Bad job interviews are fine
About four months prior to my interview for my current job at the Greene County Daily World I had a job interview for a different company. This week I checked to see if that company was still alive just out of curiosity. Turns out it, it went out of business around the same time I applied for the sports editor position with this publication.
It made me laugh. The interview I had with that company just before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was a disaster.
The company was a dinner theater or cabaret off I-65 in Greenwood. They thought they were going to become a destination for live entertainment in Indianapolis. For me, it looked like a great chance to branch off into public relations and marketing.
From the start though the interviewer (can’t remember his name) was determined to show me I was not a fit for their establishment. All of the skills I thought I was bringing to the table were methodically neutralized in a 10 minute-span I erased from my brain.
I thought he needed someone to create promotional content, in print and digital. I quickly learned he wanted someone who had a relationship with all the media outlets in the area so that he could get free publicity to cut advertising costs. He was the very essence of those in newspaper sales know to avoid.
COVID-19 crippled companies like his though as it went belly up by July of 2020. His failure does not bring me joy but it does bring me peace knowing it was a blessing I did not work there.
I wore a suit and dress pants for that interview. The same suit I got married in. My attire ended up being a waste.
Months later, I was on the phone with management of the Daily World. Only this time I was wearing shorts and sneakers and was located just outside the bathroom of a car dealership on the East Side of Indianapolis. This is where Greene County went to find a sports editor folks.
As bad as that interview was in March of 2020 it showed me that I was not ready to finish my career covering sports. Even though I was not sure if sports would be played that year.
The feedback from jobs you get turned down for typically help you down the line. Maybe they point you to an industry you had not tried yet. They give you an example of a boss you could not work for or teach you what to look for in a company.
We are not in full control of our own careers, and perhaps, that is a good thing.
Nathan is the Sports Editor for the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at npacegcdw@gmail.com. His “Low Budget Sports Show airs weekly on Facebook Live.
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