I think "Wiseguy's" error is in failing to close the deal before he made the flight.
If Ms Banks said "I'd love to talk with you", then why didn't Wiseguy ask for an
appointment right then and there? At that point, since the opportunity was "one in a
lifetime" it may have been in his favor to be willing to make the trip on his
dime....but making the trip in the absence of an allotted time to "talk", calling
only once he was in town, demonstrated that he's both impulsive and immature, and
unable to formulate and execute a successful plan to achieve his goal. And what if
she were out of town when he arrived? That would scare me as much as any stalker
would.

Under the circumstances, if I were in a similar position to hire, and even if
"Wiseguy" was my favorite candidate, he'd go to the bottom of my list, if not fall
off entirely. I don't need loose cannons on my staff. Eager, sure, but not so wild
that you'd never know what rabbit he'd go chasing the next time one was presented.
Bottom line when looking for a job...don't do anything weird. It's a guaranteed
deselector.
--
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-



"Mark Howell" wrote in message
...
On 13 Mar 2004 06:23:48 GMT, wrote:


Being from the DC/VA/MD area I have been looking for a gig in my
hometown area for a long time. The WARW position sounded like the
"opportunity of a lifetime" that they claim in the headline. I
responded to the ad and got an email from Christie, that in turn lead
to a few phone calls in which Christie said she would "love to talk"
to me. So, I flew to Baltimore at my own expense, (about $350) and
upon my arrival in Baltimore called to make an appointment. Well, Ms
Banks did not take my calls, or return my voicemails, when I did
finally get through on the phone she told me she was "too busy" to
talk, and to try in the next few days.

I have the feeling that I'm not getting the whole story here.
Why didn't you make an appointment before you got on the plane?
Did Ms. Banks ask you to fly to Baltimore without one and just show up
at your own convenience?

Most hiring managers, especially in large corporations in major
markets, will pay transportation to the interview for an out-of-town
applicant who interests them. That's certainly been my experience as
an applicant in the past. And yes, managers are "too busy" to just
drop everything for somebody who shows up unexpectedly from out of
town without the courtesy of making an appointment first.

I don't know Christie Banks, and I have no intention of trying to get
a job at her station or anywhere else in that market, but I bet her
side of this story would read a lot differently.

Mark Howell

Ms Banks was aware of my intention to come to DC to speak with her,
the timeframe was narrowed down to within a couple of days.

I'd love to hear Ms Banks side as well.

This was not one communication, but several, both email and phone, up
to the day I left Oklahoma bound for Maryland when the last
correspondance was "call me when you get to town" there were no
communications problems until I got to Maryland.

There was nothing "impulsive" about my actions as I expressed
emphiaticly before flying to Maryland, I have wanted to return to the
DC area for many years, it is where I grew up. For whatever reason the
carrot was explicitly dangled, I took the bait and jumped through the
hoop. Based on my experience it sure looks to me like I was down the
list as far as candidates, but usefull as a bargaining chip to haggle
a lower salary for candidate number one.

On a more positive note I found out yesterday that Micheal Hughes
is now OM for the Infinity DC area cluster. I worked with him at KLOL
in Houston, and tried to contact him when he was in Atlanta before I
left for Maryland last year. I would routinely ask him about WWDC when
he was programming it.

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