Laughing with tears! A stay-at-home mother’s job interview experience

Ever since my son entered kindergarten, I have started to put my job search on the agenda. This is one of the necessary processes for my son to be a chicken mother (for details, see "When my son started to be a chicken mother, this style of painting began" Weird?" article). In order to cooperate with my son's work, I began a long interview process.

Speaking of the "long" son, there are also bitter tears. Because the process is full of twists and turns, and the drama is rich, enough for me to talk about it with excitement and saliva all morning, and I can still save 10,000 words.

Let me briefly talk about some of my weird interview processes.

During my first interview, I didn’t wear any makeup, not even light makeup. So when I walked into the company and saw that everyone was uniformly dressed, and the lady had her hair pulled up, eyebrows drawn and lipstick on, my first reaction was: Did I go to the wrong place? Is this a real estate agency or an insurance company? (Absolutely not what a real estate agency or an insurance company means!)

At the same time, I started to mutter in my heart: If I had known this, I shouldn't have come here face-to-face!

However, the HR manager still showed her profound professionalism, asked several very professional questions, and spoke beautiful Mandarin. I have been recuperating at home these past few years, and all the Mandarin in my mind has run out, and I don’t know if the language of the temporary organization is effective.

At the end, the HR manager asked me: Can you put on makeup? The company requires uniform attire and light makeup to reflect professionalism.

What a horse? I was confused at that time: I am a handyman, whether my professionalism should be reflected in my hands or my face.

The result of this interview is: No result!

I don’t know if it’s because I’m not wearing makeup! I thought to myself.

When I received the second interview notice, I learned the lesson from the last time I went barefaced. I locked myself in the room and smeared myself before going out. Looking at my other self in the mirror, I felt so refreshed.

Just like this, I walked into the interview company all the way. The receptionist had a poker face, without any smile or enthusiasm, which was different from the recruitment requirements I had seen before that the receptionist should be "enthusiastic, generous, upright and beautiful" It doesn't seem to be relevant.

I reported my intention, and the front desk had a cold face, as if I just had an argument with my husband yesterday and didn’t have a good breakfast today. I turned my face half sideways and said lazily: What position are you applying for?

"Marine operations!"

I reported for my position, and the receptionist slowly pulled out a few pieces of paper. The action was like taking a heavy object, and a few pieces of paper would kill her. Likewise, she has the body of a silly elder sister, but has the strength of Lin Daiyu.

I looked around the office. The overall decoration style was as cold as the face at the front desk. It was mainly ascetic. The walls were all white and there was no decoration at all. Everyone's desk was covered with documents, and there was no trace of green.

After a while, a woman came over who called herself the head of the department (and said she might be my direct boss in the future). She had dyed purple hair. Well, purple is also my favorite color, and I hinted that I should first have a good impression of my possible future boss.

However, from the first time she looked at me, she never showed a smile or changed her expression. This is considered normal, and it’s understandable for people who are abstinent. But the question she asked seemed a little strange to me. I was asked three times in just half an hour: Do you think it takes a long time to go to work? Can you overcome this?

I’m dizzy! Supervisor, what you should be most concerned about is not the match between my professionalism and ability and my job? Whether I can do my job is the key. Otherwise, even if I live in the office, it will be useless!

What’s even weirder is her second question, why should I choose you instead of a freshly graduated college student who has the energy to work overtime and can be on call at any time.

I don’t understand this even more. My age and marital status are clearly written on my resume. I would like to know why you asked me to come for an interview?

Later, I asked my good friend who is an HR person and asked her what she wanted to know. My friend told me without reservation: Want to know your strengths and strengths? You can answer from your personal and professional strengths!

Well, my brain circuit is simple, too simple! But don’t be so clichéd. Is it so difficult to speak well?

The weirdest thing is that she actually emphasized teamwork spirit to me three times.

I want to say, either I am pretending to be too cold, or she is blind. I have never acted arbitrarily, let alone have money to be willful. Why should I, a grassroots employee like me, talk about team spirit? How dare I not be a team player? Even if I don’t have it, I still have to do everything possible to make it happen for myself!

Interview result: No result!

I did my own analysis: abstinent people can easily go blind!

The third interview experience was even worse. How should I put it? Is it because I was so rare that I forgot to use adjectives to describe it?

This is a small company, and there is no personnel to come forward. The boss directly goes into battle. The boss is a woman in her thirties (suddenly I realized that all the people interviewing me were women, is this a general rule?), the first thing he said when he saw me was: You sit down for a while, I will come back later.

This later is half an hour later. I have forgotten how I spent this half hour in the first place. I just remember thinking in my heart: You are busy, is my time blown by the strong wind?

Finally, I waited until BOSS showed up, sat across from me, and started talking about his original intention to start a business, his family, and his customers... After two hours, I thought... When you yawn, you have to work hard to maintain a just right smile (please imagine that scene).

Here comes the key point. After finishing speaking, her eyes lit up and she asked me: Can you summarize the core of what I just said?

What? ! I'm sorry, I'm not here for an interview, but to learn and summarize the central ideas? !

What’s even more incredible is that in the process of expressing what was like a bunch of skeins of thread, she left her seat and ran out N times, N greater than 3.

In the end, she ended with: Think about it and come over to work!

I just don’t understand. Is this what the boss is doing now? Don’t talk about the job content or salary, just make an offer directly?

Result: Definitely not going!

04

Later, I received several interviews one after another. Some declined politely, some bluntly stated that "they are not the people we are looking for." Of course, there was also a weird one. In this company, people haggle over working hours and salary like buying groceries...

I never knew that a job interview could be such an eye-opener for me. The world is so wonderful, I want to say: it is the family life of a stay-at-home mother that limits my imagination of this world!

Writing this, I suddenly remembered what a meditation teacher said about me in May this year: full of love but low emotional intelligence.

Why is emotional intelligence low? I asked unconvinced.

"When you stay at home for a long time, you don't need to have high emotional intelligence to deal with people, and your emotional intelligence gradually gives way." The teacher said.

I thought it was just a joke, but after several interviews, I discovered that everything was a routine, which was even more difficult to solve than my son’s Mathematical Olympiad questions.

It’s late at night, and I hope that my low emotional intelligence can meet an unconventional company next time!