more lunacy...

Not the same old song and dance

By CRISSA SHOEMAKER DEBREE
Bucks County Courier Times
If you want a job at the Philadelphia Park Casino, you'd better bring your dancing shoes.

Job applicants said they're being asked to dance to “YMCA” or a Bon Jovi song — with blow-up guitar — during interviews at the Bucks County Visitors and Conference Bureau in Bensalem.

A casino official said Tuesday the park is pleased with the response to its unorthodox hiring method, but some prospective hires say the process is unfair.

“I walked out,” Mary Lou Bentivegna of Bensalem said Tuesday. “There were others who were walking out. I had my head set to go in there to talk about accounting.”

Bentivegna, 60, said she went Monday evening to what she thought was an interview for an accounting position. A few dozen people were already waiting.

“The 4 p.m. people came out; they were laughing and stuff,” Bentivegna said. “I didn't think anything of it.”

That changed, Bentivegna said, once the applicants learned they'd have to dance to “YMCA” or air guitar to Bon Jovi's “Living on a Prayer.”

Bentivegna said there were many senior citizens in the crowd, along with one man who had a prosthetic leg. She said she doubted they had ever heard of the songs they were supposed to perform.

“I was really upset,” she said. “I was talking about going to [work at] the casino for years. I've always had this thought that I wanted to work there.”

James Ryan, a spokesman for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Washington, D.C., office, said he couldn't say whether the auditions were improper.

“That's the most interesting case I've ever heard of,” he said. “What about people who are older or have a disability?”

Bentivegna said the interviewer told the job applicants the casino was looking for “people people” who had some personality.

In response to further questions, Wheeler said in an e-mail: “Senior citizens and those with disabilities are applying and participating in the audition process by showing their enthusiasm as best they can, just as the other candidates are.”

More than 6,000 people have applied for 700 jobs at the casino. Those positions range from cashiers to buffet servers to marketing. The park continues to accept applications at the visitors center on Street Road next to the racetrack or online at www.philadelphiaparkcasino.com. Casino officials hope to open in December but first need state approval.

************************************************

Yeah. This reminds me of an interview I had once at Pima Community College here in Tucson. I was applying for a position in teacher education. The job description was basically teaching education classes, supervising students on assignment in the schools, keeping a database of students both in the school and graduated, etc. etc.

I walked into the interview with 9 other people. We all sat around a large conference table. Three people were on the other side of us. They started out by asking us to give a 2 minute talk about ourselves. We sat there for 20 minutes while everyone talked about themselves. They used a timer. Freaks. What a weird waste of my time. So after listening to the various people speak (I know the interviewers needed their info but I certainly did not!) we were then broken up into two "teams" and given crap to build something. We would get "points" based on our crappity crap thing we designed. Points were given for most creative and the one that was most structurally sound and tallest. (Was I at Raytheon, interviewing to be an engineer? NO!)

We were given straws, marshmallows, markers, and some paper clips. What a bunch of bull. Someone on the interview committee must have just attended some new age interviewing concepts conference and needed to justify their hotel and food bill for three nights in Vegas at this Human Resources "Conference" - but I'm not bitter.

SO anyway, my team lost (ok, maybe I AM bitter) and we didn't get the points. Fine. Then we had another team building, stupid, creepy test of some sort that I seem to have completely blocked out because, to be honest, at this point I was seriously thinking of leaving the room to make a statement. No wonder people don't take teachers seriously as professionals.

At the end of the interview, they asked us what we thought of the interview. EACH OF US had 2 minutes again (I wanted to take their timer and shove it into their database) and once again, most everyone was all "Oh, it was so creative!" and "How clever" and "It was fun! Wheee!!"

I said: WHAT A FREAKING WASTE OF MY TIME, PEOPLES!!! (on the inside)

On the outside I said, "I can see why you may have done this. Perhaps you wanted to see who could work together as a team or maybe you wanted to see who could make do in a stressful situation. I would much rather have talked about my experience as an educator and my education and how it qualifies me for this position. I would much rather you had asked me to, on the spot, create a lesson plan using one of the big five reading strategies, teach it to you, and assess the learning that took place. I would rather you had asked me why I am qualified to teach classes and supervise student teachers."

It was kinda quiet. We all sat staring at each other until the timer went off. My time was up. The next lady did pretty much the same thing - and thus ended the freaky interview. OBVIOUSLY I didn't get the job. But I don't think it had anything to do with my sour attitude during the interview, or my response to their final question.

I think it had to do with the fact that our structure of marshmallows, straws, and paper clips spelled out "BITE ME."