesting interview I have had might have been the worst I have taken part in. The owner of the company wanted to hold all of his interviews in one single day before going out of town. So there was one day, a Monday, to pick a time between 9 AM and 7 PM just south of Port Huron (or Sarnia for the Canadian readers.) This was also in the middle of my consulting gig.
I picked the 7 PM slot when I got the call on the previous Friday. Over the weekend I drove the route to get a sense of the time involved. It was an hour plus to get there. So Monday morning I get to the consulting gig (I call it consulting because I am too old to be a temp) early. I am supposed to be there 8 AM to 8 PM. I had let them know I was going out the door at 5:45 PM.
Out the door a few minutes after my plan I race through Detroit traffic across town on I-94. On the North side past the 696-interchange traffic lightens up a bit and I can speed up. About 20 minutes out the freeway shrinks down to one lane each way due to construction and I am behind a slow gravel truck hoping to not to get a crack in the windshield.
The clock in my car is five minutes fast, which means that when I am 10 minutes out I have a built in cushion. Things are looking up. I am going to be on time. That is until I get to the very long train crossing three blocks from the office.
When it passes I zip into the lot and walk around to the door where the owner greets me. He asks me to wait a bit while he finishes the previous appointment.
There are some details I have saved until now dear reader. The first is that hardly any information is out there on this company. All of the information is about the owner and his other dozen companies. Each of his several companies has a long description of his great accomplishments at such a young age i.e “After making my second million by the age of seventeen…”
By my estimates I have shaken the hands of over 500,000 people by 2006 from my years in trade show world. There have been all sorts of personalities and people in that time. I was not prepared for this.
After fifteen minutes in wait he is ready for me. There must have been five name drops of people he thought I should know in the first minute. During our short time together he quoted all or most of his website biography four times.
I was no better having been on the phone since eight that morning with dealers and party people trying to make a connection. Each time I tried to tell him about what a great fit I would be, or how my expertise really complemented his goals it came out a mealy mouthed mumble the adults from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” might blather.
It was an interesting concept for a company - they provide webcast’s from wakes and funerals for those who can’t attend. The next move is to provide a “Facebook” of people who have passed as a collection of their lives… that is of course what Facebook does, accumulate the moments and interactions of your life and save them online - but who am I to argue with genius?
So no word from them either.
Interviewing is a skill like many things in life. It takes practice. I am glad to get practice with these companies and others before an ideal opportunity comes along.
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