A Site of Great Social and Political Import

Today, I interviewed for a position as an SEO Specialist at a mid-sized computer repair company headquartered in western New York that operates nation-wide (name ethically omitted). Now I’m rather bitter about the fact that I shaved my raggedy beard for the occasion seeing as how the day ended up being more or less a waste of time for both me and the interviewer. Let’s relive my frustration.

My day started out much like any other. Up at 6:30, do the daily Internet check and make sure it made it through the night without me, grab a paper and do the crossword at Tim Horton’s. It all changed when I shaved the beard, got all dressed up and went in to RIT to prep then travel to my interview. Let’s preface this by saying I would not consider myself an “SEO Specialist” in that I have never worked full-time as a specialist, but I would say that I have experience in the area and if put into a position to work as a specialist, I could become quite proficient without a lot of difficulty. So, I went in to read over the latest SEO information and re-familiarize myself with techniques and such.

Like anyone applying to a job should, I did my research on the company. Their website is functional enough – easy to navigate through. Looking briefly at the code, it appears someone has done some SEO in the past. And then I saw the intro text. Now, you make websites for visitors first, search engines second. After all, it’s the actual people who have to make the purchase. This is why search engines prefer your key words taking up 3-8% of the actual text. With the amount of text on their home page, this would sum to 8-21 key words.

Recommended # of keywords: 8-21
Number of times “computer” alone appears: 25

This doesn’t include other keywords, such as laptop, repair, etc. 3 of their first 5 sentences include all of the words “computer, repairs, and support.” Talk about systems overload. Cringable. After reading that, I’d call them to get my computer fixed because for some reason it’s displaying practically the same text over and over again to me. But I digress. I mention this because it led me to believe minimal SEO work had been done on this website and my involvement would improve its web presence. The job description was vague and no salary range or educational requirements were posted. Maybe there would be an opportunity to make it into more of a web marketing position than strictly SEO. I figured I’d go for it, so I applied, and this interview was set up.

I walk into a nearly-empty room with one desk in it, a young woman sitting at it greeting me. I notice two high-back chairs in a corner with another young woman, representing what I suppose was the waiting room. The walls were littered with newspapers-turned-plaques on the business developments. Their PR, if you will. I was ushered in to take a personality profile and literacy aptitude test. Interesting. I’m not really sure who would check “I hate working with other people” or “I work slow” or “My friend would call me lazy” for the “Most Like Me” section. But that isn’t important. At least my interviewer would know I’m a driven person who can read. So then I get to go back in after probably 25-30 minutes of testing to wait. Oh, and he never even mentioned the test. I at least wanted to know how I did on the comprehension section.

I’m waved in. He doesn’t introduce himself. He doesn’t shake my hand, just offering me a seat at a large conference table. I hand him my resume upon request; he acts like he has never seen it before in his life. I don’t think he has. He leans back in his chair and asks me what job I’m applying for as he squints. Great start!

Anyone who builds a business from the ground up like that deservedly has a bit of an ego. I probably would. And by probably, I mean would. A healthy amount is necessary to invest in your own success. That being said, slap me in the face if I ever border my room with newspaper plaques. Quickly I learn he is a bit of a self-proclaimed SEO expert, very impressed with what he has done so far. He may be an expert *shrug*. I give him the benefit of the doubt, despite my issues with his website. He quizzes me on all the websites I have related experience on this for as well as SEO terminology. Not exactly what I was expecting. I defend my experience honorably and admit to which lingo I’m not familiar with, but I feel like he’s just trying to nail me to the wall. I am up front with him about my lack of experience in a job strictly dealing with SEO, yet he continues in similar fashion. I just start saying I don’t know what things are so I don’t have to argue with him. I couldn’t work for him anyways.

He brags about having a 100,000+ Google Adword keyword campaign and being listed first on thousands of keywords in search engines. Again, I give him the benefit of the doubt. Later, I check out Compete.com (yes, I actually *did* know what it was) and noticed 10,000 unique visitors last month. For a nationwide business, that’s nothing! 300 a day?! Most of his traffic is coming from an obscure search string like “dallas tx computer ibm repair” or something like that. Being listed on the middle-first page for “Magic the Gathering” gave me more than 300 unique visitors every day a couple years ago. Talk about missing the point! (although “computer repair” and other popular searches in this area would be *much* more difficult to accomplish)

My favorite part was him going through my personal website trying to look at my social network pages. “MySpace is the one that always gets people into trouble.” I sit patiently as he surfs around on his laptop. You think maybe he could have done this before the interview? I offer to log him in to my account so he can read everything he feels like. When I looked at resumes I did this on my own time and wouldn’t bother calling them if their pages were inappropriate, or the applicant looked completely insane. Let me tell you there are some interesting MySpace pages. It would have been rather sad had I driven all that way to see him and then he saw a picture of me dressed as a fairy doing cartwheels and a kegstand. Plus, you know, that’s just awkward.

So, he lowballs me on a wage and asks me to let the secretary know if I’m interested in a second interview. Clearly, he’s hoping for someone a bit different in his interviews in the coming days. He says he’d have to teach me how to do everything and then he’s risking that I’d just leave with the knowledge anyways (smart guy – this would very likely be the case). We shake hands and he thanks me for coming.

My request to employers: We do our homework, please do yours.

Look at the resumes; call us if you are really interested. Do a 10-minute phone interview first to clarify anything that may be unclear if necessary. Be concise and specific about job requirements and qualifications. Be polite. Act like you are capable of having respect for the person you’re meeting. With the time and care job seekers put into finding a job and searching today, make sure you aren’t leading them astray.

Now I’m not upset, as I made poor assumptions about the job instead of asking questions. I am not completely blameless and certainly should have inquired for details. I would have been able to organize and better prepare my efforts to make a somewhat more positive impression, or neglected to apply at all. It’s just another example of a failure to communicate – one of the great pitfalls in the workplace and life in general.

This morning I will regretfully inform the secretary to remove me from consideration for the position. I’m sure it will be a shocker. However, there is some good news. “Fantasy Football Fridays” will start tomorrow. You can never start these things too soon.