By Spencer
Special to The Dagger
The trouble with people who have what is referred to as “principles” is that they do unimaginably stupid things if they think their lofty principles are being violated.
I walked away from a decent paying job seven months ago, at the height of a recession, because of my principles. Maybe I should have tried to get fired so I could at least have collected unemployment but then that would have violated my libertarian principles by taking a government hand-out. See what I mean? My principles have led me straight to the poorhouse and in real danger of being single, again.
One of the paramount reasons I left my job was that my boss was an obnoxious idiot. Case in point: at our organization, if there was a job opening, usually it was filled from “within.” Everyone knew who was getting the job and why (HR of course would deny that) but the job would be posted for 10 days on the Web site and in the newspaper, anyway. HR would accept applications and then go through the fraudulent practice of pointless interviews insinuating that the applicant had a fair chance of getting hired. Great fun for my boss. His special delight would be to parade the uncomfortably-dressed applicant through the building, giving him a personal tour, and introducing him to his possible coworkers. I always wanted to yell, “Dude!!! There is no chance in hell of you getting this job!!! It’s done!!! He’s playing with you!”
It was a disgusting practice and it totally sucked to think that there was a family behind this applicant offering encouragement, looking over the resume and giving advice on appropriate attire. The deluded applicant makes a dry run to the building, timing it and leaving exceptionally early on the interview day to allow for traffic tie-ups, natural disasters or car trouble. Afterwards family and friends dissect the interview, and the consensus is that the boss wouldn’t have wasted time with a personal tour, and would not have been so affable if it wasn’t a slam dunk. Then the unpleasantness of waiting for approx. two weeks to hear the decision, each day confidence ebbing away like sustained water boarding until the now “loser” learns through the U.S. postal service that “someone better suited for the job,” had been unearthed. Naturally, the better suited person was that idiot from accounting who the applicant had met on his phony tour.
But that is history. Now I am looking for a job and I found a great one a couple weeks ago in the paper, and on the Web site there was a convenient on-line application. This job was tailor-made for me and I was even thinking of all the creative ways I could be an asset to the organization, which I will refer to as the Harford County _________ ________. I had a killer resume, a killer cover letter, I was positive, confident but not cocky, and grateful for the interview. I even bought better shoes just to hit the perfect note of professionalism. I MapQuested the interview location just to be sure, even though I had been there before–just making sure they hadn’t moved the building.
The interview consisted of a three person panel with the HR director in the middle who was just as sweet and folksy as fresh honey-butter. Now, between the three of them they asked me 20 already prepared questions. I thought that was kind of cheesy because seriously, couldn’t a monkey, who could read and talk, ask me twenty questions? Does it take interview professionals to ask 20 questions? I like to think that the people hiring would exhibit a bit more insight, but that was just a fleeting negative, sarcastic thought, and I had been forewarned by my family not to let my real personality come through at the interview. I overlooked the ridiculousness of the 20 questions because they were easy and because I was perfect for this job. Right?
During the interviews I got smiles and nods of approvals and, on the way out, a recap of what hours I would be expected to be there.I was told that I would receive a phone call either way, so not to worry that I would get a rejection by snail mail. So week one went by with no phone call, but I had rationalizations; Easter week, spring break, Passover, kids home from school, in-service conferences. It is hard to make the decision in one week, especially due to the fact that they had to call all the sad people who now felt like losers because they did not get the job. By Tuesday of the second week, I knew I was one of those sad losers.
So now, I was just waiting to see what reason they would give for my not getting the job–messing up those idiotic twenty questions, I guessed. Of course they never called me “either way,” so I called them and was told…THEY HIRED FROM WITHIN!!!! It was brutal.
Actually it’s Spenser unless you are Spencer. Obnoxious boss & you quit? How old did you say you were? Libertarian Principles? How old are you again? Many times employers – especially govt- are required by law to post a job even though they probably have a candidate in mind. They hire someone they know, someone who knows the organization. As for your obnoxious boss, there is mo dearth of them in the marketplace.
What you do not realize is you are a self-handicaping loser. Hiring within is an excellent policy for many reasons. If you are a true libertarian you would want the company to be able to hire anyone they want.
It appears to me you do not want to start at the bottom and work your way up.
I know you weren’t talking about HCG, because they reject you by mail. You had me going there for a while. Many companies hire from within because is cost effective. Training costs are high and there is a loss of productivity when you bring in someone new, specially for a supervisory or mid-management job. Its fair to the current employees that they are given the chance to move up from within as they already know company policies, procedures and don’t need to be trained on everything. If you just quit your job because you don’t like your job, that’s your business, you just won’t get many sympathy votes from all the people that are unemployed or underemployed or those that have to put up with unprofessional bosses or obnoxious co-workers which rules out everyone else.
Thank you for your kind words fogdog. I have a problem with phony interviews, not with hiring the best candidate. If there is no way in hell I am going to get a job because the outcome is predetermined then I would prefer not to be a participant in the charade. That is a waste of everyone’s time. How do you know, I don’t want to start at the bottom?
i work for the school system a few years ago, a job in my school was posted for a promotion, during that period i was doing that job i was fully qualified,met and or exceeded all areas of the job description, had excellent evaluations, letters of recomendation, wile i was doing the job the principal hired someone outside of the school system who was less qualified then anyone who had put in for this job, I never recieved an interview, noe did any other individual in our system. the person that they hired i had to train them not only did they not meet the criteria, they eneded up quitting 2 months later, because i was doing all the work and said look your the one in charge here you do it.
If your grammar was that bad at that time, then I understand why you did not get the job…….
Companies sometimes interview others because they may have more than one opening or they would need to replace the person being promoted from within. The job market still very though, specially for those with experience and higher salary demands. I just interviewed applicants 2 job openings at my dept and half the applicants were over qualified and their salary demands were not evenly matched with the position, but their salary expectations. I would suggest that applicants do their research, specially for entry level jobs that don’t require specific certifications or licensing and use online tools to determine salary ranges. Spencer, I woud also suggest that you let go of the expectation that people care what you think or expect when interviewing for any position.
noted.
Sounds like the Harford County Library System
why would you think that? Because they run an ad in the sunpapers and website,bring in people for interviews and then do not call “either way” as was initially promised? great guess engineer hope you weren t one of the actors in their staged interviews.
Hey. They don’t always hire from within, sometimes they hire the wife of council members who are also trustees. Must be nice to go from no non-profit experience to head of a foundation at a moments notice.
Hey Oz and Engineer
Great points. Clearly having someone on the council who reviews the agency’s budget to which you’ve applied also doesn’t hurt. The shear arrogance of the appointment, in this time of high unemployment, budgetary shortfalls, home foreclosures, is mind boggling. Someone should be ashamed.
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