Rant #1,850: Wishing and Hoping

I recently received a phone call that picked up my spirits a bit.

The call came out of the blue, it came on my cell phone, and I actually had a job interview! I set up the appointment and thought about the possibility of landing a new job.

So I prepared myself for my first real, one on one interview that I had since I have been looking for a job, probably about three months and 150 resumes into it.

I have had one or two phone interviews, but this is the first actual, one on one interview that I had.

The day came, and I got dressed for the occasion, and drove to the appointed place for the interview, an office building about 20 minutes away from my home.

I got there a little early, so I sat in my car, listening to the radio.

Then it was time to go, and I made my way to building.

I looked at the building register to make sure about where I was going, and lo and behold, the company I was going to was not on the register.

I checked my email for the message that was sent by the recruiter who set up the interview, and it said that I need to go to room 207. I looked up the room on the register, and it was a law office. As I am sure you know, sometimes different companies are under one umbrella title, so I didn't think anything of it, and proceeded to the elevator to go to room 207 and meet the person who I was scheduled to speak to about the position.

I go into the elevator, press "2," and the door closes.

I think the elevator is moving, but it was taking an awful long time to get from "1" to "2."

I start to wonder what is going on.

I press "2" again, but nothing happens. I can't feel if I am moving or not.

I press it again, and the door finally opens, and I step out of the elevator.

I assumed I was on the second floor, but I look around, and there doesn't appear to be any offices on this floor.

I see two men smoking cigarettes in a passageway leading to an elevated garage, and I ask them how I get to the second floor.

They tell me to take the elevator to the second floor, meaning that my couple of minutes in the elevator did not take me anywhere, and I was stuck in the elevator, only to get the door open and stepping out into the same floor I originally disembarked from!

I felt so embarrassed, if there was a hole, I would have crawled into it.

I went back into the elevator, and this time, it did not stick. It actually took me to the second floor!

(Note: That was the first time I was stuck in an elevator in probably 50 years, since being in an elevator that stopped between floors in my old Rochdale Village, New York, neighborhood. Risking being dismembered, I remember prying the door open with my hands, seeing it was stuck between two floors, and crawling out of it to one of the floors. Looking back, that was a stupid thing to do, but you don't think when you are in this situation and you are eight or nine years old.)

I finally reach the floor, go to the office, tell the person at the front desk that I am there, and wait to be interviewed by the person that I was scheduled with.

I am sitting there for a few minutes, look at my watch a few times as I gripped my resume and a copy of the trade magazine I work for, and then I see someone come into the office on my left side.

It is a co-worker of mine, who evidently also applied for the same job!

It could have been an embarrassing moment, but quite frankly, it wasn't. It is real out in the open that all my fellow co-workers need to look for jobs, and since this guy does basically what I do at work, him applying for the same job that I did really wasn't something out of the ordinary.

A tall, young man comes out of the offices, and says, "OK, I will speak with you about the position (meaning me), and Joely will speak with you (meaning my co-worker)."

The problem was that I was supposed to meet with Joely. That is what the recruiter primed me for, made sure I confirmed, and it was the person that I actually did some Internet research on to find out about.

But no Joely for me.

The fellow, a tall guy probably half my age, takes me into a room, an active room where there is a copy machine and people are literally running in and out of.

He grabs a chair, and tells me to sit down, I give him my resume and magazine, and we started to talk.

"Well, I see that you have been with your present company for about 10 years," he says to me.

"No I haven't. I have been there about 21 years," I reply. This is the second time that this has happened to me during an interview, where the interviewer cannot add 1996, when I started with my current job, to the present time. It leads me to believe that millennials have no idea how to add ... and this is the guy interviewing me for a position?

He tells me scant little about the position, which is for a "content writer," other than it is for a "start-up company," which basically means they are looking for the biggest bang for a lesser buck.

The interview ends after about six or seven minutes, and he says while the salary for the position is flexible, "I don't know if you are in their salary range." This is after he goes back and forth not telling me how much the job pays.

I then say to him, "Look, I am sure you can get a $25,000 a year person to fill the job that will give you $25,000 worth of work. But if you hire me, I am a $xxxxx person who will give you $xxxxx worth of work."

I shake his hand as I leave, and I do leave the magazine with him as a courtesy. We being to walk, he backtracks, takes the magazine, and hands it to me as I exit.

I will never hear from this place again.

The recruiter contacted me, I told her this same story (less getting stuck in the elevator), and I have not heard back from her either.

To say you are going to meet with someone, and find out that she is there but isn't meeting with you, is bad interview etiquette.

To ask me in to interview for a job where the salary is probably, maybe, half of what I am currently making is even worse, a waste of both my time and the perspective company's time.

I later compared notes with my co-worker, and he had much the same experience.

So yes, Friday was a waste of time, and now I have to go back to the drudgery of my current job.

I don't like wasting days off like I did, but I guess all of these negative experiences will eventually lead to something positive, just one step in the right direction.

Or at least I have to believe that, just to keep a positive attitude.

Quite frankly, inwardly, I kind of know I am going down with the ship at my work.

I see the iceberg, but like the Titanic, I can't really do anything about it. I am too close to it.

Well, back to work!

Another fun day awaits me, and heck, I can't wait for it to unfold!