I went on a job interview the other day. I’m not really sure that I want to work away from my home-based office, but I know we need to bring in more of an income to support our family, and I’m the one that has to do that. Working from home is wonderful, when there’s steady funds coming in. But, when it’s the “famine” part of feast or famine, there are days I’m not sure we even have enough money to buy milk for the kids.
Anyway, I interviewed with a husband and wife who own a business. They are at the point where they want to grow the business, but are overwhelmed with too many of the day-to-day activities to have any spare time to work on their expansion. They have great ideas, but no time to put them into action. Hence, they are looking for a Joe Friday – someone to manage the parts of the day-to-day business so they can focus their energies on their short- and long-term goals.
First, I spent some time with the husband. He was nice, talked well (as in, he didn’t talk down to me) and toured me through their operation….as well as showed and explained their vision for growth to me. He made sure I could lift a 50 lb. bag of sugar and could hoist a sheet-pan full of pies into their oven. Both I passed with flying colors. I thought we had some intelligent conversation about their business and I thought I asked some questions that he hadn’t thought of or that he was unaware of. Meaning, I paid attention to what he was saying and discussed it with him.
Then, I met with both the husband and his wife for a sit-down interview. When the wife told me she wanted to ask me some questions that she found on the Internet, I was … ummmm, a bit uncomfortable. Why? Well gee, they could be anything! Why weren’t we talking about their business and what I could do to help them take it where they wanted to go? Why weren’t we talking about how I could be a valuable contributor to their staff and the growth to their new and improved business? But, I sat and listened and answered the questions as honestly and directly as I could.
Toward the end of the interview, the wife says…”Well, we’ve had a lot of applicants…”
I pretty much knew at that point that I didn’t answer one (or more) of those Internet questions with an answer she wanted to hear.  We didn’t discuss salary, we barely discussed hours and we talked more about kids and the community, homeschooling and the local schools — about anything except the job opening.
I’m ok with not getting the job. If they were not comfortable with me or my abilities or even my looks – I can handle that. But, what I cannot handle is the “don’t call us, we’ll call you” attitude. The cold shoulder. How does one better themselves if they don’t discuss the “wrong answers?”  When you work and you do something wrong, you (usually) hear about it from your supervisor or the owner. You are given the opportunity to better yourself by changing whatever it was that you did wrong, or explaining the actions you took. Â
I haven’t heard a response from them. I put it in God’s hands, because that’s the only thing I can do. If He means for me to have the job, then I guess it’ll happen. If He doesn’t, then I will just continue what I’m doing and hope that either the “feast” picks up and I’m able to support our family better. God has plans for me – whether the business that I interviewed with does or not.
