An Unsolicited Job Interview and a Tricky Question

Since I started looking for a job in The Netherlands I have been developing a keen interest in listening to the experiences of friends and acquaintances related to job interviews for positions in Dutch or Netherlands based companies. As an expat I’m very attentive to grasp the nuances of the culture I’m now living in and somehow I find that these job interview stories would give some insight of the Dutch working environment and business culture. In addition, they might be someday a point of reference if finding myself in a similar situation.

But what I have learned is that you will never know what you are going to get. These anecdotes have shown to me that even if you are prepared to talk about yourself, your achievements, your experience, and have the perfect examples to give when asked about difficult work situations you have faced and how you were able to successfully deal with them, even if you have rehearsed how to confidently discuss about your strengths, weaknesses, how to share your ambitions, future plans and prove that you know the company and the role you are applying for, there will be always questions you would be asked that will catch you off guard.

I have not been in many job interviews in The Netherlands and the few ones have been for positions within art institutions. Maybe because of my field, or just as a matter of chance, interviews have been very positive experiences, all of them of a serious character but far from stiff and formal. So far I have not felt in puzzled. But some couples of weeks ago I was in a casual conversation with a Dutch woman that suddenly turned into what it felt like an unsolicited dense job interview.

I met her in a very unusual circumstance. I’m a visual artist and I was doing some tryouts in a public park for a piece that consisted of a 2mt cubic structure covered with fabrics. I’m quite short so I was struggling to put this piece together while the strong wind was giving me a very had time. This woman, who was walking her dogs, saw me and probably after watching me striving and stumbling felt some compassion and offered some help. This lead to small talk where we found out that she was my aunt’s neighbor (I have family in The Netherlands) and she asked me about my reasons to build that structure.

I forgot about the whole situation until one day my aunt told me that this woman wanted to have a chat with me and find out more about my work. She is an Alderman of the Gemeente of one of the fastest growing cities of The Netherlands and she works in issues related to culture, therefore she is interested in artists and felt intrigued by the piece she saw me working on. We arranged a visit to have a cup of tea and a chat. It was a casual, easygoing conversation where she asked me about my interests, shows, background, etc. I was telling her that I was looking for a part time job inside an art institution as a researcher when she suddenly asked: ‘And why hiring you, instead of hiring a Dutch?’ My head started spinning around trying to understand the question. It might have been just a usual manifestation of the well-known straightforward attitude that characterizes Dutch people, but for me it felt threatening. I didn’t know how the conversation got that turn where I found myself giving justifications, and above all I really don’t believe that professional skills are dictated by nationality. So what was behind this bold question?

There has been much debate about the issue of immigrants taking the jobs of nationals and it’s not my intention to get into this issue in this article. What I would like to point out is that even though I have my well thought opinions regarding this issue, in that specific moment I felt disarmed and struggled to come with a sincere and compelling answer. I was not under the pressure of getting a job or making a good impression, but it turned really hard to find words to come back to her. Some how I felt that by answering the question I was implicitly consenting to nationalistic and conservative beliefs that should be revised in all their complexity. It let me thinking, how can one tackle this sort of questions in a job interview context?

But probably I should not worry, maybe next time I would only be asked “What are you doing afterwards when finishing this interview?” as it recently happened to a friend in the process of securing a marketing position.
Laura Pardo see more of her