Interviews From Hell Part 2

(This is a relatively short post)

The other interview I recently suffered through was with a man who was looking for someone to head up his fundraising division. I could go on and on about this interview forever, but suffice it to say that I realized I wasn't interested when:

1. The interview took place in a condo, which was supposedly a "temporary" office.

2. He informed me that the two offices they had been in previously had been summarily closed when the landlord went belly-up (both times) and they were evicted (both times) and as a result their credit was now frozen by the bank. Go figure that one out: I know a pile of crap when I smell it.

3. I know accents better than most, having been raised by multi-lingual parents. This guy had a thick African accent (Johannesburg area) and when I asked him where he was from, he said "New York".

I said "No, I mean originally." He informed me that he was born in Brooklyn, and the accent was ...er... oh yeah, Jamaican.

I guess I look like a dumb white woman.

4. They were supposedly text book publishers. I looked up their books on Amazon and they were nowhere to be found. They're self-publishing, and the books look craptastic.

5. He told me that the IRS had called them and asked them why they weren't doing more fundraising. Oh yeah, that was believable. The IRS just oozes with brotherly love and is concerned about each and every one of us. The last time I had an IRS cheerleader call me was... never.

6. We got into a prolonged argument, with this African guy telling me that fundraising, public relations, marketing and selling weren't at all related. He also told me that he was an expert on this subject, as he taught Marketing at the University of California in the 1980s. If so, there are some very dazed and confused MacDonald's employees out there who gave up all hopes of breaking into the marketing field: Would you like fries with that?

7. He proudly showed me a Power Point presentation someone had cooked up which could be accessed on their site. It was very simplistic, but he told me with all solemnity that it should be ready within two weeks. Two weeks? For a Power Point presentation? At least he didn't have high expectations!

Obviously the guy was a few Fruit Loops short of a bowl. I got outta there as quickly as I could extricate myself.

So what was the gig?

I'm not sure, but they were obviously doing something illegal. He had told me that he and his "colleague" travel the world quite a bit, he's from Africa (and denying it), so my guess is that it's a smuggling operation of some type and they want a legit person as their front man.

Count me out.