Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door (17 page)

© The New Yorker Collection 2009 David Sipress from
cartoonbank.com
. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

In a 2009
New York Times
article, author Alex Williams recalls how a Dallas “college student sunk his chance to have an internship at a hedge fund . . . when he pulled out a BlackBerry to look up a fact to help him make a point during his interview, then lingered—momentarily, but perceptibly—to check a text message a friend had sent.”

“A third of more than 5,300 workers polled in May by Yahoo HotJobs, a career research and job listings Web site,” according to Williams, “said they frequently checked e-mail in meetings. Nearly 20 percent said they had been castigated for poor manners regarding wireless devices.”

“Students bring their cell phones or they’re on them when they walk into a meeting,” business etiquette consultant Gail Madison told me. “I had one student who was calling on a cell phone while texting on another at the same time. My hair just about caught on fire!”

In meetings within companies, many attendees now use their BlackBerrys or iPhones to conduct a running commentary on the session. The BlackBerry messages will often be jeering raspberries at the presenter. “You’ll have half the participants BlackBerrying each other as a submeeting, with a running commentary on the primary meeting,” according to the Williams article. “BlackBerrys have become like cartoon thought bubbles.”

When your interviewer plays with his or her smartphone in your presence, it’s none of your business. If I had a multimillion-dollar prospect talking with his infant grandchild or playing a video game while I pitched my company, I’d find a way to let that slight roll off my back. I’d only be worried if someone with that kind of attention span and obvious disregard for people would be around next year to renew the contract.

The
New York Times
article quotes Nancy Flynn, an Ohio consultant, on a seriously incorrect opinion held by many: “People mistakenly think that tapping is not as distracting as talking . . . In fact, it can be every bit as much if not more distracting. And it’s pretty insulting to the speaker.”

If you’re on a job interview, the rules are clear, and there isn’t a lot of wiggle room to make them any looser:

Companies are increasingly aware of the huge amounts of time people waste on the latest gadgets. They want employees who have the self-discipline to use these tools wisely.

Two more afterthoughts: A wacko ringtone on your phone may wow your friends, but it can paint you as a goofball if it goes off someday when you and your new CEO are unexpectedly riding fifty floors in the same elevator.

Lastly, Gail Madison recommends checking the outgoing message on your cell phone. If it says “Yo, dude, you’ve reached Hot Mama”—it’s time to retool.

Food Network chef Robert Irvine trained on Britain’s Royal Yacht
Britannia
, served on the kitchen staff of the West Wing of the White House, and was executive chef for several cruise lines. Pretty good credentials. Good enough for most people. But not good enough for Robert Irvine.

He aerated more fluff in his résumé than a three-star Michelin chef whisks in a soufflé on a good day. For example, he said he was a knight commander of a royal order, that he had a degree from the University of Leeds, that he had been a chef in the White House proper, and that he had been directly involved in creating the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Lady Di. A 2008 article in the
St. Petersburg Times
revealed he had none of these latter credentials, and Irvine was replaced as host of
Dinner: Impossible
—only rejoining the show in 2009, with a heftily corrected bio.

In 2001, George O’Leary became head coach for the University of Notre Dame football team. Days afterward, incredible inaccuracies in his résumé appeared in the press. He claimed to have a master’s degree from a school that never existed and contended he had three letters in football from the University of New Hampshire. The facts: He hadn’t played in a single game. His résumé padding prompted the school to ask for his resignation.

In 2006, the Minnesota Vikings hired Fran Foley as VP of player personnel. According to the
Minneapolis Star Tribune
, Foley’s résumé “described his coaching jobs at three schools—Colgate, the Citadel and Rutgers—as full-time assistant coaching jobs, when in fact he was a graduate assistant.” He also exaggerated “his college playing career at Framingham State College.” Incredibly, according to the
Star Tribune
, Foley “ascended to a position in which he will be responsible for hiring and firing the people charged with assessing the talent and character of the players.” Needless to say, Foley was quickly replaced.

Also in 2006, David Edmondson resigned as CEO of RadioShack when the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
learned that college degrees he claimed to have in theology and psychology were bogus.

Our ability to read résumés has advanced eons from what it was ten or twenty years ago. Before you engage some flack to puff up a career that wasn’t, consider these options:

© The New Yorker Collection 2009 Barbara Smaller from
cartoonbank.com
. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

An elderly man living in Phoenix calls his son in New York and says, “I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing. Forty-five years of misery is enough.”

The son gets all excited and responds, “Pop, what are you talking about? You can’t divorce Mom after all these years. That’s crazy.”

“It may be crazy,” says the old man, “but I am going to tell her on this coming Thanksgiving Day! It will be the last one we spend together!”

Frantically, the son calls his sister in Chicago and she explodes: “Like heck they’re getting a divorce. We’re both going to fly to Phoenix tomorrow and talk some sense into Dad! I don’t care if it is Thanksgiving!”

Then she calls her father and shouts at him over the phone, “Do you hear me? Don’t you dare do a thing until Brother and I get there tomorrow.” Then she hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. “OK,” he says with a smile, “they are coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way. Now what do we tell them for Christmas?”

That’s what I call creativity at its best. Studies show there’s no link between intelligence and creativity. However, we can
all
become more creative if we put our minds to it.

Creativity certainly helps in finding jobs. I say, don’t be boring. Don’t be predictable. Don’t be just another candidate. Stand out. Be different. Use a little creativity.

Here are some examples of people who used creativity to land a job: