No Experience Necessary

The applicant is a young man named Glenn Robinson. He is 21 years old and understandably nervous, this being his first job interview. He wears a new suit and new shirt and new tie and new shoes that squeaked when he walked into the personnel director's office. Did the personnel director notice? Robinson hoped not.

He sits on the uncomfortable edge of an uncomfortable chair. He is a big man, 6'7", 240 pounds. The application he filled out in the lobby is in the personnel director's hands. Robinson hopes he wrote down the proper answers. He would like this job with the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA.

"Now it says here, Mr. Robinson, that you have two years experience with a chicken company," the personnel director says.

"Chicken company?" Robinson asks, confused.

"Perdue. Isn't that a famous chicken company?"

"No, that's Purdue with a u. Excuse my handwriting. I went three years to Purdue University. I played college basketball two years and was the national player of the year last year. At Purdue."

" Purdue. Right."

Robinson has been briefed on what to expect at the interview by friends who have also come out of school to enter the brutal job market of the 1990s. None of them has been very successful. Magna cum laude graduates are working as ushers at movie theaters. Phi Beta Kappas have settled for jobs in the exciting field of telephone sales. He has friends who haven't even been able to find a job. who are back home living with their parents, trying to decide if going to graduate school is a necessary step. Even so, he is optimistic.

"Now, you're applying for a position as power forward, Mr. Robinson," the personnel director says. "Is that correct?"

"Power forward. Yes."