A friend of mine has suddenly found herself in the job market. Listening to her stories of what is available and how small the salaries are, I am thankful it is her and not me. Everything is different from the last time I looked for employment. The days of circling want ads and making telephone calls to arrange an interview are long gone. Careers are found and connections made via the Internet now.
     My first job was at Montgomery Ward on University Avenue in Saint Paul. The woman who lived across the street from us worked there and she set up a meeting in the personnel department for me. Mom told me to wear my good dress and to polish my shoes. Nylon stockings would look professional, she had said, adding, "You don't want anyone to think you're a floozy, do you?" Mom was right. After I filled out an application and talked to the woman in charge, I was hired to work in the catalog department, handling returns for customers.
     My next job interview was at the movie theater in Dinkytown near the University of Minnesota campus. They were looking for someone to make popcorn and sell candy and soda pop. Mom reminded me to dress up. She suggested I make eye contact with the manager, call him "Sir," and shake his hand when the question and answer session was over. Mom was right again and I was hired on the spot.
     Ten years later, scanning Help Wanted notices in the newspaper, I saw that a local car dealership was looking for salesmen. "Do you hire women to sell cars?" I asked the boss. While he stammered that none had ever applied, I asked when it would be convenient for me to come in. Remembering Mom's advice, I wore a navy blue dress with tiny red and white polka dots that I had bought to wear to a funeral. I paired it with not-too-high heels and a navy blue purse.
     During that interview, I learned there would be five more evaluations over five days, each with a different manager. That meant borrowing dresses from my sisters because the funeral dress was the only business-like outfit in my closet. Just as Mom had instructed, I sincerely shook every hand and looked each interviewer in the eye. By the time I left the building after the last sit-down, I felt certain the job was mine.
     My friend didn't fare as well last Friday. When I asked how her interview had gone, she told me she didn't think the situation would suit her. There was no chance for advancement and the wages were low.
     "Besides," she said, "They'll never give me the job." I told her not to be so hard on herself, that the employer would be stupid not to snap up such a good candidate.
     "I don't know," she said. "First, I was fifteen minutes late because a semi jack-knifed and they shut down the freeway." I reassured her situations like that can't be helped.
     That wasn't all, she told me. On her way home after the interview, she stopped at a coffee shop to grab a cup of coffee and use the rest room. It was then she discovered a very necessary button on her new blouse had popped open and she had revealed a little more of herself to the office manager than she had planned. "They'd be crazy to hire me," she said.
     Mom was right. Whether you learn about a job from a neighbor, the newspaper, or the Internet, no one wants to hire a floozy.