I looked up when she came in the door, this girl in her twenties wearing jeans and an old tee shirt, blond hair pulled back in a messy pony tail.
“Can I help you?” I asked, thinking I sounded like a stereotypical sales girl.
“Uh, yeah.” She leaned forward against the counter between us. “Do you have any job openings?”
Since it’s not my place to make personnel decisions, I told her when Those in Charge would return. “Or,” I added, trying to be helpful, “You could always drop off a resume.”
Her eyes lit up. Ah. This was the perfect solution. “Great! Where can I get one?”
For a second, I couldn’t speak. Perhaps I’d had an advantage, as the daughter of small business owners, but this seemed like common knowledge. Then I reminded myself that she probably thought I meant to say “an application”. I tried to decide how to phrase this tactfully, in case she truly had misspoken.
“Well, actually, I’m not sure where the applications are,” I told her slowly, thinking aloud, putting a bit more emphasis on applications. “But if you write up your resume, then you can come back with it.”
She wrinkled her brow in confusion. Okay, so apparently it was possible that someone in her mid-twenties might not know what a resume was. Maybe she’d never needed one before. But she must have had other jobs. I tried again. “You know. A resume? Where you list all the jobs you’ve had?”
“Oh. Okay.” Her eyes drifted toward her hands. The left moved vigorously, picking at the cuticle on her right thumb. Then she looked up. “By the way, what do you guys do here? I’ve done lots of cashiering. I have tons and tons of experience with it.”
I glanced around the room, which held plenty of evidence of our products. Itching to explain the finer points of job-hunting — including dressing professionally, researching the company, and preparing the appropriate paperwork — I summoned up a kindly smile and briefly outlined our tasks, none of which included working the ancient cash register hunched on the counter between us.
“That sounds fun!” she chirped, swinging her sagging pony tail in her enthusiasm. “I’d like that a lot.”
Moments later she skipped out the door, full of cheerful promises that she would return later that afternoon to pick up an application. I never saw her again. Perhaps getting a job the traditional way just turned out to be too much work.
Damn….I’m still technically in my teens and I know what a resume is, yeesh. I might have actually laughed at the poor woman. Tact seems to be a strong point of yours, Caryn.
That is just a little bit scary.
Wow. That leaves me almost speechless. But perhaps the girl was trying not to admit to a problem, possibly literacy. Or perhaps she had no work experience.
@Alyssa – Glad you think so. I just felt mean for having sarcastic thoughts. (Um, ahem, not to mention writing up the incident…) But at least I was nice to her face. So that must count for something. Right?
@Soleil Noir – Oh, THANK YOU! I am so glad to know that at least 50% of my sample size (you and, um, the girl in the story) knows what a resume is. This is very good news indeed, especially if I ever need to hire somebody. Which, honestly, I probably never will. But still.
@Kit Courteney – I’m with you on that one, Kit! I’m just hoping she’s a very, very rare exception.
@Mary – Oh, good point! I hadn’t thought about the literacy thing. Maybe she has learning difficulties or somesuch. And as for the work experience, maybe she didn’t need a resume to be a cashier? Just so hard to picture. I’m not sure I’ve ever *not* needed a resume for a job, but then I’ve never been a cashier.
That is beyond sad. I can’t imagine even LOOKING for a job without being prepared, and knowing exactly what I was applying for. YOW. I feel bad for the girl, though. You know next time you visit your favorite fast food establishment, you will see her smiling face!
Wow. Just wow.
p.s. I can’t help but wonder about her parents.
It’s sad to say, but she may just do fine job hunting. Why? She’s young, female and cute. I’ve worked for a place as a receptionist (I’m really good with front desk work) but was immediately shuttled to a back office when a younger, quite young, gal who was very cute (especially because she wore low rider jeans so you could see her tramp stamp) showed up wanting a job. The reason? Young cute females bring in more biz, or so my bosses said. That’s all they have to be.
This was a professional office–if you were over 30, then pro dress (pants suits ok). But she always wore baby-doll t’s and low rider jeans!
So now, I’m cynical. And of course, she was a very nice young woman who would not be young forever.
I think I have a relative like that, only he’s more talkative. 🙂
I read through this thinking of several things. First, I enjoy your writing:-) Beyond that, I left a corporate office of about 120 people in the 90’s and they had a policy to hire people as temps. The first test for everyone was they had to file. If they could put things in alphabetical order they were invited back the second day. About a month ago I met a girl in her early 20’s and she didn’t know what a flash drive was. She could see it and had no idea what it was for and she works. Unbelievable to me. Another thought entered my mind about this girl you’re describing. I’m the suspicious type and of course I didn’t see her, but is it possible she was casing the place? Sounds like she was fishing for info, playing games or distracting you.
I’m totally baffled by people like that. How have they managed to survive so long? Really?