a memory

[cellio]

A friend recently posted (in a locked entry) about an amusing experience he had on a job-interview trip. It reminded me of something that happened on my first day-long interview. (For some reason this style of interview was then called a "plant trip". Or maybe that only described the subset of such where they had to fly you in; not sure. I haven't heard this term in quite some time.)

I was a senior in college, so I was trying to line up that first post-graduation job and was not being at all fussy during the interview stage. I didn't have strong opinions about geography back then, so of course I accepted the interview offer from a large computer-equipment company on Long Island. I would fly in in the morning, have a day of interviews, and fly home that night. This was my first such trip, so my only clues about what to expect came from the well-meaning but under-informed folks in career services.

The plane was an hour late but the cabbie drove like a demon, so I was only about 20 minutes late getting there. So I went into this a little flustered (late! not my fault, but late! ack!) I had a morning of interviews with various managerial types, which did not put me at ease. Come lunchtime they introduced me to two people who would be my peers (if I were hired), and those two people took me out to lunch. To this day I don't know if they were just having fun, or if this was part of the test.

We went to a fairly nice restaurant. (I should mention, by the way, that I did not have a lot of experience with this class of restaurant.) The waiter asked for drink orders, turning to me first, and I ordered a Coke. One of the others said "aw, go on; they'll cover real drinks". I guess I paused, because she proceeded to order a mixed drink for herself, as did her colleague. The waiter turned back to me, so I shrugged, pulled the name of a drink I didn't think I'd hate out of my memory, and said "make that a rum and Coke". I had considered ordering a glass of wine, but I didn't think I could do so without sounding stupid ("um, white?"). No one asks you to choose your brand of rum.

(I should clarify that I was not a tea-totler; it's just that in college I was mostly exposed to bad beer, so I was not very educated. This had once previously surprised me in a swanky restaurant when I misunderstood the waiter's offer of an after-dinner drink to mean tea. It was only somewhat later that I learned the magic incantation "what do you recommend?".)

The waiter returned a few minutes later, placing two drinks in front of each of us. In large glasses; my rum&Cokes were in glasses that wouldn't have been inappropriate for Coke&Cokes. I looked quizzical and one of my would-be coworkers said "Thursday is two-for-one day".

Okay..., I said to myself. It's going to be one of those lunches. (I was not, by the way, old enough to drink legally in my home state, though I was in NY.)

We ordered and had what seemed like a reasonable conversation over lunch. (They had stressed that this was "just talk"; they weren't interviewing me. Uh huh.) I was able to get them to chat about what it was like to work there; this was actually the first point in the day when I got information as opposed to giving information. It also gave me time to chew. I sipped one of the drinks slowly, not having any clue how much rum was in it or whether I'd be able to tell. The others finished their drinks; I drank most of one of mine.

I felt a slight buzz from that one drink while walking back to the office. Drinking both of them definitely would have been a bad idea. The rest of the day went fine as far as I could tell. No offer was forthcoming; a part of me wondered whether I had somehow failed the lunch test.

(The lack of an offer didn't much bother me, as I'd seen enough to conclude that this was not the sort of company I wanted to work at. But you have to go and look to learn that.)

Comments

[talvinamarich.livejournal.com]

If the job description includes being able to drink alcohol, then it's not the type of job I'd want. Being able to get along socially with your peers should NOT require matching them drink for drink.

Yeah. Not your place, I'd say.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Someday remind me to tell you the story of how my father wound up being a Montreal rabbi for four years instead of two years. It involves a bris and a very large tumbler of rye.

[fauxklore]

I find it interesting that there weren't any managers at the lunch.

Back in my managerial days, I took candidates to lunch and always invited one or two of the other people from our group. It was a test in the sense that, by the time somebody was invited in to interview, you were reasonably sure they were qualified technically, but you had to assess how well they'd fit in with the organization.

Sometimes somebody would have a glass of wine, but I can't imagine anyone ever being pressured to drink. They might, however, have felt pressured to sample the chocolate dessert buffet at the restaurant we usually used.

By the way, a good way to turn down a drink at events like this is to say something like, "Thanks, but I'm tired out from the flight." You don't want to use the approach a colleague told me about in which he jokingly said "it's better if I don't drink" to someone offering him a brand of beer he disliked. This was at an event his boss was at, leading said boss to assume he was an alcoholic and, hence, publicly stop anyone from offering him a drink for the next 3 years.

For some reason, people are less likely to question somebody ordering a Perrier than they are to question somebody ordering a coke.