I get hundreds of calls a day and about 500 emails a day and I make it a point to answer every single call and email. I was talking to a student on the phone and suddenly he said to me, "you are very arrogant."
I stopped and thought back to what I had said and I could see how he would feel that way. I recently have been accepting very few students for training and placements. I have chosen to be very picky. All this came down, because I used to feel that I could place anybody into a job, it simply did not matter who they were. I was wrong.
I had a student from Nepal that had very weak communication skills and on top of that he used to pause when he talked and during phone interviews everyone felt like he was looking up information before he answered, when in reality that is just how he spoke.
The problem is that once I accept you I take responsibility for you and I will do whatever it takes to get you placed. I tried and tried and spent at a minimum of $10,000 on him, and finally when I wanted to spend even more and keep trying, my partners pulled the plug on me and said no more, and that they did not want me spending any more money on him.
So I finally gave him his 2 week notice and let him go. It was hard for me to accept failure, but I bowed my head and said, yes I have failed.
From that moment on, I simply do not just take just anybody anymore. Most student will call me on the phone and I have to judge them within seconds if I want to accept them or not. I usually ask them with lots questions all at once and see how they answer under duress and if I am interested I will slow down and get to know them better, if I am not interested I will ask for a resume or some other documents and then let it go at that. The most important skill I look for nowadays is communication. If you pass that, then I look for more, like how well you answer my barrage of questions and in what order.
The problem is that if I accept you, it will likely cost me thousands of dollars to train you and place you, and it is very rare that I give up on anybody. So if I have accepted you, I have pretty much committed to spend whatever it takes to place you, and I have placed almost everyone that I have accepted. I am sure my partners in the company would wish that I spent less money, but I simply do not care about money, all I care about is the success of my students and nothing else really matters to me.
So anyway this student called me arrogant. Once I lose interest in you, I simply do not have the time or inclination to hear their stories anymore, so I do become disinterested and possibly arrogant, because there is no way I am going to accept you.
I am sure I have rejected more students than most companies have accepted for training.
If you have great communication skills and are decently smart then I want you.
If you have self-confidence and are willing to work 12 hours a day during our training then I want you.
So I am sorry that I am arrogant, but I do not have time to coddle you, your mother is there for that.
