ON INTERVIEWING

It is always interesting me to interview people for a job I understand fully. Will they show up on time? Will they be dressed appropriately? Underdressed? Overdressed? I had a guy come in for a position at Walgreens in ripped sweatpants. Not just sweatpants...ripped sweatpants. And while the position wasn't exactly "CEO," I think an "interview" setting calls for a little more effort than ripped sweatpants.

I am currently interviewing RA candidates. As I did the position for three years, and have supervised the position for over four, I can usually tell within a few questions how the rest of the interview will go. However, after a while, I tend to tune people out, and simply write down what I think they meant by their answers. In some cases, that helps the candidate. In other cases, probably less.

To be completely truthful, it's probably less about the content of the answers than the manner in which the point is presented. For example, I know what the term "role model" means, and I've heard a lot of variations on the same flerking answer. So when a person can define it succinctly or cleverly, I definitely take notice. This does not happen often, especially when I have back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back interviews. Everything tends to blur together, like a painting in the rain, or a convention of clones.

In any event, I do enjoy being on the interviewER side of the table, rather than the interviewEE. I feel like I tend to give generic answers - sometimes cleverly, sometimes less so - and probably bore my interviewers. So here's hoping I can keep this in mind during my next round of job searching.

INTERVIEWER: And why do you want to work here?
ME: It's always been my dream to be a Hooters girl...