Photoist
As I may have mentioned before, I am currently unemployed. I have probably been this way for, oh, about a month now. I have done a few interviews with a few places, but nothing really interesting until the hospitality industry interview I had last Friday.
It was a hotel. Luckily for me, the head of Human Resources had attended the same elementary school and high school as I had, and her younger sister was once friends with my younger brother. Points out of the gate are always good. So I filled out the standard paperwork and we discussed my employment history and a little about what the job may entail (mostly smiling through my teeth at those more financially well-off than myself).
Surprisingly, I am well-suited to hospitality-related employment. I spent a solid year in the trenches of a Hallmark greeting card store. Yes, that's right. I stocked candles and car fresheners and little stuffed things with dangly legs. And I (somehow) remained straight.
I am not ashamed of my candle-peddling days, however, because they armed me with skills necessary to help people out who may not always deserve to be helped out.
Make the jump to hear about my second interview with the hotel. I promise, it gets funny.
Okay, so there I am, having made it passed HR and into the auspices of the Night Manager herself. A nice lady who carried a walkie-talkie around and was clearly the Yoda of kindness to the less-than-kind, she kept me waiting for an hour before my interview.
During this hour, I had time to think of everything I shouldn't say.
And I did.
Things went well, though, until she asked me what year I graduated college. I blanked for a moment, panicked for a few more moments, and, just as my face must have been flushing red as a beet (they're red, right?), I snatched an answer from the surrounding ether.
2001.
Now, as you may guess, 2001 is NOT the year I graduated college. I got a question concerning my OWN biography WRONG! I meant to say 2005. And I eventually realized that, after I had left the hotel feeling relatively good about the whole thing.
I went to a bar around the corner, ordered a lager and took off my tie before the truth hit me.
And the truth is that sometimes I am an idiot. An IDIOT. An Eye-Dee-Eye-Oh-Tee.
Regardless of my mistake, however, it seems that I have secured a third interview. I spoke to the head of HR today and confessed my sin of stupidity to her. After a good guffaw at my expense, she explained that she was to speak to the Night Manager concerning my interview on this very evening, and that she would forward my embarrassing faux pas.
So, hopefully I'll be off to the gauntlet for a third (and final?) time on Monday or Tuesday, and I'll keep everyone posted.
Until then, Joe out.
Image via Flickr.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
You may be interested in what I do for a living. I'm a "Standardized Patient for Clinical Skills Assessment." That's a lot of BS just to say, I act out a patient case, multiple times a day, for medical students who are taking a high-stakes exam to become certified medical practitioners. My job may be hiring but it's one of those hidden professions that most people don't know about, but when they find out I actually get paid for it, they're eager to learn more (like video game testing). I blogged about it here: http://vincentbrown.com/blog/2004/11/24/the-abbreviated-life-of-an-sp/
We're located in Conshohocken, PA. Pretty direct route if you're coming from the city and take 76.
Not too long ago, I was asked how old I was. I started out with 21 (I am within 5 years of being double that!). Then I said "36...Wait...38..." As the questioner stared at me wondering if I was an escape amnesiac from the state hospital, I did the math in my head, "2006-1968, carry the 1....37. I'm 37 years old."
It's the simple questions that get you sometimes. You're all prepared for what to say when they ask you what tree you'd like to be, or what you'd do if you caught a fellow employee stealing, but then they ask you what age you are or when you graduated, and you realize you totally didn't study for that question.