What I saw at the job fair

 Last Wednesday I was in Baltimore for the day for an annual checkup with my rheumatologist. These travel days involve lots of work in the airport with Ubers back and forth to Hopkins. After reluctantly concluding BWI no longer has many food options outside of security, I set up shop in the Starbucks and immediately found myself in the middle of a job fair. (The organizers must have been dying to ask me to leave; there was a long line of applicants and every other table was taken by an interview. But I wasn't budging from the electric outlet.)

Typing away on deadline, I listened in on the interviews – I could hardly not, given the proximity -- and sneaked peeks at the candidates and interviewers. The jobs in contention seemed to be in food service and airport facilities – minimum wage or hopefully above. More than half the applicants appeared to be under 25.

At the table next to me, the woman was filling spots for shifts that start at 6AM. She asked a lot about the candidates’ ability to get there on time, especially given the unreliability of Baltimore’s Light Rail system. No surprise this appeared to be a chronic obstacle for managers.She also asked about the applicant’s ability to work on weekends. Most of the candidates said they were only available on a limited basis on weekends – many, due to childcare responsibilities. But sitting at the nexus between Boomer and Gen X, I was astonished to hear a few candidates say the weekends were their free time. As a Gen Z parent, I know how protective they are of their time, and rightfully so. But to state in a job interview that weekends are for free time? How things have changed from the last time I interviewed for this type of job.

The interviewer seemed to particularly like one guy. They had people in common, had worked at many of the same places. They laughed a lot. Then she asked him why he left his last job. “Oh, I got fired,” he said. She deflated visibly. “Aw, man, don’t tell me that. What happened?” He said he had been late. “Like, a lot of times?” she asked. He allowed as it had been persistent. Again, I was astonished. She wanted to hire him. And it was doubtful she would have checked references. Wasn’t there another way to characterize the way he left?

A neat and trim older man was my favorite candidate. He had a lovable demeanor and seemed to have a charming outlook on life. She asked about his availability. He pointed at her clipboard and said, “Wherever you need me, that’s where I am.”

He would surely be a major asset in a customer-facing role – or any other role.But then she asked how old was. “Sixty-two,” he said. And she asked if he could lift 25 pounds. He said he could. She thanked him for his time. The whole interview had taken two or three minutes.

People inside HR and out – what do you think? Would a little finessing have been amiss? Any thoughts on how Gen Z approaches job interviews? What about the older candidate getting short shrift?