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Another Way
What Not To Do While Waiting for an Interview
Do you have any kids who will be looking for a job after graduation this spring? Whether they are graduating from high school or college, perhaps some inside tips from two of my kids who’ve gone through it recently will be a help.
While waiting in the lobby, do not start reading the lobby magazines until you have finished with any paperwork that I give you. Especially if you tear out articles and put them in your purse!
My middle daughter spent the better part of a year recently working as the receptionist/administrative assistant in a major temp office (they call them staffing agencies now) in Chicago.
As with most work situations, you can learn much from whatever job setting you find yourself in, and she reaped a lot of knowledge as she sometimes chuckled behind her computer, about how to present yourself for a job interview.
As she says, “Remember, I may be just the receptionist, but I am always watching and sometimes they do ask me what I think of a candidate.”
She wrote down some of her observations in list form:
• Do not bring along miscellaneous guests to your interview. No boyfriends, no children, no multiple personalities.
• Do I even have to say no cell phone calls to the boyfriend, the mother, the children. A quick quiet call to another business about another interview or appointment is understandable.
• While waiting in the lobby, do not start reading the lobby magazines until you have finished with any paperwork that I give you. Especially if you tear out articles and put them in your purse!
• Do not let your mom inquire about job opportunities for you.
• Dress appropriately. No jeans, no tennis shoes, no helmet hair. Probably no spaghetti straps.
• There is no casual Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
• Do not rearrange the reception area furniture.
• Try to hide the tiger tattoo that is crawling up your neck--with a turtleneck or something, please.
• No overbearing perfumes. The front desk doesn’t want to smell like the cosmetic counter at Macy’s.
• Time is of the essence. Call if you are going to be more than 5 minutes late.
• Don’t dream of setting your foot in the office more than two hours early, even if you have time to kill.
• ALWAYS be nice to the receptionist. Remember, I’m always watching.
And from a parent’s perspective, keep in mind that it is hard hard work for your kids to be out looking for work, for everyone concerned. It is also hard not to do their job hunting for them! It took both of my daughters over a year to finally get a job they liked that was somewhat related to their fields. They both worked in retail meanwhile, and finally got their breaks through working for temp agencies. Their dilemmas were typical: many jobs required 3 to 5 years of experience. How do you get experience when no one will hire you?
Staffing agencies helped them to gain that experience and get their feet in doors. Once in the door, their employers were impressed, thank you very much, with their work ethics (hey, just showing up every day on time these days is a big deal in some companies), and their overall smarts, range of skills and abilities. They both made a number of mistakes in those first couple months, but knew the first rule of making a mistake: confess it as soon as you discover it. I’m not bragging about my kids: there are many more bright, capable kids out there just waiting to be given a chance.
Of course, I want to keep my job too, so that’s a problem when there’s no room for the new grads because us oldsters still have to work, too. But that’s another story. For today, I’m very grateful for the employers who have given my daughters an opportunity to prove themselves.
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Third Way Media
Melodie Davis, staff writer and producer for Third Way Media, is married and the mother of three children. She is the author of Why Didn't I Just Raise Radishes? and seven other books. Her column, "Another Way", also appears in newspapers in the U.S. and Canada syndicated by Globe Syndicate.
