Mock Interviews

Location: San Jose Obrero Mission, Men’s Center

Date: Thursday, February 21, 2013; 5:45-7:00 pm

I had not been to this program for a long time and I walked in to see Thomas waiting with a volunteer.  Considering it was just two of us during my previous visit, we had already made a good start.  It soon got better with the arrival of another volunteer, Nikki.  Thomas said that he was hoping to get two interviews out of each person and that meant roughly 30 minutes per candidate.  I am not a big fan of rushing through these interviews because unlike real job situations, there is coaching to be considered.  However, I told him that I would give it a shot. 

A few of the candidates arrived and leading the pack was a man dressed in a jacket and tie and wearing a flat cap.  I told Thomas that I would work with him and asked the gentleman to accompany me a vacant office.  In all of my mock interview sessions, both here and at Salvation Army, I have never had the luxury of an office.  We shook hands and asked him to take a seat.  He said his name was Alex and I complimented him on coming dressed for the part.  He said that he had been to a couple of interviews earlier that day and thus the attire.  Besides that, he was also carrying his resume with him.  I handed him the mock job descriptions while I studied his history. 

Tesla: I could live with one of these

The thing which jumped out was that Alex had always been an entrepreneur, with two business start-up's.  He had chosen to interview for a ‘Manager’ at ‘Jewel’ grocery store and we were ready to begin.  He told me that until recently he was a co-owner of a company providing Electric Vehicle charging solution.  In fact he said he wanted to someday own a ‘Tesla’ car.  Prior to that he had started some sort of Telecom business to put in phone lines coming in to people’s homes.  Once everyone moved on to cellular phones, he evolved into providing cable TV connections, but eventually even that may not have worked as he wanted.  I mentioned to Alex that the fact that he had always been an entrepreneur and never had a job working for others, may be held against him.  He said that he gets that a lot and something that he has been facing during all of his recent interviews. 

I asked what drew him towards an entrepreneurial role and he said he was undecided while in college but then realized later that he “Wants to make money out of somebody else’s hard work”, giving an example of Donald Trump.  Typically during these interviews I like to stay in character, preferring to coach later. But I felt that if I was to really help him this evening then something had to be said here.  So I told him that I was breaking character and we were going to discuss his answer.  I asked if he really believed that Trump was not a hard-working individual, especially at the beginning of his career.  In fact, having come from a start-up environment myself and even in my current job, our leader is usually the person who works the hardest.  Alex said that he did not mean what he said and his intention was that he wanted to dictate the way his business and career unfolded.  I said that he needs to rephrase his messaging then, because a potential employer will get turned off by his current phrasing.  He apologized and I said it’s not that I was looking for one, just wanted to help him be as prepared as possible. 

Back in the interview mode, I asked how his entrepreneurial experience would translate in an environment such as a grocery store.  He said he understood customer service and time management.  I then asked about why he wanted this position.  He said that ‘Jewel’ was a one stop solution for many customers and he was excited to be with an organization where he could provide such a solution to the customers, grow with the company and eventually prove himself enough to move to the business side.  I thought that was a decent response and later during coaching I mentioned that he had to first sell himself as being (a) Excited to work, (b) Exited to work in a retail environment, (c) Why Jewel was the right choice and (d) Why the position he had applied for was a fit.

For the next section we moved to behavioral questions and I asked him about a problem that he had faced at work and how he had gone about solving that.  He mentioned an employee that he had, who always made his sales targets, but was not disciplined and often did not show up for work or was not punctual.  He sat him down and explained that such behavior was unacceptable, but when the employee did not change, he fired him.  This was a good sign, showing me that Alex was not afraid to make tough decisions.  Finally, I asked him if he had any questions and he asked about the business, proving that the entrepreneur in him was still alive.

Now the time had come for feedback and coaching and I gave him a form that he had to fill out while I did the same.  We would then compare notes and see how each had valued Alex's performance.  He took a lot of time, making detailed observations.  We found that we were in agreement over most of the things.  Alex sometimes came across as cocky and laid back and I told him that he should not let his body language betray him.  To his credit, he accepted my feedback and said he would work on it.  I told him he needed to emphasize on his entrepreneurial experience, no matter what position he was applying for.  While I thought he was confident and very specific in his responses, he did need to show more focus on ‘The Why’ and enthusiasm for the job.  Having said that, he had been interviewing the entire day and these things can get a bit tiring.

I looked at the time and there was no way I was going to be able to interview another candidate.  So I decided to continue my chat with Alex.  I told him his toughest challenge was going from being an owner to being an employee.  While this probably was a step back in career, he had to keep believing that he was going to get back to where he wanted to be.  I looked at his resume again and said there was something that I found curious.  He had spent his entire life around a small area in Michigan and was now moving to Chicago.  I learned he did not know anyone here and asked him why he was doing it.  With all the success and contacts that he had in Michigan, why move to a big city and start over.  For the first time that evening, Alex did not look me in the eye.  He looked at the floor, mumbled around and then said that his wife and left him and taken their  kid with her. There wasn't any hope of reconciliation and now he wanted to just get away - even if it meant leaving everything and starting again.  Finally I understood exactly why he was doing it. For all the familiarity of a place cannot cure the loneliness and all the money in the world cannot make your wish come true. Sometimes a job interview, with all it's formalities does not reveal the true reasons, the real person. All the questions I had about him would not have been answered if this was a real interview. 

I wished Alex luck and apologized to Thomas for not being able to interview another candidate.  As I left I saw him, a former owner of two businesses’s standing in line for food at a shelter.  It may not have been the place where he wanted to be, but was perhaps exactly the place he needed to be at – amongst others who have lost something and can comfort each other as they rise again. 

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy