Objection...stupid questions

Finally starting to feel better after being knocked on my butt by strep throat. I wouldn't wish that on anyone...well, wait....on second thought, there are a few people who I'd love to see suffer.

Ok, anyway...moving on...

I had an interview yesterday. It was by far one of the strangest and most irritating interviews I've ever been a part of.

I was being interviewed by a board of trustees for this local association. Let me preface this by stating, these men are all business owners of some sort - they are all professionals. As such, one would expect some sort of professionalism and maybe, just maybe, some relevant questions.

Here's what I got:

One of the board members was yawning throughout the entire interview (all 15 minutes of it). Yeah, I said yawning. And it wasn't the hand-over-the-mouth-God-I-hope-nobody-saw-that kind of yawn. Nope. It was a YAWN -- open mouth, arms outstretched, light moaning added in for extra effect type of yawn. And this didn't happen just once or twice...it happened at least FIVE times! It was unbelievable to say the least. I was about ready to offer to get the guy a Red Bull to wake him up.

As for the actual "interview" -- well, I wasn't asked anything relevant - such as: What can you bring to the position? or What ideas do you have for bringing in new members? Nothing. Zero. Zip.

Instead, I got: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Where do I see myself in five years? How the hell am I supposed to answer that? I can barely figure out where I'm going to be in 5 minutes, let alone five years. And really, isn't that something that a high school guidance counselor asks, not an interviewer? Geez. Either way, I said basically that I don't think it's useful to try and plan that far ahead because situations are always changing.

And then the kicker: "What were you doing in the time between leaving your old job and teaching?"

Let me explain why this irritates me. First of all, it was only a 10-month period between leaving (read: being terminated when I was 7-months pregnant) my old job (October 2003) and starting to teach (August 2004). Secondly, it's not anyone's business what I was doing. My answer - "I was having a baby" - took the whole board by surprise, I think. One of them actually laughed a bit and said "well, I guess that answers the question."

But seriously, what if I had said - "I was in the hospital having chemo for 10 months" - what would they have said then? Or what if I had said - "I was sitting at home collecting unemployment, eating bon-bons and catching up on all my soaps on SoapNet" - how do you think that would've gone over?

Once again, it's just not relevant what I was doing. The relevant stuff - what skills do I possess, what can I bring to the job - none of this was addressed.

Needless to say, I was more than disappointed in the interview.