Not Right for It

Last Friday afternoon, I went for my job interview at Singapore Press Holdings. I thought I would be late because there was traffic jam near my house because there were a lot of cars & taxis parked alongside the inner lane of the main road!

One white van even parked right inside the bus lane next to the bus stop! That’s the problem with the Siglap mosque near my house, coz it’s always packed with rows & rows of vehicles alongside both sides of the road, here & across.

I understand that it’s Friday prayers & there are limited parking spaces available, but shouldn’t be the way to address the issue – just park alongside the entire stretch of Marine Parade road, from one traffic light to almost the other traffic light! Both sides of the road some more! This severely hinders traffic flow on both sides of the road & all other vehicles are just passing one behind the other in a single lane that’s left un-parked by these selfish drivers.

Thankfully, this only happens once every Friday, so it’s not too bad. But it’s very inconvenient for students from Victoria School nearby & its dangerous coz they may not be able to see incoming traffic from the obstructing parked vehicles.

But thankfully, I managed to reach SPH News Centre on time. Though it was a reasonably short walk from Braddel MRT station, I was feeling a bit sweaty from the brisk walking in the hot afternoon sun.

It was a really huge building, quite intimidating to me, in fact. The reception area is very spacious… & I mean, very spacious. I felt like there’s such wastage of space, with just a handful of L-shaped sofas & several sofa chairs arranged right in the middle of the massive tiles of land.

As I approached the receptionist & told her that I had an interview with Don, she asked, “What is his surname?” And I replied that I don’t know, but gave her Don’s mobile number to call him. She looked very surprised like it’s the first time a person came up to the reception, not knowing the surname of the person he or she is looking for.

I’m not sure this was my mistake of negligence (what’s wrong with calling a mobile number?), but if so, then perhaps this was the first incident today that I felt silly for not asking Don' for his surname when he called me the day before. First lesson learnt of the day – always ask for the person’s surname, coz there might be more than one person by that same name. Though I don’t think there are many, many people by the name of Don… not like it’s a very common name like John or something…

Moments later, I saw this man walking over from afar & he stopped to wave at me, so I took the cue to stand up & walked towards him. We shook hands & he led me towards one of the small empty meeting rooms for the interview.

Before he sat down, he was interrupted by an incoming phone call, which I gathered was from another interviewee whose turn was after mine. From the conversation, I guessed that this person was calling because he or she might be late or can’t find the place.

After ending the call, Don gave me his name card before he sat down & I accepted it with both hands. Then the next surprising incident happened – Don sat down & asked if I have a name card. I replied that I didn’t & he looked very surprised! In my mind I was thinking – why should I have a name card when I’m not even employed by any company?

Thinking about it, I remembered that I was once told by someone that all sales people are supposed to give out their name cards first thing when meeting another corporate client or customer. But I’m neither… & he already has my resume right in front of him. Why should he want a name card from me?

It’s very puzzling… even when I’m typing this in my Blog three days later. I still can’t figure it out… Am I supposed to go make one for myself? Does it just apply to sales people or it’s an unsaid rule that applies to all business executives? I supposed, it does help to have a name card, but what for? I’m going for this interview to get a job… besides, even if it applies to business executives, I’m not one at this moment, so even if I do make a name card for myself, what’s it going to say? Just my name, photo, contact number & business degree? Isn’t that already in my resume? He really got me confused…

This was just the beginning of my most horrific & terrible interview experience… & one that dropped my confidence & self-esteem to far below averagely possible at the end of the interview. Never have I ever dreamt that a single man could do such ‘damage’ to me… but this guy really did that… & this is my personal account of what actually happened…

He began by saying this, “I don’t mean to be rude, but we are little short of time here, so I would just want to make this fast. So tell me about yourself & why you applied for this job.” Wow… he is really direct…but never mind; I took it in my stride & proceeded to answer his questions.

I briefly told him (I’m paraphrasing here) that I’m an organized person, detail-oriented & enjoy relating with people... I took marketing in my business degree coz I have an interest in doing advertising, which is why I applied for this job.

After I had finished saying this, I stopped talking & watched him for his response or the next question. This guy is strange… he just continued looking at me, as if waiting for me to say more. There was this odd pause of a few seconds before he asked, “Is that all?” I sat there dumbfounded, not knowing what else to say. I have already briefly told him what are my personality attributes… what else is he expecting me to say? Talk about personal issues or family issues?

Then he took out my resume, looked at it & said that my resume does not tell him what he wants to know about me. He went on to say that it does mention my working experience, my project attachments, what course I studied, etc… but it does not tell him anything about me. I remember him saying, “I want to know WHO you are… WHO is Matthew Sum…?”

His words really shook me up. Nobody has ever asked me so directly who I am… As far as I read books & websites, it tells me that when interviewers ask me to tell them about myself, they basically want to hear me talk… to say something which isn’t too long… maximum 5 minutes. And this guy wants me to tell him a lot about myself! I was at a lost of what to do… so I asked him politely & very cautiously (I have never asked this to any interviewer before), “What would you like to know about me?” I was really at lost at what he wants me to say…

So he asked, “Are you married?” I accidentally laughed & said no… pointing to my finger. I just wanted to lighten up the mood a little, coz he seems so intent on finding out about me… which I felt was quite forceful & intimidating. Then he asked questions like “How many siblings do you have?”, “Where did you study?”, “What are your hobbies & interests?” Each time I replied, there would be this short few seconds on awkward silence. It was scary…

I was feeling so tensed up inside… wondering when all this questioning about me would end… he finally said, “You see… this is the kind of information you should be telling me. Like where you come from, whether you worked to pay yourself through school, etc. If not, I would not know whether you are the right person for the job. If you type your resume like that, companies like SPH will not know what kind of person you are. You are just a piece of paper.”

I was stunned, coz I remembered that I had always been taught that a resume shouldn’t be too long, maximum two pages. Uncle John himself told me that even after working for over 30 years, his resume is only 1 page. Thinking about it now, why don’t SPH just ask applicants to fill up an application form instead? Do they expect applicants to put down so much information about themselves in their resume? That’s crazy! Yet to him, I think he thought I was the one who is crazy…

He went on to say, “As you know, this is a sales job, like I had told you over the phone. So you are expected to be able to sell.” What he next did; shocked me. He asked, “Do you have a hand-phone?” I said yes… & took out my hand-phone to put on the table. Then he said, “Sell me your hand-phone.”

My brain waves jolted! Sell him my hand-phone? As in this is a practical test to see if I can sell? I sat there feeling stunned… & unprepared. I have been to job interviews concerning sales jobs, but no one has ever asked me to do such a practical test… I was really unprepared…

Of course, I didn’t show it… & proceeded to tell him about some of the features of my hand-phone & what the user can do with this phone. After I had finished saying, he again continued looking at me, as if waiting for me to say more. I had already described the features of my phone, what else should I say?

So he asked, “Have you finished? Is that all you can tell me about your… Nokia 3230… this is the correct model, correct?” I said, “Yes, I have already told you about the features of this phone.” Then he said, “You missed out one important part. You didn’t close the sale. Let me give you another chance.” So he took out his own hand-phone, placed it next to my hand-phone & said, “Compare these two phones & sell me your hand-phone, which is what you want to do, because it gives you a higher commission.”

Again, I was stunned. I didn’t know what model is his hand-phone & what features does it have… but I figured that since this is just a test to see if I can sell, I’ll just try to make it up. So I tried… saying that my hand-phone is a newer & more advanced model, naming the features in comparison to his hand-phone. After explaining the differences for about 1 minute, I stopped.

He was still looking at me, as if waiting for me to continue. I didn’t know what else to talk about the hand-phones, coz to me, as long as the hand-phone is reasonably priced & has the features that I wanted, I would buy it.

Noticing my silence once again, he said, “So do you think I’m convinced to buy this phone? You are supposed to be selling me this hand-phone, not the other hand-phone because it gives you a higher commission.” I was stunned…& thought to myself - But aren’t we supposed to sell what the customer needs? Even if the customer doesn’t have the budget or doesn’t need or want to buy, we still need to persuade until he finally relents & buys? Isn’t that inconsiderate & unfair towards him? What if he ends up in debt? What if her really doesn’t need it? What if he could use this money for other more important uses?

I totally understand that a company needs to make money, so that it can pay its employees & shareholders. But is there a line drawn? Or as long as it benefits the company, it should be done, regardless of everything else? And if a customer isn’t happy about buying in the end, would he come back the next time?

Next, he tried to give me another chance by asking me to sell him something that I'm passionate about. I tried to explain to him the benefits of exercise, but he still didn't feel convinced. Then he went on to ask me to sell me this table that we were sitting at. I was shocked! How should I sell this big, brown, long & circular wooden table to him? I tried, but I couldn’t say more than a few words. It was pathetic…

Then he asked me to sell him thread! This was the ultimate of ultimates! How in the world should I sell thread? So I said, “I thought that if we need to buy thread, we can just walk into a shop & buy it? After all, it’s just for sewing…” But he retorted, “Thread also has a brand, right?” I didn’t know what else to say… so I just kept quiet. I had long given up on this interview already. I knew that I wasn’t the kind who could do such a sales job & I didn’t want to anyway… for it is too self-seeking, manipulating intelligence & quick thinking to convince or even distort the picture, such that the customer does not see the whole picture, both the good & the bad. It’s just so wrong… & I really had enough of it…

To cut the long story short, he said that he will call me, if I’m selected. I nodded, but I knew that he wouldn’t call, coz even before all this began… both he & I knew that I wasn’t the right person for the job.

I recalled that he was saying that it is important that we know how to sell ourselves during an interview. If not, why should the interviewer want to consider hiring you, apart from the other 99 candidates? To succeed in the interview, I have to stand out from the rest. Meaning that I have to put forth all the good things about me, show all the results & achievements, as well as portraying strong confidence & assertiveness.

I have no objections about that … but when it comes to pure, hardcore selling, there has to be a line drawn. I cannot bring myself to lie, just to clinch the sale, at the expense of another person. It is wrong to ‘con’ someone into wasting money, especially when there’s actually no need & want, but the sales person uses all ways to create what didn’t exist in the first place.

And that is why I decided that advertising, sales & marketing are jobs that are totally out & wrong for me to do. I would not want to apply for positions in this area coz I know that I don’t want it & don’t suit it… as well as the interviewers know that I’m not the right person for the job anyway. It’s a waste of both our time.

I’m not against selling. I’m just not the right person for the job, both from the company’s perspective & mine. To me, it’s where & how you draw the line. It just disgusts me when products are created just to make money out of people, especially when it’s not for the good of others, as well as themselves. In short, using marketing to create awareness is fine, but using it to cause attraction & unnecessary hunger for what one does not actually want or need, & end up wasting… is just self-centered & selfish in the first place.

There are & should be some basic essential fundamentals in life that are important in governing a person’s thoughts & behavior. If not, everything will go hay-wire & it would end up hurting ourselves as the very person that we try so hard to protect by hopefully gain… & end up getting trapped in a vicious cycle of constant need for more, that becomes a distraction, then an obsession, then an unending compulsion…