Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I hope you have had an excellent week. Overall I cannot complain too much as this week has been fairly straightforward in that people had problems and I helped fix them. That being said, I have had a good handful of calls that I felt did result in an abnormally high level of customer service and resolution so I suppose I am feeling pretty good about myself. It is really easy for us to get into a routine and just worry about doing our job day-in, day-out. But it is great when we can have those moments that help remind us that we do have good things associated to our jobs. I even got an Employee Recognition for helping one person so yes, it’s actually been a good week.
You might be wondering about how everyone in the office is doing? Have they had the same sort of good week that I did? I am so glad you asked, because let us cut to where we left them off.
When last we saw them, Jim, Karen, and Michael were all preparing to interview for a big job at corporate. Naturally, Michael firmly believes that he has this job locked down; so much in fact, that he already told Dwight that he could be the Regional Manager for our branch.
To be honest, Dwight’s first few steps as replacement manager haven’t been too bad. He made Andy his Number 2, naturally, and evidently he made Pam the secret Assistant to the Regional Manager. With Jim out of the office, Pam felt compelled to let it slip to someone. Besides these staffing changes, Dwight decides to implement “Schrute Bucks” as a new incentive tool. As we accumulate these “Bucks” we can then exchange them for a slightly longer lunch. While I do love the use of incentives in the workplace, Dwight definitely could’ve done a lot better because how many years does someone have to save up “Bucks” to finally exchange them. What I was appreciative of was how Dwight decided to cancel the using of unnecessary meetings (think the “this could have been an email” sort of meetings) and chose to replace them with a series of lectures centered around the topic of paper. Now I love this sort of thing, mixing up the day with fun lectures rather than a boring meeting that should’ve just been an email in the first place. The main topic of our first lecture was about where paper comes from, going all the way back to trees and soil so this is a pretty comprehensive topic.
Besides these antics, everyone is also exchanging opinions on who they think will ultimately get the job. Someone people think Karen is most qualified, Pam is leaning towards Jim, but I loved how Phyllis assumed Michael would get it. Her logic that while he isn’t qualified for it, he wasn’t qualified for the job he currently has. This is actually a great callback to a management concept known as the “Peter Principle.” This was developed by a Dr. Laurence J. Peter where his theory was that in the business world, leaders have a tendency to be promoted until they reach a position they are incompetent for. So while not everyone goes through this, I can certainly explain this and you most likely have encountered this before. The situation is that Peter (for an example) does a good job at his job, he is noticed by leadership and they give him a promotion. If he does well at this job for long enough, he will receive another promotion and so on until he is ultimately promoted so high that he is ill-suited for that job. Michael Scott can be a good example because as a salesman, he was one of the best ones at the company and this was used to justify why he should be promoted to Manager, where many believe he is not suited for. While the corporate world has changed since Dr. Peter first composed this theory, I think we do still the occasional instance of “how did this person get this job?”
Back at the corporate office, interviews are underway. Michael went first and had come out happy, although seemed awkward and then Karen was sent in. This is where the drama evidently started. Turns out the job they are interviewing for is Jan’s because she is ultimately going to be let go. Of course, Michael (who had just fixed things up and got together with Jan again) went and let it slip to her that she was was being let go. Jan came storming into David Wallace’s office started yelling and even threatening to sue if she is being let go. Soon after she is escorted out with Michael saying he will take her home, and I guess he “chose” to withdraw his candidacy. My two cents is, if you are going to let someone go then I say you should just let them go. I feel it is pretty shady to interview people for a position that is still technically occupied and it is amazing that David assumed he could go through this whole process without it being leaked.
After all of this happened we only had one interview left, it was Jim’s turn to go in and although I feel like Michael could’ve helped shake the corporate office up (which I do believe is needed sometime) I think he was the shoo in. But it turns out I was wrong, because it sounds like Jim ultimately left the interview (leaving Karen alone in New York, by the way) and drove back down to Scranton to ask Pam out on a date. I mean I guess that is kind of sweet but, what the hell Jim? Maybe you could have resolved the whole situation with Karen in a nicer way, first?
So besides this recap, I wanted to go over some of my personal tips for conducting yourself in a job interview. Last time I spoke about preparing for the interview so this is more about the interview itself.
Have Stories
First, be prepared to talk about yourself and have some good stories lined up. I like to think of some pretty good stories that can be used as examples for very generic questions like “Tell me about a time you made a mistake” or “Tell me about a time you disagreed with a coworker.” Interviews are where the hiring leader gets to know you, so you need to be ready to talk about yourself.
Don’t be too generic
Try not to be too boring and generic where you give answers which are very stock answers. A great example is when someone asks you what your biggest weakness is and you say “I work too darn hard.” That response is essentially a cliche at this point and needs to be skipped. Leaders do like knowing that you can be honest so you should be prepared with an actual example of a weakness. First instance, I usually bring up that I have problems asking for help. I can recognize when I do not know something, but where I struggle is admitting that I have too big of a workload and could use a hand dealing with things. Just to give you an example.
Remain engaged
Stay engaged with the leader; do your best to pay attention to them and do not let your mind wander. I say this because it can be easy to lose focus, especially when it is a long interview. But I get it, interviews can also be scary and intimidating. One tip I can give is to try to divert your eyes to perhaps their forehead so you are not looking them directly in the eyes; just a tip to help calm your nerves.
Always have an answer
It is possible you may not have an answer for every question but it is really important to have some sort of answer to everything. I have had times where I asked people what they think their greatest weakness is and they flat out said “nothing.” Well, this is not true because everyone has a weakness. Part of that question is to help show that you can take stock of yourself and be able to recognize that you are not perfect. I can even recommend that if you cannot answer a question at that time, feel free to ask if they wouldn’t mind coming back to it at the end so you can have some time to think about it. One tip is if you need a couple second, I often will repeat the question and show that I am deep in thought to buy me some time.
Do you have any questions for us?
Typically, at the very end they will ask if you have any questions for them. They could have done a great job at describing the job and the company ahead of time, but you should absolutely have one or two questions locked and loaded to go. If you can give a question that calls back to someone they mentioned earlier, that helps prove that you have been paying attention and that you are serious. Otherwise my mine question is “Are there any big projects or changes currently going on that this position will be involved with?” If anything it helps give you some additional information into what you would be working on when you start.
Do you have any tips for the interview process? I always like to know ahead of to see if there is anything new to test out so please let us know!
But, otherwise, that was the Breakdown! I hope I have helped give you some insight into your next job interview and that you ace your next one! I also hope you have a great weekend and, like always, I’ll see you all around the Breakroom!
Additionally, that was Season 3! We are officially ready for my personal favorite, Season 4!
