Farm Aid was held this past weekend again, and the news took me back to a job interview in 1985. I hadn’t heard of Farm Aid yet. By the end of that interview, I would be working on the very first one.
Dennis Vercler, my would-be boss, looked embarrassed as he explained the problem.
“I know you’re here for a job interview, but we’ve had a situation come up—”
Perhaps he saw the disappointment on my face. Or perhaps he had second thoughts.
“Oh, heck. I don’t think this meeting will last long. Why don’t you come and sit in?”
I was game. I wanted to work in the Illinois Farm Bureau’s public relations department, and sitting in on a meeting was better than going home without an interview.
I’d reached Dennis through a handwritten thank-you note. After interviewing with the Farm Bureau’s sister organization, County Companies, I had written to thank the manager for his time. A few days later, he heard Dennis was hiring and passed along my name with a good word.
Now Dennis and I wound through a rabbit warren of work carrels toward the conference room.
“Have you ever heard of something called Farm Aid?” he asked.
I hadn’t. I knew about Live Aid, though, and I was about to learn a great deal about charity concerts.
Dennis introduced me to five men from the public relations department, all wearing suits and ties. I was dressed in business attire, too, which in those days meant doing my best to look like a man in a feminine way. If you’re too young to understand that, don’t fret. It’s complicated.
Once we were seated, a secretary brought in a young woman wearing chinos, cowboy boots, and a plaid shirt with pearl buttons on the pockets. Her hair was short, her build sturdy, and she looked terrified.
They offered her the chair at the head of the table. Instead, she took the empty seat beside me
.
As the meeting began, she angled herself toward me and spoke almost as though the two of us were alone. I nodded, asked questions, and encouraged her to go on. I suspect I looked like a friendly face in a room where she felt out of place.
She was from TNN, The Nashville Network. She explained that they were working with Willie Nelson on a concert called Farm Aid, inspired by Live Aid. They could bring musicians together and draw the attention of entertainment publications. But the concert was meant to do more than entertain. They wanted people to understand what American farm families were facing.
For that, they needed public relations help: brochures, commercials, speeches, press materials, background information, photographs, and video. Would the Illinois Farm Bureau be interested?
Of course it would. Farm families were the people the organization represented. This was a chance to help tell their story accurately, in their own terms, to an enormous audience.
We left the meeting feeling good. Before a secretary escorted our visitor out, she turned to me.
“Will you be here for the next meeting?”
“Um, I hope so,” I said.
When I turned back to Dennis, he rolled his eyes.
“Now we have no choice but to hire you!”
And so he did. That’s how I ended up working on the first Farm Aid.
And folks say that being nice doesn’t pay off. I’m here to tell you that it certainly does!
Have you had a similar situation?
Lots of love, Joanna
My first "real" job had a similar vibe. My employment agency kept sending me out on secretarial-type interviews and my wholly inaccurate typing topped out at about 7 wpm. The "standard" interview test everyone was using included three quotations, of which you were supposed to match two as being similar. With my inquiring mind, I could find comparisons among all of them, so kept guessing wrongly--finally asked which two were supposed to match, and why! Fortunately I remembered when I did the test this time, and scored 100% on the test. Apparently it was the first time anyone had done so at this company, and I actually did my interview with the president of the company--and got a job as a "rate technician" instead of a typist! (Better pay!) This would have been at least a decade before your interview...
I had a phone interview once with a woman who was dealing with a cancer diagnosis. Somehow, though I was supposed to be interviewed for the job, I ended up providing support to her. We really connected and I felt like I was doing what was the most important thing but I never did really get around to discussing my qualifications. I left that call feeling like I'd just had either the best or worst interview of my life. I guess it was best because I got the job. Unfortunately, I only met her in person once as she passed shortly after I reported to the position.