The Hard Rock is opening a casino here on the Coast in the fall and they had a job fair this week. Being someone who is seeking a better job than the part time one I currently have, I went and checked it out. I went on the second day. The first day over 2,000 people showed up for the 1,500 jobs the casino has to offer. I walk in the Convention Center and Lenny Kravitz music nearly knocked me over. Hard Rock wanted to give an air of “rockin” I guess. I go towards the front table that directs everyone to where they need to go. They yell at me over “Are You Goin’ My Way” to take the application and go in the next room to fill it out. After filling out the application there are booths set up against the wall and you turn your application in to the desired booth: Food Service, Maintenance, Dealers, IT, Marketing…you get the idea. The Lenny Kravitz song ended and I was expecting a new song to come on, it did, but it was a Lenny Kravitz song again. The whole hour I was there Lenny Fucking Kravitz was played. Someone came over the intercom at one point and asked if the music could please be changed, but to no avail. Lenny Kravitz was there to stay.
I went and sat down and filled out my application. I looked around the enormous room that I had been in many times when it was decorated for prom or filled with ponytails and black shirts of Coast Con. I saw a variety of people, people my age trying to get a job while finishing college, husbands and wives looking to work at the same place, and people currently working at another casino but are looking to advance. I walked down the line of booths to see which one would suit me best. I finally came upon the Marketing booth. Marketing is my last and most desperate choice. I do not like marketing and what it has done to people. I am not saying I am not a victim of it, because I am, I have a slight advantage though. I look at an ad or a commercial and I don’t see people enjoying a product, I see actors mostly degrading themselves for $800 and a SAG card. But as this was the only booth where I might get something and it would be my own fault if I didn’t at least give it a try, and I have no leads at the moment for anything better, I handed the girl in jeans and a black and white Hard Rock shirt my application. She took it, put it in a pile and said they would call me shortly and to just have a seat again. At this point I wished I had brought a book or the PSP. Luckily I didn’t wait too long. They called my name and I went into a smaller room with about twenty other people. We sat in chairs that were lining the walls and waited for our turn to be interviewed. At the front of the room were two tables. Two women were seated on each side of a man at the two tables. It reminded me of American Idol, or what little I have seen of it. We were all here to audition for jobs. I was looking at the people and I was trying to guess their names. Going from the left table to the right I came up with Barbara, Steve, Jodie, Margie, Greg, and Betty. I ended up going to Greg to talk and he introduced himself as…Greg. I almost started laughing when he said that. I thought that there was no way I was correct. Greg then asks me the most broad ended questions there could ever be in an interview. “What is your favorite music? What do you think good service is?” It went on like this for a couple of minutes. Then he said they would call people back in July and August and he would make sure my application got to the right people. Blah blah blah.
I don’t think I will be going to work for a casino, but it was an interesting experience. I felt kind of dirty afterward. I know that the people doing the interviews are not as outgoing when that stupid Hard Rock shirt comes off. I also know the people being interviewed are coming up with a different persona so they can look good and get a job. We were all lying to each other and ourselves. Isn’t capitalism grand?