Still unemployed (I guess)
My most recent job interview was at a local elementary school for a cafeteria aid. The job description made it sound as if the position was much more than that; more about helping teachers in the classroom than watching kids as they eat lunch. Even though I knew right away it was not an environment in which I ever wanted to be, I still proceeded to be professional. Well, as professional as I could be considering I was extremely nervous.
Job interviews don’t generally make me nervous. I was nervous when I interviewed at a local bank in 2020, but only because I really needed to get away from Joann before an overnight meeting. The bank was my first opportunity at another job that could maybe support me, so I knew I needed to do well in the interview. Shame that the position was sold to me through lies, mostly when the pay would increase to a livable wage.
I used to be nervous during job interviews years ago. I’m not exactly sure when it ended, though I don’t remember being nervous during my interview at Mount Hope Estate and Winery. Probably because that was an environment in which I was extremely comfortable—I sold wine for nearly nine years before leaving the job and moving to Lebanon. I was a tiny bit nervous during my interviews to become the store manager at Joann, mostly because they were phone interviews and I still felt out of place in a corporate setting.
After becoming manager at Mount Hope, I was part of the interview process, even if just a sidekick. I only took part in interviews at the job fair because I wasn’t there long enough to need to hire outside of events. Later, I conducted many interviews at Joann, including a few that were laughable at the unprofessionalism of the employee candidate. When you become the interviewer, job interviews just don’t seem so intimidating anymore.
However, I was very nervous at the elementary school. It didn’t help that they assumed I was there for some Olympic event that they were having in the gym, grouping me with the parents. I was lucky that a woman asked which one was my daughter before we left the front office area. It also didn’t help that I could hear a lot of cheering coming from the gym, reminding me that a school environment can be a loud one, especially in the cafeteria. I struggle with noise to the point that I will begin to black out if my left ear is not protected. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember.
When they were finally ready to interview me—10 minutes after my scheduled time—the principal took me into what I guess is his office where a teacher sat waiting. I feel like I rambled a little during my interview because I was so nervous. They asked nine questions, many of which did not apply to my work history. I took a moment on more than one question and explained that I was trying to think what in my years of working would correspond to that question. Questions like “what would you do if a child was acting out?” I consider this to be a case-by-case situation, but that isn’t the answer they want.
Before the questions even began, I asked about hours since the job listing said 499 hours a year. Figuring nine months a year, that’s only 55 hours a month. Yes, I need a job and I need income, but I needed to know how many hours per day to determine if it was even worth it. The job was farther away than I realized (another lesson to not blindly trust Google), so anything less than four hours a day was questionable. Unfortunately, the job would be about two hours per day, and since I am unable to drive, it would be an extra burden on my household, and certainly would not pay enough in a shift to cover ride sharing service to and from. I still continued with the interview just in case—we need money, so I didn’t want to turn down an offer. It’s always easier to get a job when you have one.
I was told at the end of the interview that they would be making their decision probably by that Monday and would call me either way. I told them I appreciated that because I am so tired of being ghosted by employers. According to the spreadsheet where I keep track of my job applications, 54 percent of my job applications have gone unanswered or ignored; 54 percent have just been ghosted.
It’s been a week and I haven’t heard a thing from the elementary school. No rejection, no approval, nothing. I give employers a month before I change the application status to “ghosted” in my spreadsheet. When I was a manager, I never left candidates hanging—they either had the job or got a rejection. Ghosting is unacceptable in the job market, and I am fed up with it.