I had an interview about two weeks ago for a receptionist position. I haven' t had a receptionist position since 1996 since I have regularly climbed the ladder into jobs where the receptionist is considered entry-level. I have had it written into my job description that I can be called on as back-up receptionist in case of emergencies. I happen to enjoy answering the phone at work and being able to allay concerns. It also, in my supervisory status, allows me to know when certain people call to talk to certain people that they don' t need to talk to. In this way, I can not only field that call and turn it over to the appropriate person but can relay to the receptionists that the caller shouldn' t be given to whoever.

In any case, I interviewed for this position and a big concern that the interviewer had is that I would get bored with receptionist and want something more. I thought I gave a very good answer to that concern. I said:

I believe that would not be a problem for several reasons. First, because even though every job has its own particular stresses I am looking at this time for a job with fewer or not as high-end stresses as the position I held previously. Also, I did notice in your advertisement that the receptionist would also be transcribing, meeting with clients, taking dictation at meetings and helping with various projects. These are duties I have had for quite a while and I believe that my expertise in both answering the phones and these extra duties would be a benefit to the firm. Since I am new to the area and do not have expertise in this state' s court system, I know that in many firms I would need to work my way back up. That is what I would like to do with this firm. I have done some research and have discovered your policy of hiring from within.

I just got a letter telling me that "upon further reflection of your qualifications, we find that you are over-qualified for the position which we are hiring."

What the heck did I say wrong? For crying out loud, a receptionist who takes dictation and does transcription isn' t going to be easy to come by, and if the company has to train someone on transcription (which isn' t even close to hard), they are really losing out. And you can' t train on dictation. You either know it or you don' t.