Paths Not Followed...

One of those "On this Day" inspired posts...

Facebook reminded me of the last time I updated my resume. It was ten years ago. I was trying to fit 20 years of work experience on to two pages and it was a struggle. I wanted to make sure that the work I had done in advertising was featured but I also wanted to make sure my start in restaurants was shown. I needed both of those things to get the glow up.

It was amusing and frustrating at the same time. But I was actually excited about the opportunity that had presented itself and was already looking forward to the job. 

That I ended up not getting. 

As you all know considering I've been retired for a long time at this point. 

So what happened?

Well, a friend of mine reached out to me about a position they thought I would be perfect for. I would have been working for her, and that was what hooked me. She is great. She always impressed me with her intelligence and way of handling herself as well as just flat out knowing her shit. Working for her, doing a job that really seemed tailor made for my skill set seemed like a great idea. C was in college and Brent and I had the freedom for my travel schedule to be as crazy as this position would demand. 

My friend put me in contact with the hiring manager for KFCC to get everything squared away and that's where it all started to fall apart. 

My career was mostly with smaller companies. Once I stopped working in restaurants and retail companies I worked for single owners and non-profits. The non-profits had boards and challenges around that, but nowhere near the differences that happen when you switch from a small company to a big corporation. Things like human resource departments and hiring managers. 

My friend couldn't just hire me. She could strongly encourage me to apply, and put her preference in for hiring, but couldn't say, you have the job let's do the paperwork and move on. 

So I had to apply online. And submit a resume. And then get a special exception for an interview because I didn't fit the criteria. Even having years of relevant experience, I wouldn't have made the first cut without that waiver. I don't have a bachelor's degree. I didn't go to school to learn advertising. I went to school to get an associates degree in accounting so I could get a job in California where an associates was the entry gate. But without that four year degree I would have been turned away. 

I wasn't too worried. I mean, I had been approached to take this job by someone who knew full well how good I was, I know it sounds super cocky, but I was good at my job, own what you are good at. I got the waiver and the first phone interview was scheduled. Not with the person that would be my boss, but with the hiring manager. 

Now, as fate would have it, and fate is a right bastard at times, the phone interview was done in a hotel room in New Mexico the day before my father's funeral. I could have rescheduled it but I knew they wanted to get the hiring done quickly and, honestly, part of the job is the ability to put your own personal shit to the side and take care of things. What better example than this?

About five minutes into the interview I knew I wasn't getting the job if she was the main say. At the time I thought she resented the fact that I was even interviewing. The criteria had been set, most likely by her and her team and well written hiring manual, and I didn't meet it. I wasn't part of the pool of applicants that had been loving sorted and culled. I had jumped to the front of the line without even having shown an interest in anything else. 

One of the things she said was that there were other things that might "fit my qualifications" within the company and I should look at the hiring website to explore those. My response was that if I was going to come to the company it was to work in this department for this specific person so thank you, but no. She also let me know that one of my answers seemed a little manipulative. Well...yeah. 

The question was if you were dealing with a group of franchisees who were not giving you buy in on something that needed to happen how would you handle it? Well, having been in that position a few times I gave her the truth. I would ask questions of them as to why they weren't buying in, see if that changed my mind about the need and if it didn't I would keep questioning them and listening to answers and changing my pitch each time until we reached the point where they agreed on the buy in and believed it was their idea in the first place. 

Yes, it's manipulative. But that's the job. Though I prefer to call it finding common ground and making sure everyone is comfortable with the decisions. If you think it was your idea, you tend to be very comfortable.

But you know those job interviews that go badly from the start and you just can't wait to get them over with? Add mourning the sudden death of your father to that mix and you have this one. By the end it was just unpleasant. 

I'm good at what I do. I only want to work for this one person. If there is still interest please let me know. No I have no further questions, thanks. 

The next day they announced their new hire. Who they had already moved into position to start the week before. 

They had already decided and made the hire before they even did my courtesy interview. I was livid. How fucking rude. And no wonder she was so dismissive and off putting. It was a complete waste of time for her as well. She had already decided and they had already made the hire. Talking to me was a half hour out of her day she didn't have to give. And it behooved her to make sure the interview was unpleasant so she could, with a clear conscious, say that I was not a good fit. Talk about manipulative.

A few months later the woman I had wanted to work for in the first place left for an opportunity with a franchisee group that was great for her. I just had to shake my head at how things work out. I would have been back to work for a big company, busy, traveling a few times a month, dealing with the stress of franchise groups and doing it without the main reason I went back in the first place. It wouldn't have been what I signed up for at all.

So all's well that ends well. 

But man it pissed me the fuck off for a long time. 

What a waste of my time. During a time that I didn't need the extra bullshit. 

But here is the good part. The silver lining. It just reinforced that I didn't want to go back to work like that. To deal with the bullshit of a big company. The politics and petty maneuvering that goes on in the background. There are a lot of great things about working with large companies and diverse groups, the people you get to see and the things you get to learn, the places you have the opportunity to go. But there are also big deterrents, the people, the things you learn about them, the constant travel from hotel conference room to hotel conference room...that moment when you realize you have a favorite and a least favorite airport and the barista in Minneapolis knows you...

But I wonder sometimes what would have happened if things had worked out differently and I had gotten that job. Would I have stayed? Would I have followed my friend to her new job and then back again when she came back to the mothership? Would I have just reignited the burnout that I had felt a few years before when I left advertising the first, and the second times? Would I have left KFCC to pursue a job with W+K when they got the KFCC account? Checked that Portlandia box?

It's impossible to know for sure, but what I do know is that I like the way my life turned out in those ten years without working for KFCC. I like that we traveled more, spent more time together, had the freedom that my lack of schedule provided. It all worked out in the end. 

But I still had to smile when I heard from another friend that the person they hired instead of me was not great and they wished I would have come back instead. See, they thought the only possible way I didn't get the job was that I had turned it down. Because I was just that good at what I did. 

Their loss. 

My gain. 

Still a little bitter. (insert wry face here)