Professionalism is a Two Way Street

I'm always reading tips online and in the paper for people who are looking for a job. What to wear, what to say, how early to arrive, how to follow up. All of these topics are readily available to the job seeker who wants to improve their interviewing style. The bottom line from all the tipsters is that the job seeker must show courtesy and respect to the interviewer who has given his or her time to meet with you. In other words, be professional.

I think professionalism is a two-way street. I think the interviewer also must show courtesy and respect to the interviewee. After all, the impression I get of a company and its culture is largely due to my interaction with the staff I meet on interview day.

In this current job search, I have been on four interviews. Four very different companies, three of whom were the hallmark of professionalism and one which was not.

Here's what the three did right:
One was a small not-for-profit, one was a large international entertainment firm, and one was a large national staffing firm. Despite the differences in size, all three made sure that we were making good use of our time. They had clear job descriptions in their advertisements. One did a lengthy phone interview first but all had a basic pre-interview. All needed me to meet with multiple people and arranged the interviews so that I would only need to come once and I could meet with everyone. Though I arrived a bit early for each interview (to show respect for their time, I am always 10 minutes early), they had someone to greet me, ask if I wanted a glass of water, etc. Each meeting was kept to 30ish minutes which also showed respect for my time.

I have not heard a final decision from all of these companies, but I have heard from one in the negative. That is fine. The interview process is about seeing if you are a good fit for them and I wasn't. But I would encourage friends to apply to any of these companies whether or not they hire me. That's because my sense is that each of them values their employees and my friends who may end up working there will be treated with respect.

Now for company number 4, a small hospitality company, and what it could have done better:
First, the advertisement simply said "Accountant wanted". That's all. No job duties or degrees or certifications that would be required. I found this odd, but I applied for the job anyway. I figured that my resume would speak for itself and if I wasn't what they were looking for, that would be that. As it turns out, I wasn't what they were looking for and I would have known that if they had written a clear job description in the posting. Unprofessional.

Next, they sent me a letter asking me to come in to interview. After reading my resume, they should have known that I wasn't what they were looking for, but they asked me to come in all the same. I phoned them upon receipt of the letter and reached voicemail so I left a message with my number and the days and times I was available in the coming week. This was Saturday. On Wednesday, they phoned me just before noon and said they had an appointment available that afternoon. I'm sorry, but unless you are a temp agency, you shouldn't expect people to be available to interview within two hours of your phone call, especially when that wasn't one of the days they told you they were available. Unprofessional.

They were able to offer me an appointment two weeks in the future. I found this odd, but I took it and figured if I found something else first, I could always phone and cancel. Fast forward to interview day. I arrived at the appointed address 10 minutes early and the office was locked! No one was there. I'm sorry, but if you have someone coming to interview, you should be present. Unprofessional.

I phoned the woman who made the appointment and she said she would have to call me back. While I was waiting, a gentleman showed up. He was also there to interview at the EXACT same time as I was. This is the most unprofessional thing of all. No employer should ever schedule two interviews at the same time.

Eventually, someone showed up. We were ushered into the small waiting room and handed accounting tests to take before we met with the interviewer. It wasn't a temp agency or a staffing firm so why were they handing us accounting tests? The gentleman left. I sat there in the waiting room doing the test while they listened to loud music and spoke in a language not English. This is also unprofessional. It is rude in the workplace to listen to music at a volume that others can hear. While people often speak other languages in the workplace, when someone is waiting to interview and within earshot, it gives the impression that you are discussing that person or else you would be speaking in English.

After my test was scored, I was ushered in to meet with the interviewer. She looked at my test results, asked me my salary range and then said that I wasn't what they were looking for. Well, good, because they weren't what I was looking for. I want to work for a company that treats its employees with courtesy.

I don't know if the gentleman will go back or if he will be hired. I kind of hope that he won't be hired there because he was a nice man and I think he deserves to work at a nice company. Like Numbers 1-3.

Avocation vs. Vocation

Since I've been on this current Job Search, I've really given a lot of thought to what direction I would like my career to go in. To that end, I have been looking at different kinds of jobs than I might have considered in the past when I was strictly focused on the entertainment industry.



I have been particularly interested in checking out the non-profit sector. Last week, I was writing cover letters for two jobs at non-profits. One of these could really be a dream job for me, allowing me to unite my background with not only my love of community service, but also my passion for science. I took advantage of the opportunity which the cover letter affords to shine a spotlight on skills that are hidden in my resume. Here are the highlights:

• I am currently Treasurer of the Hillsides Volunteer Network. I have been a member of HVN for 12 years and have held every office except Children's Activities Chair - serving a three-year term as Executive Chair (including a non-voting seat on the Board of Directors), two-year terms as Membership Chair, Communications Chair, and now as Treasurer, and a one-year term as Social Events & Fundraising Co-Chair. I have worked closely with Hillsides Outreach & Development Departments, assisting in updating the membership database, promoting communication via social networking sites, and supporting fundraising events.


• I worked for Disney for over 15 years. In that time, I was very involved with Disney VoluntEARS, serving a three-year term on their Steering Committee (now called Leadership Council). I also served one term on the Cast Community Fund Grant review committee which awards grants to local non-profits.


• After leaving Disney, I was hired by Disney Worldwide Outreach to develop a volunteer database so that they could target emails to volunteers with specific interests rather than blasting all the volunteers Company-wide each week.

As the saying goes "Do something you love and you will never work a day in your life". I think I may be on to something...

Rainy Days & Mondays

Today is the first rainy day that we have had since I have been unemployed. I don't know about you but I love the rain. That is, as long as I don't have to go out in it.

I commute by public transit. This is by choice. I have been car-free for 6 years. Most of the time I love it, except when it rains. When it rains, the streets flood and all the vehicles splash you as you wait for the light to change and it's virtually impossible to stay warm, let alone dry.

Of course, this being Southern California, it really doesn't rain all that often. In the past 6 years, I have only had to call out from work once due to rain. I was living in Valley Glen and I couldn't cross the street without going literally knee-deep in water. So I phoned my supervisor, explained the situation, and asked to be transferred to the co-workers who lived near me. They agreed to pick me up if it happened in the future. It never did, but I was ready!

So today, I am taking a rain day. I didn't have to go out, I only wanted to go out. I am going to enjoy NOT going out to its fullest because the next time it rains, I hope to be working!

Pink Slip Mixers

Last week I went to my first Pink Slip Mixer. Another friend who is unemployed had told me about pinkslipmixers.com so I checked it out. I even told another friend who is unemployed and we agreed to meet there. The one last week was in Pasadena. Many of the folks had been unemployed so long that I, at 6 weeks, was definitely the "newbie".

I am reflecting on last week's mixer because the next event is tomorrow night at the ESPN Zone at LA Live downtown. Here are the reasons that I, and I think you, should go:

1) Edwin, the organizer, is himself unemployed and doing this all on the "pay it forward" principle. He gets the venue to donate the space, everyone comes and brings their friends and buys drinks &/or food.

2) It's nice to have the support of other people who are unemployed when you are looking. You know there are more people out there just like you. And that is a great morale booster.

3)Plus, while you're job hunting for yourself, you often find jobs that might interest others. I myself have found several jobs for some of the folks I met last week.

4)Recruiters or hiring managers can come and find a wealth of different people with different skills for whatever positions they might need to fill. At last week's mixer, we had a CEO, an Executive Assistant, an IT person, an HR person, a sales person, two marketing people, two PR people, an accountant, a business development person, and a banker. Practically a whole staff for a small company!

So, I'm going to check my schedule tomorrow and see if I can fit in the event at ESPN Zone LA Live 6-9pm.

Maybe I will see you there!

The Pros & Cons of Skills Tests

The agency that I interviewed with on Friday, as well as the temp agency that I am registered with, requires some skills testing prior to sending people out on jobs. That makes sense in some respects because they have to have some quantitative way of measuring the skills of all the applicants. But do these tests really measure the skills accurately? I'm not so sure.

First, I did all of the testing at home on my laptop in my bedroom. Some on Saturday and some earlier today. This is great for convenience, but there are a lot of distractions that I didn't even think about beforehand. During Saturday's testing period, the doorbell rang (mailman), the phone rang (aunt) and my email notifier rang constantly with notices that friends had sent me things on Facebook. During today's testing period, my wireless connection went out! Fortunately, it went out just as I completed a test. But what a pain, right?

So I think there is a benefit to doing the testing at the agency on their computers because the distractions of home aren't present.

But there could be a downside there as well. Their computer network may also go down. There may also be a built in sense of nervousness from being in a strange environment and using strange equipment.

And I'm just wondering how accurate a test of practical knowledge these tests really are. I learned all of my skills "on the job". I do not have the degrees most people have in my line of work. But I have never had any difficulty in performing my job on a daily basis. These tests asked me to define terms I had never heard used on the job. It's a good thing I have an excellent command of English or I would have been in real trouble.

I was also asked to perform tasks that I had never done before on some of the software tests. If I have nearly 20 years experience and I've never needed to do these things, how reliable is my score on the test?

There is some benefit to having these tests as a baseline, but I don't believe they should be the sole basis on whether or not a potential employee is hired.

Your thoughts?