RE: interviews and ethics

["Jenny Igoe" <jenny -at- fgm -dot- com>]

> Have you ever been to a job interview only to find out
> later that the company flat out lied to you? How did
> you handle it?

I once interviewed at a 4-person company for the position of Marketing
Director. I interviewed with and wound up reporting directly to the
president of the company (the other employees were the comptroller and a
salesperson). At the time I had a B.A. degree in Communications and
three years of work experience, including one year of public relations
experience: I wasn't arrogant enough to believe that I had the knowledge
or experience to be any kind of a director, but during the interview I
was told that I would be working with a consultant from an outside firm
that had been doing most of the company's marketing work. I enjoyed
PR/marketing, I thought that field was going to be my career, and the
job seemed like a great opportunity to help grow a company while having
a mentor (the consultant) to learn from.

Well, not only was there no consultant, but the position wasn't *really*
that of a marketing director: the guy just wanted a receptionist.
Apparently he'd been having a hard time finding a secretary he liked,
and the job was not challenging enough for those with the education and
experience he wanted, so he decided that "exaggerating" the position
would be a good way to get someone smart working for him. What a maroon!
<grin>

(I also didn't know before I took the job that our one and only
salesperson was fresh out of college, with no sales experience...that
info would have made me think twice about joining the company.)

In addition to lying about my duties, the guy was a Control Freak: one
day I had a bunch of packets to mail out to our franchises, and he got
mad because I didn't mail them the way he wanted me to. (Yes, you read
that correctly.) Anyway, I only stayed there for about 3 months: I was
extremely frustrated by the lack of hope and autonomy, not to mention
angry that I'd been lied to, and I lost my patience with him one day.
I'd kept trying to do the marketing work I thought I'd been hired for,
and he kept pushing back in his condescending, control freak way, and we
wound up yelling at each other. I had never lost my temper with a
co-worker (let alone my boss!) before then, nor have I since. I tried to
apologize to him the next day, but before I could get two words out of
my mouth he cut me off and launched into a patronizing (and inaccurate)
diatribe about my "faults." That wound up being the day he fired me (at
the tail end of the diatribe); he took it back almost immediately, but
then I quit.

That was also the day I swore I'd never work for another small company,
though that resolve only lasted a few years and I'm now quite happy
working for my small (but almost medium) company. <grin>

What a horrible man, and a horrible experience...but it didn't kill me,
so I guess I'm stronger for it. :-)

--Jenny


===============
Jenny Igoe
Technical Writer
FGM, Inc.
Dulles, VA
www.fgm.com