Never be late for a job interview...

CTA Train Tracker

I've often stated my odd streak as far as my current job hunt goes. It's been quite weird but recognizing that a lot of people are looking and I'm sure many are having some success in finding a decent position. It's hard to think that others are having success where I'm just not.

Part of my bad luck comes from one mistake many shouldn't make when they job hunt. When going to an interview make sure you're on time. This issue has come up twice so far in my job hunting in the most obvious ways.

One time I was 10 minutes late and an employee at a store when I checked in escorted me to a backroom where a group interview had already started. She asked if they were taking anyone else and the answer resulted in me on my way out of the store cut out of the interview. I wish I knew what happened that day where I was close to 10 minutes late for that interview.

This story was more recent and it involved me going to work at a bank branch on the northwest side. It's a long way from the south side and I underestimated how long it would take to get up there.

Let me start by saying, you don't entirely control whether or not you get the job. The fact is the employer does whether it's someone from HR or the actual person you would be working for. They can think any way they want to think and their manner could be rude for whatever reason but fact is they control the job. And if they are rude or any way unprofessional to you as a job seeker perhaps you should be glad that HR or hiring manager didn't hire you.

That being said my interview was half-way across the city at a bank. Man it was a long way and made worse by one delay on the Red Line due to a medical issue and then my need to use the bathroom soon. Then I had to wait for a Blue Line train to get up to the northwest side for my interview and trains don't seem to run as regularly on the Blue as I would be used to on the Red.

Regardless when I got on the train it was smooth running until finally getting out of the subway as the train at some points creeped along until I got to my stop near where this bank was. Knowing that I was going to be late and not wanting to really jeopardize this opportunity I called the manager up to let her know that I was running late but was on my way.

Upon arrival I checked in and she came to meet me and asked what happened. I started explaining the situation and she quickly came up with more questions. For example I'd say what happened on the Red and then quickly talked about the issues with the Blue, her first question would be: "I thought you said the Red Line". Since it was a long way and my lateness now it became an issue of whether or not I could handle the long commute and being on time.

And the interview for that reason alone did not start off well at all. It could only go downhill as the on-time issue got brought up again with consideration of my resume as the manager let me know she wasn't impressed because I came to the bank almost 20 minutes late but lauded the rest of my resume. And then before giving me a surprise math test asked me how my employers would rate how often I was on-time.

All the same by the time I was finished with the test and was kept waiting with no idea how the interview was to proceed she came and got me and then sent me on my way. While I may have hoped that she would consider me for the job I ultimately figured it wasn't going to happen.

It was a long way up and had long hours it was already a tough sell for me and the pay was good but not being on-time killed the opportunity for me. At this point it was a tough lesson, but it was a tough lesson that was learned. :(

ALSO, as a side note often on my Instagram I have posted screencaps of CTA's train tracker as it pertains to a particular stop on a given CTA L route. It definitely would've come in handy that day, but more handy would've been a crystal ball.