Future Proof

I have seen the future. And it interviews well.

Recently I had the privilege in participating in a morning of mock interviews at the local high school, designed to give students a taste of the world of job interviews in a relaxed setting.

Not that all of the students were relaxed: I had to admonish one for cracking his knuckles, and tell another that it was all right to take off her jacket and sit down.

As part of their English classes, these students (all seniors) had to prepare a resume, and although a few produced unintended smiles (“Objective: to gain a job.”), every resume was way ahead of what I would have been able to muster as a high school senior: honor rolls, community service projects, perfect attendance, lists of academic and civic achievements so lengthy that I wondered when some of the students found time to sleep.

Any parent would have been proud to claim any one of these boys and girls as his or her own.

What was most amazing to me is that many of them already knew what they wanted to do for a living: auto mechanic, doctor, dancer and dance instructor. (At age 16 I generally didn’t know what I wanted to do that weekend. let alone for the rest of my life.)

Organized by the Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce and the high school, the morning gave a few dozen young men and women the chance to learn some valuable job interviewing skills — beyond “Don’t crack your knuckles” — and understand that a job interview is more than the opportunity to be a supplicant (“Yes, you want to be offered the position. But you also have to get the information you need to decide if you want it.”)

 And, as one of the other adult interviewers put it, “We have to encourage these kids, because they’re the ones who are going to be paying our social security.”