And so I have this question for you, which is your first interviewing for this job and you go on countless rounds of interviews in the reference chat check was like, you know, I wasn’t saying yeah, you, I would call it unhinged. And, you know, they literally cherry pick people that you know on LinkedIn and say like, we wanna talk to these people. Like almost like just pulling up someone’s Instagram and going, okay, I wanna know them. And you’re like, do I even still know them? And so that all happens. And now as you s you, as you sit from where you are, is there a moment that stands out from that interview process for you that you’re like, oh, red flag.
Great question. Because the red flag started immediately and it from the interview process and I ignored all of them. For example, you know, talking about this concept, I think often about time and time equity. And when they, when I, you know, put my name in the proverbial hat in the thing and I went on, you know, I said like, yes, I would like to go on through this process. They ask me to come in two hours for an in person interview. So I already had plans. I had lunch plans to meet someone who is so important to me, actually, the person who helped me and my family immigrate to America and to help me, my parents and me achieve or try to achieve our American dream. I canceled on her. She was on her way to meeting me and I canceled her in order to go on this interview.
You and that tells me, I mean, I could have said no to their like immediate asking of my time, but I didn’t feel like I could say no. I felt like if I said no, the opportunity would go to someone else. So I had to say yes. And so that kind of shows me the kind of unilateral control that employers have over our time and how we can’t say no. They tell us when, they tell us how, and then to extend on the same in concept, even during the interviews, I was at the time taking a fiction writing workshop at NYU. They ask me for my availability for interviews and I gave them, like I said, anytime during the week, except for the two hours that I have class two days a week, they scheduled anniverse exactly during those hours. So what did I do? I chose not to go to class that I paid for, class that was try, that I hoped would help me develop my craft and get me closer to my own personal dream. I sacrificed all of that and then, and just went on the interview, you know, and I think it’s definitely telling something about my character at the time.
But also I think it’s a very universal thing where we feel like we can’t say no because we feel so insecure about our lot in life. No matter where you are. This is across, I think, industries and jobs. And no matter, you know, how secure your job is, I think at the American capitalist system has made us feel insecure about our financial status, about our working conditions. And we feel like if we, if an opportunity comes, we kind of have to say yes and drop everything. And so those are all the red flags. And that was even before Day one of the job. It.
Kind of reminds me that, you know, this, I hear this all the time of when you are interviewing for a job, you’re also interviewing them. And you should be paying attention to just the interview process itself because it will be, it’s sort of an a preview of what perhaps the experience might be like. But I think when you’re, you know, the age that you’re in this, I also started a job around that exact same age. That was a very sort of big step for me, and it was very exciting. And the interview process was not and was nothing like carbon, but there were lags that, you know, after I got older and cleared my head a little bit about it, I realize, oh, that was just indicative of the, of what the experience was going to be like.
Exactly. Totally indicative. And just back on this time angle, they were not respecting my boundary when I told them I need this. Everything else you can have, but I need this. And you know, they were like, well, that thing that you need for yourself, that doesn’t belong to you either. That belongs to us. And we’re not even paying you yet.