The job sounded amazing, challenging, incredible, a great working environment with a stable and reputable company, everything you could want from a role. They had recently refurbished and the offices were modern with state of the art equipment, all they needed now were outstanding Customer Service superstars to fill the seats. Well ‘That’s definitely me’ I thought to myself as I proceeded to draft a professional cover letter to go with my smashing resume. So I sold myself as best as I could on paper, pressed the send button, and confidently backed away from the laptop with a decent sized smile on my face. It’s in the bag baby! I knew my skills and experience along with my positive thinking would take me all the way.
The role was advertised as full time, but it was actually casual with full time hours like my last job. In this day and age I think full time roles with sick and annual leave accruals are few and far between almost to the point of non existence. Employers don’t seem to want to be ‘stuck’ with employees if there’s a downturn and potentially have to deal with redundancies and things like that. So the easiest thing for them to do is hire casuals, pay them more, but have the flexibility to toss them out at a moments notice if the need arises. From a business point of view that’s fabulous! But for the staff members, especially loyal hard working staff with a genuine want to do a great job, an awesome skill set, and strong work ethics it makes life verrrry difficult. Especially if they want to apply for a loan, or take a holiday. It seems job security is becoming…. Dare I say it, a thing of the past.
A few days pass and and I get the call! Because I have one of those names that can be pronounced about 5 different ways depending where you are from in the world, I always try to make a point of saying my name upon answering the call to avoid any confusion or embarrassment to the caller. I think she appreciated that. We proceed to engage in conversation about the role and my professional background, and shortly thereafter to my absolute delight, I was invited in for an interview.
What to wear what to wear… I settled on a plain black skirt, black stockings not dark enough to look like leggings but not light enough to look unprofessional, a sensible pair of flats, an almost oriental looking black and white floral top, and a crisp 3/4 sleeved black cardigan. The hair went up in it’s usual high bun, only I made sure it was a little bit tidier than the usual messy bun, and minimal makeup was applied, just enough to look neat and tidy. “You look a million bucks” mum said as I confidently strolled out the door with my resume in hand, throwing her a model pout over my shoulder as I closed the screen door behind me.
I’m always early! I like to plan my trip on whereis, and add at least 15 minutes for unexpected traffic issues or getting lost… Lets be honest, we’ve all had a GPS let us down at one time or another haha. Or we’ve let ourselves down by thinking it’s the perfect day to take a shortcut you’ve never taken before and end up completely lost! But not today, I was making a bee line straight for the office, no stops, no shortcuts, I was winning this job!
I couldn’t remember the last time I was this nervous in a job interview and the reason was pretty clear to me. Because I was fired from my last job my confidence had taken quite a blow, I was tying to control my breathing, find something to do with my hands, and remember all the answers i’d prepared to the most commonly asked interview questions; Tell me about yourself, What are your strengths and weaknesses, why should I hire you, tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a customer. Out of all the questions I had prepared for, she asked one. ONE! What is your biggest strength? I responded with ‘I feel that I work best when both a creative and a logical approach to thinking are required’. It would be enough to get me out of trouble and that’s all I needed. If she had have asked about my weaknesses my response was to be ‘I’ve always found it difficult answering the weaknesses question, but I don’t want to skip it because I think it’s a fair question. And it’s important for people to be self aware enough to know that nobody is perfect. My weakness is that it’s been sometime since i’ve worked in this type of role, but I can’t imagine any reason why I wouldn’t be able to get up to speed quickly and perform well’. What. A. Response. Right?
1 week later I still hadn’t received any feedback from the interviewer, and had no confirmation of whether or not I had won the role, two weeks later and still the same! It was a difficult time hanging out in Limbo, but I tried to be understanding of the fact that they were interviewing 150 candidates for 35 roles and the process of making the yes and no piles, and then culling the yes pile takes time. My phone became a permanent attachment to my person, like an additional limb that didn’t have a function, I would look at it every 15 minutes just incase my ears had blocked or something and I didn’t hear it ring (not likely). Finally on the Monday while I was sweating it up at the gym I see her office number flash up on my phone, the heart beats faster, and the body sweats more as I dart around trying to find a quiet corner away from the noise of music through the speakers, and windy industrial fans.
Well it wasn’t bad news, but it wasn’t the news I wanted to hear. Apparently I was on her top list of candidates for a position but the starting date was now unconfirmed. She was waiting for the date from her superiors before she was able to offer anyone a role, so basically the phone call was out of courtesy to advise us of the progress of the process, and also let us know we were still in limbo. I thanked her for her time and for the update and bid her good day, and proceeded to spend yet another week staring at my phone in hope. “Hopefully we will know more by Friday” she says…. But alas Friday came and went.
….. Did I get the job? Well i’m still waiting! The word on the grapevine is that successful applicants will be called on Monday, so I guess i’ll keep you posted. At least I know I don’t have to stare at my phone incessantly for the next 48hrs.
Fingers crossed!
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