I will readily admit that I am not a people person. I will admit that I have more pet peeves and issues than National Geographic. As my father told me today, there just aren’t a whole lot of my kind of people.

Perhaps I’m just easily annoyed, or perhaps people just like to tap-dance on my last nerve with golf shoes. I’m not sure. I’m not saying I’m not paranoid, but I’m also not saying that they aren’t out to get in me, in some instances anyway.

I was supposed to have an interview today. It was supposed to be with a company I’ve actually worked with before. I actually have four years working for this particular company, and the guy who is heading the project that I was going to be working on, I’ve worked around in the past.

In fact, the guy who is heading the project is my wife’s boss… so I had expectations.

Clearly, when I was thinking that since this person knew my skill set, my work ethic, and since we had some personal history that this would be something that would be worth pursuing, I was mistaken.

Now today’s interview was not supposed to be with my wife’s boss. It was supposed to be with some of his people on the project… Cool, Whatever, I can deal with that.

I was supposed to join a conference call at 10 for this interview, and being the diligent, conscientious, and prepared employee I like to at least pretend to be, I dialed the number and joined the call at about 0955… because if you aren’t early, you are late.

1000 rolled around and nobody else has joined the call.

1005 came and went with nothing. So I text my wife, more just because I am talking to my WIFE than any other reason, letting her know that nobody had shown up yet.

To my horror, she pinged her boss and let him know that nobody was on the call.

It had not been my intention to get her involved. I was complaining to my wife, not his employee, and certainly not to him, and I was unhappy that she had contacted him. However, SHE told me to hang on the call until 1015, per instructions from her boss.

FINE. I personally wouldn’t have given them that much time… but whatever, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.

1010 rolled around and nothing.

1015 rolled around and nothing.

1016, I hung up.

So, 20 minutes out of my day was spent in my car listening to hold music for an interview that never happened.

My WIFE then relays to me that there had been technical issues on the other end. Well… that’s all fine and good, but why is MY WIFE telling me this? She isn’t being hired for the job. She isn’t one of the people who was going to be interviewing me.

1215 rolls around and I haven’t received an email or any kind of communication directly from her boss, or the two guys who were to have Interviewed me. Zip, Zero, Nada.

In fact as I write this it is now 1730, and I have still heard nothing about the interview today from anyone at the company directly.

So seriously, What the actual fuck?

You are going to just use my wife as your communication medium? Your too lazy to either contact me yourself, or have one of your people contact me… but instead just relay messages via my wife?

It is at this point where it becomes crystal clear to me that no matter what job this is, no matter how much more money this job would have been (it would have been less actually, but I could have worked something out with the educational benefits to break even), or how great a career move it may have been… (debatable) it isn’t something that is going to work out.

It’s clear to me that this job would have been a huge cluster. The lines of communication are already blurred to a degree I am uncomfortable with. And if there is something that I really can’t stand, it’s a lack of professionalism and conscientiousness. Today both of which were full on display. Never mind the fact that my wife’s boss finds a particular glee in mispronouncing my name… which I find grating, annoying, and wholly immature.

I get technical issues, I’ve lived through them before. A technical issue isn’t something that can’t be overcome… but a complete lack of communication informing the job candidate of the issues, directly by someone in the chain of command, is just incompetence at a level I can’t handle, and won’t tolerate.

So I guess it’s true, familiarity breeds contempt. In my defense, when I applied for the job, I didn’t know that the guy overseeing the project would be my wife’s boss. I was kinda hoping it was outside all of the people I had previously worked with.

So, OK, fine… my bad. Lesson learned.

Honestly, I’m fine really. It was a job which was offering me less money than I am making now, and I likely would have been working harder. The upside is that I might have actually felt like I was making a difference, where in the job I am at… I am not getting a whole lot of job satisfaction. But at least I am getting paid well… and I’m getting paid… so… whatever… Time to quit chasing waterfalls, I’ll just stick to the bullshit I know.

Categories: Work

Tags: how not to do something, interview, recruited