June 12, 2009

How wrongs can go right in job interviews

• 4 Comments |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

As I've read through tips from local interview experts, I can't help thinking back to one of my first job interviews, right out of college. At first it seemed like a disaster, but it wound up leading to one of my longest and most rewarding jobs in my writing career.

It was back in October 1989. (Wow, that's 20 years ago. I now officially feel ancient.) I had graduated college the previous spring, worked over and blown all of my summer earnings on the standard post-grad trip to Europe, so it was time to get serious about being a real adult. After applying for ads in the newspaper (this is 20 years ago, remember) and going on a few dead-end interviews, I saw an item for an editorial assistant at a trade magazine that represented an association of garbage haulers. Being 21, I wasn't about the quibble about subject matter. I just wanted to write.

When I arrived for the interview in a tie and my best hand-me-down blazer from my dad, I met Joe, the editor, a stocky, gruff guy with rolled-up sleeves who barely stopped typing a story he was working on as I shook his hand. Though he barely took his eyes off of his computer screen, Joe asked me the usual questions about why I wanted to work there and what my qualifications were. I remember stammering through my responses about how I had just earned a journalism degree from the prestigious Boston University and how I didn't have any real-world experience, but I was eager to do any entry-level work available and was a quick learner, etc.

Then Joe asked about any writing samples I had. So I reached into my folder to pick up my one prized sample: an earnest, 1,500-word feature on methadone addiction that was published in our school paper. Only, it wasn't there. I had forgotten to bring it!

When I mentioned this to Joe, he stopped typing and, for the first time in the interview, looked me straight in the eye. "You have one published piece and you don't have it with you?" he asked, bemusedly. "I suggest that the next time you go on a job interview, you bring that with you."

There were probably a few more questions after that, but it was all a blur. I was sure I had completely blown it. I was then sent over to see the managing editor, who gave me an editing test. After making such a colossal error, I figured the job was completely out of reach, so I decided to go nuts on the test. I rearranged paragraphs, rewrote entire sentences and pretty much turned in a mess of red ink when I was done.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I got a call a week later from the HR person at the magazine asking me to come in for a second interview. This time, I didn't see Joe, but I did speak with the managing editor again and I sure as hell brought my writing sample this time. It turns out that I didn't really need it - they offered my the assistant editor job right there. I wound up working for the magazine for the next seven years.

A few weeks after starting, I told my new boss about the mix-up with the writing sample and asked what it was that she saw in me. She said I was the only candidate who had shown the initiative to not just correct typographical errors but to restructure the writing and make substantive edits. I turns out it was one of Joe's old stories that had been doctored up. "You actually pointed out some of Joe's old cliches and you took them out," she said, laughing. "That took some guts."

Actually, all it took was relaxation on my part. Once I thought I had nothing left to lose, my real skills were able to emerge.

So now I'm tossing it back to you Hire Ground readers. Have any of you had similar experience of pulling victory out of the jaws of defeat in an interview? If so, have you gone on to use these techniques in other interviews? I'd love to hear from you. Take care, and have a nice weekend.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

• 4 Comments |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Read more

4 Comments

Larry on June 14, 2009 4:59 AM | Reply

This is ridiculous--you were undoubtedly a sweet young thing. Try that now that you are 42.

jodi on June 15, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply

got to laugh at that one. If you relax and don't take it too seriously, of course your natural attributes will out. Good thing, too. Did you want to be real or fake during your seven years there? They liked you for who you were, not who you were trying to be.

Jim on June 15, 2009 6:40 PM | Reply

Two years ago I was 51 and a year and a half out of law school. Nobody would hire me and I was two hours late for an interview. Before arriving I decided I had no shot at the job. I walked into the office completely relaxed and gave the interview of my life.

Virginia on June 18, 2009 10:44 AM | Reply

After completely blowing a job interview at one company, I was crying in the women's room, and a very motherly woman stopped to ask me what was wrong. I blubbered about having two weeks to find a job and no cash and etc, etc, etc, and it turns out that she was the hiring manager for another company in the same building. After washing my face, I followed her to *that* company and interviewed with her and her customer service manager. I'd already revealed all, so I didn't use any of my standard interview pap...and as a result, walked out of the building with a job offer and a lasting friendship with the hiring manager.

Leave a comment

* required field

Your name: *

E-mail address: (Will not be displayed)

Your comment: *

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.