So.. I haven’t posted for a while, as there was nothing to report as it was the same old,same old…I applied for jobs and was ignored, or turned down out of hand or had an interview and was left hanging.
Last week things picked up. But it was just a blip on the radar.
I had an interview for a medical records clerk at a hospital that wasn’t the easiest in the world to get to. The next day I had an interview for a night replenishment assistant at a well known department store (that I don’t shop at). Later that same afternoon I sat a assessment for a manual note taker. The next week I had another interview as a scanning assistant.
I passed the note taking role, but they can’t guarantee any work, yet alone any hours. Great! you wonder why you bother getting out of bed some days.
Feedback from the retail role was excellent – great communication skills, great presentation, very good interaction with the group. Ideal for a sales role – However I didn’t get the job I’d applied for as due to the lack of ‘merchandising experience’.Oh and the manager also failed to fill out the feedback form properly.
I rather suspect the other person who didn’t get the role was also the wrong side of 40 and not a size 8….proving it however is another thing. Employer’s please note – Diversity doesn’t just apply to your ethnicity.
After a week I’m Still waiting for feedback from the scanning job, which was surprising, given they gave me a ‘courtesy’ call to check that I was going said interview, despite me confirming, by e-mail. The warm and fuzzy feeling towards them ended when in the interview they notified me that they had changed the hours of the job from 8 -6 (from 9 -5)- how nice of them! But as this kind of thing has happened before…I’m an old hand of this happening, so haven’t got paranoid …yet. The woman interviewer wasn’t clearly happy I’d had so many temporary jobs- why, It wasn’t her crumby life under the microscope here.
Last Monday, I got offered the job as medical records clerk, via the phone.
This Monday I was offered the post PROVISIONALLY, via e-mail.
Before you congratulate me on the job, which is only for 6 months, there was A PROBLEM.
One of my references only had a personal e-mail, and not a ‘company email’.
My reference is self-employed /freelance, and when I did talk to her, via her mobile phone, she was being interviewed for another job, at a different company. I explained this to the hospital and gave them the company’s contact details, what more could I do???
Sadly in ‘the world of personnel’, clearly this person’s email was a reflection on my ability to do the sodding job.
In addition I’ve also had to book a session, to show my ID documents – the same ones I also showed them and which they photocopied, at the interview. So another trip, another train journey and an hour of my life I won’t get back, plus a walk to the jobcentre to beg for the train fare to go.
Said documents are my passport (never been abroad) and my bank statements (for proof of address) – thankfully I’ve not gone paperless – docs printed off the Net weren’t accepted,nor anything over 3 months old.
Why is there is this overwhelming paranoia in this country that I might be some johnny foreigner, who has no right to work in the country that they were born in? And no, I haven’t piggy-backed under a lorry from Calais.
Still not out of the woods…. when I do start the job – if its not taken from me at the last moment (Remember those bastards at RBS in March?) – I’ll have to make this weeks dole last a staggering six weeks. Even Derren Brown can’t manage that. Direct debits can’t be met and The bank will be sending letters (and charging for them) when I breach my overdraft. On the brightside I get a months travel paid for. Sadly I won’t be able to afford to buy, let alone make sandwiches for work and will be no doubt requesting a trip to the food bank.
Do you question all of this for six months work??
wslattery 