by Leah Curtis

Created on: July 21, 2011

Sitting in the interview room my mind wandered back about thirty years to when I was twenty and applying for jobs. I was so, well, young, back then. Now I am waiting to be interviewed, by someone half my age, for I job I really don't want. As the efficient young interviewer calls me in, I know right from the beginning that it isn’t going to go well.

Job-hunting has changed tremendously in the last thirty years. Of course, everything has changed in the last thirty years. When I applied for jobs in my twenties, you filled out an application and if you were qualified, you usually were called for an interview. The interview consisted of a face-to-face meeting with someone in the Personnel Department. Today, I believe they call them Human Resources. Someone would ask you relevant questions about the job you were applying for and you were hired or you were not. Sometimes they waited a few days to call. It was never more complicated than that. Today it is much more complicated and being fifty, I am much more cynical.

Up until the time I was forty I had a very good job. Then I became ill, went on sick leave and never went back. Instead of staying on the company’s Long Term Disability, I chose to take a buyout and quit altogether. In retrospect it was a mistake, however, one must move forward. Although I do receive a pension, I need to return to the paid workforce. I would like to be around people.

I am not applying for a CEO’s job so I do not think I should have to take a battery of psychological tests in order to get a job. When did it become the norm to give people a pre-screening test before you even let you apply for a job? A minimum wage job, no less. I have to spend twenty minutes answering asinine questions, such as “If you are at a crowded party, would you join a crowd of people or seek out a person who was standing alone?” What does that have to do with a job as a grocery store cashier?

I know I have an attitude problem. I knew I had one when an interviewer asked me what I could bring to his company should he hire me. I told him, for minimum wage, not very much. Surprisingly, I was offered the job. I didn’t accept because, although I might have an attitude problem when it comes to job interviews, I still take pride in doing a job well and I will not take a job simply for the sake of taking a job. If I know I am not going to do a good job, what’s the point? That’s the difference between being 50 and being 20. At 20, my attitude going into the interview was very good. However, I didn’t particularly care whether I did a good job or not because jobs were easy to find. The reverse is true at 50.

I sit through every interview and I answer the same questions repeatedly. I have rehearsed answers now. “What are your strengths, weaknesses? How do you overcome adversity?” Try making it to 50 without overcoming adversity. I wonder if the interviewer feels dumb asking these questions.

I now have a good part-time job with a crown corporation in the province where I live. I don’t really like it but I like the people I work with. You cannot have everything. I am returning to school in September. I feel like I have come full circle. At 50, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

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