My good friend Misty has recently left her job at Talbots in pursuit of better opportunities. Sick of the retail life she wants to explore different facets of the job market. In a time of crisis job hunting is a difficult thing and we sometimes will accept any job offer or interview without second thought. And this is what happens when we do this against our better judgement and intuition.

Job hunting is tedious and frustrating, so when we see an offer that looks interesting we go for it. That is what Misty did (well, what Misty’s fiancee Shane suggested she do). There was a job listing for a marketing position that Shane thought would be perfect for Misty, she was not so sure and had a hunch, a sense that this would not be right, but decided, why not..

She applied for the job and was told she had an interview from 9 am to 5 pm. Ok, this should have been the first sign of weirdness, but many companies do hold long interviews where you are given several psychological and practical test so she agreed. On the day of the interview, they called her at 8:30 am to make sure she would be going in.. sign number 2 this was just funny..but she said yes, I will be there…and so she showed up, right on time. They made her wait in the lobby for more than an hour,(sign number 3), she was getting ready to just say forget this.. when a man came out and took her to the back.. He explained that the best way for her to learn what this was all about was to be matched up with a worker and he would show her the ropes..

Dallas, (yes that is a real name, and should have been sign number 4) was Misty’s match along with two other poor souls who had been on the job for about a week. They all get in a car and drive from Raleigh to Durham . Along the way Dallas explains that they will go door to door selling a coupon book of several neighborhood stores and restaurants, (sign number 5 and probably the last sign Misty needed to know this was definitely not going well). They get to Durham and it is poring down rain, Misty is wearing her best job interview suit although she thanked God that the pants were cropped and when they all stepped out of the car the puddles did not affect her as they did the other poor girl with them that was drenched from ankle to knee!!

They proceed to go door to door , all four of them under one umbrella, trying to sell this coupon book that people in this part of town don’t give a shit about and even if they did probably couldn’t afford the $20 bucks.. When all else failed they go into a CVS pharmacy and tried to sell the coupon book to an over sized cashier, Dallas begins to explain to her all the benefits of the coupon book and tells her there are great coupons to restaurants such as….He opens the book and points to one of the restaurants, the girl takes the book throws it across the room and says: “That was the restaurant where I caught my ex with his new ho and now they gonna have a baby” as she starts to cry!!

By this time it is already 5 pm and they are still in Durham, Misty has decided by now (well, she decided the day she saw the ad) that this was not for her.. Dallas then tells her that when they get back to Raleigh she needs to take a test to regurgitate all the information she had heard and then do an interview... Misty politely said she was not interested and was freed about an hour later.. where as she said to me… I will never forget this interview the rest of my life..

Thankful now for being unemployed she continues her search with an open mind and an alertness to her intuition. Good Luck Misty.. I’m sure you will find something great and if not, you call always call DALLAS…….