Baker Aeronautics

 

If you wanted a job with this company, it was mandatory that you first see their shrink.  There were no exceptions, everyone had to do it.

By the time I had applied, the company had gone through a bit of downsizing.  One of the first people to go was their high-priced psychiatrist, but they had not done away with the requirement.  They turned it into a self-checkout.

Their system was broken into three different rooms.  In the first room I had to show myself some inkblots and then describe to myself what I thought they looked like.  If I thought my descriptions sounded normal, I could move on to the next room.

In the second room I had to tell myself a word, then quickly say the first word that came to me.  That was much harder than it sounds, but I think I did okay.  In fact, I may have stayed there too long.  I was having fun.

When I entered the final room there was one sheet of paper on a table with one question at the top of the page.  Why do you want to work here?  To write your response, next to the paper was a pencil, a ballpoint pen and a crayon.  I sat there staring at that for a long time.  I knew this was some kind of trick, but which one was I supposed to use?  Certainly, I couldn’t use the crayon, that would be childish, but choosing between the pen and the pencil was hard. 

If I picked the pencil, I would have the opportunity to erase any mistakes I might make, but that could be seen as a negative.  “This person makes a lot of mistakes, why would we hire him?”

On the other hand, by picking the pen, I’d be showing confidence.  “This guy is brave and trust himself to do things right the first time, but if he messes up – how do we fix it?”

I went back and forth several times trying to decide what I should use to write my answer.  This was indeed a tricky one.  Would a sane man use the pen, hoping to show confidence, or would he be crazy to try, when there is a pencil right there with a big fat eraser on the end of it?

I looked around the room.  Was I being filmed?  Was I on camera?  Had I already taken too long to make a decision?  The longer I sat there thinking about it, the more frustrated and annoyed I became.  “This is stupid.” I said aloud, and I picked up the crayon and wrote, I quit.