The Hunt

I don’t think I got the job.

To utilize an old joke, ‘How do you keep an idiot in suspense? I’ll tell you tomorrow.’

In my case, it’s been close to two months since I interviewed for a position in the communications office at Augusta University. Crickets, radio silence, ghosted; whatever the euphemism for no contact you favor.

Signs that the interaction with the hiring committee went poorly surfaced three days later when the job was reopened. The pool must have continued to be shallow as the job announcement was reposted again a few weeks later.

Just getting to the interview was a huge jump. In the past three years, I’ve applied for at least three different jobs in the university system, ones I thought I was perfect for, and never made it to the interview stage. Rather than just give up I continue to apply. This time, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to carefully craft a cover letter, using all the right buzzwords. Instead I went the “Golden Child” route, paraphrasing Eddie Murphy’s line when he was trying to get the magic dagger. What follows is what was submitted.

My name is Scott Rouch and I want the job, pleeeeease! Thank you for your time.

So much for a cover letter setting the tone.

I thought I might have a good shot since two of the three-man hiring committee were people I knew from my days as sportswriter at The Columbia County News Times. I’ve applied to other jobs where I knew people in the hiring process as well but to no avail. I thought it was supposed to be it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I guess in these situations the problem is they do know me.

I have another job interview tomorrow with people who don’t know me so maybe I have a shot.