Fuck GE

I wanted this job very badly.

From what I know about the company, it had the ideal corporate culture and values, a lot of which I stand for. I thought it had the perfect environment in which my career could thrive, where I can show the company what I can do.

That's why I jumped, or more like flew, at the opportunity to interview with them on-campus in Miami for their Financial Management Program (FMP). It is a rotational training program that gives you the experience, training, and insight into their company in order to become one of their future leaders. This is done mainly through four six-month assignments covering a broad range of the company's businesses. From what the company advertises its website, it does not require experience as much as good academic standing, communication, and leadership skills.

Finally, a way into a company.

Then, the interview finally came. There are three types of job interviewers:

1. Old-school: The kind that does it the old-fashioned way by going over your resume and asking you questions about your experiences.
   
   
2. Behavioral: They make up the majority of interviewers, because behavioral questions are all the rage these days. They basically ask for personal anecdotes through questions such as, "Tell me a time when you had to persuade an entire group. What did you do?" These questions give them a better idea of the person you are through the way you respond to situations.
   
   
3. Kung Fu Trial: In order to advance to the next stage, you must risk death by fighting through a trial of strength, skill, agility, and endurance. These interviewers will attack and try to discredit you at every turn to ensure that their candidate is the fittest of the herd.

Guess which interviewer I got? I realized it when the first thing the interviewer said was that he wasn't convinced that the FMP was right for me because I don't have a "solid" financial background like the other candidates, so I don't seem committed to the area of finance.

I was taken aback by the harshness of the statement (though I didn't show it), but I remembered that I must have gotten the interview for a reason, and nowhere did it say that this program requires experience. I know I was going to have to fight for this job with every ounce of willpower and determination. He may have knocked me down on the mat, but I got up before the ref could even count to one. I have more than what it takes to punch back.

Bring it on.

I defended myself by saying that even if the other candidates have a "solid" financial background, their thinking is confined to within their department of finance. What the company attributes its success to, despite running diverse businesses, is its ability to function as one whole system rather than a sum of different businesses, which compete against one another for a piece of the corporate budget (a.k.a. a "conglomerate"). Through my broad experiences, I can offer this "holistic thinking" that no other candidate can. Furthermore, I dedicated the time and effort of my MBA studies in the concentration of finance, what more proof do you need that I'm serious about this!?

Then the interviewer threw the "cheap shot" of saying that I wasn't able to find a full-time job in five months. I explained my situation that I'm being shut out of companies through the Work Experience Catch-22 (though not in those exact words), and that the FMP is my way in to prove what I can do for the company. Lest I piss him off, I fell short of pointing out that his assumption - that the interval of time between graduation and employment is directly proportional to laziness - is invalid. In retrospect, I probably should have shot him down thus anyway.

Throughout the interview, I did my best to show my enthusiasm, my energy, and my determination. I didn't just show him a spark in my eye, I showed him the inferno. I really want this job, and I would do anything to get in and show you that I have the passion to drive the change in this dynamic company.

The interviewer concluded by saying that I was "untraditional". For a company that prides itself on innovation and thinking "outside the box", I thought this was the highest compliment I could receive. He told me that he'll get back to me in a week or two.

I felt good after that interview, even if I still don't expect to land the job because it was just too good for me to be true. I was so pumped leaving the career center that I was ready to pick a fight with anyone. It pays to eat a Powerbar before a job interview.

---

They sent me an automated PFO letter after two days.

Even though I didn't expect to get accepted, I was still dumbfounded at how quickly they wrote me off after the fight I put up at the interview. Worse, because it was a cookie-cutter-template-automated PFO (Please Fuck Off) letter, they wouldn't explain why. I was left to merely speculate, and the only conjectures I could think up was me being "untraditional", my work experience, or my MBA because they were mainly looking for undergrads.

I could hardly believe that being what the interviewer described as "untraditional" is what got me rejected. After all, the company attributes its success on innovation, and even sports the slogan, "Imagination at work." If all the company is looking for is "traditional" people, then how could it be the innovative, unconventional business that could capitalize on its engine of creativity? Even worse, how could a company stay innovative for long if the staff delegated to recruiting its future does not share those very ideals on which the company prides itself?

Which came to the all-too-familiar issue of work experience. After a couple of years of this, I'm really starting to get sick of this. They advertised their requirements as "Less than 1 year full-time external work experience", which is pretty much covered by my summer internship in China during my MBA studies. I wanted to get into the FMP to gain experience, as is the program's purpose.

I'll save my rant about being shut out of companies on the basis of work experience for later. All I have to say about it is that although experience is a good indicator of the person's capabilities, it's not the whole picture. Any computer can determine how many years of experience a candidate has, but it takes an interviewer to determine if the candidate has important qualities like energy, passion, and even guts. For companies to tell people to fuck off because they don't have enough experience is just wrong, and they will pay for their mistake by missing out on a lot of good talent, and worse yet, to their competitors.

Finally, the fact that I have an MBA when they're looking for undergrads or in other words, I'm "overqualified", is perhaps the worst reason to turn me down. If the person is willing to do the job despite having to settle for a lower salary, GIVE HIM THE FUCKING JOB!!! Once again, I want to be in the FMP to gain experience like the other "normal" candidates. I get a lot from the program, and the company gets a lot out of me. Why the hell shut me out on a rigid technicality, "Imagination at work" company?

All in all, I couldn't help but think that I was already rejected before the interview was even scheduled, and that the recruiter just wanted to use me to fill up his quota, then using the interview as an opportunity to act like a total dick. This was a major disappointment because a company that I so looked up to had let me down.

General Electric, you're fired.