Job interview

Once I got an invitation for a job interview in a management position. The job description was to manage a small group of about five people. It was a technical team and I practically had all the qualifications for that role. I spoke English, had graduated from a good university, knew well the systems that the company wanted me to manage. Among many other things. There was one slight obstacle. I was too young, I was around 25 years old at that time.

Trying to look older

I was aware of that limitation. To make me look older, a few days before the interview I tried to grow a beard. I looked at myself at the mirror, and didn’t like the result. Somehow it made me look even younger, like a proud teenager finally showing some facial hair. I took it off right before the meeting. I thought, if they consider me fit for this job, my age will not prevent me from being hired. For some reason, I felt empowered by this thought. I was confident I would pull it off.

Creating rapport

The interview started well, I created rapport with the people assigned to meet me. As expected, I was polite, even charming. I answered all the questions that they asked, even the difficult technical ones. Looking in retrospect, I think they were more thorough than they would normally be. Maybe they were trying to find some flaw that would prevent them from stating the obvious. But honestly, they didn’t find anything.

We will keep in touch

At the end of the interview they asked me how would my management style be. I think I answered it to the best of my ability at that time. I gave examples of situations that happened in my earlier job then. They were listening attentively. Then they mentioned what I was expecting all along, the age problem. They were very candid and said that they thought that it would be a challenge. Some of the team members were much older than I was, like 15 or 20 years older. They thought they wouldn’t respect me enough and would even resent being supervised by someone so young. But as most job interviews end, they would keep in touch.

This experience changed my perspective at my future employments. When people tried to dismiss my lack of experience, I would show them why that was not so. I was very meticulous in my documentation efforts, I kept track of my achievements, and made sure to highlight my discipline in year-end evaluations. It took a few years, but I got more respect in my area despite my young age.

But one thing I got from this job interview experience. I always tried to look at my colleagues beyond their age. On both sides of the spectrum. This allowed me to work with very good people, independent of their generation.