This might sound crazy, but Improv got me a job once.
How is that possible?
Read the story below and find out.
How Improv Got me a Job!
Years ago I applied to a Marketing & Sales position at a small manufacturing company.
To my surprise they actually responded and wanted to interview me. I definitely wasn’t that qualified for the position so it was great to even get an interview.
As normal hiring goes there were several interviews and steps in the process to get the job.
The first initial interview was with the direct hiring manager. This interview went great and I thought my chances to get the job were good
After that I was invited to do an interview with the company’s recruiting consultant. Wasn’t sure what this meant but I said “Yes!” since I wanted the job.
In the interview with the recruiter she asked me the standard questions, “Why do you want to work here?” “What are your goals in your career?” You know pretty standard questions in these types of interviews.
I don’t remember what my response was to these questions was. Most likely some generic BS and blah blah recruiters like to hear.
As a lot of recruiters and hiring managers like to do, they drop curveball questions. Personally and professionally I don’t feel these add much value to most interviews and hiring processes.
I’ve seen a lot of GreenJobs.com use them and often they will disqualify good candidates because they didn’t have an exact right answer. Still these questions are used quite a lot.
This consultant definitely had a curveball questions for me…
“How do you work on your customer service skills?”
Ummmm… I didn’t know how to answer this question. So I thought for a second.
“I take improv comedy theatre classes.”
“That’s really interesting tell me more about that!” was her response.
I explained what Improv is. It’s what you see performers do on Whose Line is it Anyway. A lot of SNL performers come from Improv backgrounds and Improv theatres such as Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade.
I said it helps with learning good communication skills and working with other people. Improv is a team sport after all.
“Do you think that helps you professionally” she asked.
“Yes, definitely. It helps me a lot in my personal life and professional life.” was my response.
The recruiting consultant seem intrigued by this conversation. At the time I didn’t think much of it.
Fast-forward and I was offered the job! I was surprised and happy as anyone is to get offered a decent professional job.
A week into working there the Director of Sales stops by my office. (Yes, I was given me own office which was pretty sweet.)
He was the boss of the Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service teams which I all worked closely during my 4ish years at the company.
“Adam I just wanted to let you know that we had other candidates that we felt were better qualified for the position. The reason that we hired you was because I heard about this Improv thing from the recruiter. I felt that showed that you’re willing to put yourself in uncomfortable situations and still roll with it. The most important thing for me when we’re looking at hiring somebody here for the position was that I was going to put this person in a lot of uncomfortable situations. I need to know that that person can handle it and the fact that you do Improv I felt that showed that you’re able to do that.”
Incredible right? Taking Improv got me a job.
That’s not something you would have ever seen in the job description. I actually checked the job description after the conversation and nowhere did it explicitly say “must be good in uncomfortable situations.”
It’s definitely not something that you could really tell somebody in an interview process that that is gonna get them hire.
Improv also has helped only help me when I’ve gone on other interviews. When you’re a job seeker and you’ve done interviews you know that a lot of questions are gonna be thrown at you.
You need to be able to handle those questions. I’m not always great at it but I will tell you having done Improv for years it has helped me handle these questions a lot better and be quicker on my feet.
I’m considering launching an educational course to of help jobs seekers apply improv techniques to the interview process. Do you think this is a good idea?? I’m well qualified for this because I’ve been in the job board and recruiting space for a while and done Improv for years.
What do you think of my story of getting a job from taking Improv classes? Is that interesting? Do you have similar story?
