Adventures In Babysitting: The One Mistake ALL Recruiters And Hiring Managers Make In The Pre-Screening & Interviewing Process

I’ve talked about Sabrina Carpenter in multiple posts now, and it’s mostly because I’m constantly reminded of her when I’m in the car. I just can’t escape her newest sings, ‘Espresso’ and ‘Please, Please, Please’, which are both, by the way, total bangers. She was also Taylor Swift’s opening act on her Era’s tour for a minute. But even though she’s only now getting the recognition she deserves, Carpenter has actually been in the entertainment industry for an entire decade. And yes, it all started with Disney.

Carpenter was first discovered when she starred as Maya on ‘Girl Meets World’ between 2014 and 2017. The show was a spinoff series of ‘Boy Meets World’, which was a total classic. ‘Girl Meets World’, however, was….doubtful, and that’s just a nice way of putting it. Nevertheless, we got to witness a talented young star thanks to the show. The show was only the beginning for Carpenter, and Disney kept on employing her and giving her more and more opportunities- both in acting and in music. I’ve personally been a fan of hers for a while. I initially got to know her music when I first got to listen to 2016’s ‘Smoke and Fire’.

Also in 2016, Carpenter starred in ‘Adventures In Babysitting’ a remake of the 1987 cult classic of the same name. The 2016 version also starred Sofia Carson, another Disney alum who also starred as Evie in the ‘Descendants’ franchise alongside Dove Cameron, Booboo Stewart, and the late Cameron Boyce. The 2016 version of ‘Adventures In Babysitting’ followed Jenny, played by Carpenter, an overachieving teenager who goes by the book when it comes to success. She gets good grades and takes extra curriculum activities, but only because it will help her college application.

The opening scene in the movie introduces us to Jenny. She’s preparing to leave for an internship interview. She aims to be serious and feels guilty when she feels like she’s loosened up and has fun for once. As she waits to be called for the interview to start, she meets Lola, played by Carson. Lola is introduced a carefree art lover. She goes through life as though she’s on a skateboard. At the beginning of the movie, she says to Jenny, ‘Areal artist is a student of life.’ Jenny being Jenny, doesn’t agree with it and thinks that whatever comes out of Lola’s mouth is weird. In fact, Jenny thinks the entire atmosphere during the interview process is weird.

After a mishap of accidentally switching phones, Lola takes a babysitting job from Jenny’s clients. Jenny babysits for extracurricular activities to show on her transcript. Lola, who initially laughed off the idea of babysitting and actually belittled it, took the job after getting a parking ticket worth $80. And that’s when the movie’s plot actually begins and we get to see the adventures in babysitting- just like the title says.

But I want to talk more about the very beginning of ‘Adventures In Babysitting’. Those first 5-10 minutes or so. Those first 5-10 minutes of the movie were more crucial than one might think, and I’m here to tell you why. You see, both Jenny and Lola represent two typical girls in the workforce and the job market, specifically in the arts spectrum of things. Jenny is the girl that recruiters go for, whereas Lola is the girl that recruiters NEED to go for instead.

The entire movie’s premise is to show just how different Jenny and Lola are; not just by educational background and work ethic, but in life as well. In the end, the kids all say they had the best day they ever had. In hindsight, though, it’s thanks to Lola that the entire day happened. Throughout the movie, Jenny is almost seen as the villain; the one who holds the group back. Lola, on the other hand, is the motivator. She’s the leader that keeps pushing the group to take risks. She’s the one who gets them out of trouble throughout the entire move, much to Jenny’s dismay.

We see that Jenny isn’t interested in anything that has to do with art. She just went to the interview at the beginning to get more credentials for her college application. She said so herself. Lola, on the other hand, lives for art. The third main character in the movie is Lola’s camera. She takes her camera everywhere and refuses to let it go. She only lets it go in the end when it has to do with her exchanging her camera for a concert ticket in order to help Jenny after her mess up. It was every selfless deed of her to do, especially for someone that she barely knows. I don’t think Jenny would make such a sacrifice even though she sees herself as the selfless person Lola is, and Lola to her is someone who doesn’t give a sh*t.

But you can’t blame Jenny for being who she is. We don’t meet her parents throughout the movie, but we do see that she lives in a nice house and drives her own car. We can assume that the family is well-off financially, which could mean that Jenny’s parents are very hard on her; they tell her to get good grades, do well in school, do extracurricular activities, and she’ll achieve anything in life and successful. This could be why she’s so uptight, she lives her life by the book, and she’s afraid of getting out of her comfort zone. We don’t get to see Lola’s family either, nor do we get to see her home. We do get to know that her family is against her living such a carefree life without much responsibility or stability. They have her be responsible for her own parking tickets instead of bailing her out.

We also see Jenny and Lola’s drastic differences by their styles of fashion. In the intro we’re introduced to Jenny and Lola as they get ready for their big interview. Jenny is very put together, polished and organized. She reassures herself that she’s smart and talented, and tells herself to do her best while looking in the mirror and sitting straight. It’s all about perfection. Lola is getting ready by preparing the finishing touches of the painting she brings to the interview to show as her portfolio. She’s messy and careless. For the interview, she’s wearing casual clothing, ones you’d wear when you go to a bar with your friends. But unlike Jenny, Lola is happy. Jenny is feeling the pressure. Lola knows she’s talented. And though she might not be book smart, she’s most definitely streets smart. Jenny, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like she could just get loose and have fun, because it’s her duty to become successful; her version of successful. Or more like what her parents expect of her.

When both Jenny and Lola arrive to the interview, we see them side by side, and we know right there and then that they’re polar opposite. And it’s not surprising to see that they don’t like each other…like, AT ALL. They’ve both applied to a photography internship, As she gets to the office, Jenny keeps telling herself that she loves art. She says to herself, You’re special. You’re an artist. Everything you do is art. Everything you say, everything you do is all art. You’re just brilliant.’ The fact of the matter is, however it’s all lies. She absolutely zero interest in art or photography. She’s only there because the internship will ‘round up her transcript.’

We also get to know that Jenny skipped the 8th grade, which could’ve had a real effect on her psyche. It could explain why she’s under so much pressure to be the best of the best at everything. We see a different side of things in another movie Sabrina Carpenter starred in – ‘Work It.’ Her character, Quinn, is on her way to Duke for her college admission interview. Though she’d been prepared for the interview practically her entire life, she f*cks it all up and sounds like a robot. But also the person who’s interviewing her, played by Michelle Buteau, is just not interested in any of the typical things that every applicant has written in the transcripts.

Lola goes for the internship because she genuinely loves art and wants to explore a photography career. And you can see that passion of hers through her camera. Throughout the movie, she sees an opportunity to take pictures anywhere she goes. She takes pictures of that an ordinary person, like Jenny, wouldn’t even notice. That’s the begging difference between Jenny and Lola. That’s exactly why Lola NEEDS to get that job instead of Jenny. Jenny wants it for all the wrong reasons. In the long run, that internship won’t mean much of anything to her. Lola, on the other hand, her future depends on it. Art is everything to her, and she really is good at what she does.

In the end, Jenny drops out of applying to the internship as she realizes she has zero interest in art, and Lola was the one who actually deserved to get it. We never see whether or not she actually gets the job, nor do we see her actually working on the job. But we sure do hope that she got that internship, and that now, 8 years later, she’s a successful photographer. Nevertheless, the movie ends on a positive note. Jenny and Lola are friends, they both get the guys that they both were interested in, and it’s implied that they will all stay in touch. The one sad aspect of the movie was that Lola gave her camera away. During the end credits, we see all the pictures Lola had taken throughout the film. In hindsight, it showcased her talent, and it could’ve been used as her portfolio for professional clients or otherwise.

The more I watched the movie, and I watched it more than once, the more I kept thinking: What if Jenny didn’t pull herself out of the internship? Would Lola still been chosen for the internship? Or would the person deciding who to hire still have gone by the book and hired Jenny? Or would Jenny be asked to come work for the company regardless because she’s more qualified than Lola on paper? These are questions really makes me, you, or anyone for that matter think to themselves, ‘Do recruiters and hiring managers really know what they’re doing?

I previously wrote about another Disney star, Steven Symone, who starred in ‘That’s so Raven’ between 2003 and 2007, as well as its spinoff series, ‘Raven’s Home between 2017 and 2023, with the company. I deeply divulged into Raven’s 2014 comments on labels. She told Oprah she didn’t want to be labeled as an African-American, which got the internet screaming for a time. The interview was supposed to be Raven’s coming out moment, but she changed her mind at the last minute because she didn’t want to be labeled as gay. This tells me she didn’t want to be labeled at all, but rather be seen as a human being.

In the same blog post , I related to my own life, specifically how I’ve been labeled due to my disability, particularly cerebral palsy. That includes how I’d been labeled by the job market. This blog could post could be considered to be the continuation of that blog post. Recruitment and selection is an utter disaster. I can tell you that by my own experience, as well as the experiences of friends who’ve worked in the industry.

Hiring someone for a job is solely based on first impressions. Recruiters are here to judge you from the moment you send in your application to the moment you leave their office; if you even get to have an interview, that is. Nothing is based on your skills and qualifications. One little, tiny mistake can cost you that job that you’re actually the most qualified for, and someone else can take your place in an instant.

A perfect example of that happening is the new Amazon Prime original movie, ‘Space Cadet’, starring Emma Robert’s, who just recently got engaged to her boyfriend of two years, Cody John. In the movie, Roberts’ character, Rex, has a dream to get into space and become an astronaut, but to her, it’s only a dream. Her friend, Nadine, played by Poppy Lui, has other plans. Nadine prepares a falsified application for her. Rex ends up getting in even though she knows absolutely nothing about the world of NASA. In reality, she’s just a girl who works at a bar. Throughout the movie, Nadine pretends to be 5 different references for Rex, and everything goes according to plan until a technical error.

Rex is punished for it, and is judged for taking someone else’s place at NASA; from someone who actually does have the qualifications that were necessary to have obtained to be accepted into the program. Her teammates particularly judged her and saw her as some who didn’t deserve to be there. The thing is, however, she did have skills, but she learned them while being in the program itself and doing the hands-on work. She DID deserve to be there, more so than anyone who had the education or any other qualifications for it. What made Rex so unique was that she was actually invested in what she was doing. She loved it. She had a passion for it. And in the end, she was the one who saved her team from something that could’ve been deadly.

But Rex would’ve never even been considered to be part of NASA had her friend not made up her entire resume and credentials. If she’d sent the true resume, it would’ve been tossed in the trash. Lola was called for the interview, but at first glance, she’d never be hired for the job just by looking at her at first glance and comparing her Jenny, even though Lola is the one that deserves the job.

And that’s the biggest issue I have with recruitment and selection. The people who really deserve to be employed aren’t employed because of things that might be out of their control. They might be a newcomer to the country, and they don’t not to know what a professional resume should look like and don’t have anyone to help them. They might say something wrong at the interview because they’re nervous. They might’ve not been able to get the education they wanted due to money constraints, but they learned everything they need to know on their own time. They might’ve not been able to afford professional clothing, having their hair and make up done for the interview. We really don’t know others’ circumstances in life, and recruiting is based solely on first impressions. They say first impressions aren’t always correct. That hold true when it comes to hiring someone for a job.

And with that being said, I strongly believe changes need to be made, and I hope they will. Recruiters, hiring managers, and anyone that’s in control – give people second chances. Look outside the box. Be an empath. Not everything is what it seems, good and bad. It’s to time to do better; to be better. It’ll be all worth it in the end. I promise, it’ll be time effective and cost effective, both for you and the company.