Hmmmm. I went on my job interview today, and I guess it went ok, but I�m not sure it�s going to come to anything. The guy that interviewed me (who will be my boss if I get hired) was friendly enough and did a lot of talking, but he just didn�t seem all that interested in finding out about my skills, experience, or reasons for wanting to work there.

I was all prepared to sell myself, and I did keep talking up my good points as often as I could bring the conversation back around to it; but mostly the guy just seemed to want to talk about the company. Which is great�for once I�m actually interested in what the company I�m interviewing for does, rather than just feigning interest to get a shot at the job�but at some point, shouldn�t he oughta have some curiosity about why I want to work there, and what I think I can offer their company, and what I think my greatest strengths and weaknesses are and all that happy horseshit?

He wasn�t at all interested in the fact that I�m majoring in graphic arts. Wouldn�t you think he might have followed up on that, even if only to make sure I knew that the job I�m applying for doesn�t have anything to do with their graphics department? Wouldn�t you think he�d want to make sure that wasn�t the only reason I was applying there? I sure expected him to... and I wanted to use that opportunity to explain that I was ok with that but I was still interested in learning about the business from the inside and meeting people in the industry and yadda yadda. But he was so not interested, I couldn�t find an opening to explain why my enthusiasm for learning about the graphic arts industry would make me an excellent employee.

He asked me a couple of perfunctory questions about my last couple of jobs and I used the opportunity to sell myself as a flexible, fast learner with a variety of skills due to my years as a temp; and while he seemed to buy that, he never attempted to dig any deeper. Wouldn�t the obvious question be �like what kind of skills?� But he just moved right on to asking specifically about my computer experience. I talked confidently about my proficiency with Word, Excel and Outlook, and he stopped me before I could go into anything else saying, �that�s about all you�d need for this position.�

Then I had to take a typing test... even though I generally type around 50 wpm or more when I�m working on something, I test horribly. I type slower and make more mistakes, which takes my average down even more. Today I tested at 46 wpm with 2 errors..... not good, but good enough for this job. Then I had to recreate an Excel spreadsheet to match the sample he gave me. Even though I�m very good with Excel, I haven�t used it in over a year and so I sweated that one too, couldn�t remember how to do a couple of things I used to be able to do in my sleep, but I finally figured it out and was at least able to hand him a perfect copy of the sample.

We talked for awhile afterwards, I asked questions and made small talk and �ooooo-ed� and �ahhhhh-ed� over the company brochures, and he never asked me another question about myself. He finally told me by way of wrapping the interview up that they were going to be interviewing the rest of this week and next, and would be calling people in for second interviews at the end of next week or the beginning of the week following, and basically let me know that they weren�t sending out rejection letters to the unfortunate. Either you get called back or you don�t.

Couple of more big black flies buzzing around the ointment... there is a ninety-day probationary period before I�d be eligible for insurance. That means three months on COBRA, should the Prince not be able to find a job with insurance.

And... I had to sign a release for a background check, including a credit check. WTF? I know some companies do this, I�m not too surprised, but it still pisses me off. What the hell business is it of a potential employer�s whether I pay my bills on time or not? A police check, sure. Checking references, of course. But the credit check, I do not get. Now, maybe it was just a generic permission form for a background check and they don�t actually do a credit check, but if they do and they actually take the results into consideration, well then I�m just screwed, because my credit blows. Hell, if they're going to do a credit check, they ought to just GIVE the job to the person like me with bad credit... I obviously need the money and would quite naturally work harder for it than those smug fuckers who always pay their shit on time!

So anyway... I�m not all that encouraged about this particular job, but I�m still glad I got the interview. Now my resume and references are all updated, I got some practice interviewing, and I learned that I need to fiddle around with Word and Excel a little bit to get my skills back up to speed. So even if I don�t get the job, at least it was effort well spent.

Today was the Prince�s last day on the job. He�s pretty bummed out but holding up okay. It helps that he�s had several calls from recruiters since he put his resume up a couple of days ago. Only a couple of promising leads so far, but I�m sure something will pan out. Meanwhile he�s not exactly unhappy about having tomorrow off work... or at least he wasn�t until I hit him up to help me clean the place up, since our friend from downtown is coming over on Saturday. Leave it to me to piss out the only bright spot in his ordeal, hehehe. But hell... I don�t want to spend MY Friday off cleaning either! Particularly since if all goes well, I�ll be back to the grind of work and school six days a week sometime in the very near future. Anyway, the place isn�t near as bad as it was when I posted the horror-pics. Couple hours apiece should do the trick.

Can I just mention that when I'm wearing my contact lenses for the first time in a while, things that are close by me look freakishly huge? Like, my hands, for instance? Remember Man-Hands from Seinfeld? That's what I look like to myself. I swear my monitor is positively LOOMING right now, and earlier when I printed out my resume, for a minute I thought I'd printed it out on 11 x 17 paper by mistake, until I remembered we don't actually own 11 x 17 paper. I ought to entice the Prince into a little hanky-panky... it's been a long time since I've been intimidated by a scary-huge penis, I'd kind of enjoy reliving the experience. Well, it might be fun if I hadn't started a gusher of a period today. Which means basically I shaved a bushel-basket of fur off my body today for nothing. And now I have to Drano the tub to boot.

Well, I think I�m just rambling at this point, so maybe I�ll go read a book or something. Thanks, everyone, for all the nice messages in my guestbook. Keep sending that positive energy our way!

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Previous - Next
Last Five
Crappy job crap, weird neighbor, and someone whose baby I apparently want to have - 2006-05-08
Live from the dump - 2006-04-09
Kind of like a muzzle for your brain - 2006-03-29
...and then she fell ass-first into my cereal bowl - 2006-03-28
Playing catch-up - 2006-03-27

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