Lost a possible job opportunity due to being a diver

[smudge13]

My current employers all race leader bikes on the weekends and go on week long road trips on their Harleys during the summer. The Warranty Manager and General Manager are riding the CDT on enduro bikes this fall. My diving/freediving/spearfishing is rather pedestrian compared to their hobbies! LOL

 

[Rred]

"Why do these people think that hobbies have anything to do with work?"
Corporations, or one man shops, either way they have spent years trying to figure out how to hire who, so they don't waste six months training a mismatch for their purposes. Psych profiling, multiple personality analysis tests, whatever is the "in thing" at the moment, some of it works.

My manager once told me that a request for another employee had been approved, the intake process would being with advertising and screening (that I'd been through too) and then I'd be given the candidates, but what did I primarily want them to look for?

I said "Find me someone who irons their socks." Not literally, but just about. Boss says "Huh? Don't they need these special computer skills?" I said no, we can hone their skills easy enough for the job. But I needed someone who paid almost obsessive attention to detail, so little errors in jobs just wouldn't get past them. And, yes, the guy they eventually found looked like a "We're hear to speak to you about God" doorknocker. But he caught the errors, and that was what counted.

Divers? Maybe I want a conservative risk-adverse person for a job. Someone who will not "endanger" some part of the business. Divers, shooters, race car drivers, speeders, smokers, jaywalkers, there's a long list of activities that are more likely than not to correlate with someone who is *probably* willing to accept a higher risk of some things. So, it ain't all crazy.

The radical new job hunting book (when it was new) "What Color Is Your Parachute" suggested that when you go on a job interview, ask to use the restroom. If it is dirty--leave. Is that logical? Well, yes. Their logic was that if the business is so unconcerned about the employees that they can't even keep the restroom clean, you don't want to work there.

And over the years, when I've thought back about it? Yup, the places that couldn't waste time talking care of the details, didn't waste much time on taking care of the employees either.

If they're worries about who you are--you don't want to work there.

 

[In2theabyss]

This is a weird one, and I’m not really sure where it belongs....

Anyway, I was approached on LinkedIn by a corporate HR type (not outside recruiter) about a job that looked interesting. I was given a link and asked to apply. Before I had a chance to do that, they requested I NOT apply.

Turns out they found my FB page (profile pic shows me diving, my page is locked down so you can’t see anything if you’re not a friend) and consider my hobby too dangerous to be considered as a possible employee. I thought that was pretty funny.

Who knows what they would have done if they knew the other hobby (which has suffered since I started diving)!

Maybe they prefer employees play a "virtual scuba diving" game on a Playstation......sorry to hear but it does not sound like a place to work for people with hobbies like ours!

 

[KristenK]

Such an interesting discussion. I'd ask how my choice of hobby is job relevant. Like Rred said (I'm a poet) there could be a correlation with risk taking and job performance (technically a negative correlation...yep, I'm a nerd.)

I imagine CIA field agents may dive on their off days.

 

[Saniflush]

Divers? Maybe I want a conservative risk-adverse person for a job. Someone who will not "endanger" some part of the business.

I find this line of thinking very interesting. Being not that far removed from being an outsider to certified diving (18 months) and being forced to deal with HR issues daily I might could have at least understood this thought process. However, now I would battle it head on knowing that everyone that I am around that dives are pretty well stickler for details.

Has a diver decided to take more risk than the average person? Sure, but that same diver has gone and routinely goes the extra mile to mitigate that added risk whether it be through equipment, training, thought or some combination of the three.

I have on more than one occasion tried to explain to a non diving friend that what they may think of a ghoulish in talking about an accident in the sport, most divers take as added learning. I would go a step further and contend that if most people really did analysis of day to day operations/happenings like divers do then there would be more ground made in safety and continuous improvement.

 

[Lorenzoid]

@Saniflush I like your thinking. Taking your last sentence yet one more step further, what if a company used scuba as a tool to encourage "safety-minded thinking"? Encouraging employees to learn scuba could overlap with a wellness program where the company reimburses employees for things like gym memberships.

 

[broncobowsher]

Or...
Scuba diving saved me from a job with an overly invasive HR person.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

As a retired safety professional (CSP since 1986) and a diver continuously since 1959, I can say that I would prefer a diver in a position where diligence is required, especially for higher-risk jobs. Divers understand the value of training, use equipment to mitigate hazards, and have great "attention to detail." I was also a USAF Pararescueman from 1967-1977, and once had SMSgt. Gerome Gorney tell me, "...attention to detail is the key to our missions. You get the details right, the mission will go well. But get even one detail wrong, the mission can go to hell quickly." (That is a close approximation of what he told me in 1970.). I have found that this applies in the civilian workforce too, and will prevent accidents that range from equipment failures (by doing a FMEA, or Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) to fatal workplace accidents. What those who think diving is hazardous fail to realize is that Jacques Cousteau himself, who personally risked a lot to first develop and then publicize the Aqualung and diving in general, died of old age and his lifelong habit of smoking.

SeaRat

 

[Marie13]

Or...
Scuba diving saved me from a job with an overly invasive HR person.

Heck, yes!

My job deals a lot with fed rules and regulations. So gotta check all your boxes. Lot of attention to details

 

[Marie13]

Encouraging employees to learn scuba could overlap with a wellness program where the company reimburses employees for things like gym memberships.

I’m the most active person in my office between diving every weekend from April to October and working out. There are other people who are losing weight faster, but they refuse to be active, and they just look gaunt and unhealthy. I’m losing weight slower, but I’ve also got a heck of a lot more muscle!