by Aerynne Aiudi

Created on: April 30, 2009

The preliminary job interview is, of course, of great importance, and is usually that which sways a potential employer towards whether or not they should hire a candidate. But a savvy employer will look beyond just the first interview, in which many jobseekers say what they believe an employer wants to hear, to other tools of the trade which will hopefully result in a marriage between an interviewee and an interviewer.

When I applied at my job as a hostess at Ponderosa restaurant before it went bankrupt and was closed last year, I meant what I said when I told the store manager that I felt the sense of peace and community that seemed to be so prevalent when she and I sat talking at my first interview at the restaurant. And to its credit, there was a sense of community within that establishment. But as is often the case in fast food service work, the bloom soon left the rose, the newness of my environment and the excitement of same wore off, and it became a job. Then the "office" politics began of whom was sleeping with whom and whom cared and why. There was a waitress there who made it her job to complain about everything and everyone, and who got into the habit of lying about my work ethic. She told the assistant manager that I wasn't doing my job of wrapping silverware, which was a bold faced lie because she had sat down one night and helped me wrap silverware, and yet try as I did to ignore such blatant disrespectful antics, the die was cast and Ponderosa became a memory in my mental scrapbook as I moved onto another job only a few short months later. And the lying waitress? She was fired two weeks after I quit because she and the shift manager were caught smoking marijuana in the freezer one night. Justice truly does eventually get served just like so many chicken wings and buffet plates of macaroni and cheese.

To her credit, my store manager was a jovial enough individual. She was as fair as she could be, and as upfront during that first interview as was allowable. But what would be interesting is if I had had the opportunity to interview her. She knew beforehand that the restaurant was in trouble, but she did not make that apparent to me during the first interview. A few months after I quit, the restaurant went into chapter 11 bankruptcy, and many of my friends and co-workers were displaced and out of jobs many of them had held for years.

In conclusion, during my experience as a cashier at Blockbuster, my manager told me that it was my persistence in coming in every week to check on the status of my application and not just my first interview with her that convinced her to hire me. There are many factors that contribute to whether or not a person should be hired by a company, not just the first interview. Dress code, the way a person carries themselves, the way a person grips when shaking a hand, and verbal articulation or lack thereof are all things to be considered when deciding whether or not to hire someone. Finally, if the candidate has questions for the interviewer, this shows interest in doing a job well for a company, so this is yet another factor that needs to be taken into account when it comes to hiring or not hiring someone who applies for a job/career with an employer.

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