I've encountered a lot of things I expected. Every sentence, sounding, like, a question, with lots of, like, dramatic pauses, and maybe just a phrase not, um, a sentence? People awkwardly reading from my website or prepared statements and trying to sound too professional (I imagine the gals doing this while wearing an oversized mom suit from Talbot's, and the guys wearing pants up to their chest). Wild guesses instead of correct answers to simple questions; unnecessary elaborations.
What has really shocked me, though, is the rampant plague of pedes in oris.
It wasn't that long ago that I was frantically applying for internships so my parents would leave me alone for five, maybe six minutes. "If you don't get an internship, you'll work at Wendy's for the rest of your life!" (I did get an internship, mom - and come to think of it, I really wouldn't mind working at Wendy's, because I bet I'd get free Frosties). But I seem to remember being able to censor myself a little better.
The comments I've heard in the past few days have ranged from the mildly sexist to the accidentally racist to the blatantly offensive.
How did some people make it 18-22 years in this world without knowing that there are some subjects too taboo for a job interview? The fundamental differences between men and women, whether people in certain professions are "gay" or not, widely held negative views toward certain groups of people - I asked you what you liked about your last work experience. I wanted you to say something about enjoying the experience or loving volunteer work.
Here's just a few things to remember:
- I am probably not going to ask you questions about specific religions/races/genders/sexual orientations/classifications of people (i.e. people who think canadian bacon is bacon vs. people who know that it is ham). So you should probably not bring them up.
- If you're going to make assertions about groups of people, you should make sure they are supported by data. Statistics are awesome.
- Please take a few seconds to run your answer through your head before you say it out loud.
