I showed up to the interview and the first thing I noticed was that the owner was by himself in a fairly big office during work hours. Before we sat down for the interview I asked if his staff was out on an install and he said no and laughed. I tend to assume the worst and thought to myself oh boy I hope this isn't a revolving door job. After introductions I quickly asked him how long he had been in business wondering if he had perhaps just opened up, because again the empty office was unusual. He then explained he had been in business for 4 years and started to boast about profits he had made and how in his fourth year he had made some bad hires and his business had experienced a slump due to this. He made it clear he was looking for someone with experience due to what he explained as a string of employees constantly messing up and losing customers. I believed him at this point but was a little skeptical as he was doing a lot of blaming on things and people for his loss of profit margins. In my experience a good Boss despite the shortcomings of employees tends to take on at least some accountability. The way he ranted was almost childlike. I ignored it and sympathized because he seemed like he needed to vent that out and I eventually shrugged it off giving him the benefit of the doubt. The interview went on and he gave off strong car salesman vibes and didn't know much about the technical side of the job and struggled to explain how he made signs and car graphics. Having worked in a sign and engraving shop before, I would fill in and help him out with explaining his own printers and machines. Eventually he changed his tone as he could tell I knew the industry to an extent and seemed excited that it was evident I had this experience he was looking for. I found this odd because my resume clearly stated I had 3 years experience, which tells me he probably didn't even really read my resume before interviewing. The interview ended after giving me a tour of the shop and while the interview wasn't horrible I just couldn't shake off the feeling something was just disingenuous. I googled the business immediately after the interview and sort of not to my surprise found out the place was a revolving door! In hindsight the red flags were everywhere. How do you run a print and sign shop not even understanding your own equipment??? He called back a couple of days later and I did not answer! Thank god for the internet.
