It all went quiet for me again after being rejected from Company H and there seemed to be a pattern emerging for me. One week I would have at least one or two interviews followed by a week of rejections, only for the next week to have more interviews again. I was starting to get very bored and de-motivated by this and wanted to break the cycle by actually getting a job!
In between applying for jobs, I mostly spent my time watching trashy daytime television (mainly American chat shows) and doing chores for my Mum which included but was not limited to, cleaning, ironing and taking the dog for a walk. As much as I enjoy these activities (ahem) I would rather be spending my time pursuing my career like everyone else.
As per my job pattern, I ended up with a week of three consecutive days of interviews, each for completely different roles. The first with Company I to be an Administrator, the second with Company J to be a Trainee Manager and the third with Company K (a well-known department store) to be a Sales Assistant – it was going to be a hectic week!
Luckily for me I knew someone on the inside of Company I who gave me some good hints and tips as to what to expect for the interview so when I arrived I was feeling positive. The interview consisted of your usual interview questions but after I’d finished answering a question, the interviewer would pause, then say, ‘okay’ really slowly and then carry on with the next question. It was a little off-putting and made me doubt whether I was answering the question well enough. It was also the first interview where I would start to answer a question then forget what the question was and have to re-ask it! It did make me wonder was I was rambling on about to forget the question though… It ended with the usual, ‘we are hoping to make our decision next week so you should hear then’ line and off I went.
Next up, Company J. This was a telephone interview which allowed me to have my notes in front of me to check in case I forgot anything and they actually rung on time rather then me sat there staring at my phone to ring, which is usually what happens. I was expecting the first couple of questions to be around what I knew about the company but no, the interviewer went straight in at the deep end and all the notes that I had made were irrelevant especially as the interview was only twenty minutes long. This didn’t fill me with too much hope but you never know, maybe he could tell from my voice that I was obviously amazing and didn’t need to hear anymore... or something along those lines!!
The week ended with Company K and even though the role was to be a Sales Assistant I had to have a telephone interview first and then attend an assessment day. I wasn’t too sure what to expect but when I turned up I was easily the oldest person there, I was not amused. The ‘assessment day’ consisted of an ice-breaker, a group exercise and an interview. In the group exercise we were given a scenario about working on the shop floor and we had to discuss between us how we would tackle this problem, we then had to read it out to the rest of the group. Well I say ‘read’ loosely as most people read it in a monotonous voice, not looking up and ignoring all types of grammar, I hate to sound snobbish but the majority of people there were your stereotypical Sales Assistant and I really shouldn’t have been there. The interview again was interesting as one of the first things that the interviewer said to me was, ‘don’t worry if you don’t have much work experience, try to use examples from school or outside of school to help you answer the questions’, I really don’t think that I look sixteen so the interviewer was clearly used to interviewing a certain type of person…
Although I had had a jammed packed week of interviews leading me to think that maybe things were starting to look up, I knew from my previous record that the probability of me getting any one of these jobs was slim. True to form I was rejected from all three and Company I and J gave me pretty much the same reason – if the person they had offered the job to hadn’t accepted, I would have been offered it!! I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating that is to hear but that’s life I guess. Company K was unfortunate as the store where I had the ‘assessment day’ was too far for me to travel and it wouldn’t have been worth it so I asked to be moved to a store closer to where I lived, but this couldn’t be done so I had to turn it down. To be honest I was pretty relieved about Company K as I really didn’t want to work in retail but we are in a recession and I know that there are people worse off then me.
It is now the beginning of November and I really never thought that I would still be without a job; fingers crossed I have a job by 2010…
Monday, 7 December 2009
Sunday, 6 December 2009
The One That Really Hurt
October brings a fresh start and I decide that I should apply for anything and everything just so I can get a job!
My first port of call for this new approach was the local paper, it had quite a few administrative jobs in there and I send my CV to a couple of them. I hear from one pretty quickly and am invited to an interview; I will call this one Company G. I arrive ten minutes early (as I usually do in order to take a moment to focus and so that I appear enthusiastic) and as I am signing in I notice that quite a few people have already been in today to see the same person that I am seeing, interesting… During the interview I am told that they have had two hundred applications for this job and they are trying to see everyone for a twenty minute interview (all the names now make sense) and then invite a few back for a second, more in-depth interview. I personally can’t see how they can decide anything from a twenty minute interview, especially as during mine the interviewer spends most of his time reading my CV out loud to himself and not asking me any questions. I am told that I will hear within two weeks but I don’t hold out much hope. I was right not to as it’s now December and I have yet to hear anything so again, I imagine it’s a ‘No’.
It all goes a bit quiet for me the next couple of days but I decide to apply for a job at the company where I did my Placement (Company H) in the hope that as I have already worked there, it will be an advantage. The role is to be a Pricing Analyst, not something that I have any experience in but I give it a go. I apply for the job in the morning and by the afternoon I have had a call to say that they would like me to complete some online numeric and verbal reasoning tests (again with the sodding tests!!). I don’t understand why I have to do them as I have already worked there for a year, plus my friends who have gone back to work there didn’t have to do them. I decide to stop complaining and just do the tests in the hope that it won’t affect my chances at getting the job. The following day Company H call me and arrange an interview (maybe I’m not as bad at those tests as I thought, eh?) for two days time. Company H seem pretty keen to get me in as soon as possible which fills me with a false sense of positivity, particularly when the person that I spoke to on the phone said that they always like to have former Placement Students back.
I am really nervous about this interview as I had such a good time there during my Placement year and would love to go back. Plus, I feel that because I have already worked there, they will expect me to know a lot more about Company H etc. During the interview I don’t even get asked what I know about Company H and they just head straight into the hardcore questions. When I left the interview I was a little unsure as to whether it went well but I had done all that I could and if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. A week later I find out that it’s not meant to be, I am completely crushed. I just about hold it together during the rejection phone call but as soon as I hung up, the floodgates opened and I found it hard to stop. After all the rejections that I had had, this one was the hardest to take. Why did everyone else seem to be getting jobs and not me?!
I now knew that I couldn’t get a job in a company where I had worked, where I hadn’t worked and in an area where I had experience and where I didn’t have experience, go me!! I was also getting fed up of people telling me to, ‘hang in there’ and that ‘the right job will come along’ as from where I was standing, the future wasn’t looking so great.
My first port of call for this new approach was the local paper, it had quite a few administrative jobs in there and I send my CV to a couple of them. I hear from one pretty quickly and am invited to an interview; I will call this one Company G. I arrive ten minutes early (as I usually do in order to take a moment to focus and so that I appear enthusiastic) and as I am signing in I notice that quite a few people have already been in today to see the same person that I am seeing, interesting… During the interview I am told that they have had two hundred applications for this job and they are trying to see everyone for a twenty minute interview (all the names now make sense) and then invite a few back for a second, more in-depth interview. I personally can’t see how they can decide anything from a twenty minute interview, especially as during mine the interviewer spends most of his time reading my CV out loud to himself and not asking me any questions. I am told that I will hear within two weeks but I don’t hold out much hope. I was right not to as it’s now December and I have yet to hear anything so again, I imagine it’s a ‘No’.
It all goes a bit quiet for me the next couple of days but I decide to apply for a job at the company where I did my Placement (Company H) in the hope that as I have already worked there, it will be an advantage. The role is to be a Pricing Analyst, not something that I have any experience in but I give it a go. I apply for the job in the morning and by the afternoon I have had a call to say that they would like me to complete some online numeric and verbal reasoning tests (again with the sodding tests!!). I don’t understand why I have to do them as I have already worked there for a year, plus my friends who have gone back to work there didn’t have to do them. I decide to stop complaining and just do the tests in the hope that it won’t affect my chances at getting the job. The following day Company H call me and arrange an interview (maybe I’m not as bad at those tests as I thought, eh?) for two days time. Company H seem pretty keen to get me in as soon as possible which fills me with a false sense of positivity, particularly when the person that I spoke to on the phone said that they always like to have former Placement Students back.
I am really nervous about this interview as I had such a good time there during my Placement year and would love to go back. Plus, I feel that because I have already worked there, they will expect me to know a lot more about Company H etc. During the interview I don’t even get asked what I know about Company H and they just head straight into the hardcore questions. When I left the interview I was a little unsure as to whether it went well but I had done all that I could and if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. A week later I find out that it’s not meant to be, I am completely crushed. I just about hold it together during the rejection phone call but as soon as I hung up, the floodgates opened and I found it hard to stop. After all the rejections that I had had, this one was the hardest to take. Why did everyone else seem to be getting jobs and not me?!
I now knew that I couldn’t get a job in a company where I had worked, where I hadn’t worked and in an area where I had experience and where I didn’t have experience, go me!! I was also getting fed up of people telling me to, ‘hang in there’ and that ‘the right job will come along’ as from where I was standing, the future wasn’t looking so great.
Older & Wiser
Having thoroughly enjoyed my Birthday weekend, Monday arrives all too soon and I am back to spending my days applying for job, after job, after job…
I was waiting to hear from Company B with regards to the interview that I had with them last week and when I do they offer me the job. I know I should be ecstatic but I’m really not, it only leaves me with two days to move down to Basingstoke and I’m starting to doubt whether I really want this job. The manager who I speak to is also becoming quite pushy with me and this only serves to put me off even more. After much thought, I decide that this job isn’t right for and turn it down. At least I know that I can actually get a job I guess but getting the one that I want is still proving tough.
Company D (the one that was really keen on me) has yet to contact me with regards to a second interview and when I ring up I never get through to the person I want to speak to due to them being ‘tied up in an important meeting’, which I’m sure is the case! I decide to leave it for the week and wait for them to ring me but Friday comes and goes without so much of a missed call. I ring again on Monday morning to be told that the person who I have been dealing with is now on holiday for the week, I assume at this point that I haven’t got the job and add it to my ever growing pile of rejections.
In the meantime, I have had a call from Company F about a role as a Bid Manager; I already have experience in this area due to working as a Bid Team Support Executive for a year as part of my Degree, so I decide to arrange an interview. After looking at the job description, I know that I can do this job and am feeling rather positive on my way to the interview. The interview goes really well and I am told that I should hear by the beginning of next week but as always, companies do whatever they want and I get an email through to say that they have had late applications through and I will find out by the following week. Whatever happened to having closing dates on applications?!
Whilst waiting around for Company F to get back to me, Company D finally gets in contact. It’s not the person that I had the previous interview with but their manager, and I pretty much have to go through all the same questions that I had been asked the first time round again over the phone. Once I had answered all the questions we arranged a face-to-face interview for the following week. Again the interview seems to go okay and I am told that they have a couple more people to interview and I should hear by the end of the week. That was September, we are now in December and I still haven’t heard anything so I’m assuming it’s a ‘No’.
I’d had enough of waiting around for Company F so I email the contact that I have there to find out whether they had made a decision yet or not, surprise surprise they had made a decision and it wasn’t me. They decided to recruit internally but they were really impressed with me and if the situation had been different, I would have gotten the job! That annoys me more then anything knowing that I was so close to getting it, I’d rather be told that I was absolutely rubbish and there was no way they would employ me!
I’m going to end this entry with a rant; I am sick and tired of companies making up their own rules when it comes to interviews and recruitment. If you say you are going to get back to someone by a certain day, then you should! It’s not fair to keep people in the dark especially when they have made the effort to fill out long application forms and attend interviews, it’s just common decency. Okay, end of rant, bring on the next couple of weeks of application forms, interviews and rejections…
I was waiting to hear from Company B with regards to the interview that I had with them last week and when I do they offer me the job. I know I should be ecstatic but I’m really not, it only leaves me with two days to move down to Basingstoke and I’m starting to doubt whether I really want this job. The manager who I speak to is also becoming quite pushy with me and this only serves to put me off even more. After much thought, I decide that this job isn’t right for and turn it down. At least I know that I can actually get a job I guess but getting the one that I want is still proving tough.
Company D (the one that was really keen on me) has yet to contact me with regards to a second interview and when I ring up I never get through to the person I want to speak to due to them being ‘tied up in an important meeting’, which I’m sure is the case! I decide to leave it for the week and wait for them to ring me but Friday comes and goes without so much of a missed call. I ring again on Monday morning to be told that the person who I have been dealing with is now on holiday for the week, I assume at this point that I haven’t got the job and add it to my ever growing pile of rejections.
In the meantime, I have had a call from Company F about a role as a Bid Manager; I already have experience in this area due to working as a Bid Team Support Executive for a year as part of my Degree, so I decide to arrange an interview. After looking at the job description, I know that I can do this job and am feeling rather positive on my way to the interview. The interview goes really well and I am told that I should hear by the beginning of next week but as always, companies do whatever they want and I get an email through to say that they have had late applications through and I will find out by the following week. Whatever happened to having closing dates on applications?!
Whilst waiting around for Company F to get back to me, Company D finally gets in contact. It’s not the person that I had the previous interview with but their manager, and I pretty much have to go through all the same questions that I had been asked the first time round again over the phone. Once I had answered all the questions we arranged a face-to-face interview for the following week. Again the interview seems to go okay and I am told that they have a couple more people to interview and I should hear by the end of the week. That was September, we are now in December and I still haven’t heard anything so I’m assuming it’s a ‘No’.
I’d had enough of waiting around for Company F so I email the contact that I have there to find out whether they had made a decision yet or not, surprise surprise they had made a decision and it wasn’t me. They decided to recruit internally but they were really impressed with me and if the situation had been different, I would have gotten the job! That annoys me more then anything knowing that I was so close to getting it, I’d rather be told that I was absolutely rubbish and there was no way they would employ me!
I’m going to end this entry with a rant; I am sick and tired of companies making up their own rules when it comes to interviews and recruitment. If you say you are going to get back to someone by a certain day, then you should! It’s not fair to keep people in the dark especially when they have made the effort to fill out long application forms and attend interviews, it’s just common decency. Okay, end of rant, bring on the next couple of weeks of application forms, interviews and rejections…
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