ChasenSFO
hen teaser
It's not often I feel like I can contribute some solid advice here, but hopefully this can help somebody out.
I was informed of an opportunity to work airline operations around my schedule in the ramp tower. I would get an extra $1500 in my pocket every month and flight bennies. I exceeded all the qualifications and quickly moved through the application and phone interview process. What's more, the station training manager for this airline is a VERY close personal friend who was once my manager in my airline days. He would be one of the two people interviewing me.
I planned to get up in plenty of time for the interview on the other side of the Bay, but after an almost sleepless week, I passed out a good 15 hours waking up about an hour and half before my interview. Still having to shower, shave, and gather my required materials as this airline moved VERY fast through the process and I was out of town from the phone interview until the day before the in-person interview so I was unable to prepare. I knew I was supposed to have a high school transcript, I didn't have one as not a single job I've ever interviewed for has asked for one. I honestly thought it was ridiculous that they care about my(very terrible) high school grades when I have all this real world experience, and it was impossible for me to get a copy due to a combination of the me being out of town and my old school needing a 3 business day heads up for transcripts(only 1 had passed between my invite and the interview). However, the e-mail I was sent said "If you can't provide all these documents at the interview date, we'd still love to see you! Please come anyway and you can provide them later". I checked the interview e-mail again on my way out the door for the address and an ETA, and noticed there were attachments at the very bottom of the e-mail that were not mentioned at all in the detailed overview of the interview. My internet was running slow, so between the "come anyway" line, the fact no further documents were mentioned, and my buddy interviewing me, I decided to just go out the door and try and be on time.
Now, I allowed a 20-minute grace period to get there going off of Google Maps. It wasn't enough and after a "where the eff are you" text from my buddy 5-mins prior, I told him I would be a few minutes late. By the time I found their office suite, I was 12 minutes late. Despite this, I was told by the girl at the front desk that it was fine and they would see me soon. She never asked me for any documents. My friend came in and grabbed me and I interviewed. The HR lady spent about 3 minutes talking about how I was late and it cut into our time(which I found ironic). However, the interview went FANTASTIC and I knew I was killing it regardless of my buddy being in the room. In the end, she left the room to make a copy of my drivers licence and my friend told me "I want to punch you in the balls for being late, you're by FAR the most qualified applicant and you're the only person to get her to smile and laugh all day. But she's beyond pissed you rolled in late, everyone else was here way early. I think I can save you from that though because you did amazing". When the HR rep returned, I addressed the transcript issue, and she agreed I had a valid reason and it was a non-issue at the moment. With one applicant left to go, and seeing him under-dressed and physically shaking with nervousness, I was very confident that the job was mine. As was my friend.
Well, we were wrong. That night I was bombarded by texts from my buddy. After an apparent heated argument between him and the HR lady, she chose another candidate. The HR lady agreed that I was by far the most qualified applicant for the position, said she found me much more confident, charming and personable than any of the other applicants, and even went as far as to say I had the best answers to her questions that she had remembered hearing in an ops interview as well as being the only applicant who showed interest in and was qualified for quickly moving up in the company. And again, all this being told to my good friend who badly wanted me in. So if I stood out so well, why did I not get offered the position?
I was late. I know this, and she said she just found it totally unacceptable. However, she MAY have been able to over-look this if I had all my documents. Apparently, unknown to my friend, the drug test and background check paperwork was attached to my e-mail purposely under an erroneous file name and the HR lady purposely didn't ask for it. It was her way of seeing how through and detail-oriented the applicants were. I was expected to want the job bad enough to print and fill out the random forms "just in case" and then ask what to do with them before the interview was over. My friend didn't know about this but apparently all the other candidates presented either her or the front desk employee with the paperwork, and showed up at least 15+ minutes early. All said and done, while I was the ideal candidate in most every sense of the word, the other people "wanted it more" in her eyes since they made sure to go the extra mile, where I was admittedly cocky thinking I had the job the second I applied.
If I really wanted the job, I could have left earlier, and by doing so I could have allowed time to print the documents. I also could have at least asked about the documents and perhaps printed them and filled them out on the spot. But I didn't, and honestly, I probably didn't want the job as bad as the others. Thus, some guy with a dispatchers licence but zero airline experience, and apparently zero personality to match, got the job over me. Literally for showing up on time and prepared. So take note of this, and remember that even if ALL the cards are stacked in your favor, if you can't bother to meet the most basic expectations, it very well may be all for not.
tl;dr, even if Barack Obama is your reference for a job and he's sitting right there fist bumping you through an interview, you best show up on-time and with all your ish togeather.
I was informed of an opportunity to work airline operations around my schedule in the ramp tower. I would get an extra $1500 in my pocket every month and flight bennies. I exceeded all the qualifications and quickly moved through the application and phone interview process. What's more, the station training manager for this airline is a VERY close personal friend who was once my manager in my airline days. He would be one of the two people interviewing me.
I planned to get up in plenty of time for the interview on the other side of the Bay, but after an almost sleepless week, I passed out a good 15 hours waking up about an hour and half before my interview. Still having to shower, shave, and gather my required materials as this airline moved VERY fast through the process and I was out of town from the phone interview until the day before the in-person interview so I was unable to prepare. I knew I was supposed to have a high school transcript, I didn't have one as not a single job I've ever interviewed for has asked for one. I honestly thought it was ridiculous that they care about my(very terrible) high school grades when I have all this real world experience, and it was impossible for me to get a copy due to a combination of the me being out of town and my old school needing a 3 business day heads up for transcripts(only 1 had passed between my invite and the interview). However, the e-mail I was sent said "If you can't provide all these documents at the interview date, we'd still love to see you! Please come anyway and you can provide them later". I checked the interview e-mail again on my way out the door for the address and an ETA, and noticed there were attachments at the very bottom of the e-mail that were not mentioned at all in the detailed overview of the interview. My internet was running slow, so between the "come anyway" line, the fact no further documents were mentioned, and my buddy interviewing me, I decided to just go out the door and try and be on time.
Now, I allowed a 20-minute grace period to get there going off of Google Maps. It wasn't enough and after a "where the eff are you" text from my buddy 5-mins prior, I told him I would be a few minutes late. By the time I found their office suite, I was 12 minutes late. Despite this, I was told by the girl at the front desk that it was fine and they would see me soon. She never asked me for any documents. My friend came in and grabbed me and I interviewed. The HR lady spent about 3 minutes talking about how I was late and it cut into our time(which I found ironic). However, the interview went FANTASTIC and I knew I was killing it regardless of my buddy being in the room. In the end, she left the room to make a copy of my drivers licence and my friend told me "I want to punch you in the balls for being late, you're by FAR the most qualified applicant and you're the only person to get her to smile and laugh all day. But she's beyond pissed you rolled in late, everyone else was here way early. I think I can save you from that though because you did amazing". When the HR rep returned, I addressed the transcript issue, and she agreed I had a valid reason and it was a non-issue at the moment. With one applicant left to go, and seeing him under-dressed and physically shaking with nervousness, I was very confident that the job was mine. As was my friend.
Well, we were wrong. That night I was bombarded by texts from my buddy. After an apparent heated argument between him and the HR lady, she chose another candidate. The HR lady agreed that I was by far the most qualified applicant for the position, said she found me much more confident, charming and personable than any of the other applicants, and even went as far as to say I had the best answers to her questions that she had remembered hearing in an ops interview as well as being the only applicant who showed interest in and was qualified for quickly moving up in the company. And again, all this being told to my good friend who badly wanted me in. So if I stood out so well, why did I not get offered the position?
I was late. I know this, and she said she just found it totally unacceptable. However, she MAY have been able to over-look this if I had all my documents. Apparently, unknown to my friend, the drug test and background check paperwork was attached to my e-mail purposely under an erroneous file name and the HR lady purposely didn't ask for it. It was her way of seeing how through and detail-oriented the applicants were. I was expected to want the job bad enough to print and fill out the random forms "just in case" and then ask what to do with them before the interview was over. My friend didn't know about this but apparently all the other candidates presented either her or the front desk employee with the paperwork, and showed up at least 15+ minutes early. All said and done, while I was the ideal candidate in most every sense of the word, the other people "wanted it more" in her eyes since they made sure to go the extra mile, where I was admittedly cocky thinking I had the job the second I applied.
If I really wanted the job, I could have left earlier, and by doing so I could have allowed time to print the documents. I also could have at least asked about the documents and perhaps printed them and filled them out on the spot. But I didn't, and honestly, I probably didn't want the job as bad as the others. Thus, some guy with a dispatchers licence but zero airline experience, and apparently zero personality to match, got the job over me. Literally for showing up on time and prepared. So take note of this, and remember that even if ALL the cards are stacked in your favor, if you can't bother to meet the most basic expectations, it very well may be all for not.
tl;dr, even if Barack Obama is your reference for a job and he's sitting right there fist bumping you through an interview, you best show up on-time and with all your ish togeather.
