Doing it the ole' fashioned way

As I was sitting at my reception gig on the Star Wars planet, just beginning to relish being paid for sitting around doing nothing all day except greeting the occasional guest and answering calls once in a blue moon, a man walked in and told me he was here to apply for the receptionist position.

I thought this was odd, since:

A. no one here seemed to know how this position was being filled, as I was here indefinitely
B. HR had not posted the position yet
C. this guy obviously had not made an appointment. Did people still do that anymore?

Apparently yes, they do, and more shocking, he got the job!

One of his friends used to work for the Star Wars planet years ago, though he declined to give a name for unknown reasons. He met with the HR person for a brief amount of time, gave in his resume, and boom, that was that.

I was a little sad to hear that my time would be cut short, but hey, if being a professional receptionist is what this guy wants, then he should be here, not me.

But I had no idea people still walked into places and actually succeeded in getting positions that way. After all, those craigslist ads mostly say "NO calls about this job". How would they react to someone strolling in expecting to be interviewed on the spot? They'd probably get their resume fed through a shredder.

There is definitely value in meeting with someone in person rather than paper. After all, my first "real person job" was not achieved through an application, but because I happened to have lunch with the owner of a business who I clicked with. I never showed my portfolio, resume, or anything. The important thing was that I showed up. Maybe since I was accompanying a friend to an event at a college, my then future boss realized that I was likely to keep an appointment when asked. Maybe it was important that I had a friend, or that I enjoyed reading, which is what I was doing when I met her. Either way, I doubt I would have been offered the position if she had only judged me by words on paper.

Maybe I should just start barging into places, if not for nothing else but to hand deliver my resume? Maybe putting a face to a name is more important than I originally thought. However, maybe it only works for more entry level positions like retail or reception.

Either way, kudos to you, new Star Wars receptionist.

I hope you like yahoo games and copious amounts of facebook.