What are Recruiters Doing?

She called me.

I submitted my resume to a recruiter looking to fill two administrative jobs in a local college.  I have no experience in assisting administration, except for my current part-time job.  I know a lot about computers and education, and that is what my resume reflects.  I thought, why not give it a shot.

And then, I received a call.  I was surprised because I am not qualified.

Then, the poor women asked me what about my job experience is administrative.

I wanted to say, you should have read my resume, but instead I stumbled through an explanation of my current administrative tasks, my limited "weekly reporting" to my manager while working college residents life, and my excellent knowledge of working efficiently with Microsoft's office suite, including Access.

She said, "Thank You" and explained that she was looking for someone who has more administrative experience.

She called me, had not read my resume in any detail.  Thankfully I have an excess of time, or I may have been more frustrated.

This leads me to ask the question--Do job recruiters read resumes before making that first phone interview call?  They must, but I felt neglected.

How to Get a Job Offer!

Yes, I found a piece of advice worth taking, I took it, and it worked.

• Make conversation, make a joke, lighten up.

The day before a phone interview, my wife said that I take myself too seriously on phone interviews.  And, after resolving myself to a bit of defeat, relaxing about this not-having-a-job thing called graduating-from-college-so-deal-with-it, I relaxed while talking on the phone, related to my interviewer, and now, this week, I have a job offer for part-time work, and a second interview for a second part-time job.  

Thankfully, both places involve some of my favorite things--learning/computers and drinking/coffee.

Preparing for a Phone Interview

Tomorrow, I have a phone interview at 10:30 am. Here are my tasks:

• Pour a glass of water to combat post-nasal drip
• Read the educational institution's mission statement
• Read a relevant article from a competent source

The school's mission is college preparatory (for kids in gr. 2-5!)  I'll dwell on that a bit in preparation for the interview:  possible questions will be how do we prepare students for college at age 10?  What do we want a college student to look like and act, and how do we reach that goal?

The relevant article, from Office of Educational Research and Improvement, focused on "cultural proficiency."  I researched this topic because I know that, if hired, I will be challenged with being one of the few white guys in a school with a lot of students with experiences (and skin color) very different from mine.  

I learned, and will mention in the interview if appropriate, that cultural proficiency is 2 steps above cultural blindness (we all the same) and surpasses the "mixing pot" of the previous American generation.  So, I must learn or exhibit 2 skills as a white guy:

• Know my own culture, how it works, and how it affects everybody else
• Be able to learn, quickly, how to learn about other cultures appropriately.

That's it!  If I can authentically learn about the "other," "they" will be much more supported by my position of authority...in this case, a playground supervisor.