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Photo of my little sister by my cousin Kevin for LAist, to represent the fact that I was treated like a five-year-old!!! (And also how I currently feel.)
I would like to share a story with everyone about my morning. Last Friday, in my thrilling, endless job search, I stumbled upon a listing for a Marketing Director at a company that organizes conferences on subjects like digital media, the entertainment industry, etc. I would normally never apply for a director position, having no experience with that title, but the job description was almost exactly the same kind of online promotions as part of my previous job at a record label (writing newsletters, press releases, mass emails). So I applied, what the hell. I fully expected to hear nothing back, and wasn't all that thrilled about promoting conferences anyway, but hey, the salary was good.
A few hours later and I got an email from a woman at the company asking me to come in for an interview Monday. I responded that I certainly could, and then found out in an AIM conversation with my former coworker that someone had just called her as a reference about the same job. So they were definitely interested.
This morning I drove to Culver City (which took an hour) and found myself in a super quiet, dingy office (it had that school principle's office feel), where I was told the woman with whom I was supposed to meet was not there yet, but that they would "find someone to speak to me", so I had to seat. About 15 minutes later, a balding, smarmy-looking guy comes out and says so-and-so is still not there, but he guessed I was there about the graphics? I said no, marketing. (But I'm glad I could pass for a graphic designer.) He was totally bemused by this but lead me back into his office and sat there smugly reading my resume. He commented patronizingly on my Creative Writing degree and said that he was a writer himself, and I thought "Uh oh... Bitter, failed author alert..."
For everything he asked, I had a pretty good answer, and everything he mentioned about the job, I had done at the label since 2004, so I expected him to end by nodding his head and saying they would get back to me. Instead he declared that this was a director position and he was looking for someone a bit more "seasoned". (Funny, why was I called in then? Everything is clearly dated on my resume, including my college graduation in 2001.) He did mention that they might need some freelance writers to help out, however, which might be a good idea for me, so that I could "gain some more experience". Gee thanks! I answered politely that I'd have to think about it and then, as we were winding down, he said again that it might be a good idea for me since he "guessed [the label] was my first position out of college"!!!!
I almost threw my purse at him. Seriously, I'm approaching 30. To not have worked from 2001 until 2004 would've been a magical feat. That son of a !@%$# took one look at me and hated it that I was a young person who thought she had writing ability. I was obviously qualified, just not old and bitter!! Being pretty professional myself, I shook his hand politely and walked out. Then I went home and emailed the woman back:
"Thanks very much for not bothering to show up for my interview today, submitting me to the condescension of the dickhead in the back office. I'm glad you're working for him and not me."
(Okay, I didn't really. But I'm still considering it.)
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Send that email!!!!!!
I know exactly what company you are talking about as I have been to several of their conferences. A friend of mine also interviwed there and a had a similar experience -except hers took place in the lobby of a restaurant in Culver City. The woman you were supposed to have interviewed with and the "balding, smarmy-looking guy" are husband and wife.
I'd send it. Dickhead and all.
No way!!! Somebody shut that place down! LOL. That's hilarious that they're so recognizable.
Oh my God! I wouldn't send the email, since it is a surprisingly small world.
I once had someone ask at the BEGINNING of an interview, "Have you tried UCLA? I hear they're hiring." She then proceeded to go ahead and interview me. I was freaking out the whole time because she had already told me to go look for a job somewhere else.
How about a compromise? Send the email but don't say "dickhead?"
Your time is worth just as much as the person who didn't show up to interview you.
You describe yourself as "pretty professional." Sending such an email is the opposite of professional. This is a small world. For your own sake, sure hope you don't send it.
In any case, at least you didn't accept a job with that guy. Really, you lucked out. :)
This is funny because anyone in this industry knows EXACTLY which company this is - one out of every 20 digitally oriented people in this town have had that job. LOL.
Some years ago, soon after graduating from college, I interviewed for a part-time job transcribing TV shows and other garbage off television. I had aced all the typing/grammar tests and was way overqualified for the job, which probably paid all of $10/hour.
That didn't stop the crazy interview lady -- who sat, walked and talked like she had a role of quarters shoved up her ass -- from belittling me, after I politely explained that no, I couldn't make a two-year commitment to a part-time job. She basically said it was ridiculous for me to have interviewed for the job since I was clearly so unfocused and immature.
At another job, I worked with a middle-aged, alcoholic. Smart, nice guy but with the emotional I.Q. of a 12-year-old. He was threatened by anyone who expressed any sort of creative ambition. I think it was worse for me, because I was a woman. He did all sorts of things to undermine me, from withholding important information, to writing long, trembling emails to our boss about his grievances towards me. To her credit, the boss told him that he should address these "problems" directly with me, since he sat all of three feet away from me.
Sometimes, it's not you. It's them.
Send the email.
Then return to Culver City tomorrow and shove fartbombs under their office door.
I think I know the job you applied for, and trust me you don't want it.
Leave it behind, these things happen. You knew from the moment you walked in this was not a place for you, and so did they-- you're too good for them!
Welcome to the working week.
At least you aren't a fresh out of college kid who takes this shit seriously. Relax. Could be worse, they might have hired you.
Attention anyone from that company reading this: You made the RIGHT choice in not hiring this woman. She boasts that she is "obviously qualified" and brags of a "Creative Writing" degree. Does "creative writing" mean that you "create" your own rules of English? Apparently she thinks it does, as I got tired of counting all the spelling and other errors in this post. She can't even tell the difference between the present and the past tense of a verb! Send this one back to college, or maybe high school. Maybe they should revoke her degree.
If he wasn't an idiot, he wouldn't be interviewing!!!
ATTENTION ANYONE, I AM A CHICKENSHIT MASTER GRAMMARIAN WHO USES A GUEST ACCOUNT TO TRASH OTHERS!
Wow Guest #13, I think it's awesome that you have superior skills in "The Rules of English!". Where did you get YOUR "Rules of English" degree might I ask? Maybe they should revoke yours too!
But I don't think that will stop you from sitting at the computer in your mother's basement all night, eating numerous packages of hotpockets while "counting all the spelling errors" in every internet post you come across.
After Wall Street Journal Management News Editor Joan Lublin wrote a column last fall about how bad interviewees are behaving on interviews, me and about 119 other job seekers emailed her to let her know that there were at least as many "companies behaving badly." (To read Lublin's response to all of our emails, visit: http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/manageyourcareer/20061004-managingyourcareer.html.)
Lublin's column prompted me to try to invigorate my own blog about nightmare job experiences (including a particularly horrific experience with Harpo Productions, Inc., producers of the Oprah Winfrey Show). You can check it out at: http://job-search-torture.blogspot.com/.
For the record, I didn't send the email, and there are no spelling errors in my post. And in a blog, you can most definitely create your own rules of English, including switching tenses. As in, "And then he goes... So I say..." etc etc. Thaaaaanks for reading!