My job interview fiasco
I’m pissed off tonight. I went to an affiliate event organised by the A4UForum which was, minus the incident that I am going to talk about, a very good event & I had a good time.
My main problem was a guy called Simon, an Aussie who owns a company that sells designer underwear. He wanted to speak to me about a job proposition he had available (after hearing good things about me) and although I wasn’t interested for a number of reasons, I reluctantly agreed to listen to what he had to say, even if it was just to get him off my back.
I could not believe the audacity of the guy. As soon as we had sat down he started speaking about how much he values loyalty and how people that worked for his dad had been with the company for 30 years and he wants people with the same kind of personality (which was quite ironic when he was trying to convince me to leave my currently company). After speaking about Loyalty & asking about my family (when I mentioned having children) he asked me how much longer I thought I would live for if I was drinking, smoking and being very overweight – what right does a guy who I have never met before come up to me and speak to me like that?
It didn’t end there (although I should have told him where to go straight away). He started saying to me that I’ll be in hospital by the time I am 30 and lecturing me about the way I was running my life (even though I hardly ever drink and was only having a cigarette to complement the beer that I was having – I never smoke at home or at work). Then he tells me a story about a guy that went for an interview with him a year or so ago; apparently this bloke was overweight like myself and didn’t get the job for that reason; apparently the poor guy told Simon that he was going to the gym but a year on after the interview he was still the same size.
Surely it’s illegal to not give someone a job because of their weight? Obviously it’s a hard one to prove, but I was still gob smacked.
He also then tells me that he would only employee people younger than him (he was about 35 I guess) because it makes him feel younger.
What a way to run a business.
I was speaking to him for about 30 minutes in all – a complete waste of time and I can only hope (and guess) that his company will fail if he has that kind of attitude when looking to take someone on board.