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The bizarre job interview no. 2

zgaga

07/07/2016

I am still not sure if the event I am going to describe was only extremely bizarre or outright violent. Namely, more than a decade ago I was attending a workshop, held by a firm that got funds from the state to help the unemployed get a job. Again, I was not looking for one, but as the course was in my neighbourhood and one lesson particularly interested me, I decided to join. They asked for our CVs. I adapted it a bit so they would treat me like the other jobseekers.
There were several lectures on planning and writing appeals, which I found interesting and useful. At the end of the course, the woman lecturing most of the time gave us a list of companies that needed new people and we had to mark the one that we wanted to work for.

I marked a regional TV station. The woman said that one of her friends is the director and that I will get a job there, for sure. She would mail me the date when I had the interview. OK. The first thing that came to my mind – Oh, you get paid by the state to find staff for your best friends. I sensed something didn’t smell right.

Nevertheless, I decided to have this job interview. The letter said I should bring my CV. This time I brought a complete, unabridged version, but with bolded tasks that I thought would come in handy for a TV station.
I wait at the reception area of the TV station. I wait some more. And… I wait some more. When I decide to have a glass of water, a fat guy came and asked me if I am waiting for him. He seemed sick of everything, as if he was only doing a favour to his friend.

He invited me to his office. The office was a dark place. No posters of successful TV shows, no family photos on the desk, nothing. Actually, his black desk was completely empty.

He introduced me to the work that a TV station does and asked me if I have had any experience in the media. I told him that I was writing articles, columns, translating movies from English and Spanish and that I had just written a script for a movie. I told him there would be no problem for me to write news for his TV. I mentioned that I was also good at leading teams.

He wants to see my CV. I give him the sheets and wait for him to read them.
– Come on, you’re not serious.

He raises his voice, rapidly going through my former jobs and projects.
– Are you kidding me? No, really. Are you serious? I can’t believe you dare to show up here.
– Excuse me. I don’t understand. Mrs. Soandso said you needed people to work for you. That is why I am here.
– That is true, but I need someone to wind the videotapes. This looks like you want MY job in a couple of years. You have it all and … This is just too much.
– I don’t understand. What profile are you looking for?
– Not someone that would take my job, for sure. Please, leave. If I accept you in the team, I will be jobless soon.
– Oh okay.

I stand up and leave. Stunned, puzzled and screaming – Oh my God, what has just happened – inside.
In the end, he was shouting at me and I could not watch him being like this anymore. His fat torso was shaking in despair and shock. I saw terror in his eyes and sweat all over his face.

No wonder this TV does not exist anymore. Maybe someone following me was cannier and succeeded to make him jobless. This, of course, was never my intention, but indeed my first experience of a boss that does not deserve to be one.

A lesson learned – Always adapt your CV by eliminating everything that would threaten someone reading it.
Eventually you find out that you will have more chances if you hand in an empty sheet of paper, containing only your name, address and phone number. Don’t put in more effort. With such people it is futile anyway.

The bizarre job interview no. 1

zgaga

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04/07/2016

In the early 2000’s I was in that stage of life, when we are supposed to get a job. I already worked as a freelancer and I must be sincere I never really needed a job as I made enough money translating. Even though I wrote applications to several companies with available jobs. I have been doing it for the last 20 years of my life. Only when I was too busy, I ceased this activity for a while, but then did it again. For fun? Maybe. To learn something new? For sure.

Not needing a job desperately put me in a different perspective. My negotiation basis was stronger. I could focus on the procedures, the questions they were asking me. I could objectively assess the human resource department and it was the least I got from every interview. Looking back, I see the most valuable lesson for sure was how frank they were to me when they exposed my ‘weaknesses’, as I always asked them what they were. I was also interested in how they came to their conclusions about my ability to do or ,most of the time, not to do the job.

Once I went to an international company, renowned and looking for a low paying profile among the high paid ones. They looked for students that are known not to demand much. I was a postgraduate student at that time and could demand, and deserve, more.

Interesting. How will they tell me that they are not going to pay me much, even though everybody knows they pay their employees well and I have already finished my studies? An offer of new learnings to good to resist. Let’s find out! I apply.

I get the interview. My CV was actually OK. I had what they wanted. No wonder I got in.

When I enter, a curly red-haired woman shows no interest in me. No eye contact. I am only a number to her. Only checking the list she has to check. Probably we were many as she was not capable of narrowing down the list of jobseekers to interview. This interview happened about 15 years ago and I still vividly remember her asking me:

– How would you describe yourself in three words?
I allow myself a minute to think and say:
– I am a rocker.

I know I should have answered – disciplined, always on time and positive, but that answer just popped out of my mouth. I laugh. It’s funny. Too funny. What was even more funny was that she wrote it down like this:
“She is a rocker.”
Other, maybe more useful, things didn’t stay in my memory, unfortunately. The ‘rocker’ made them blurry.

In a few days I get a phone call.

Again the dull lady following the procedure.
– We are sorry to inform you that you weren’t selected.
– Wait wait wait, I said. Could you tell me why?
– You we’re too interesting.
– I was too what?
– Too interesting. It seems you know many things, and you are really extrovert and funny and we think it wouldn’t be good if you joined our team.

I couldn’t believe my ears. And I never had heard such a reason for not getting a job before. I am too interesting. How can I stop being too interesting? Lady, I really want this job, tell me how to stop being interesting. I burst into laughter, as my brain cannot comprehend such nonsense.

I still am laughing to this. My interesting me was surely taught a lesson. It turns out that if interviewed by a dull HR manager, do not expect to get a job, especially if you’re an interesting extrovert rocker.
There. The lesson taken, studied and learned.

To be continued.

God forbid you should succeed

zgaga

3 komentarji

21/06/2016

Being constantly engaged in action, we experience many things. If we succeed and change the world, we learn even more. If we persist with attention and tactfully, our world is simply rocking.

To have a goal. To have a strong desire. To be on a mission to change things is unimaginably strong motivation that pushes us forward to continue our path.

At start we get a lot of support. In various forms. They keep telling us that we will succeed if we have equipped ourselves with a great deal of patience and persistence.

It’s funny how many times people think – God forbid you should succeed. They think it, as they do not dare to say it out loud. If we succeed, they think they could not. Which is, of course, not true, but who will wait for them to get it. Of course, we would rather continue walking, as we know where we are heading.

Continuing our path and not minding them, this happens. Slowly they start acknowledging that we have made a step further and have succeeded in a certain way, even though they wanted to see us fail. And then their eyes tell you: Well, yes, you succeeded, but not as much as you expected. That’s OK. We thank them, as they apparently follow what we are doing and go on.

Even though we are exhausted we persist.

The fellow travellers change, now we talk to the one on the left side, now to the one on the right. Some give up some overtake us. In the hardest moments, we are alone.

However, we find the power to continue. We know we have to. We ourselves. No one else.

Far away from others, we realise how lonely we are. It is getting harder and harder. It becomes clear to us, why so many have given up. We doubt our goal.

But continue walking.

We find assurance in ourselves. Our goal is strong, stronger than anything. We continue. We find peace, although still on our own.

We look up. We have focused too much on our path and our loneliness. We forgot that our goal will not be achieved, if we do not share its results with others.

We look around.

Then it strikes us. We are staring at the world around us. How many similar to us have taken this path with us, but we did not see them. How many people think and feel the same and persist despite the obstacles.

At that moment we feel stupid.

But that is the lesson we had to learn from this path.

We spread our hands in the air. Thankful for this experience, we embrace life that was given to us. The smile decorates our face. Until…

Those non-believers and grudgers appear by our side. I was the one who made it possible for you, they teach us. You would never have succeed if I were not helping you all the way.

They deserve no answers. Again, trying to prove us we are worthless.

In fact, they are right. With their negative smugness and throwing a spanner in our works they have given us even greater impetus to escape them as fast as possible. They really should take credit for the path we walked.

We look into their eyes one more time, thank for their contribution to our success, knowing that we would never have to do it again in our life.

The life becomes brighter.

Now we can rejoice the path in front of us.

Learn how can you live your dream.