The Kind of Girl Who … scratches your back

NTKOG #5: The kind of slimy wink&nudger who starts offering to call in favors and pull strings for even the slightest of acquaintances — or, hell, strangers, while we’re at it!

I am: always happy to do a favor for anyone, that’s true, and once I know people even decently well, usually fall all over myself offering what I can think of to make people’s live easier. But friends only, because there is nothing I find more revolting than over-familiarity.

I am not: even that well-connected to begin with, anyway.

The Scene: Job interview with a temp agency. I’ve spoken to the agent a few times on the phone and she seemed nice in a sort of coarse, raspy way. I get into the office on time (barely!, after accidentally getting off at the wrong subway stop) and wait in the foyer sweating my brains out through my ears in a full suit. The only breeze is the flapping of the loose, flowing cotton skirts and blouses of every other woman in the building. Whoops. After twenty minutes and the sweating still hasn’t stemmed (gross, I know), I figured, eh, I’m already a mess. Let’s see if we can have some fun.

Finally, my employment agent comes to usher me to her office (just in time, as I’ve offically downgraded from full-on sweat to a mere glow), and we chat for a while. It’s going well but not spectacularly, when she asks about my professional experience in tutoring and college admissions. I give her the rundown:

NTKOG: I tutored SAT I and II, ISEE, ACT, taught writing and essays — pretty much anything you could think of.
EA: Does that include college admissions essays?
NTKOG: I did some of that too, definitely, and some of it freelance.
EA: That’s wonderful. I have a daughter going through that now. She’s supposed to be writing it this morning.

Okay, so, to me this sounds like normal chitchat — certainly not like a networking or career activity. And who am I to insert myself into complicated mother/daughter academic dynamics? I’m Not That Kind of Girl.

NTKOG: If you’d like, you should send it over to me when you’re done for a little feedback.
EA: Would you really do that?
NTKOG: Absolutely! I can’t promise the world, but I can definitely give some input and help clean up some grammar.
EA: Wow, I definitely will.

The Verdict: Later in the interview, she told me that I “seem older than my age, more confident” and come off as a “self-starter.” If that wasn’t proof enough, she later said I’m a good communicator because, unlike other girls of my generation, I never say like. Um, lady, are you for real? I have the thickest valley girl accent one can legally possess outside of a Mary Kate & Ashley lip gloss focus group.

It seems to me that showing a little bit of (slightly intrusive, in my opinion) initiative helped her see me in a good light. Or at least put on the interview goggles enough to blind her to a few of my faults. Score.

While I was leaving the office about an hour later, after taking some tests and talking to a few other employees, she popped out of her office to say goodbye and thank me again for offering to look at the essay. I reminded her I’d be happy to do it, and mentioned it again when I emailed her my resume a few hours later.

So the back-scratching: although it felt a bit awkward to me and I wouldn’t do it in every situation, when there’s sufficient context, I would definitely be assertive about doing this again.

Tagged as: favor, how to succeed in business without really trying, interview, job, resume