What I learnt from my Friend's tricky interview

Three years ago my friend got a job at a certain company. They told him he that he was on probation and they would review his performance after three months to determine if he was the right candidate they needed in their company. During those three months, he worked quite hard and tried his best to show professionalism and excellence in that he did.

After three months the admin called him on a Monday morning to the board room. They told him that time had come for them to make a decision concerning his future in the company. The H.R told him that they were impressed with work ethics and diligence in carrying out his duties. However, they were going to give him a short interview to assess a few things before confirming him as the right man for the job. This was the day for that decisive interview! They asked him a few questions which were related to his job description and he answered them well. The interview was quite easy for my friend who is always full of confidence and is calculative in all his answers; he had been to many interviews where they have asked him much tougher questions than this particular interview. 'This is a walk over', he thought to himself.

"You have been quite impressive Mr Dumie. We have got  just one more question for you as we conclude our brief meeting," one of the interviewers said. Dumie indicated that he could go ahead and ask that last question. "What is the name of our security guard?" he asked. Dumie laughed a bit thinking it was a joke. 'These guys have got a great sense of humor…ending the interview with a hilarious question,' Dumie thought to himself. But when he looked at the faces of everyone who was in the room, he realized that they were dead serious. "Look here Mr  Dumie, this is a make or break question for you. If you cannot answer it, you can't be part of us." This was quite weird for Dumie, it would have been a weird question for me as well. Dumie didn't know the name of the security guard, although he had been in the company for three months, and such ignorance was about to cost him his job opportunity.

"In this company we don't take people whose personality and character is questionable. You have to be someone who socializes well with people who work at all levels. To us, if you don't know the name of the security who opens the gate for you every day, you have serious social problems. You cannot be part of our team." they said.  Dumie admitted that he did not know the name of the security guard, but he knew that the security officer lives in Soweto, he comes to work by a train every day and has three kids. They realized that although he didn't know the name of the security, he had interacted well with him and gathered a few important facts about him. He got the job.

How many among us stay for several months and even years with some members of our church and don't even know their names? We interact with people, and only care about knowing well those who benefit us in some way. We want to gain the favor of the great and have no business with those who occupy the so called 'least' positions. We are eager to impress those who can promote us and neglect those who don't hold influential positions. We greet our bosses with great smiles, big as a duck's  smile, yet we don't even say 'hie' to the cleaners and security guards of that same institution. This is vanity of vanities says 'Gwizi The Motivator.' Hypocrisy of it's highest order. Let's put our houses in order and be sweet to everyone! (Gwizi is an inspirational author and speaker who has written over a hundred inspirational articles for various newspapers and magazines; and has been a guest speaker on a number of radio stations.

Send your feedback to gwizimotivator@yahoo.com