Me, really? How did I get so lucky?

I am currently conducting interviews for an assistant to help me while a co-worker goes on maternity leave and then hopefully, this person can stay on even after she comes back, because I could certainly use some help.

This is a very entry level position and wont pay much, but still I am being pretty strict with the candidates I’m actually looking at. We had over 80 resumes come in for the part-time, entry level job. And I pretty much turned down about 60 right off the bat. Having a good resume AND cover letter is sooooo crucial. Ultimately we’ve chosen about 10 people to do phone screens with, and there are a few stellar candidates, but still, we’ll probably only bring in 3 – 4 people to do face to face interviews before hopefully finding just the right person.
This leads me to my topic, how in the world did I get my job?? Sure the job I applied for back in 2005 was for an Administrative Assistant for a much smaller organization back then, with only 5 staff and revenue of around $ 1.5 million annually. Free  Wheelchair Mission has a staff of 22 with a revenue of 6.1 million annually currently. But still, I imagine there were plenty of good candidates to choose from back when I applied. My resume could not have looked very impressive, I had ZERO experience in international non-profits, and not much actual work experience beyond waitressing, and a couple temp jobs. No internship, no long term volunteering, and a college degree with a major that is pretty much is useless. (American Studies, although I did minor in International Development, which might have helped.)

This is what I remember. I was called and asked to come in for an interview, much to my delight. Much to my dismay, it was requested that I come THAT day! I was already at my current job, doing billing for the company my mom works for, so it would have to on my lunch break, which was soon. Thankfully I was wearing a skirt that day, but I had on FLIP FLOPS. I was going to have to wear flip flops to a job interview, and not fancy flip flops, just regular old black worn flip flops! YIKES! I really had no time to research anything about the organization or position, beyond what I had seen upon applying. I literally had about an hour before I needed to leave for this interview. I made it to the interview, which I guess went ok, despite my lack of preparation and flip flops and then was called in for a second interview with Don Schoendorfer, the president and founder. He sat across the table from me and basically asked me who I was and what I wanted in life. I later learned that he was most impressed that I had graduated college with no debt and paid for almost all of it on my own. (Mom and Dad pitched in for the room and board one semester freshmen year so I could have the dorms experience, then again for a little tuition help in my very last semester, because I was OUT of money, not to mention other help with car repairs and such, they were lifesavers!) But I avoided having to get any loans. I didn’t mention to Don that BYU is one of the nation’s most affordable colleges, but still, I felt good about it. And apparently he thought it was admirable enough too. Let me get back on track here, oh, so after I had a conversation with Don, because it was not an interview with questions, it was me telling him about myself,  I was asked to do a writing sample, given 20 minutes to write about one of my favorite books. Admittedly back at 22 I wasn’t an avid reader, I read because I had to. I read A LOT of books for college, American Studies, did give me that, but I was drawing a blank. What book was I supposed to write about that would get me this job. YIKES again! And you know what I chose? Dr. Seuss, yep, a Dr. Seuss book, “Oh the Places You’ll Go” So how in the world I got this job with a less than impressive resume, flip flops and a children’s book write up all rolled into one hot mess of a candidate, could only be Heavenly Father’s doing. This is where He knew I needed to be and so I really only have Him to thank for it. Plus my old boss Ngoc and Don for seeing something in me.  Five and half years later as I get ready to hire someone, I hope that I can have the same open mind  to see someone with potential, someone with passion and desire to serve that I had back then, despite a minimal resume.  You can't train someone to have passion and humility, but everything else this person needs to have can easily be learned.