A Face-to-Face Job Interview during Lockdown?

Despite the economic stall, businesses are still trying their best to maintain routine so when employees return, things can begin again more easily. For some businesses, this means continuing the job search and hiring process of new employees.

To accommodate the “Safer At Home” order, many businesses have been conducting video interviews or beginning with preliminary phone interviews. However, certain places have continued to conduct routine interviews. This is my story of one such experience:

So, with COVID…
Three weeks into Wisconsin’s “Safer At Home” order, I got the call asking me to interview for a position I had applied for a few weeks earlier. The voice on the other end of the line walked me through the typical job conversation until the now commonly expected phrase: “So with COVID…”

I expected to hear how they would be sending a Zoom invite and how things would proceed from there, but instead I received a list of ways they would be respecting social distancing and sanitation during an in-person interview.

A week later I arrived for my interview, armed with hand sanitizer and a repeating list of habits I had to remember to break – like shaking hands!

An Array of Business Masks
After I was escorted through the locked doors I was greeted by my interviewers – all donned in masks and rubber gloves. We shared waves and head nods instead of handshakes as they offered me an array of masks and disinfectants. Seated at a separate table – six feet away from the others – it felt a little more like an interrogation than a typical interview. But we all must adjust for our safety.

From there the interview proceeded as normal, but with a lack of expression. With masks covering the bottom half of faces, true expressions were hard to read and “smiling with your eyes” became more of a reality than just a saying. It was unnerving.

Odd Little Waves
At the conclusion, we again exchanged our odd little waves as I exited the room and walked down the eerily empty hallway.

It was an odd experience to say the least, but it was an experience nonetheless. Now I just have to wait and see how beginning a new job will function in a society on lockdown.

Written by FOPP Lindsay Fanning, & Autumn Rockhill 61.0 | 8.7

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