Odd comment during recent interview....whats your take?

[Belmont31R]

Got interviewed by a guy who said he was in the Navy so a vet also...I had a binder with my military records, education, blah blah blah. He saw I had my awards and such from across the table but never looked at them, and said, "Everyone who's been in the military has the same crap." Never met the guy before, this was maybe 2 minutes into the interview, and at this point he doesn't know much about me. Not saying I really do have anything special as far as awards or anything but he doesn't know me from anyone else. There are a lot of people out there with higher awards, purple hearts, not everyone has deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan (Iraq only for me X2)....my last 1SG I had never deployed when he took over my company in 2007. So, no, not everyone has the 'same crap', and even though I didn't do anything special compared to what other recent Iraq/Afghan vets have earned that comment still rubbed me the wrong way. Obviously still bugging me 2 weeks later...I guess I should just take everything I earned and throw it in the trash if everyone has the same shit right?


Didn't go to well otherwise. Everything I said he shot down in some way. He asked if I handle stress well, and I half jokingly said I've got twin 4 year old boys at home. He then went on a minute long lecture about how that wasn't stressful. Oh ok I guess its not....


Guess its a good thing I never heard back from them...

[6933]

My take is the guy was a douche. Don't think he has kids either.

[ALCOAR]

I don't care who you are, or what you have done....to degrade a service member's/vet's awards in any manner is absolutely territory for bitch slapping a little intelligence and class into some mis-informed, disrespectful needledick.

Thank goodness you didn't get a call back or whatever, no place that has that type of cat in charge of a very important position is gonna be worth a damn anyway. A service member's military service by it's nature is easily one of the most hire able traits I could find on a resume. You ain't gotta smoke Taliban in the Hindu Kush in order to receive the awesome discipline and skills for life that military service provides. Give that dick a pink shirt and call the code pink card on his ghey ass.

[Redhat]

I don't like to burn bridges but...

Depending on the situation, once I felt it was going no where I might have had to express my opinion of him and his attitude as I was leaving.

[Cincinnatus]

What sort of interview was this? A newspaper story? An Oral History project?

[rob_s]

What sort of job was this for?

I have come across more than a few vets looking for work in the civilian sector that seem surprised that their service isn't seen as more of an asset. I'm not sure if the military is mis-representing things to new recruits and those about to be discharged or what, but IME with bosses and hiring folks they may pay lip service to caring about military service at most and dismiss it after that. If it's someone completely ignorant of military people and recent discharges they start thinking about media reports of PTSD, possible re-activation taking away their new hire, etc.

Not saying I agree with their attitude, just saying that it seems like someone is giving people a false impression of their perceived "worth".

[Cincinnatus]

Oh, so this was a job interview--sorry, didn't pick that up at first.

[Redhat]

Rob,

Thinking that way is one thing. Expressing your opinion in the manner reported is just plain disrespectful and unwarranted.

[Cincinnatus]

As far as veteran experience being discounted in a job interview goes, it depends on what field you're trying to get into. I have had some recent experiences applying for some civilian jobs with the military, and in those cases, there is a points preference system that give veterans preferred selection over other applicants--for instance, you get 10 points for a purple heart, 5 for service during the Gulf War, etc.
In fact, it is very difficult to get some of these jobs (depending on the selection criteria dictated by the hiring program) UNLESS one is a veteran. And some of these are plumb jobs with great benefits, etc.
http://jobs.faa.gov/p_Vet_Pref_Info.htm

[rob_s]

Rob,

Thinking that way is one thing. Expressing your opinion in the manner reported is just plain disrespectful and unwarranted.

Well, of course. But such is life. We are confronted with people expressing opinions we don't like in disrespectful and unwarranted ways every day. From what I've seen, the opinion isn't the exception, and may be the majority, so I'm just curious where the disconnect comes from.