Magic Pot of Jobs

My friend Taryn recently told me this story over homemade guac. Let it be a cautionary tale about working for people who have no sense of humor (or a grasp on what is acceptable to say in an interview, for that matter).

Taryn had a great first interview, for a director-level position, at a trade association. She met with the office manager and felt like the interview went well, and that she had developed a good rapport with her.

A few days later, she met with the president of the association. Again, second interview, feeling good.

At the end of the same week, she received an e-mail from the president, alerting Taryn that she had some “concerns” about her, and wanted to meet with her again to see if they could be resolved. It’s at this point that Taryn calls yours truly, and asks what “concerns” means.

(Expressing concerns, btw, is simply a request for more information. Either that, or the person is terribly indecisive. When you can’t tell the difference, that’s a bad sign.)

Taryn goes back for a third interview, this time over her lunch break. The office manager and president chat her up with small talk for about ten minutes. Taryn, being the direct and ballsy hottie that she is, finally says, “So, ladies. Concerns. What’s that all about?”

The president proceeds to launch into a lecture about how Taryn is not allowed to drink at the national conference as they “have a reputation to protect.” (This is ironic, considering the business they represent, but I won’t kiss and tell here.) Taryn is a taken aback, and asks if she has done anything to give them the impression that she was a heavy drinker. No, they respond, but they just wanted to be clear about expectations in advance.

“Cool. Well, if that resolves it, then I’m heading back to work,” she says. The office manager chimed in at this point, and says there is actually one more thing: “Taryn, we’re concerned about your language.”

Taryn is racking her brain at this point “What have I done to give them the impression that I’m a drunken sailor?”

Taking a second to breathe, she asks for them to please explain, as perhaps she was just nervous during the interview process, and something slipped out. (Look, there goes the f-bomb!)

The president says, “well, Taryn, we asked you to cite an example of how you go above and beyond for your clients at your current job. You mentioned how you have one client that was constantly late for committee calls. You said that you call him a few minutes before the call every week, tell him to get his butt on the phone, and he always makes it on time.”

“OK,” waiting for the pres to continue.

Dead silence.

“Butt is NOT appropriate language in a business context. We DO have a reputation to protect here.”

Dead silence.

“Mmmmm, OK.” At this very moment, Taryn has decided not to take the job. While telling someone to “get his butt” is not the most eloquent way of expressing the sentiment, it does illustrate that Taryn did a good job of building a casual and friendly rapport with her client, something we here at the MISF call getting into the client’s operating reality.

And since when is “butt” a dirty word? It’s not as though she channeled Samuel L. Jackson and said “hey motherfucker, get that ass on the phone before I slap you like the bitch you are.”

At this point, Taryn stands up, and offers her own perspective: “Ladies, thank you for your time. If you were at all concerned about my professionalism, that’s what references are for. As you haven’t asked me for any, I can only assume that we’re not moving forward.”

They e-mailed her later in the day to request her references, and she declined.

Moral of the story: if the company makes you that nervous, or considers my niece’s favorite word ‘dirty,’ trust me that you don’t want to work there anyway.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 22nd, 2006 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.