Jackass
I was at an ad party recently and met up with a friend who works at another mega-ad-agency under the same umbrella as mine. Then I met her boss and my friend told him that I had interviewed at their agency a while back. “And they didn’t hire you? I would’ve hired you,” is what he exclaims, patronizingly of course since he knew me a whopping 30seconds at that point. I told them about some of the asinine questions the HR person had asked me, and which had frustrated me.
- Why do you want to be in advertising? (despite the fact that I had been in it for a few years already)
- Why do you want to work at XYZ [this agency]?
- Please name some of our clients
Apparently he asks some of these types of questions too, and I explained that all these questions test is whether one has done their homework, and gives no indication whatsoever as to how smart someone is, but I couldn’t get through.
Then he tells me that since we’re part of the same umbrella, we’re one big family. Yeah right. If you were the head of one of these agencies, maybe you’d say that to a comrade at another agency, but if you’re working on the accounts on a day-to-day basis, the only sense of camaraderie you’re gonna feel is with the people you work with on the day-to-day.