Incognito - chapters 10-12
To what lengths will you go when you are desperate for a job?
Incognito
by Jon Marcus
A note about the dialog
I always go numb when I read dialog that’s written “Dave said…,” and then “Janet replied….” and then “Steve exclaimed...” Alternatively, some authors don’t even say who is talking and you have to deduce it, which is impossible when there are more than two characters in a scene. So although it’s not common practice, I think the best way to present dialog is similar to how it’s done in a script. Plus it gets right to it. I don’t need someone to tell me that Janet replied. If you are used to the other formats, yes, they are more commonly done, but this is better and I know you will become more comfortable with it.
Copyright © 2024, 2025, 2026 by Jon Marcus
The following is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, place and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance of persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned or transmitted in any form, including but not limited to digital or printed, without the written permission of the author.
Available for purchase on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DS2V41K4
CHAPTER 10
JUJITSU
Marianne is leading a Jujitsu class. She is a black belt and the instructor. She is throwing people and getting thrown. When she gets thrown, she knows how to roll out of it so she doesn’t get hurt. She teaches those skills to the others in the class. They not only practice throws and attacks, they practice rolling out of being thrown.
As a demonstration to the class, there is one particularly large guy who comes at her and she throws him across the room. She is smaller than him but knows how to use an attacker’s momentum and body position against them. The size of the guy doesn’t matter. She is fierce.
You would never know by looking at her anywhere else that she has a black belt in a martial art. She is not tall or mean looking or muscular like an Amazon. The interesting thing people learn as a side effect of taking martial arts is you never assume you can overpower anyone based on their looks. Never assume a fat slob or a skinny old guy with gray hair or even an attractive woman in high heels who looks cute and effeminate in a black dress, can’t kick your ass. Never underestimate anyone.
CHAPTER 11
HR
At a tech company office, the HR Director, Pete, is training a new and young person, Heather, on how to do interviews.
Pete: OK, Heather. The interview process. To start, we prefer behavioral interviews here.
Heather: What’s that?
Pete: You ask open ended questions. Not anything they can respond yes or no to.
Heather: Oh.
Pete: It makes them give us detail in their answers which helps us see what they know. It can really wear them out though, but such is life.
Heather: OK. How do I do this?
Pete: I have a list of questions here. Just go through them and get the person talking.
Heather: I will have their resume and application?
Pete: Right. Let’s look at some. Click here.
Heather follows his direction and clicks on the applicant tracking system to see some resumes for a particular job. Then she opens an application and looks at it.
Heather: Oh, this one didn’t put their college graduation date? Should I ask?
Pete: Absolutely not. We aren’t allowed to ask certain things like age, race, marital status and a few others. Asking a college graduation date can be construed as asking their age and we could get sued.
Heather: Oh.
Pete: In fact, some places require a graduation date in their online application and that is a really bad move. They are setting themselves up for trouble.
Heather: Huh.
Pete: In the beginning of the interview, just start with some pleasantries like the weather.
Heather: The weather?
Pete: Just something to be nice and loosen things up.
Heather: OK.
Pete: And then ask the questions I gave you.
Heather: Alright.
Pete: We’ll have you call a few people to start.
Pete randomly picks out an application of the many in the system. It’s Norman’s.
Pete: Uhhhh...here, this guy looks good. Send him an email and use this template to ask him to do a phone interview.
Pete shows her where the templates on the email systems are saved and he sets up the email for her.
Heather: Oh. OK.
Heather sends off the email.
Meanwhile, Norman is still sitting on a bench at Marina Green. It’s nearing sunset and fog is rolling in from the ocean over and through the Golden Gate Bridge. Norman checks his phone and continues talking to Pavlov. A few emails came in since he had been applying for jobs.
Norman: Oh look Pavlov. I got some emails. Oh, this one is from a company I liked. What did they say? “Dear Norman, Regarding your application. Thanks so much for applying to our company. We are impressed with your resume, however we have decided not to continue with your candidacy...” Oh Fuck You!!! Yeah you are so impressed you decided to pass in minutes and not to even interview me? Impressed. Isn’t that insulting Pavlov?
Pavlov has more important things in mind. He is staring at the seagulls with the intent to run after them.
Norman: Next email. Dear Norman, Thanks so much for applying to our company. Although your resume is quite impressive...Delete.
Why do they send those depressing emails out? Assholes. Do we need to be told they declined? Sometimes I get them months after applying and forgetting I even applied. It’s just what I need, to be told months later that they think they are better than me. Why don’t they just be honest and say “Dear Norman. Your resume sucks. And besides, we want to hire someone to party with. Even though you seem to know what you are doing, forget it.” No, I’m not bitter. Maybe I need a new shrink. Yeah, it’s Dr. Allen’s fault I’m like this. Not mine.
His phone pings.
Norman: Oh, another email just came in.
Norman opens the email.
Norman: “Dear Norman, we received your resume and would like to speak with you about a position here.” …Yes!!!
He says it so loud that people from a good distance in the area turn to look. Norman sees some of them looking at him. He takes Pavlov’s leash, gets up and starts to walk home. Just then, Pavlov starts pulling the other way to try to catch a seagull.
CHAPTER 12
GAME NIGHT
Norman finally gets home with Pavlov. 16 people are there playing games on four card tables they have set up. Norman knows them as they are friends of Phil and have regular game nights there. One table is playing Scrabble. One is playing Risk. One is playing card games and one is playing Candy Land.
Phil: There you are.
Norman: What. You were worried about me?
Phil: No, about Pavlov. Were you out all day because you finally hooked up with that runner?
Norman: I wish. Wow, I haven’t seen Candy Land since I was a kid.
Sally: It’s very challenging.
Phil: So what were you doing all day?
Norman: I sat at Marina Green applying for jobs and contemplating life.
Alex: Sounds fascinating.
Norman: Oh, and I got an interview!
They all cheer and congratulate Norman.
Norman: Thanks
Phil: Who is the interview with?
Norman: Actually, I’m not sure. I don’t even remember applying to them. Everything is a blur. I guess I’ve got some research to do.
Sally: I would say so.
Norman: Something interesting happened today. I talked to these people who said my job search problems were because I was experiencing age discrimination.
Everyone moans.
Norman: You know about this subject?
Alex: Oh yeah. It’s huge in the tech industry.
Alison: Actually it exists in every industry but especially in tech.
Norman: Huh. My last boss warned me about it. But I’m only 41.
Sean: Anything past 29 is old in their eyes.
Alex: And people look for it in resumes.
Norman: Excuse me?
Sean: Yeah. It’s total bullshit, but they do.
Sally: The companies make their whole staff young and then complain they can’t find qualified workers.
Larry: And then they lobby Congress to let them bring in people from other countries because there is such a (he uses finger quotes) “shortage.” Alex, you are a recruiter. Am I right?
Alex: Yup. And AI is making it worse. The application systems, they are called ATS, institute their own resume screening, that is terrible, and that many of the companies don’t even know exist. So it’s not even asking for the parameters to screen. They just knock resumes out of the running, never to be seen by the in-house recruiters.
Norman: That’s crazy!
Sally: Yes it is.
Alex: It gets worse. Now if the ATS sees you are applying at a lot of the companies they are used in, it starts automatically rejecting you everywhere, which is the definition of a blacklist and that is quite illegal.
Alison: Oh my god!
Alex: It’s called systemic rejection. And that of course means it could also be googling people and pre-rejecting them if it thinks the job is for a different age group or gender or you are not a single white male or whatever.
Sally: Those sons-a-
Norman: Why is this happening?
Sean: Because AI is garbage.
Larry: Hey! A peppermint pass!
They all look at Larry moving his piece on Candy Land. Larry then sees them all looking at him and he shuts up.
Alex: Again, many companies don’t realize their ATS is doing this. The thing is, resumes are made by people trying to summarize their years of experience into a couple pages. They put down what they think is important but maybe the hiring manager wants something that the candidate didn’t consider but does know. So AI won’t find it and then screens the person out and the good recruiters, who can read between the lines and would ask the candidate, often has no idea the resume even exists because they are spending time sifting through the huge numbers of bad resumes that AI floods them with.
Sean: Then the company execs push AI because they think they have to use cutting edge technology, but they don’t know it’s garbage and no one can convince them it’s garbage. They just assume it’s great because (he does air quotes) “it’s AI.”
Larry: Sounds like that line from the movie. It’s Chinatown.
Sean: Yeah. It’s kept secret and as an avoidance, companies will call it the ghost in the machine.
Norman: I thought there were laws about hiring to cover this.
Sean: Oh come on. Politicians are paid big money to put giant loopholes into laws.
Alex: Companies make bad hiring decisions anyway. But at least it’s their own fault.
Phil: My last company went under because even though they had good venture capital money, and a good idea, they hired so many young people, it slowed down the growth of building the product because engineering became mired down. The coders in our department just couldn’t work as well. And of course then sales couldn’t sell it well.
Alex: I can tell you we get hiring managers insisting on keeping the candidates young. It’s totally illegal. I politely tell them to piss off. The young recruiters don’t know their jobs so they will do whatever stupid things they’re told. Plus the young recruiters stupidly reject great resumes and stuff.
Sean: I hate recruiters
Alex: Yeah, everyone does until they need a job.
Sean: So what’s your point?
Alex: My point is fuck you Sean.
Sean: Fuck you?
Alex: Hey asshole, you have a great job with great pay at company you didn’t even know about until I called you and then sent them your resume.
Sean: Yeah well.
Alex: Yeah well.
Alex takes a beat and then gets back to the subject they were discussing.
Alex: As I was saying, recruiters have to work on some sort of commission for 5 years to really learn how to do recruiting well. Once you lose a big commission, you learn. They don’t experience or learn from that at big companies. Big company experience over all your career doesn’t mean shit in recruiting.
Alison: I work in sales and it’s the same thing there.
Larry: Book smarts isn’t enough. It takes time to learn how to do one’s job.
Sally: At a startup, where it’s extremely competitive and there is a race against time to make the company work, weighting the staff highly to young people is the stupidest thing they can do.
Alex: I love how they say attitude is more important than experience.
Larry: Yeah. The only people who say that are ones who lack experience.
Phil: Is this a phone interview or a Zoom interview?
Norman: Phone. Why?
Phil: I have an app… well a Zoom browser extension that makes you look younger. It changes any gray hair to your regular color and it smoothes over wrinkles.
Alison: Funny.
Sean: What’s the browser extension called? I’ll look it up.
Phil: Face Lift.
More Chapters to come
The full paper and e-book versions of Incognito can be purchased on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DS2V41K4