My Two Cents

"so would you mind walking me through that?"

That phrase still pops into my head many years after it was spoken to me during a final interview.

This was an interview for a security leader position at a well known financial company that I was very interested in. I had already been through one of those all day interviews where they send you to 10 different people and allow each 30 minutes to get to know you. I find that process a bit unusual and entertaining at the same time. For people who know me, I love talking with people I have never met and you will always get straight answers from me. That can lead to fun exchanges of ideas and gives great insight to the company you want to work for. Remember the rule, you are interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you, but I digress.

So at the end of that long day I was losing my voice and just wanted to get back outside and breathe. I felt good overall and honestly thought that I had nailed it. My background fit the job well and the people I met that day were engaged in what they did and I wanted to be part of it. I had a nice closing conversation with a wonderful HR person and I went on my way.

It was about three days after that I received a call from that same HR person. Two of the people that I had met with that day wanted to jump on a quick call to ask a couple more questions. YES! This was a good sign that my marathon interview day had paid off! We set the call for that afternoon.

It started out very cordial and both of them told me how happy they were with my interview and had great feedback from the other interviewers. Then it happened. They had my resume in front of them and said that while looking at it again they noticed I had not put down any college degree information. Surely I must have missed putting it there they said, to which I replied "well you see, I don't have a degree." That is when one of them said that phrase that I put at the beginning of this article.

I remember pausing for a moment and thinking "this isn't going to go well" and then I just started talking. While I first felt embarrassed, that quickly turned to pride. To paraphrase what I said to them both that day........

"You see, I started in this industry before personal computers were even a thing. I went to night school to learn electronics while holding down a full time day job fixing cars. I had even been awarded a scholarship which I later turned down, but that's a subject for another time. My first real computer job was on second shift performing language conversions on dumb terminals that were shipping to other countries. I signed up for every free class that company offered and learned what I had to. I left that company six years later as a Senior Field Engineer in Boston. Throughout my career I have taken more classes than I can count to learn whatever it was that I needed at the time to succeed. I was brought up to believe that if you gave something 100% it would work out for you. I later moved across the country to California with no job and no prospects but I applied myself and found a great startup company that took a chance on me. Again more classes and more learning. Fast forward to now and looking back on it all, I wouldn't change a thing. Should I have focused more on a degree? Maybe, but I felt that I was advancing the way I wanted to. Hard work and integrity. So, unfortunately it looks like this is not a position I would be a good fit for, so thank you both for the consideration."

To anyone out there that has ever looked for a job and been turned down, don't let it get to you. Hold your head high and move on. To people that have degrees, I am in total awe of what you have accomplished. Please return the favor when you meet someone that may have not had the means to pay for school or found a different way to succeed.

Finally, to those of you that interview prospects for a position, take the time to really see the person in front of you. We are all busy, I get it, but that person is sitting there hoping to succeed by getting that job you have open. Maybe there is more to them than where they went to school or how many letters they put after their name.