Yesterday I had a quick lunch at a Chick-Fil-A restaurant, reading my book and just relaxing and taking a break. A gentleman near me wasn’t relaxing. He was interviewing. It was the most depressing attack on dignity I think I’d ever heard.
I imagine among fast food joints there are worse jobs. I worked at McDonalds when I was 16 and it was a wonderful opportunity to learn important concepts like “graduating from college” and “never, ever working in the food service industry.” This fellow was older and had obviously done a lot in his life. He had military experience, had had many jobs. And yet here was this greasy, middle-aged Chick-Fil-A manager asking him weighty questions as he interviewed for a minimum wage job at a goddamned fast food joint.
“Who are your heroes and why?”
I tried hard not to pay attention. I really wanted to read my book but as automobile crashes tend to draw the eye, I simply couldn’t help trying to bend an ear to listen in. The interviewee was facing away from me so I couldn’t really hear all of his answers. He tried gamely to tell this jackass what he needed to hear to offer him a job slinging fries or working the cash register.
“When you’re getting ready for work, what kinds of things do you pay special attention to?”
Lacing my shoes? Assuring myself that my underwear is crisply starched? Determine whether to wax my ass?
“Tell me how you work with a team.”
I find teams are better when they leave me alone.
And, of course, they’re performing this interview out in the restaurant at a spare table. Not that there’s anything wrong with working there, quite honestly. There’s nothing shameful about it. But be realistic in your interviewing demands if you’re offering minimum wage work.
Oh man, I have witnessed the exact same thing at a fast food restaurant while grabbing a quick bite. The interview was so mind boggling that I had trouble answering the questions (in my head)and I was just a patron sitting too close. For minimum wage I actually would have started to laugh after the first 2 questions….or say “are you for real, what do you want me to say??”….interesting post…thanks Di
When I was in college I once applied for a job at Payless Shoes. I had to take a computerized test which asked questions like, “At your last job did you steal: A. $5 worth of stuff B. $50 worth of stuff C. $200 worth of stuff D. nothing.” I kid you not! What was worse was that I didn’t get the job. I wonder what the right answer was supposed to be!
Ahhh yes, your story brings back many bad memories….
I don’t know why companies make ‘managers’ (and I use the term loosely) perform lobotomies on interviewees…I am sure it has something to do with getting sued, or ‘being fair’ to all applicants…but quite frankly, most ‘managers’ who are asking those questions have no idea what to do with the answers they get…and which constitute a good answer and which constitute a bad answer…and most interviewees don’t know what to make of the questions or how to answer them either…
I recall a 3 part 90 page ‘interview’ package one company required us to use on potential employees….you would then ’send it in’ for grading…and get back a red, yellow, or green light on each section…how embarrassing is that? We are talking minimum skilled labor folks!
Blazing my own trail, I hired many a ‘red light’, based on instinct, who have gone on to have good careers within that company…
Ironically, now that I have ‘clawed’ my way into the executive world…I hired a ‘Director of XX’ the other day, who jumped through less hoops for a $100K+ salary, then the minimum wage folks…how does that make sense?
So what do you eat at a Chick-Fil-A anyway?
hey now, my first “real job” was at the Chick-Fil-A in G-ville. That job made me into the man I am today (which is apparently someone that keeps up with his buddy’s blog when he should be doing the work he’s being paid for! doh!)