Bad day, bad interview

Yesterday was a bad day. I didn't leave the house until 3.45pm. I woke up with a bad attitude. Nothing was good, it seemed. Even talking to my best friend Wade didn't bring me out of my glum mood.

I got a call back from Neil Kelly Cabinetry. Nice woman on the phone, but I was above their salary level for a builder, and she didn't think they had any management positions open. She was bummed because she liked what she saw on paper and said she would have hired me if she had open positions. That was nice to hear, but it also reinforced my impression that they probably have management issues. Otherwise she wouldn't have been so over excited about me solely based on my resume.

Around 3pm I heard back from MADE Design asking me to come in for an interview. I was a little surprised to hear from them as I thought they would be looking for someone with more time in the industry. It seems that there is a belief that years of experience = quality employee, which I've found isn't always true. I had spoken with Ken at Rosemont Designs about this issue and he has come to the same realization. MADE had asked for 5-10 years experience, and I was on the lower end of that. Besides, their company was pretty young, so I figured they were still working under the time=quality mindset. So when they called back, I wasn't sure what to expect. But I prepped myself in the hour before the interview by asking myself questions that I thought might come up.

Everything about the interview supported my eventual belief that they didn't have much experience in interviewing potential employees. On the phone, the owner only asked me if I would come in for an interview. No preliminary questions to weed out people who would obviously not work out. When I arrived at the shop, by the time I had introduced myself and shook hands with the two owners, I knew they weren't interested.

I've been in that position before. I had to interview lots of people when I worked at my first cabinetry job. I would make a pretty quick decision sometimes about interviewees and sometimes had to go through the motions of interviewing them just to be polite.

But I never made that decision before they even spoke.

So to have that feeling so damn quickly was really odd. I tried to inject questions and personality into the interview to show these two guys that maybe they should dig a little deeper. But it didn't work. At the end of the 20 minute interview (which would have been much shorter if I hadn't tried so hard), I got the "Well, we're going to be talking to other people this week. We'll get back to you" statement. Yeah, ok, I'll be waiting with bated breath.

Don't get me wrong, this might not have been the right job for me. I might not have been a good match for them. And I'm ok with that. But to get this attitude from the second I walked in was really disturbing. I really felt like turning right back around as soon as I got there.

Eventually I realized that this wasn't a reflection on me. Even if they thought I might not be a good candidate (based on whatever it was they heard over the phone or saw in the 2 seconds after I walked into their shop), a good interviewer would have handled it differently. First, when you call a candidate, ask questions. What real-life experience do they have? Sure, you have some details on their resume, but let them fill in the gaps. If you know the places that person has worked before, ask about those places. For instance, they knew a little bit about Mike's shop, so pressing me for details about that job would have been perfect. Then, once you have decided to bring a candidate in for a personal interview, get even more details about them as an employee. What do they like to do in the shop, what do they dislike? How do they handle certain situations? What are their strong points, what are their weak points? Do they see themselves staying in this industry for a long time? If so, where do they want to go, what skills do they want to learn? And so on.

I got none of those questions. In fact, I think the only question they asked was a general, "so, tell us about you" question. I think they made their decision about me between the phone call and the interview, so no matter what I had done at their shop I wasn't going to be given a fair shot. Over the phone they had asked if I could bring a portfolio of my previous work in. I said that I had just moved back to Portland and lots of things were in storage, but I could probably scare up a few photos. And that is what I did - I searched boxes of photos to see what I thought might be helpful. The reality is that I don't have a lot of photos because most of my work has been done for other companies and I don't think of it as "my" work. Yeah, I work on the pieces, but I am representing the company I work for. Maybe that isn't right. Maybe I should be taking photos. But I've also never been asked for photos from anyone I've ever applied with.

However, all of that was moot because they didn't even ask to see my photos.

So maybe they decided at that point that since I didn't have a portfolio I wasn't a quality candidate. Fair enough. But I had even given them an out with that. I said I didn't have much to show, and wasn't sure if that was a requirement of the interview.....? Giving them plenty of lead to say, "Yes, actually it is. Thanks and good luck in your job search". But they said no, it wasn't a requirement.

But the chilly reception I got when I walked in leads me to believe that maybe they do want someone with a portfolio, or more experience, or more testosterone, or....... Regardless I think they need more experience in interviewing.

So, two more companies down.