Bad Interview:
(Knock, Knock, Knock)

Susan: Hi I am Susan Smith with Office Technology. May I help you?
Terri: Yeah I am Terri Utermholen, I'm your 11:00 appointment for the interview for 
Regional Sales.
Susan: I don't think we have any position open in that area.  Can I maybe get you an 
application or something to fill out and if something comes up I'll give you a call? 
Terri: Well your secretary confirmed my appointment this morning.  There must be some 
kind of confusion.
Susan: You know maybe there is, I'm sorry.  She might have forgotten to tell me that.  So 
why don't you come on in and we'll sit down and chat for a few minutes.  I apologize for 
the confusion.
Terri: Okay.  I brought another resume with me.
Susan: We can sit down for a minute. 

(Susan proceeds to offer help by grabbing the back of Terri's arm, Terri asks if she can 
just take Susan's arm.)

Susan: Let me help you.
Terri: Okay if you could just let me take your arm.  It's easier.
Susan: Okay, I'm sorry. There is a chair right there.
Terri: Okay.

(The sit down)

Susan: Okay lets see here.  I'm just going to take a look at your resume.  So you are 
interested in the regional consultant position, is that correct?
Terri: Yes ma'am.
Susan: I guess let’s start off by you telling me a little bit about yourself.  Do you have any 
experience in this area, selling office supplies and technology?
Terri: Yes for the past five years I've been working for a very similar company on the 
West Coast.  But my husband got another job in this area and we had to move.  It was just 
too good of an opportunity to pass up so I'm looking for a job now.
Susan: What did you do at that position out West?
Terri: Well it was a very similar job to this one.  I did a lot of consumer contact, you 
know a lot of talking to people about various equipment, I did training, represented the 
companies in sales meetings.  That kind of stuff.  Traveled around the state.
Susan: Well I don't know how much you know about our company but we are rather 
large and hold several contracts up and down the east coast. I guess what concerns me is 
we have a really huge inventory of products and you really have to know a lot about our 
products in order to meet the requirements of this job.  
Terri: Well actually I've spent a lot of the last week looking through your website and any 
other available materials I could get and your inventory is very similar to the company I 
worked for on the West Coast.  I'd say I probably intimately know about 80% of your 
stock.  I have some things that I might need a little more experience with but I taught a lot 
of how to use a lot of the equipment, did a lot of training with it and feel pretty 
comfortable that I understand it.  
Susan: Well you know to be honest with you I just don't know about this, it appears to me 
that you would probably have some difficulty with this job just because you are blind and 
all.  You are blind, right?
Terri: Yeah, I'm blind.  I do require some accommodations in my job work or have had 
some accommodations in my old job but just some adaptive technology.  And I've had 
some reader services so there are some things that needed to be a little different for me.  
You know you can see from my resume that I have performance awards, I've gotten our 
company a lot of contracts.  I really love the job I wouldn't have left if this weren't such a 
great opportunity for my husband.  I don't think my blindness has anything to do with 
whether or not I can do it.
Susan: Well you mentioned there that you would need accommodations.  I mean, that 
sounds awfully expensive.  When you start talking about accommodations your talking 
about computer and software and all kinds of stuff that is usually pretty expensive and we 
don't, really our budget is pretty tight with the recession and all that is going on in the 
world these days.  So if you needed any accommodations we probably would have to ask 
you to pay for those.  You know, we just don't have a lot of extra cash to provide a lot of 
technology but my other concern is that how can you answer questions from the 
customers regarding the products if you can't see the product.  How are you going to be 
able to give the customers the information that they need and interact with them 
effectively?
Terri: The only thing I can tell you is that I've been doing this successfully for the last 
five years.  I have a tremendous memory, I use the Internet a lot, I use email a lot, I have 
access to specifications of all the different pieces of equipment and I have been able to 
teach people how to use it and be very familiar with the inventory that we have.  As I said 
earlier I don't think my blindness will impede my ability to be an asset to your company.
Susan: You know what I probably need to get from you are some references from 
previous employers or a list of references to contact and take a look at that.  We also have 
a bunch of other folks coming in to apply for this position so I need to ofcourse consider 
them as well and then I'll try and get back with you after we talk with them and make our 
decision.  How does that sound?
Terri: That would be fine.  I'll be happy to send you my references.
Susan: Okay, well, thanks a lot for coming in.  I appreciate you taking the time.
Terri: Nice meeting you, let me grab my cane.
Susan: Do you need any help getting downstairs or anything? 
Terri: No I'm fine thanks.
Susan: Okay. 
Susan: Thanks a lot.
Terri: Thank you.