I (27F) wish I didn’t have to work but bills obviously need to be paid. So I’ve been on the job hunt for over a month and I’ve done several job interviews that haven’t really led to anywhere until recently.
This job interview was held after I signed up for a job agency because I was having no luck getting a job on my own. So the job agency matches me with a potential job offer and says the owner of the company saw my resume and was really impressed.
The first red flag: having the job interview outside of the office. While I know this is actually more common, I’ve never been to a lunch interview before. I was curious and when the guy told me to pick a place, I picked one of my city’s most best brunch places (it’s a local restaurant so I don’t want to give out the name). I was prepared for the interview but then when I got there, I was met with the owner.
Red Flag #2: this guy was sitting at a 6-top table all by himself in the corner of the restaurant. He seemed friendly enough and while I never usually judge people by their clothes, I was intimidated by this guy. He was older, maybe late 50s, with greased up hair slicked back wearing a black suit with white pinstripes. He told off his jacket to reveal skull patterns lining the back of his vest. He was also wearing rings that included skulls on them. He laughs when he realized what he was wearing and how it looked and said, “oh don’t mind this, I was wearing this at the Capitol today to intimidate some lawmakers.”
He wasn’t joking.
Apparently this guy worked for local realtors around the state I lived in and there was some laws that was being pushed through. Stuff about local taxes on houses.
Then the interview began.
Flag #3: He soon just rambled on how he was looking for someone who was “loyal” and “would essentially become his mini-me when he wasn’t at the office.”
Mind you I wasn’t told of what the actual job title was. I was baffled. He began explaining how while it’s a small office in the city’s capital, he has millions of dollars from the government and how it was used around the state to help with development projects and helping people who’s lost their homes due to natural disasters. It sounded like a good thing to be honest, but when he told me there were no benefits, I had already made my decision to back out of the job.
He then grabbed me by the shoulder and made me look him in the eye, “I take care of my people when they ask for it, but you gotta earn it. You understand me?”
I slowly nodded mostly out of fear.
He smiled and said, “great.” He let go and he just began talking about what else was going on with his job. He never asked me about me or my past experience or anything job-interview related.
When the brunch ended, he asked me if I had any questions. I just stared at him and asked, “what would my official job title be?”
He just laughed, “you would be my personal assistant.”
I nodded in acknowledgement and asked him if I could have a few days to think about this offer. He said sure and I left the restaurant as politely and as as quickly as I could.
I then told my job agency of the wanna-be mafia boss I just interviewed with and told them I was no longer interested
Good news, I did get a new job starting tomorrow with benefits