Be the Yes! at Your Next Interview

Cogito, ergo sum: I think, therefore I am.

If I follow Descartes’ lead and I pair thinking and being, it’s possible to stretch my thoughts beyond any perceived reality in order to become more than I think I am. Or that I can do. Or that I can grow into and become.

Descartes’ well-known quote struck me today as I was performing my daily online job scan – an activity that can leave me feeling hopeful and bleak, joyful and defeated, idealistic and realistic all rolled into one blob of emotion.

The jobs that were listed on the sites today did not appear to be much of a match for my groomed skill set. Pricing processor, jitney driver (Yep. jitney driver . . . What the hell is a jitney anyway?!), glue mixer, surgical sales rep, marketing assistant, lead accountant, aviation systems engineer, upholstery technician. Who knew that our planet is populated by so many specialists doing such varied and technical work?

What exactly am I qualified to do anyway?

All these jobs reminded me of the many things that I am not qualified to do. Jobs for which I have zero experience or education. I don’t have the skills to crunch numbers in a way that would satisfy an auditor, and I can’t even imagine the responsibilities of being a proficient and mindful glue mixer. Scary. What the heck did I seek a higher education for again?

While I have a good imagination, a part of me does not allow my mind to stretch a What-the-heck? to an I-can! when it comes to the Great Job Hunt. A part of me quails from imagining how to best convey transferable skills from Brand X to Product Y or Z. I am thinking that I could possibly apply my pretty great spatial skills and learn how to upholster furniture . . . but why wouldn’t an employer hire someone else with bona fide experience and skills before I would be able to figure out what to do with a staple gun?

Skills. Abilities. Experience. Passion. Education. Hunting for a good-fitting job is challenging. There are simply so many jobs out there that prospective employers want to fill and there are people out there, equal in proportion, with the know-how that will convince someone to hire him or her. It is quite the cycle when you step back and look at it: a task needs doing and someone is there to say, without hesitation, “I can do it! Pick me!”

Being Too Honest Doesn’t Always Win Over an Interviewer

I went to a recent interview for a terribly underpaid job where the interviewer told me in her return email that she was quite impressed with my curriculum vitae and looked forward to meeting me. This made me very happy to hear. A thought bubbled to the surface, This might be it! This could be a great fit! I'll find my place and I can get back into the Contributing Game.

Then, early on in the interview itself, she proceeded to tell me how so many people aren’t all that . . . that what they say on paper is a far stretch from who they actually are. In other words, the next half hour was going to be an exercise in her de-bunking my CV until she was properly satisfied that I wasn’t some kind of con artist.

It almost seemed as if it would have made her happier if I was a complete fraud. She picked, probed, and dissected. She wanted a recounting of my academic history and an array of troubleshooting scenarios.

The good news? There were no fibs on my CV. What she saw was what she would be getting. It felt as if she was warming to what she was hearing, but her skepticism never really left her face or tone of voice. Still, I thought I had a good chance to land the position, given my answers. That was until she asked me why I wanted the job.

This was when I made a fatal mistake. I wasn’t expecting the question, so I told her the truth. I wanted to to look for ways to give more back to my community. That I felt that, given the difficulties that COVID has imposed on those with literacy challenges, our society needs a transfusion. That I wanted to help and make a difference in society.

Before I could elaborate beyond the word society, she abruptly stopped me from saying anything else by issuing the international sign of "Stop right there!" and raising her hand toward my face like a traffic cop.

“Careful!” she barked at me, as if anticipating some long soliloquy from me on the woes of current politics and social issues. Which is not what I meant to do at all. Not at all. If I could have elaborated, I would have said that I just wanted the opportunity to use my experience and background to do what I can to give back. To be a part of something bigger than me. To help others learn and be the difference in their respective worlds. Etc. Something along these lines. You get the idea. But she didn’t.

A Warning Shot of "Be Careful"

That issued order of “Careful!” told me that this position wasn’t probably the best fit for me. That she was clearly overworked. That she was part of an under-funded program that had gotten the better of her spirits over the years. I don’t know anything about her personal or work life, but I knew that I had torpedoed by own interview. Given my default to a Polly Anna Universe, I was too much the idealist.

I thought I could redeem myself when I said that I was good at setting and meeting goals, in answer to the anticipated interview question: "What is one of your strengths?" She replied, “I hope that you don’t think you are actually going to change anything here. You’ll come to work and put in your eight hours like the rest of us and do what you can before you go home at night. This job is not about setting goals.”

Which is when I thought, without a doubt, I had just completely and utterly sunk myself. The interview kept going, for reasons unknown, while she interrogated me on each volunteer activity or teaching experience that was listed on my CV. I kept answering as truthfully and completely as I could. After an hour of being grilled and drilled, I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

The crazy thing? I was so excited at the prospect of getting back into my field of work that I thought I had a chance at the job. The reality? I didn’t stand a prayer. I should have known when I was leaving her office that I should immediately go back to hunting the online sites for whatever other positions I am not remotely qualified for such as snake milker or armpit sniffer for a deodorant company.

Once I returned home, I hoped that there was some way that she could forgive my honesty. I didn’t hear any response, and I waited until after the date she told me that she was going to make a decision.

I emailed her and she responded with the standard "We have decided to go with a more qualified candidate" response. Which is fine. Now I know that I wasn’t the Yes, and it is now back to the job hunt.

Be the Yes!

I used to teach a dream class that focused on student success. Each quarter, I invited a colleague from our HR department to come in and talk about interviewing skills to the students. The single most important takeaway from these informative presentations was “Be the Yes!

In other words, Be the Yes!

• before you go in for the interview
• while you are interviewing and
• later when you send your post-interview thank you note

Just Be the Yes! You would think after sitting through more than a dozen of these presentations that I would have known better to not say anything that could be misconstrued as political, but I guess I was so wanting to "Be the Yes!" in giving back to my community – regardless of this interviewer's political culture – that I should have made up some other reason as to why I wanted to contribute to learning.

Which makes me feel a little sad. And kind of glad. And incredibly introspective. Sad because I blew an opportunity for saying something so taboo. Glad because I don’t have to share an office with an overworked cynic. And introspective because I am not going to quit Being the Yes! to what I believe and how I want to help others.

The grand takeaway?

1. Be myself.
2. Answer questions honestly, rather than answering questions with what I think a future employer wants to hear.
3. Think first and be myself.

What a simple concept, right?

Well, maybe not that simple. I am still on the job hunt and looking forward to a future job where I can be both the Yes! and myself. I know that the position exists and, being a true believer in good things, I look forward to my next interview.

I will answer the question "What’s your biggest weakness?" with confidence, make eye contact with everyone should it be a panel interview, follow up with "So what’s next in the process?" at the end of the interview, get the names of everyone who was involved in the interview, and send the requisite handwritten thank-you notes, post-interview.

I would have hired Descartes in a heartbeat.

Cogito, ergo sum: I think, therefore I am. I learned a lot from this interview experience. Descartes’ philosophical proof of existence believed that our very thoughts dispel any doubts of our existence.

“I could feign that there was no world, I could not feign that I did not exist.”

World, I am ready to Be the Yes! And to think. And to be me. And to not be so careful in interviews that I check myself at the door. The right job is out there for me. I just know it. Cogito, ergo sum!