PAYCOM

PAYCOM

I get a call from some man who has apparently set me up for an interview- he pulled my resume off of the Internet somewhere and decided that I would be a good fit for PAYCOM. His name is Jerry Fuller from X Resources, a staffing company like my mom's. Staffing companies, or headhunters, essentially scour the internet looking for resumes, and match people who want jobs with companies who are hiring. It's a very tedious process and you end up dealing with a lot with jerks. I say alright, it sounds like something I could do, and I hang up the phone. A woman named Michelle then calls me to give me a quick overview of the company. She talks very quickly as if she is reading off a checklist on what to say about the company. She says its fast paced and there's a lot of work but it pays well and there's a lot of opportunity for growth. I'm intrigued, I am a hard worker and I like the opportunity to grow. She sets me up for an appointment for the next day (Friday) at 11:15. I'm excited, because it's a well paying job and it's an outside sales position. What I'm not excited about is the commute- across town, about 45 minutes away on a good day.

Friday morning comes and I get up early to shower, shave, and get dressed in my best professional suit. I look good. I am heading out of the door when I remember that I forgot my phone. I go back and see that I missed a call from Michelle. I listen to the message- something came up and they will have to reschedule. The interview will have to take place the following Tuesday, at 11:15. I'm slightly annoyed but not that much because I hadn't left yet and wasted the gas. I decide to stay in costume and go deliver some resumes around. I'm determined to be productive, no sense in looking this good for nothing.

The weekend passes and Tuesday finally comes. I'm excited today for several reasons: 1. I have an interview with a legitimate company (for a change) and potentially good position, and 2. I'm going to Charleston with my girlfriend for the 4th of July. The part of me that doesn't really care wants to go get the interview done so I can hop in the car and start enjoying the beach as soon as possible. The smart, bill paying part of me knows that I still have to be focused because it's still important and the woman interviewing me probably wont care if I was going to the beach or not. So I gather my directions (provided by Mapquest of course), my application they made me fill out, and my resumes, and I head out to Alpharetta. I live on the northeast side of Atlanta, their office is on the northwest side, and there really is no direct route to get there without getting on 285. So I leave around 10:00, and start following the directions, which tell me that the trip will only take 45 minutes.

I'm nearing the end of my directions when I notice a problem. I'm told to merge onto GA 400, which is a big highway that leads into and out of Atlanta. Problem is, there is no merging road. There is a ramp that goes over 400, but no road leading onto 400. Perfect. I drive over the ramp a few more times to make sure I didn't miss anything, and I decide to try my exploring capabilities and find it on my own. I try a small windy road that parallels 400, and I eventually come out to where I need to be. It's about 11:00 at this point. I still have 15 minutes, and it's only about a half mile away. I find the correct road and turn onto it and get into the parking lot.

I'm looking for a 70 Mansell Ct E. I see a 20, a 100, and a 200 Mansell Ct, but no 70. I'm already clearly annoyed. I hate getting lost, and I hate not being able to find a place when I've been given directions to get there. I've already made a call back home to complain, and now I can't find the building, and time is running out. 11:05. Can't find the building. 11:10. Can't find the FUCKING building. Where the hell is it? The directions tell me left, Left, LEFT! WHERE IS IT?? Luckily the windows were closed and the women and children weren't outside because I may have let slip an inappropriate word or two somewhere. I call my mom to get the contact numbers that I hadn't written down so I can call them and apologize about missing the interview. I get the main number and call- just a recording. You cant get a real person unless you know their extension. I call home again and get the person's last name. I give Catherine a call and leave a message on her phone "Hey Catherine this is Steven Gunzenhauser. I had an interview with you today...". I'm pissed, annoyed, frustrated, and tired, and I still have to get home, change, and then drive over 5 hours to Charleston. I'd much rather that, though, than drive around that parking lot looking for that elusive building.

I call all the necessary people to tell them that I missed the interview- Jerry, the guy who set me up with it; Michelle, the woman who briefed me before the interview; and Catherine, the woman I was supposed to meet. I get a call from Michelle later on in the afternoon with her sympathy that I missed the interview. She says that we can still reschedule for the same time next week. I'm somewhat surprised and I say "Ok, well next Tuesday at 11:15 again sounds good." She says "11:15? No, the interview was at 11:00." Oops. Not only did I miss the interview that day, but even if I had found the building, I would have been late regardless. The interviewee is always responsible for miscommunication. Either way, there's still a shot.

The next Tuesday comes. I find the place this time- the directions, provided to me by the company and by our friend Mapquest, were once again wrong. I am not blaming Mapquest- obviously someone should call the place themselves to make sure where they are going- its just that when the program begins to get rights mixed up with lefts and merges mixed up with no possibility of merges, things get confusing. Either way, I get to the office about 30 minutes early, and sit in the car and look over some information regarding the company. I've found that if I can go in the interview and spout off a few facts about the company and general knowledge of what the business is about, I can earn some brownie points. I certainly need the brownie points because the only brown stuff I've been hauling in lately has been shit.

So I spend a few minutes cooling off in the car, and I walk into the building. It's nice, very sterile and quiet. Two floors, with PAY-COM on the second. I go to the bathroom to wash my hands and freshen up, and get to the office with about 15 or 20 minutes until my interview. I'm sitting in a white chair and to my left are about a dozen cubicles with employees chattering away on phones. Apparently today was a "phone day" where the employees get a list of prospective client and canvass the entire city, either setting up appointments, guilting people into talking with them, or having awkward conversations with people who don't speak English all that well. Everyone is white, everyone is dressed professionally. It's a standard office, and everyone seems to be getting along alright.

I'm sitting for a while and there's a knock at the entrance door to the office. Everyone was on the phone at this time, and the door was locked form the outside, meaning someone had to let you in the office. Everyone hears the knock, but everyone is also on the phone with a very important client. So they look at me, I look at them, and I get up and walk over to the door and let the guy in. A girl comes over and says "Thanks, welcome to PAY-COM!" I laugh and say its no problem at all, and I go sit back down. I feel good- maybe they can relay this to the boss after my interview and say "wow that guy had initiative. If I had lost that customer we would have gone under as a company. He pretty much saved the day." Yeah, right.

Finally, Catherine Pearson the person I was interviewing with, comes out to greet me. Now, before this interview they had sent me several documents via email. One was the directions to the location, which were wrong, and the other was a frequently asked questions sheet. Apparently they want people coming in without having any tough questions for the interviewer. I looked over both and familiarized myself with it, but I really wanted Catherine to tell me in person. After all, a piece of paper can only display so much about the company culture and how things operate around the office. So I planned on asking a few questions based off the FAQ sheet, and asking a few of my own.

Catrin comes walking out of her office- a shorter, thin woman with short hair that was either bleached so blond it was white or she was prematurely graying. She says "Hi, I'm Catherine" and I say "Hi, nice to meet you." Simple enough, but there was an air of awkwardness to it that just didn't feel completely right. We go into her office and I have a seat. I don't normally get nervous for interviews. I generally approach interviews with an air of detachment. This doesn't mean I don' care about the interview- its just that if I go in thinking that it's the be all and end all of my life I'm not going to do very well. My method tends to calm be down and not too anxious over nothing. I have been on enough interviews to know that if I have a general knowledge of the company and act normally, my chances of success would be much greater. Also, the more interviews I go on, the less I care about knowing the business inside and out. It becomes a pain when I do research on a company only for the interview to be a disaster 15 minutes in.

I'm seated at a chair that is just a bit too high for me, and I fidget around a bit for a second. I'm looking at Catherine and she is looking back at me. Silence. Awkward silence. The kinds of silence that makes you scream in your mind "Say something you fool! You're blowing it!" Then she asks for my resume. I give it to her and she looks over it with a pen, acting as though she has important comments to make after the few seconds that she's seen it. She asks when I graduated- I tell her 2 months ago. She asks what I've been doing since I graduated, and for some reason I hesitated for a second. Not because I didn't know or I was afraid to tell her, its just that so many people have been asking what I've been doing, and I normally give them some sort of lackadasical response about sitting on my ass playing guitar and applying for jobs online. So I look at her and say "applying for jobs, going on interviews, yaddi yaddi yaddah..." This seems to be a sufficient enough answer for her, so she moves on.

All the time she is not looking at me. She keeps looking at my resume. She'll look up when she asks the question, and when I respond she looks down, making me feel like it doesn't really matter what I say, it's enough that she asked the question. "What interests you about sales?" she asks. I think for a second, and give my standard answer of my liking to receiving training on a product and company and applying the product to different industries. I think it's a good answer, and even if its not, it's what I like about the sales aspect. She nods, says nothing in return to my answer, and keep looking at my resume, as if looking for questions to extend the interview. Then she asks her next question: "Are you more interested in sales or marketing?" Well, gee, since I haven't had experience in either one of those (and I'm fairly sure depending on the business they are closely intertwined), I can't exactly say. I'm thinking this in my mind, trying to remember what my textbook says is the definition of marketing and what the specific definition for sales is. I say that I haven't had experience with either so I would be open to any opportunity that would present itself. She says OK, as is acknowledging that the answer I gave her was either wrong or didn't make sense. It made sense, it was the inane question that didn't make sense.

By this time, 4 minutes had elapsed. I'm expecting her to quiz me on being an RA, or doing paw painting, or at least something regarding all the positions and things I have done over the past 4 years. Catherine looks at me and says, "Well, do you have any questions for me?" I'm dumbfounded. We're less than 5 minutes in and she's done with her part. She asked a maximum of 6 questions, none of which touched on any of my skills or abilities. I look away for a second, trying to think of something while thinking to myself "why the hell did I drive all the way down here for this?" There's that silence again. The kind that gets worse as each second passes, and the kind that seems longer when you're around someone and pressures you into a corner. I manage to sputter out a few questions regarding the training program (apparently just 3 or 4 weeks, one being in Oklahoma City), and how many people they are looking to hire (1). I don't think I'm going to be that one. I asked what the rest of the process will be like and she said if I move on I will be contacted for another interview with someone next higher up on the ladder. I don't expect to move up the company ladder, and I know I won't hear anything from them regardless. I walked out of her office and left the building, with my head spinning from my 7 minute interview, with at least 1 minute of silence tossed in. What a waste.

All in all, I spent several hours researching the company online, over 30 minutes filling out their questionnaires and applications, and over 4 hours driving there and back from home. Each commute there was at least an hour long, and maybe it's for the best. I would go insane if I had to commute that every day. I wish I had an idea of what the interview process was going to be like. I feel as though I could have had a more productive phone interview- I think they just wanted to see me in person. Well, they did, and it'll probably be the last time too.