a scott applying for a job ***the Wakefield Doctrine*** it makes the bad things funny! | the Wakefield Doctrine a scott applying for a job ***the Wakefield Doctrine*** it makes the bad things funny! | the Wakefield Doctrine

a scott applying for a job ***the Wakefield Doctrine*** it makes the bad things funny!

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

The third in our 3 part series, today’s Post looks at the strengths and the weaknesses of the scottian personality type, in a job interview. In the previous two examples, we watched a clark contain his fear and cover up his natural blue-ness1 and we witnessed the self-assuredness of a roger remain intact, despite being totally out of her natural environment. Now it is time to see what the Doctrine can offer the scottian personality type.

Scenario C: Manufacturing Environment:

…the Human Resources Offices of a local manufacturer of in-ground swimming pools,  you are here to Interview for a job as a welder. You have an Associate Degree in drafting from the Community College but your work history since getting out of school has been a bit…sketchy?  You have had little trouble getting a job, but seem to have a problem staying in the job… a variety of reasons but you always look back and know that they ‘just don’t have a sense of humor/are way to rigid with the rules. A variety of jobs, including small engine repair, qua hogging, short order cook and weekend relief counselor at the local detox (you once went out with the Night Supervisor). To make things interesting, the job you are applying for today, is one that you held for a short time two years prior. You lost that job for refusing to apologize to the Manager of your Department for your speaking pidgin English for an entire day. ( the Company was owned by a Japanese conglomerate but has since been bought by a lock group of business men). A former girl friend let you know about the change in ownership of the company, because “she can’t get over me” as you would relate the story to your friends, any time you met a person who asked what was new.

And so, you’ve got an Interview with the  Human Resources Manager and the Fabricating Department Foreman.
(…. oh!  do we need to mention that you are a scott?)

(First Interaction)

Your appointment is at 8:00 am in the factory Business Office. As you walk in the back door of the plant, past the time clock, for no apparent reason you begin to  feel uncomfortable,  almost anxious. The feeling grows as you walk along, waving to people on the shop floor that you know, so you decide to sing an old Hank Williams song (Your Cheatin Heart). You find that as people look up from their stations at you, you are starting to feel better, so you sing louder as you come up to the door of the Production Offices.  Opening the door and stepping out of the noise and smells of the factory floor, the first thing  you see as you walk into the outer office  is a middle-aged woman wearing reading glasses, too much makeup. She is shouting into her phone (which has one of those old ‘chin rest’ things, so you can free up both hands), her desk is piled high with Vendor Catalogues, Invoices for Supplies-Materials and a Tray Marked: Time Cards.  You immediately feel at ease, end your singing with “…you’ll walk the floor the way I do” and wave your copy of the Job Application at her.  Briefly glancing up, she  points at the door on the opposite side of the room.

Do you:

  • Wait for more explicit instructions from the Secretary
  • Feel that it would be best that you present your Application to the Secretary, even though she has not stopped her phone-shouting
  • Laugh, open the inner office door and walk in without knocking

The Question: if you are a scott:

  1. what is your mood
  2. what do you think is the most effective strategy to be sure of getting your old job back and
  3. which of the three personality types is the Secretary?

(Second Interaction)

…you walk through the door and find yourself in a conference room. There is a large rectangular table with 3 chairs on one side and only one chair on the other. Two people are seated on one side, a middle-aged man and a young woman. You immediately recognize the man as the Shop Foreman, the very same Shop Foreman who ran the department when you last worked at this company. As to the young woman, you don’t have a clue.

Do you:

  • ask if you have the right office?
  • say loudly, ‘Hey! Lou how you been? The last time I saw you, you were just the Foreman! Moving up in the world!
  • …straighten your clip-on tie, ignore the middle-aged man and address the young woman as if you were just introduced by a friend at a party
The Question: if you are a scott:
  1. which of the above is likely to be your initial reaction and
  2. which, of the three actions above, should be your reaction, in order to increase your chances of being successful in this Interview?
1) blue monkey is a reference to a clark’s tendency to accentuate their outsider status, rather than to try and blend in
Share

clarkscottroger About clarkscottroger
Well, what exactly do you want to know? Whether I am a clark or a scott or roger? If you have to ask, then you need to keep reading the Posts for two reasons: a)to get a clear enough understanding to be able to make the determination of which type I am and 2) to realize that by definition I am all three.* *which is true for you as well, all three...but mostly one

Comments

  1. Downspring#1 says:

    HEY! ANYBODY HOME! REALLY?……

    The scott will: “Laugh, open the inner office door and walk in without knocking”. He’s feeling pretty good… got attention (reaction) going in from the people on the floor…..
    As to the most effective stategy? Tough. (I have to guess as I am not in scottian mode.) I would say the scott is going to be confident to the point of being cocky. He will point out that he already knows the job, the place (having worked there before), he’s good and they would be stupid not to hire him.
    The secretary is most likely a roger.

    2nd interaction
    1) a scott’s initial reaction most likely would be: “say loudly, ‘Hey! Lou how you been? The last time I saw you, you were just the Foreman! Moving up in the world!”
    Risky,but he is making the challenge/play for ranking in the room.
    2) Is this a trick question?! LOL

  2. Molly Molly M. says:

    I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around this scenario… It seems to me, there are far too many management people for a welding shop. This must be a serious manufacturing plant… :)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      …yeah, I wasn’t sure about the female clark being in the interview. Too inquisitorial. I totally stand behind the scottian woman shouting into the phone in the outer office, I have personally know people like this (either Rita or Stella)…but I succumbed to the desire to get a roger and a clark in front of the scott for the Interview ( which would have to include ‘an accounting’ of our scott’s previous tenure at the plant).
      I am open to anyone writing something that either gets her out of the conference room in a hurry or makes the 2 Interviewer scenario a little more plausible.

  3. RCoyne RCoyne says:

    In spite of new ownership, won’t the foreman not only remember the scott, but also recall how effectively he shot himself in the foot previously? If the foreman is an optimistic roger, he might just believe that the scott has changed in a short time. If he’s a cynical roger, then the scott is all done as soon as he gets through the doorway. If the foreman is a clark, maybe the Affinity might get him through somehow. If the decision-maker is the woman instead, then you should re-calculate everything, or better yet, turn this thing over to the LAWD.
    (Ladies Auxiliary of the Wakefield Doctrine)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      you saying you want a Venn diagram, binyon?

      sort of

      or would you rather we said:

      no, this is not really a Venn diagram…hey, it's a frickin blog! what do you want?

  4. Molly Molly M. says:

    I’m thinking it really depends on the shop and how it is doing currently… and how much the scott contributed to the well being of the shop previously. Sometimes the question is, “Can they afford NOT to hire the person?”
    –I’ve seen this in real life many times.

  5. Downspring#1 says:

    My head is still reeling from those fabulous diagrams. LOL

    Foreman roger, woman scott = scott gets the job.
    Foreman clark, woman scott = good chance scott gets the job
    Foreman roger, woman clark = foreman will do the opposite of what the clarklike female suggests
    This last scenario is the only one in which there is a possibility that the scott does not get the job

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      good call on the (last) scenario…I was thinking that the woman should be a clark (perhaps the daughter of the new Owners of the business…back from college where she completed her understudy work in ‘Advanced ASL for Cats and Dogs’. The question will be, in light of the Wakefield Doctrine Guide to Job Interview Strategy* will our scott correctly identify the true Decision Maker?

      *trademark pre-pending