I will soon start my 4th job since moving to London three years ago.
My first job was as an administrator in an old, carpet decorated hospital. I was this cool IT person that had to try and adjust to an administrative role where no IT existed. A few months before I started, the hospital had just been connected to the internet and introduced to e-mail. This was in 2004.
I was the best thing that ever happened to that hospital because I had used a computer.
I stayed there for 9 months.
My second job was in a primary school. Here the problem was that this school had a few pests. And as you know I don’t like pests. My boss saw me as a pest since I wanted the school to do something about it. I did learn that air freshener wont kill cockroaches and that a bat and a mad janitor will not get rid of mice.
In Sweden this would be front-page news, over here: not so much.
I stayed there for 1 year.
At my third job it didn’t take me too long to realise that I wouldn’t hang around for too long. Way too much stupidity, and unnecessary hierarchy. You don’t need that in an office of eight.
I stayed for a record 1 year and 2 months. But I did start to look for jobs after 7 months it just took me some time to get a new one.
I think people over here love job interviews so much they have them just for the sake of having them. I would call it “wasting everyone’s time”. Two interviews is average, but if you are as lucky as me: four.
I applied for a job and my first interview was with the company’s recruitment agency.
My second interview was a thirty minute long phone interview. At my third interview I met the woman who interviewed me over the phone and her colleague. They asked me exactly the same questions I had over the phone. The interview went well but the feedback from the recruitment agency (I had to deal with them and not directly with the company) was:
a. I was nervous (the truth is that I wasn’t nervous, but who isn’t a bit nervous at a job interview?)
b. I was furious
Go ahead read it again. Furious. How can it be possible to be furious at a job interview? And why do you ask that person to come back? Time to meet the big boss but before that I had to do a personality test. You would have thought that after four interviews you would have picked up on some personality.
I went to my fourth interview and was told it was going to be the last. Hallelujah! I was the only one who had past all the interviews so it was me versus me. So I met with the boss, it went very well (I wasn’t furious).
After three days in the lab analysing my personality test, the recruitment agency called to give me some feedback. I didn’t get the job. The reason: I was too hard working. Apparently this wasn’t a skill they where looking for. Since I was a hard working person they thought I might have problems working with some of their more laid back members of staff.
The whole process took one month!
Another interview I went for was a receptionist job in a school.
Me and another girl who also had applied for the job were shown in to a room where we were given a timetable for the day.
First a computer test typing in word and doing some very basic tables in excel, followed by a conversation in sign language with a deaf member of staff. After that I was given a tour of the school and was finally led in to a room where the interview was going to take place. To remind you: receptionist job, not head teacher. 7 pair of eyes was looking at me. There was a class teacher, the office manager, the head teacher, a mother of a pupil and an old grey woman from the council and 2 interpreters.
It does make me wonder: if I ever want to apply for a CEO post what would the interview process be like?
I have now found myself a job where they didn’t see hard working as a bad thing. I mean who wouldn’t want to have a clever hot Swede in their office. I have 23 A-levels and a brain.