{"id":6129,"date":"2017-05-01T18:40:40","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T22:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robzerrvations.com\/?p=6129"},"modified":"2017-05-11T13:30:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T17:30:18","slug":"what-was-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/robzerrvations.com\/?p=6129","title":{"rendered":"Um, What Was The Question Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s both a good side and down side to being on your own for a long time. When it comes to working, I have been pretty much working nonstop for my entire career. I’ve had only one break in service, that being three months that I purposely took off during one particular summer to recharge and refocus.<\/p>\n

It’s not that I just sat around during those months, lounging away on some deserted beach, catching some rays. I ended up starting a non-profit organization that summer, one of two I’ve founded over my lifetime.<\/p>\n

I guess I just don’t know how to have downtime. That said, I also don’t really know how to interview. It’s not my fault. Historically, I have always stumbled into the right job just at the right time.<\/p>\n

So I haven’t interviewed a lot. Except when I was right out of college. Then I interviewed tons, always getting one of those lovely rejection letters, you know, the ones. It’s tough to start out.<\/p>\n

And then there was the famous time Disney flew me down to Florida.\u00a0I had been at CommuniCreations for some time when the opportunity arose to interview for a position as the speechwriter for the head of all the Disney theme parks.<\/p>\n

I got the royal treatment. They flew me down from Seattle, gave me a swanky rental car, put me up at the Coronado Springs Resort and gave me free admission to the parks while I was there.<\/p>\n

Not a bad deal. The only problem was, I hadn’t gone through a formal interview process since I was fresh out of college. More often than not, I have been courted for positions, so interviewing was never really necessary. They were more of conversations, not a traditional Q&A.<\/p>\n

As such, I’ve never really mastered the art of the interview Q&A. Sure, I know my stuff. Backward,\u00a0forward and sideways. I have a long list of accomplishments and a stellar list of companies and clients I’ve had the pleasure of working for.<\/p>\n

But answering the infamous “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Well, it’s just not my bag.<\/p>\n

It’s not that I can’t come up with an answer. But I have this wonderfully creative mind that likes to skip like a rock from A to C to E to L and back to A on the way to brilliance. An alphabetical, logical response is not in my bag of tricks.<\/p>\n

This certainly was the case at my Disney interview. First, I readily admit that I am not exactly Disney material. On the flight down, I tried to imagine me wearing my little name tag that said Robb Zerr and underneath that, my hometown. I wasn’t sure I could ever admit that I was born and raised in Renton, not Seattle as I like to say.<\/p>\n

I’d worry about that later, I told myself.<\/p>\n

On the appointed day I made my way to the Mouse’s HR department for my first interview. It was a panel, the worst kind. We went through a lot of questions which seemed to have nothing to do with my skills, abilities, background or talent.<\/p>\n

At one point, I gave an A to C to E to L answer that ended with me saying, and I am not making this up, “Can I just put a period at the end of the last sentence?”<\/p>\n

They laughed. I must have answered all the prepared questions correctly as they took me to the next stage. It was going to be a test.<\/p>\n

Really? I have been a communication professional all my life. Testing seems like something you do when someone has little to no experience. I had a huge portfolio of work to show, so why give me a test?<\/p>\n

They locked me in a room with a computer and an assignment to write some welcoming remarks for the guy I’d be working for. I had 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Let’s just say it was not my best moment. It wasn’t really my fault. I wasn’t that familiar with a Windows machine; I had been working on Macs for almost my entire career up until that point. Plus, they had locked me out of the Internet, so I couldn’t even do some basic research or pull up some cool facts about Disney to put into the speech. It was a vegetarian response; there was no meat.<\/p>\n

Time’s up! And so were my days of interviewing with Disney.<\/p>\n

I admit that I am still something of a dork when it comes to interviewing. To be fair, I’m also not that great at conversation on a first date either.<\/p>\n

Which is why I’ve come up with a perfect answer for any future interviews I may face. Famously, and almost inevitably, an interviewer will ask me a question about my biggest strength and biggest weakness.<\/p>\n

The first part is easy: My insatiable curiosity, my ability to think out of the box, my boundless creativity and my ability to pull rabbits out of a hat when I am fresh out of rabbits and hats. Yes, I am that resourceful.<\/p>\n

My biggest weakness?<\/p>\n

I used to say it was my perfectionism, that I want things to be the best they can possibly be, given the limitations of time, resources and budget.<\/p>\n

Historically, it’s been a good answer. But I think I’ve come up with something far better, and far more accurate.<\/p>\n

I know that my interviewing skills are rusty. I also know that I know almost too much these days, so pulling examples out of my treasure chest of know-how and knowledge can be a bit of a challenge on the fly.<\/p>\n

As such, when asked about my biggest weakness, I am simply going to reply, “Interviewing. I am a great husband but a horrible first date.”<\/p>\n

Honest. Succinct. Glaringly apropos and telling. I wished I had thought of it years ago. Who knows? If I had, I may have ended up at Disney, working in the happiest place on earth, a piece of black electrical tape covering up something under my name.<\/p>\n

In the Emerald City, glad I don’t have to interview for this husband job again,<\/p>\n