Source: Reddit
Okay, so this happened about 7 years ago and I just never really thought to share it here until now.
I was looking for jobs in small shops in my town. I had just recovered from a nervous breakdown so my husband was stressing that the goal of this job was to dip my toe back into daily life, which meant anything that even hinted at being stressful was not an option. (We were very very poor and my husband was working three jobs to keep us afloat while I recovered, he’s quite literally the best.)
I dropped off my resume at a cute little shop and heard back by email, asking me to write a brief essay about why I wanted to work at her store. I knew I wasn’t supposed to go work for someone difficult, but I Was trying to stay positive, so I wrote the essay. It felt weird and insulting to have to find different ways to be like “I’m super passionate About registers and dealing with rude people?” But I did it.
She then responded thanking me for my essay and then asked me to create a video resume. To make minimum wage. At a small clothing store.
Before my breakdown, I had been a comedian. My husband and I used to make sketch videos. So we had a green screen and a sh%tty camera and lights, everything left over from back when we did videos.
So I decided to give her this video resume, which she was so pompous, egomaniacal and dense that she actually took it seriously.
She then told me unfortunately I didn’t present myself in a professional light (lol) and she was not interested in hiring me because the video didn’t show me shining with customers.
I responded by saying that I couldn’t tell if she wanted a genuine applicant or a funny video, considering this entire exchange has been insulting enough that it must be a joke. I also thanked her because now my video was going slightly viral, and it was because of her insulting behavior. She then asked me to come in for an interview to prove that she was doing this all in good faith.
I then told her that it’s not my job to make her feel better, but that she should be very careful asking for video resumes after an initial resume and an emailed essay, as it begins to lean into the territory of wanting to see what the applicant looks like in case they don’t fit her…preferred aesthetic.
Unfortunately for her, several others had experienced her and, upon seeing my video, it became a big conversation in the community and she had to do a lot of backpedaling. She temporarily closed her store until the situation was forgotten.
I moved away and don’t know if she’s still around anymore, but to this day I’m pretty sure she helped me make my video masterpiece that I just can’t ever top.
