It's been one of those weeks, you know the ones where nothing goes right and it seems all your friends are having more fun then you are.
But I suppose I mustn't grumble... I have my health, I'm not exactly broke and my friends and those important in my life are keeping intouch with me. I was told recently that I'm a fine example of how to over come adversity and keep it together. I'd be the first to admit that there are others who have buckled under the strain of losing there jobs and trying come to terms with the endless let- downs and knock backs that is the job market these days. Only in February I attended the funeral of a work colleague who had taken his own life, he was 38.
Suicide is still a taboo subject in Ireland but studies show that it is on the rise among men aged 15–34 having increased from 11.6% in 1980 to 44.2% in 2003. Compared to other European countries, Ireland has a higher suicide rate among young men and less among older people. (Health Report Board Study- Irish Examiner 2007).
I could write a book on the crazy state of affairs that is job hunting in Ireland today. Only this week I attended an interview for a Reservations Sales Agent with a south county Dublin car hire firm.
The first thing that shocked me was, that in 2009!!! Someone still thinks an aptitude test is acceptable. Talk about the land that time forgot. I was advised I had 15 minutes to complete these 4 pages of questions.
The first page, which is included in the time was general information on me!!! Er these guys had already seen my CV, so they knew my name, where I lived... Ok so it asked how long I'd been driving and had I any convictions or points. But this could have been asked during the interview or during the application stage.
Next was maths or arithmetic for those of the "old school". Printed in bold across the top of the page was "NO CALCULATORS"!!! Yes like mobile phones, we have become slaves to technology. How many important phone numbers can you recite off the top of your head. I know people who don't even know their mobile number!!! I can recite my mobi and my home number, ok so I was around when we didn't have mobiles.(No I'm not showing my age)
But maths is not the strongest area for a lot of people. I can add, multiply, subtract... er yes but I was a little fuzzy on big numbers from small numbers. I could recite what I learned by rote, "six from zero you cannot take... Six from ten ... carry down the one..." That's what I remembered. Then there was percentages... Ah Jesus!!! I feared looking down the page for finding everyone's classroom nightmare, Algebra!!!! But percentages without a calculator? Ok 10% is one thing 25% of a price is divide by 4 then take it away. Supposedly I got it wrong. But I just checked on the calculator(for peace of mind)... I was right!!!
The only way you will be without a calculator in this day and age is if a) your stuck in the middle of the Gobi desert without any battery on your phone. What type of percentage are you trying to do then? You have greater things to worry about, if your trying to barter for water from a Nomad Just pay what he's asking.
b) Your at the office when a thermo-nuclear war is declared and some sort of Electro Magnet Pulse(EMP) device has been detonated near you. Again Fight or Flight reactions do not require you to work out a percentage of anything. As the saying goes "lets get the flock outta here.."
The next page was problem solving.... Oh Christ!! What relevance did this have to renting cars... questions like fill in the missing number from this sequence, or a watch loses this amount of time over 12 days how much does it lose in a day?... By this stage I was losing the will to live.
The final page was the Piece De Resistance... "Stupid Questions" as I call them, things like: Does England have a 4th of July? Or you have one match, and enter room with a oil lamp, gas lamp and kindling, which do you light first? Ha! Pass the Valium..
I didn't get the last page finished, because the interviewer walked back into the room, probably early but I wasn't going to quibble. She went down the answer sheet she had and ticked an X'd here and there. Then she started the interview. A few minutes later an older gentleman entered the room, he introduced himself as the MD. He then took up my CV and took over the interview, a classic "Good Cop, Bad Cop" scenario.
His first question was, are you working? There's 500,000 out of work at this moment. If I was in gainful employment I wouldn't be going after such a lowly paid job. So no.
His next barrage was where do you live? Who do you live with? Do you have family? Whoa!!! Stop the bus, firstly the address and town I live in was printed clearly at the top of my CV. As for who I live with and whether I have dependents or not comes under equality laws. You can't ask this question of a woman and the same applies to a man. In hindsight, I should have stopped the interview and corrected him. But I smiled sweetly and answered.
Just as quickly as he'd entered he left, saying something about the phone call he had to take. I didn't ask him to leave them on hold. His interruption was pointless as he seriously needs to go on an interviewing refresher course.
The original interviewer then wrapped up with a brief job description, shook my hand and made small talk as she walked to the front door. As I left I swear I saw an ark parked outside the door.
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