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I applied to be a bus driver for my city's transit service. A shit job for sure, but infinitely better than the hell I'm currently in, and one that I really did hope to land. It was a multi-stage process and I made it all the way through to the final in person interview stage, only to be shot down.
This was my second try at this job, so I was well prepared for it. I knew how the interview process worked, I anticipated all the questions.
The girl greeted me, and she was friendly enough. Then I got into the interview room and she turned into a stonefaced bitch. Her co-interviewer was waiting inside and she was already in this zone. I don't know if this was a tactic to see how I deal with unfriendly people, but dealing with a pair of emotionless, non-reacting robots threw me off my game. But I think I dealt with that well, I just wasn't as comfortable and jovial as I rehearsed myself being.
They started out asking about my driving history. I let them know that I'm a daily driver of large trucks, obviously the experience they are looking for. Then they got into my driving record. It's clean, but I have had a few incidents. No convictions, but I do know that any driving incident gets on your record, and I heard a rumour that they have access to these hidden items, so I told them about them. An accident where I was charged, driving a truck on a no truck road, and a no CVOR charge. I fought all these charges and they were all dismissed. Three minor charges in over 30 years of driving is pretty good in my books, it's not like there was a DUI that I weasled my way out of or anything, but these stoneface bitches were clearly not impressed.
But on to the question stage. They asked about my defensive driving techniques. Okay, so I follow the 2+2 rule, the 2 second rule, I look down the road, I keep a 360 degree awareness of what's around my vehicle, having escape paths, I square my turns, I anticipate what is going to happen and adjust my driving accordingly. I elaborated a little bit more than this, but it's what I stuck with. I've taken defensive driving courses, these are advanced techniques. They looked as if they had no idea what I was talking about, I can't say if this was their stoneface interview technique or disagreement, but they seemed to want more. I later realized that I forgot to add in things like obeying the law, not speeding, being sober. You could say that this kind of thing is just obvious and implied, but the vibe I got from these two is that if it wasn't said, I don't do it. I mean, I also neglected to tell them that I'm a human being residing on Earth, I think they held that against me as well.
Another question was how I handled a stressful situation. I picked one of my thousands of examples of a project where I wasn't provided with the time or manpower to complete it. I explained how I paused to evaluate the situation, then dove in, I delegated tasks, I made sure I had everyone on board, and I put my head down and worked my ass off. Throughout the day, I made sure everyone was working, more importantly, that everyone's spirits were up, I made it a good day. At the end, even though I failed to meet the impossible goal of completion, it was still an excellent effort, I was very satisfied with the level we reached, and overall was happy. This was a question that I knew was coming. This was an answer that I rehearsed multiple times. I figured I nailed it. And...... nothing. No reaction. "Oh, that's it? But you didn't say what YOU did to deal with the stress". From here I stumbled, I thought I had answered things. I was in a very stressful situation and I handled it, I put on my big boy pants, I pretended I was a grown adult and dealt with the situation in front of me. But I was supposed to do something specific, I was supposed to go into a room and do meditative yoga, or smoke a joint, or scream, or punch a wall. Just being a zen guy who can actually handle it wasn't good enough for them. I had actually brought a prop with me for this question, a picture my daughter drew that always makes me happy and grounds me. It was perfect for this moment, but I didn't think these two emotionless bitches would be moved by it, or even understand how it makes me happy, so I couldn't bring myself to using it.
They asked about a time when defensive driving helped me. Okay, another anticipated question. So I was at a traffic light, my light turned green, I looked to my left, safe, I looked to my right, a car hurtling down, clearly with no intention of stopping, so I waited. A good five seconds after my light was green, this car hurtled through the intersection. Afterwards, all other vehicles obeyed the traffic signal so I proceeded through. "Oh, that's all? How was that defensive driving?"
What? Defensive driving is about awareness and anticipation, it's not about slaloming through a dozen cars, it's about seeing what is going to happen and making calm simple adjustments to avoid it, or in this case, not moving at all. But they couldn't understand the situation I was describing, so I tried again, this time emphasizing that if I had not seen him coming and been aware of the situation, if I had just proceeded when my light turned green, it would have been a high speed, T-bone collision, likely fatal. They somewhat understood the scenario I was describing, but I got the impression that they felt I was doing something wrong for thinking that I can proceed on a green light, and they clearly didn't see the defensive driving aspect of it.
On to a teamwork question. This one I kind of botched. I answered a question from a previous interview where I helped a teammate in distress. This question was just how I worked within a team. Even though I had a better example that I should have used, I still think I did okay on this one. I described a situation where I had a teammate who was clearly visibly and vocally upset. I approached him, calmed him down, evaluated his problem, worked with him on a solution, worked with him on a resolution so he won't have the problem again. What a great guy I am, everyone else just walked around him, I helped him out, and solved his problem, I'm a great teammate... right???? "Oh, so you were only working with one other person?" "Uh no, working with a full team, but one of my guys was having a problem so I wanted to help him out". They didn't understand the scenario, didn't understand his problem, didn't understand the resolution... they didn't like the answer. Okay, I should have gone with a more full team answer here, but I am showing you that I'm a team player right? Oh yeah, stoneface emotionless robots don't give away answers.
There were ten questions in total, these ones are the one haunting me. I did well in this interview, I defintately showed them that I am qualified and capable of doing the job that I applied for; I gave them no reason to not hire me. I've considered filing a grievance, but while I gave them no reason, they certainly can fabricate an excuse. The results of the interview are confidential and they made a point of telling me that they will not discuss their decisions. I would however really like to know what their problem was.
Whatever, back to hell I go, just needed to get this rant off my chest.
This was my second try at this job, so I was well prepared for it. I knew how the interview process worked, I anticipated all the questions.
The girl greeted me, and she was friendly enough. Then I got into the interview room and she turned into a stonefaced bitch. Her co-interviewer was waiting inside and she was already in this zone. I don't know if this was a tactic to see how I deal with unfriendly people, but dealing with a pair of emotionless, non-reacting robots threw me off my game. But I think I dealt with that well, I just wasn't as comfortable and jovial as I rehearsed myself being.
They started out asking about my driving history. I let them know that I'm a daily driver of large trucks, obviously the experience they are looking for. Then they got into my driving record. It's clean, but I have had a few incidents. No convictions, but I do know that any driving incident gets on your record, and I heard a rumour that they have access to these hidden items, so I told them about them. An accident where I was charged, driving a truck on a no truck road, and a no CVOR charge. I fought all these charges and they were all dismissed. Three minor charges in over 30 years of driving is pretty good in my books, it's not like there was a DUI that I weasled my way out of or anything, but these stoneface bitches were clearly not impressed.
But on to the question stage. They asked about my defensive driving techniques. Okay, so I follow the 2+2 rule, the 2 second rule, I look down the road, I keep a 360 degree awareness of what's around my vehicle, having escape paths, I square my turns, I anticipate what is going to happen and adjust my driving accordingly. I elaborated a little bit more than this, but it's what I stuck with. I've taken defensive driving courses, these are advanced techniques. They looked as if they had no idea what I was talking about, I can't say if this was their stoneface interview technique or disagreement, but they seemed to want more. I later realized that I forgot to add in things like obeying the law, not speeding, being sober. You could say that this kind of thing is just obvious and implied, but the vibe I got from these two is that if it wasn't said, I don't do it. I mean, I also neglected to tell them that I'm a human being residing on Earth, I think they held that against me as well.
Another question was how I handled a stressful situation. I picked one of my thousands of examples of a project where I wasn't provided with the time or manpower to complete it. I explained how I paused to evaluate the situation, then dove in, I delegated tasks, I made sure I had everyone on board, and I put my head down and worked my ass off. Throughout the day, I made sure everyone was working, more importantly, that everyone's spirits were up, I made it a good day. At the end, even though I failed to meet the impossible goal of completion, it was still an excellent effort, I was very satisfied with the level we reached, and overall was happy. This was a question that I knew was coming. This was an answer that I rehearsed multiple times. I figured I nailed it. And...... nothing. No reaction. "Oh, that's it? But you didn't say what YOU did to deal with the stress". From here I stumbled, I thought I had answered things. I was in a very stressful situation and I handled it, I put on my big boy pants, I pretended I was a grown adult and dealt with the situation in front of me. But I was supposed to do something specific, I was supposed to go into a room and do meditative yoga, or smoke a joint, or scream, or punch a wall. Just being a zen guy who can actually handle it wasn't good enough for them. I had actually brought a prop with me for this question, a picture my daughter drew that always makes me happy and grounds me. It was perfect for this moment, but I didn't think these two emotionless bitches would be moved by it, or even understand how it makes me happy, so I couldn't bring myself to using it.
They asked about a time when defensive driving helped me. Okay, another anticipated question. So I was at a traffic light, my light turned green, I looked to my left, safe, I looked to my right, a car hurtling down, clearly with no intention of stopping, so I waited. A good five seconds after my light was green, this car hurtled through the intersection. Afterwards, all other vehicles obeyed the traffic signal so I proceeded through. "Oh, that's all? How was that defensive driving?"
What? Defensive driving is about awareness and anticipation, it's not about slaloming through a dozen cars, it's about seeing what is going to happen and making calm simple adjustments to avoid it, or in this case, not moving at all. But they couldn't understand the situation I was describing, so I tried again, this time emphasizing that if I had not seen him coming and been aware of the situation, if I had just proceeded when my light turned green, it would have been a high speed, T-bone collision, likely fatal. They somewhat understood the scenario I was describing, but I got the impression that they felt I was doing something wrong for thinking that I can proceed on a green light, and they clearly didn't see the defensive driving aspect of it.On to a teamwork question. This one I kind of botched. I answered a question from a previous interview where I helped a teammate in distress. This question was just how I worked within a team. Even though I had a better example that I should have used, I still think I did okay on this one. I described a situation where I had a teammate who was clearly visibly and vocally upset. I approached him, calmed him down, evaluated his problem, worked with him on a solution, worked with him on a resolution so he won't have the problem again. What a great guy I am, everyone else just walked around him, I helped him out, and solved his problem, I'm a great teammate... right???? "Oh, so you were only working with one other person?" "Uh no, working with a full team, but one of my guys was having a problem so I wanted to help him out". They didn't understand the scenario, didn't understand his problem, didn't understand the resolution... they didn't like the answer. Okay, I should have gone with a more full team answer here, but I am showing you that I'm a team player right? Oh yeah, stoneface emotionless robots don't give away answers.
There were ten questions in total, these ones are the one haunting me. I did well in this interview, I defintately showed them that I am qualified and capable of doing the job that I applied for; I gave them no reason to not hire me. I've considered filing a grievance, but while I gave them no reason, they certainly can fabricate an excuse. The results of the interview are confidential and they made a point of telling me that they will not discuss their decisions. I would however really like to know what their problem was.
Whatever, back to hell I go, just needed to get this rant off my chest.
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