One More Adventure in Joblessness

I thought I would take the opportunity of this beautiful lazy Sunday morning (love 1:00 church!) to fill you all in on how the job search is going, since many of you have asked me and given me very warm wishes and encouragement.

Basically, I have sent my resume out to every position that looks even remotely close to what I do, and I have heard back from three spots already. I have also had two preliminary interviews. One of them was really good, and the other was, well terrible. Let me explain. . . no, no, there is too much. Let me sum up.

The first interview I had was the terrible one. It was at a residential treatment facility for teens in Wheat Ridge. From talking to the director, Dr. P on the phone it was clear that he was opinionated and offensive, and that he lacked even the basic social grace of not being a jerk to strangers. For instance, he stated on the phone, before he even knew anything about me, that he was taking applications from "social workers, retards and Republicans." Now, I dunno if that sort of thing is supposed to be funny, but I didn't think it was funny at all. I gave him a courtesy laugh, because I was trying to get in his good graces, but that was the first very bad sign.

So then I show up for the interview two days later. I was on time, by which I mean I was 15 minutes early. I was given some paperwork to fill out, which I did. It was a lot of paperwork and took me nearly 45 minutes to finish. When I was done, Dr. P had still not arrived for our appointment. So I wandered around the waiting room, looking at the paintings and books. For 30 more minutes. In the end, my interview did not start for a full hour and a half later than the scheduled time. Second very bad sign. I took that as evidence that this guy is clearly ego-centric and inconsiderate, feeling entitled to other peoples' time and having no respect for their schedules.

So he finally comes in with two of the other therapists who would have been my colleagues if I had hired on there. He starts asking questions, but it was not like a usual interview in which the interviewer actually wants to learn things about the interviewee. No, it was more like an inquisition. I made a statement on one of the forms he gave me that I prefer to be transparent with my clients about what is going on, and what I am thinking. He asked me what I meant by that, then cut me off three words into my answer to tell me that transparency is wrong, and then rambled for ten minutes telling me why I was wrong, and what he thinks transparency should be. He did that sort of thing often: cutting me off during my answer. Third very bad sign.

The last straw was the worst one, and it was this: the guy was a world class jerk. If I ever meet someone who is as big an unprovoked jerk as Dr. P, I will give that man an award. He was so brusk, so off-putting, so offensive in the interview that I can only imagine what he is like to people he is familiar with. He swore all over the place, and not just in common places. He was vulgar, rude and thoughtless in his comments. He claimed to be "culturally sensitive" and asked me all sorts of aggressive questions about my ability to work well with other cultures. The whole time I am thinking to myself "Buddy, you are a complete tool, and the most insensitive guy I have ever met." And then, after a particularly vulgar tirade, he asked me if I have thick skin. I told him, "You haven't even phased me yet."

Then he says, and this is a direct quote (my apologies to the sensitive) "Don't be so narcisistic. I get a hard-on from jerking people around, and you haven't even taken a wrinkle out of my dick." And that was pretty much the end of the interview. Go out with a bang, eh? 

And this guy claims to be able to be sensitive enough to help people with their problems? I doubt seriously if he can even see them past his own swollen ego. Fourth and final very bad sign. So thanks Dr. P, for replacing the pedophile principal of my old elementary school as the biggest jerk I know.