I have never had a job interview. To be perfectly factual, I did have one interview but it was a sham - I will explain this later. The main points I want to share with you, first, is why I never had a job interview, and the significance of it all.
I have had many jobs during my high schools days. Perhaps those job experiences helped me to understand, early, the appreciation for having a job, the significance of doing a good job, and why I appreciate the value of a dollar.
Maybe I have a good feeling about my early job experiences because I grew up during the late nineteen forties, so called the good times era. The Second World War was won by America and there was optimism everywhere. Men were returning home from the war with confidence that they could solve any problem. They set out to build a wonderful country and economy that would provide opportunities for all who were willing to work hard.
There were workers wanted signs everywhere; all you had to do was apply, and you got the job. Not all the jobs were easy and not all the jobs were high paying, but the important thing was that, if you wanted a job, you could always get one if you were willing to give it your very best effort.
My first job was delivering newspapers. Believe it or not, we earned one cent for delivering a weekday newspaper and three cents for delivering a Sunday newspaper. The cost of the newspaper, to the customer, was three cents for a weekday newspaper and ten cents for a Sunday newspaper. One weeks cost for the newspapers, delivered to your home, was twenty eight cents, of which nine cents was my pay. I had, by choice, a very small paper route of twenty four customers.
Wednesdays were collection days. The newsboys did the collections by going to the homes of the customers. I looked forward to the collection days because my tips were based on how well I did my job.
Instead of throwing the newspaper onto the porch from my bicycle, I would walk up the stairs and place the newspaper between the screen door and the front door. The people appreciated the extra effort. Instead of paying just twenty eight cents, they would usually pay fifty cents, a twenty two cent tip. Putting things into proper perspective, at that time, a loaf of bread cost ten cents and admission to the movie theatre was seven cents.
Another job I had was setting bowling pins in a bowling alley. I did this before the automatic pin setter was invented which threw pin setting men out of work. Whereas the automatic machines would pick up the pins and set them perfectly on the correct spots, the pin boys, setting the pins by hands and a rack, did not always set the pins right on the spots. I always made the extra effort to set the pins right, which gave the bowlers a better chance for strikes and a better score. The bowlers appreciated the extra effort.
The cost to bowl one line was thirty cents. Usually three lines constituted an evening of bowling, which would cost ninety cents, of which thirty cents was the pin boys pay. A pin boy would usually set two lanes at a time, so the pay for approximately two hours of work - and it was hard work for sixty cents. The appreciative bowler, at the end of an evening, usually tipped the pin setters a quarter by rolling a quarter down the lane, to the pit, where the pin setters worked.
I had so many interesting and fun jobs, it would take me volumes to tell you about all of them; Ill tell you just one more, and go on to other things.
In Chicago, before all the fancy Disney places became common, there was a place called the Riverview. It had all sorts of rides and games. I worked one summer running a board game.
The game consisted of a large slanted board on which a ball would roll down, from a hole at the top of the board to the bottom of the board which had five holes, each painted with a different color. As I recall, they were red, blue, yellow, orange and green. Below the row of holes was another board upon which were matching painted areas where the customers would place their quarters.
If they had their quarters on the correct colors, they would win kewpie dolls. Only one fifth of the players, if they were lucky, would win. The kewpie dolls cost the management seventeen cents a piece. The business was raking money in by the wheel barrels.
The manager felt that he could trust me. I was just a teenager, yet he let me handle all the money. He would come by the concession stand every hour or so and exchange money belts, the one I was wearing bulging with money with a new one with empty pockets. Each time, he would say something like Good job, or something like that. Maybe I was naive, but that statement of confidence in me was all I needed to work hard, and honestly, for the owner.
From those early experiences, I learned that working hard and being honest - not only monetarily but effort wise - I could earn trust and respect that would lead to long term successes. ______________ __ _______________

When I was a student at the University of Illinois, I worked for the Illinois Department of Transportation during one summer vacation. Because the University and the Department were both part of the same state system, the U. of I. Civil Engineering students were automatically hired, without a job interview.
Later, when I finished college, the Department hired me without an interview because of the internship I had served with them during an earlier summer. A summer job served as the basis for a life time of real jobs, all without a job interview. Perhaps, I did a good job during that initiation period; one never knows who, or when, somebody is watching.
Very fortunate for me, the Department had a system of rotating young engineers to various bureaus, to give them valuable experiences. I worked in the bureaus of materials, construction, planning and local roads (the state agency that managed units of local governments.
During my final assignment with the state, in the Bureau of Local Roads, the leadership of the City of Evanston apparently liked my demeanor when I was overseeing their City activities, and hired me, without my applying for the job, or going through a formal job interview, to be their City Engineer. During my eight-year tenure with the City, I enjoyed the exhilaration of building, maintaining and managing the Citys physical infrastructure.
The Assistant City Manager of that City, with whom I had developed a tremendous working relationship of mutual trust and respect, was leaving city services to become president of a national level engineering consulting firm. He asked me to go with him and become the companys manager of its highway department.
When he hired me the first time, I made demands of higher salary and fringe benefits. When he approached me this second time, I made no demands; I didnt have to. I knew he would take care of my needs. I simply said, When do you want me to start? This comes from a relationship, developed through many years of working through good times and not so good times, always being honest and looking beyond the immediate gains.
Four years later, a local consulting engineering firm invited me to join their firm as a full partner. They had a motive, as well as I.
By becoming an owner, the firm can be certified as a Minority Business Enterprise eligible for project assignments especially set aside for minority firms. In addition, I had business development acuman which the other current partners did not possess.
For my part, being Asian minded, I wanted to leave something tangible to my children. This, of course, in retrospect, was a silly notion in that our children are all doing well and dont need anything monetary from us.
The article is getting long, so I will stop here leaving the other stories, perhaps, for a future article. I will mention only that I obtained my final two positions also without interviews.
The one job for which I did go through a job interview, mentioned in the opening paragraph of this article was, indeed, a sham.

The successful candidate for the job was to manage a state-wide bureau, mandated by federal legislation, to provide opportunities for minority consulting and construction companies in the highway building industry.
It was a job that the whites did not want an African American person to be in charge. Likewise, it was a job that the African Americans did not want a white person to be in charge. The interview started with seventy candidates. After the first round of interviews, the slate was trimmed to seventeen. After the second round, the slate was further reduced to five, of which I was one. Left were two whites, two African Americans and one yellow person.
The questions the interviewers were asking me, during the final interview, were so simple, I was almost embarrassed to respond. Toward the end, the lead person in charge of the interview was even winking at me. Although the position was of a managerial nature, it was a Department of Transportation position, located within the Construction Bureau, and to be eligible for a bureau chief position, the selected person had to be a registered professional engineer. To the best of my knowledge, the other four persons in this final group, were not registered. The Department had to go through the interview, however, because the system called for the process, to be legally correct.
The point of all this is to show the significance of doing a good job everyday, being steadfast in thought and action, and to always be ready to do that , which will bring honor and joy to all those you love and represent. One final thought: dont always be seeking short-term gains; this is the quickest way to lose your credibility and lasting success.


Joseph Yi came to America in 1940, at the age of 10, and has lived basically in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Although Mr. Yi’s professional life was in the mainstream society, he has actively participated in the voluntary social services for the Chicago Korean community.