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When people would come to my place of business for an application, that’s when I really started the interview process. I would take stock of all the non-verbal cues that I was given by the potential applicant, and let me tell you, there was plenty of information for the taking.
If someone came in to pick up an application, and they weren’t dressed appropriately for the type of job I was looking to fill, I would immediately dismiss them as unprepared. I would do the same thing if they came in groups, or if they did anything else that I thought was unbecoming to an employee.
The truth is, when I have one position to fill, and there are a seemingly limitless number of applicants that are equally skilled or qualified, my goal is to not waste time looking at any potential problems. I used a little system that I have since found most employers use something similar to.
I would almost never identify myself as the person who would be making the decision as to whether or not someone would be hired. I believed that information would only make the applicant act in an abnormal way for them. I wanted to see how they were when they were comfortable, relaxed, and not dealing with the boss. Right there is where many people took themselves out of the running. As I gave the applicant their application, if the applicant had already taken themselves out of the running, I would place “TNT” on their application. If ever asked, I would say that meant they were ‘dynamite’, but really, it meant, “Thanks, No Thanks”. These people usually got a call or letter saying we were going in a different direction, and that we would keep their application on file for a year, just in case anything opened up. The reality was, we would keep it on file for the next time they tried to apply for a job.
The important thing to remember here is that you are always ‘on’. When you are looking for a job, no matter how much you may think otherwise, you have to be on your best behavior, because you never know who makes the decisions. It could be the person you pissed off before when you were a customer has a good head for faces, and will remember you when you come back as an applicant. Also, unless you are absolutely positive that you don’t want to work at a place in the future, you want to make sure you are cultivating a positive image about yourself. This may mean avoiding acting like stereotypical teenagers when you are out with your friends, but it may also mean collecting a paycheck while your friends are still hassling the workers at the food court.
Once you have a job, and you are doing well at it, your boss may come to you to offer you the opportunity to work more hours, (meaning more money$$) or more responsibility. This is awesome!! You have found what many people spend their entire adult lives looking for, someone who will acknowledge your contributions to the company! You should pat yourself on the back, and be very proud. But should you take the opportunity that is presented?
While this is an individual decision, and not one that I would want to be responsible for making, there are some general guidelines that you should consider before accepting more responsibility or more hours, especially if this is your first job. One of the most important things to consider is the amount of time that would be required. For those of you who aren’t very good at math, (don’t get too upset, I’ve worked in finance for well over a decade, and I was the worst at ‘math’. I was great at adding up my paycheck, though!) there are only 24 hours in a day. Most schools run from about 8:00 AM till about 3:30 PM, which is 7.5 hours. Let’s assume it takes about an hour to prepare for school in the morning; waking up, bathing, doing essential face and hair arranging, picking out clothes, changing your mind about the first choice of clothes, eating breakfast, changing clothes because you spilled some breakfast on your shirt, and travel to the school itself. Just for fun, let’s assume it takes half that for the return trip. We’re now up to 9 hours, (15 left). Teachers will tell you that they figure about an hour and a half of homework per hour of instruction given, but most students will say about 20 minutes or so. Six classes of 20 minutes is two more hours. At least 8 of those hours, you are asleep in your bed, oblivious to the world, so that leaves us with about 5 hours which are yours. Multiply that times 5, (I strongly urge you to think four times if you think you are cut out to work a seven day workweek) and you have 20. That is probably very close to the MAXIMUM number of hours you should work in a given week. Personally, I think 15-24 hours a week is pretty fair. Anything more than that, and you are sacrificing something else that is important to your well being.
You should definitely consider how important whatever you are sacrificing really is to you. If you are thinking to yourself, “I don’t need that much sleep, I can shave off two or three hours right there, and it usually only takes me about 30 minutes to get ready for school. I have plenty of time.” welcome to my world. When I was young, I figured I could work two full-time jobs and still have plenty of time to goof around. I was very, very, very, wrong. If you are cutting into your sleep time, consider how tired you will be the next day, and how that may affect your ability to go through your normal day.
You want to think past the immediate prize of more money here. If your school work starts to suffer, your parents may, (and rightly so) force you to cut back on work, meanwhile, because of your falling grades, you are limiting yourself for what types of jobs will be open to you when you are done with school, because employers do look at education. Your work output may suffer as well, causing your boss to rethink the idea of giving you more responsibility.
You should also think about how much you want to do this job. Nobody likes the job they have to do, but if you start off accepting more responsibility than you really want, you will like your job even less, even as you are marrying yourself closer to the job because you are accepting more responsibility.
There will be plenty of time in your life for you to have to work long, hard hours. While you are still young and able to do so, put those years off till later. Right now, you are just starting on a fantastic journey that will transcend many, many jobs you will have over your adult life, and you should be focusing your energy on making the best decisions that will get you to your goal of financial security.
As my experience grew, and I would get better and better jobs, I started to notice that the tenor of interviews was getting uncomfortable. At first, the interviewer would ask the same generic questions that I had been used to, and I would be able to answer with no problems or hesitation.
Eventually, the manager would start to ask me about my old job and my feelings towards my old employer. Since I had a couple of jobs under my belt already, and because I was so full of myself, I would let loose about every perceived problem that I had ever faced at my previous employer. I would also let them know what my solutions were. I was constantly surprised every time I got a letter saying they were going to go in a, “different direction”. It took me many times before I learned a couple of things about the interview process.
The interviewer wants you to be honest, but when they are asking about your past employment, they are less interested in the truth as they are in doing a little “weeding” of prospective employees. When an employer has one job to fill and fifty people wanting to do it, they usually go through a process of elimination. They will look for any reason to move on to the next applicant until there are no others. An applicant that spends a lot of time complaining about their past employment is prime pickings to be move on from.
We all know that your previous employment was not desireable. In all my years of hiring people, I have never considered that I was interviewing somebody who loved their current employer. I always figured that was why they were looking for a job in the first place! You are probably working for minimum wage, you do very hard, very unglamourous work, and you are probably working for a real tool. The person who is interviewing you knows this already. They already went through it as well.
What follows is one of the most important truths you will ever learn about getting a new job, so listen well:
NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS
WITH YOUR PREVIOUS EMPLOYER!
NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOW YOU WERE
MISUNDERSTOOD BY THEM, OR HOW
YOU WERE THE BEST EMPLOYEE BUT YOUR
BOSS WAS A COMPLETE TOOL!
From an employer’s point of view, any prospective employee who is willing to complain about these things to someone they have just met, and who, quite probably will be as bad or worse, (because they are willing to offer that extra quarter an hour) is just too much trouble to worry about trying to fix. It’s just quicker and easier to move on to the next one and maybe get someone with less of an ego to have to overcome.
You’ve gotten applications, filled them out and now are called in for an interview. Now the real fun begins!
Other books and manuals will tell you that you want to put your best foot forward, accentuate the positive, be ready to counter any objections, blah, blah, blah. Some of that may be true for people with an actual work history, but for you, chances are pretty good that you are interviewing to get your very first job! You don’t have anything to accentuate, counter, or put forward.
The best way to handle an interview is to accept that you will be nervous. Feel free to let the interviewer know that you are nervous. They were once in your position too, and chances are they will understand and help you feel better. Answer their questions honestly and completely, but don’t give out too much info. When they ask you how you are feeling, feel free to tell them you are a little nervous, but don’t describe in detail how that nervousness is exhibiting itself in your body.
The most important thing is to be honest. It’s always easier to be honest in the long run, because you don’t have a ’story’ to have to keep track of. Also, any GOOD manager will hear a lie and move on to the next person with you none the wiser. I’ve hired enough people to know when someone is lying in an interview, and nothing annoys me more. If I can’t trust you, or think you are trying to hide something, I have a hard time believing that I will be able to trust you to do your job unless I’m constantly watching you, and I don’t have that kind of time or energy.
If you don’t know an answer, feel free to admit that. Questions where this comes up usually tell managers what type of training may be needed before the employee is ready to fly. Sometimes, however, they are designed to gauge your honesty or humility. Don’t try and ‘find’ an answer that may not be there, or you may come off as a BS artist or just untrustworthy, two things that you don’t want to be.
If reading any of the previous posts hasn’t scared you out of working forever, congratulations! You’ve decided to go to the local mall, fast food place, or local store to put in applications to start work. In my time as a hiring manager at various retail places, I’ve seen all types.
If you are going to pick up applications to work, do yourself a favor and dress appropriately. Some people will be at a mall, hanging with their friends and pick up applications from stores as they travel along. The official jury hasn’t come back on whether that is a good strategy or not, but it doesn’t guarantee success, which is my goal. When I used to be a hiring manager, I had a little routine I would follow when someone came in looking for work. I would never say that I was the hiring person to someone just picking up an application. I would ask the applicant some insignificant questions about experience, and when I gave them the application, I would put one of three marks on the application, either a star symbol, a check mark, or the letters “TNT”. If they got a star symbol, I would tell the applicant that meant they were a ’super star’, and should be looked at closely. If they got a check mark, I would say that meant the hiring managers should ‘check this person out’, and if they got TNT, that meant they were ‘dynamite’!
Once the applicant turned in their applications, I had three trays on my desk: Check mark applications meant that this person was a good prospect, and would need to have an interview shceduled ASAP. Star applications meant this person had the confidence I was looking for, but may be more trouble than they were worth to hire. I would interview them if I ran out of checked applications. TNT applications got a letter thanking the applicant for their interest, but we were going in a different direction. TNT really meant, “Thanks, No Thanks.” I based my decisions on the ‘meaningless conversation’ that I had with each applicant as well as my first impression of how they presented themselves.
When I “pre-interviewed” each applicant, I didn’t care so much about what they answered, so much as I cared about how they answered. If they looked like they were ready to start working for me, could look me directly in the eyes when speaking to me, and could string a sentence together without saying, ‘um’, ‘ah’, or stuttering over simple things, I was interested. If they were enthusiastic and happy about being wherever they were, I was really interested. If they were not dressed to work with me, couldn’t speak, brought friends with them, or gave me any other reason to say, No Thanks, I would. This practice has allowed me to hire some of the best employees from a very broad pool of applicants.
To review:
- Dress like you already work at the place you are applying to work at. This may mean wearing a tie, or it may not. If you are in doubt, dress up rather than down.
- If you see a place is hiring and you are not ready to interview immediately, come back when you are.
- Be friendly and speak clearly to whomever approaches you. You don’t know if they make the decisions to hire you, (or not!)
- Act like you want to work for the company. Don’t drag yourself in like you are being punished.
Good Luck!
-W
