Ambush Interview

Yesterday afternoon I was ambushed by the human resources department of Northeastern University. While this was a pleasant surprise as I certainly welcome the idea of working for Northeastern, if I didn’t I would not have applied there. What I am not excited about however is the interview that I will be attending tomorrow. It is really hard to get excited about an interview these days having been on so many, and this one will be especially trying given the pre interview conversation I had with Renee From Human Resources; her full name I presume.

The first problem was her name. For some reason the name Renee irks me. It always has and I don’t know why. Being an equal opportunity annoyee, I am also irked by the name Evan. Again I don’t know why this is. If only the problems with yesterday’s conversation were in the name of the person who called. Not surprisingly it goes much deeper.

The conversation started off well enough (despite the name thing) but quickly deteriorated once I realized that the conversation would consist of more than just telling me when and where I could expect to be asked inane questions by a doe eye bobble head who would not doubt be thinking more about having lunch than what I would actually be saying to her. I should know by now that “do you have a few minutes to discuss this opportunity: actually means “are you ready for a surprise interview?” I was not ready for a surprise interview.

Apparently the element of surprise is something that Northeastern feels is greatly in their favor even going so far as to call from a block number.The real reason I say this though is because despite dear Renee telling me she had my resume right in front of her, she requested that I list all my previous experience, with dates, in descending order. Oh, and would I mind telling her a little bit about my experience in each position? Why Renee, you know what? I would mind, because you JUST TOLD ME you have my resume right on front of you! It is no secret that I have a very low opinion of human resource, but apparently I overestimated or took for granted their ability to read. I suppose that this answers a lot of question I have about why I am unable to get a job in a timely manner.

Speaking of getting a job in a timely manner, part of quizzing me on my own resume involved my having to explain why I have suffered through not one but three periods of unemployment more than a month long. Now I can understand this question, just as I can try and understand why I was asked to read my resume to dear Renee. I can understand that the good people of the human resources office want to make sure I was not spending my unemployed time behind bars or in a mental institution. Just because I can understand why the question was asked though does not make it any less absurd. What makes it absurd is that I applied for the job with Northeastern over a month ago. If it takes Northeastern over a month to even acknowledge that I contacted them, why should it be a shock that I have spent multiple months, in a row, unemployed? This is how out of touch human resources are with the concept of looking for a job.

Tomorrow is the day though. Tomorrow I meet with the hiring manager. I must come in the morning though because she likes to have interviews before noon. I presume the rest of the day is spent at lunch or at resume readings, or maybe, just maybe doing irreparable damage to the preferences of an employees benefits package. Lord knows I would not want to intrude on that by having an interview with the hiring manager of the human resources department.