I See You Have Experience with Animals

I had just come out of college with a chemistry degree and had high hopes of landing a prestigious job in the pharmaceutical industry. After about six months I had given up and just need any job and was interviewing at weird chemical manufacturers and food quality labs.

By far the worst experience was at a hot dog manufacturing facility looking for a quality control tech. The place was dark and dingy and didn't look like an enjoyable place to work. I sat down for my interview hoping that there might be some good news. There wasn't.

We reviewed my resume together. He was rough around the edges and it was overall awkward, but nothing outwardly awful. Then I started asking about the job.

"What are the day to day activities," I asked.

"All the meat is stored in the 20 degree cooler so most of your time will be spent in there. We have big fur coats that you can use, but you'll need to dress warm. We also encourage the quality person to come out every 2 hours or so to warm up."

I'm a warm weather girl so I was ready to bolt, but it got worse.

"You'll be responsible for testing the carcasses to make sure they don't have any bacteria growth and are at the right temperature."

"Carcasses?"

"Yes, the animals hang from hooks in the room and are butchered here. I see you have experience with animals so that will be good."

My experience he was referring to was my volunteer work with the Humane Society. I had worked training dogs so the experience wasn't exactly transferable.

After that the interview ended pretty quickly. I really wanted a job, but I couldn't imagine dealing with freezing cold conditions and a bunch of dead animals.

I turned down the offer and two weeks later was called for an interview at one of the large pharma companies in the area. In the end it all worked out, but I get a kick every time I think about how that guy thought my love for animals would equate well to hot dog making.