A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to venture into NYC and sit down for a job interview as an Executive Assistant.
Of course I jumped at the chance to work in the City that Never Sleeps. Who wouldn’t?! I’ve never been one to sit idly by and and let unspoken opportunities slip by me like an eel that glides by the fishing boat in the early spring mornings, and I wasn’t going to start now.
Thing is, as great and chaotically-organized city as New York was, the interview was, unfortunately, the exact opposite.
What should have been the first leg-jerking red flag was how the interviewer, a staffing company I’d never heard of, refused to do a Skype interview. Now, traveling to NYC was possible (I wouldn’t be writing this blog if it weren’t), but at this moment my purse strings are particularly wound tight. I couldn’t really afford to make a stay-over trip in the city, then head home a day later. Hotel rooms were expensive. Eating is expensive. Rule of thumb: the bigger the city, the more expensive things will be. Always has been, always will be. But, the woman I was emailing was adamant we meet face-to-face. So, seeing it as a test to see how willing I was to go the distance (Disney reference, anyone?) I asked my bosses for the green light to travel last-minute to the city. They weren’t exactly thrilled to see me go to a potential job-offering, but they wanted to show their support, (Bless their laid-back souls).
Traveling alone was something I’d done before, just not to as big of a city. The closest to a bustling city I’d traveled to by myself was Saratoga Springs, NY. (Awesome city, by the way. You should visit!) Understandably, my parents weren’t the most keen on my solo trip. So, with the green light from her own boss, Mom packed up some things to be my travel buddy. (She also had never set foot in NYC, so this was a win-win trip for her.)
After driving 7+ hours, we made it to our hotel late Wednesday evening (my interview was Thursday, so sleeping was top priority.) The room was fantastic, the food delicious, and hotel employee behavior was satisfaction. I completely recommend staying at the Stewart Hotel in NYC. You’re literally minutes from Madison Square Garden, shopping stores, and all sorts of amazing food! And it’s reasonably priced, too!
The next red flag I should’ve noticed was when I arrived to the staffing company building, the receptionist wasn’t even expecting me and had me fill out an application page, as if it were my first time applying. After I had waited for 10 minutes, the interviewer – the vice president of the company, none the less – had me sit in a small bland-white room at a cramped table opposite her. She then pulled out my resume that she had printed from my LinkedIn.com page, and proceeded to ask me where I was from. That wouldn’t be a problem…except my resume shows my address at the very top under my name. She was “surprised” to see I was from out of town and asked why I even bothered to apply to a job that wasn’t even close to where I lived. Before I could answer, she asked me why I had two Bachelor’s degrees, instead of just going for my Master’s, and I quote, “like any normal person?” In other words, she didn’t even bother to look at my resume.
I probably looked like a goldfish, or a koi, stationary at the front of the glass, with my mouth opening and shutting slowly like some animatron doll at Disney World. All of my preparation that I had practiced, all the answers I had looked up and rearranged to sound like my own intelligent responses, flew right out of my ears and up into space. I ended up stuttering my answers and found myself defending my decisions and actions in my life.
On top of that, the interviewer then proceeded to tell me that she would not be sending my resume to the company for the Executive Assistant position. Instead, she would be sending it in for the receptionist open position. Her reason: I had virtually no experience and had “just graduated from college” (please note: I have officially been out of college for almost 3 years. Will be 3 in May. Also, I’ve had at least 3 years’ worth of jobs where I performed assistant-related actions). It would be all fine and dandy…if the receptionist position was what I had actually applied for. Plus, it would have left me with a range of 40k to 48k per year, if the company was willing to pay me the 48k max, as I was told.
Long story short, I was being berated and insulted in every direction possible. To this woman, I wasn’t worth her time, her resources, and after the moment she found out I was from, as she called it, “Backwardsville No-where” Maine, I wasn’t worth the skin or breath I was given at birth. As far as she was concerned, I was a high society wannabe hillbilly. What made it worse was when this “interview” (which didn’t even last 3 minutes) was over, the interviewer didn’t even stop to try and shake my hand. She would have bolted and run away to the safety of her office if I hadn’t forced her to stop and shake my hand. I even watched as she wiped it on the side of her pants as if I had some sort of “low-class cooties” that she didn’t want to catch.
My mom and I spent the rest of the afternoon checking out Macy’s, dining on this amazing dish that had mini octopus, gigantic shrimp, and perfectly plump noodles, and observing how quickly people move around in the city.
For a few brief moments, I felt absolutely dirty from the “interview”. It was as if I had cannon-balled right into a giant mud pit, then promptly sashayed into a soiree for high-class socialists. My mind quickly slipped into that medieval belief that whatever social class you were born into was the class you would live and die in.
But, as quickly as I fell into that depressive mind-frame, I flew out of it. I may have been born in a “lower class”, as this woman believed, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stay there for the rest of my life, making piss-poor life choices and spending my money away on frivolous things. I come from two families of intelligent people. I come from first-class cooks, adventurers, warriors, and peace-makers. I come from healers, work-horses, and socialites. On several occasions, I have seen family members, both past and present, walk into rooms and instantly command every single person’s undivided attention. I myself have turned tides in council decisions.
I am NOT some sort of “unintelligent hillbilly” as this woman claimed me to be. This piss-poor interview, whether I care to admit it or not, has taught me an important lesson: there will be people out there in this world who will take one 3-second look at you and assume you are nothing. These people will continue to make you feel like you are nothing, most often-times to feel like something important themselves. The key is to not let them get under your skin. I know, I know, that’s easier said than done. I can attest to that fact. But the way I see it, if this woman, or anyone like her, tries to put me down, there’s a good chance it’s because she sees my worth and sees me as a threat. Good. Let me be a threat to her. That just means I’m stronger, faster, better. (think of the song from Daft Punk, not that mangled copy from Kanye-what’s-his-name).
The City was amazing, and the opportunity to show it to my Mom for the first time was an excellent memory-making experience.
The interview, to say the least, was much to be desired. If Windsor Resources LLC wants to actually stay alive as a business in this world, they need to start treating people better. I highly suggest everyone staying far away from these people if you want to get a job and be treated like a respectable human being.
L.J. LaBree 