Job Interviews vs. Elections

I have been giving this some thought for a while. I think that instead of electing a president or any other office holder, they should have to go through the interview process like any other job. After all, the general population is not elected to their jobs, they are interviewed. So why shouldn’t the people we hire for what is essentially a temp job also be interviewed?

What made me think of this is first because I am looking for a job and am going through the interview process. I have had great interviews in my life and I have really sucky interviews. The kind of interview where I know during the interview that there is no chance in hell I am going to get the job. The one good thing about this type of interview is that I know when I leave that I will not be working for that particular company. If I have a really great interview, I am so utterly disappointed when I don’t get offered the job. After all, they seemed to like me, I answered all the questions in an intelligent manner and it seemed like all the boxes were being checked. Yet they hired someone else. Oh well.

The second thing that made me think of interviews for our elected officials instead of elections is all the negativity that is rampant right now. Not only the political ads, which have crossed over the line to ridiculousness and sometimes outright lies, but also all the pictures and sayings that are all over Facebook. (By the way, just because someone posts something on the Internet doesn’t make it true and it is probably best not to repeat it lest you end up looking like a pigheaded idiot. Just a little advice.)

So, in the interest of putting our elected officials on the same playing field as the rest of us and in removing all the negativity from our society, let us try this: there will be no debates, ads, speeches, photo ops, shaking hands, baby kissing or any of the other things that seem to occupy our candidate’s time during elections. Instead, two weeks before the election, each candidate goes on TV in prime time and they are given a job interview. Yes, an actual job interview.

Prior to the interview, they have to fill out a job application (as in THEY have to fill it out…not hire a team of people to fill it out for them), submit a resume (again THEY have to put together the resume) and give five references. All the paperwork has to be in one week before the interview so the application and resume can be checked for accuracy and the references can be contacted. Oh, and the references are asked the same questions and their answers must be brief. It might be helpful if these were filmed and available to be seen on the Internet two days prior to the job interview.

The order in which the interviews are done is decided by a flip of a coin by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Then each candidate must sit for an interview for one hour. That way they can both be done in one night and the talking heads on TV won’t have a chance to analyze one interview before the second one is conducted. Also, there will be no commentary during the interviews. NONE. Just the interview.

The person conducting the interview will be Jim Lehrer, who is on PBS. He says he has never voted in an election so he is completely unbiased. Unless there is someone else who is unbiased and non political out there. But I like him.

Here are a list of questions that I think should be asked of candidates for the job of President of the United States (although they will work for other elected offices):

What in your background makes you fit to run the country?

What are your top three strengths?

What are three of your weaknesses?

Name a significant contribution you have made to society and what did you learn from making the contribution?

Name a major mistake you have made in your life and what did you learn from it?

What are three things you will do to make the country a better place for all of us?

Please give a two minute synopsis of why you are the best person for the job.

Since the interview can only last for one hour, the answers must be short and succinct. But, and this is just a recommendation for potential candidates, answers shouldn’t be so short that the person comes across as just spewing out catch phrases.

In the two weeks from the time of the interviews until the weekend before the election, posters will be allowed to be put up and ads can run on TV. But they can not mention the opponent or be negative in any way. They can only state why the candidate should be president.

The Sunday before the election, each candidate will get one half hour to give a speech to sum up why they should receive the job. The order of the speeches will be the opposite order of when they were interviewed (that way there won’t have to be another flip of the coin).

After those speeches, there will no longer be any ads on TV for the candidates. Only ads that encourage everyone to vote.

(One other thing I would like is for Election Day to be a national holiday and no one has to work or go to school. Everyone goes and votes and then we have picnics or other special meals and celebrate our freedom to vote.)

This is how I think we should put someone into the most important job in the country. Not only will we get a better look at why someone should be hired but we will no longer have all the negativity and lies that seem so abundant right now.

I know, some of you may say that I am dreaming and there is no way we would so dramatically change how we put people into office. But there have been great changes made in society by just one person speaking up and making a suggestion. So I am making the suggestion. PLEASE think about it….before I throw a shoe through the TV screen!!