Things not to say in an Interview 101
Last Monday I had an interview with a directory service company. By and large it went OK in spite (or perhaps because) of the fact that I used the phrase 'Underpants Gnomes'.
For those not in the pop-culture loop, there was an episode of South Park in which the boys encountered a group of Gnomes who steal peoples underpants. The Underpants Gnomes have a three-phase business plan consisting of:
- Collect Underpants
- ???
- Profit!
Since it was a pre-sales role I was applying for part of the discussion involved my relationship to the sales staff. During the discussion it was mentioned that the sales staff in this particular organisation have a reputation for establishing leads and then taking all the credit when a deal is closed with very little input to the actual design or implementation stage. "Oh, like Underpants Gnomes!" I said before my brain could catch up with my mouth. Luckily, after minimal explanation, the interviewers got it and had a chuckle.
In other less spastic news the last week has seen me rock climbing in a building made to look like a castle, sanding walls and watching Top Gear.
8 Comments:
Ah yes.. Choco has kindly been busy sanding Serena's entrance. This has gone down well, though the house is now very dusty.
I think that we should all take it upon ourselves to try to work an Underpants Gnomes analogy into interviews and general working life. Choco, as usual, has shown the way.
'Sanding Serena's entrance' 'gone down well'.
Are you intentionally being dirty or are you just subconsciously hilarious?
Mwa? Intentionally dirty?
Underpants are yesterday's game. The real future is in gnomes naked from the waste down. They still have the little wastecoats and floppy hats though. Try dressing a midget up like , bring him along to your next interview, and watch as the big ticket offers roll in.
Also: what on earth is a pre-sales position at a directory services company? I honestly have no idea what those words mean. The most I can fathom is it would maybe involve you sitting in some kind of open-plan office cubicle. Possibly in front of a computer.
err, there's a "that" missing in the 4th sentence.
Oh I work with the BIGGEST underpants gnome. Oh, he just throws the underwear at me and makes me present it to famous people who have been on Oprah. This is true.
Top Gear is really good, I like it when they make the little cars play soccer.
I haven't watched TV for 9 months... it's things like little cars playing soccer that I miss the most.
Ian, I do believe that is the most elegant, accurate and succinct description I have ever seen for a pre-sales job. You should be in HR.
KT, they have also had a game of ice hockey with little cars which, as you can imagine, was rather chaotic.
that would have been awesome. Sigh.
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