Corban Group

Corban Group

Ahhh the Corban Group. One of the more interesting/ironic stories. This tale begins with my sending of an application to the company. At this point in time, The Corban Group is the 42nd company to which I've applied. At the time I thought that was a lot, but as I am nearing 90 companies, I realize that it is only the tip of the iceberg. I send my resume in and I get a call a few days later. What comforts me thorough all this is the fact that I am actually getting interviews and call backs form the resumes I send out. Whether it is through Careerbuilder.com, monster.com, or a direct email, I tend to get call backs at least within a week or so. Normally if I don't hear from a company for more than 2 weeks, chances are that I won't hear from them ever, unless I email them repeatedly until they get so fed up with me they have me come in.

This job is not exactly a full time job- it's an internship. I was feeling pretty desperate at this point in time, so I was applying with reckless abandon, throwing it out there to pretty much any part time "internship" or full time gig. I talk to a woman on the phone, lets call her...Denise. Denise sounds young, and briefs me on the job that I am interviewing for. It's a staffing company, somewhat like my mom's, and they essentially send out a ton of emails and calls hoping to attract top level executives away from one company and to another. The Corban Group gets a cut of whatever the salary the person makes, so the more people they can place, the more money they make.

The job is for a part time internship, maybe about 25 to 30 hours a week. They have never had an intern before, don't know what they are looking for, but are still having interviews to find out. I get a call from Denise and she goes over everything with me and asks if I think that would be interesting. This presents one of my weaknesses. When I'm on the phone with a company and they ask if I think it's interesting, the honest answer is normally no. Yes it could be interesting if I got into the job and found things that I enjoyed, but at first glimpse no one wants to make 100 plus phone calls a day to lure people from one job to another. That being said, I say yes it sounds interesting and we decide to meet at around 11 AM on a Wednesday.

Wednesday morning arrives and the air is crisp and the weather is beautiful. I take a shower, shave, comb my hair with my hands and toss on a suit combo. I get the directions and drive down there. I get to the business park about 20 minutes early. It seems that I am either always really really early or I cut it too close for comfort. Thats what you get when you try to take 85, which is mostly used as a parking lot these days.

I sit in my car going over some of the company information. Fifteen minutes till eleven comes and I climb out of my car are walk to the building. The office is located in the back part of a business park, which is essentially deserted. I walk in and there's Denise sitting at the desk. I say hi and she says that the guy I'll be meeting with, Bill, will be with me shortly. Denise and I share some small talk- she graduated from UGA about a year ago and did a stint with Aflac- another company I had sent a resume to. She said that it was one of the worst experiences and that she is soooo glad to be working at the Corban Group. the conversation makes me feel a bit more comfortable, but it was more awkward and forced instead of free flowing. I guess she felt as though she had to break up the silence.

Eleven rolls around. Nothing. I'm used to waiting on people for a while. 11:05 comes and still no sign of Bill. Finally, at 11:10 Bill decides to grace me with his presence. He leads me into a conference room and we begin talking. It's really cold in the room- unusually cold. We share some small talk, I'm trying to look attentive and interested in what he has to say. He starts going over all the information about the company- its just 10 people at the office and we need an intern to do some of the marketing work because I can't do it- pretty standard stuff. At this time I didn't quite get exactly what they did so I started asking some questions regarding that. It seems to be going alright, and I'm actually getting some good points across. It would just be 25 to 30 hours a week, I could set my own schedule pretty much, it could evolve into a full time job, blah blah.

Then he hits me with it. We're nearing the end of the interview, where we both begin to draw out our explanations in hopes that the other one is thinking of a response or another question in the meantime. We hit that point where there's a moment of silence and he looks up surprisingly as if he forgot the most integral part of the interview.

He says, "Oh! I meant to ask you. Do you know what the word Corban means?"
"No, actually, I dont. What does it mean?"
"Well, it's Greek for Gift from God. You see, we're a very Bible based company here, and we like to make most of our business decisions based on the Bible and the teachings of the Lord."

Ok, time out. I'm not a religious person. My parents are of different religious backgrounds, and I never went to temple or church or anything like that. I have never had a mass, a bar mitsvah, or gone to a church for a major holiday with my family. We have never discussed God or anything religious in my family. Ever. The closest church experience was the summer after my freshman year in college where I had to do state mandated community service at a black/illegal immigrant church out in the Dacula boonies. And I hated it. I don't have anything against people and their religions, it's just never been a part of my life.

I'm a little shocked by this. I've taken classes before regarding what interviewers can and cannot ask you, and what your rights are as an interviewee to say you don't need to answer. I don't know where this falls, and I didn't feel the need to make anything big out of it. I say "Oh, ok" in an agreeing manner. Bill continues, saying "Yeah I was at church last week and had to explain what the word Corban meant- they seemed so shocked!" I am too. He continues. "I don't know if you saw the Jesus fish on our window (I didn't), but we're very serious about making decisions based on the Lord's word." Ok, getting deeper than I need here. "But of course we have people from all over." Yeah, right. I nod in approval of what he said, trying to seem as though I'm "with him" on the issue of religion. He asks if I have any more questions, I don't. I want to get out of there. I say no, but if I have any I'll email him directly with it. He says it was a pleasure and I return the compliment, because while it was awkward, it wasn't that bad. I leave, say bye to Denise, and head back home.

Bill said they were going through more interviews and would contact me within a few days with a decision to go ahead. I get back and send him a follow up email stating that I appreciated him meeting with me and that I am still interested in the position. A few days comes and passes and I hear nothing. I realize that with the more applications I send, there are better jobs out there, and I decide not to continue talks with Bill and his Corban Group. Once again, he promised to be in touch with me, and failed to do so, even after I sent him a follow up letter. Total time spent: A few hours talking on the phone pre-interview, getting dressed, driving there and back, and the actual interview. Total lessons learned: Apparently Bill and his Corban Group are gifts from God.