Good But Not Good Enough

So it’s official I did not get the job I wrote about in my last entry. Apparently I passed the test though I’m not sure how that is possible given that I was told I got 13 out of 27 questions right. That score would not be considered passing on any other test I have taken in my life but hey I’ll take it. When they called me in I was told I did really well in my interview. They said I was very thorough with my answers and they liked what I had to say but clearly in the end that was not enough. I was told that if another spot became available I should definitely reapply. Now while that’s all nice to hear but at the end of the day the fact remains I didn’t get the job. Further I was told that my current position could only be guaranteed until the end of December. After that time they may have to let me go or they may be able to keep me on. Basically moving forward this is a month to month position so I really need to find a new job.

That bums me out for two reasons. First is I just don’t like looking for work. It is all consuming and very depressing especially as a 32 year old person who is just going from job to job with no real path towards a career. Second and probably more important is the fact that I actually like working here. Now this is not due to the work itself though that is just fine. Rather it is because I get along so well with my co-workers and just enjoy being here. For the most part I think all Admin jobs are the same when it comes to the work and how fulfilling it is or should I say how not fulfilling it isn’t. So I would say that what really makes a good Admin job is your co-workers. If you like who you are working with you’ll like your job if not then you won’t. And here I really like everyone I work with, which I admit is a bit of a surprise to me. There is almost always someone who I don’t really get along with that well but that just isn’t the case here. So that is what I will miss most about this job.

Back to the internet to once again surf for another job.

Back to Work

Well Priya and I returned home from our trip to Denver last Friday and while we were only gone for 10 days I feel like I’m still trying to get back to normal here in London. The first few days back after any long trip always include some jet lag and just general tiredness but this trip has taken me a lot longer than normal to get over. Priya and I returned on a Friday so at least we had the weekend to rest before we both went back to work but it wasn’t enough. Obviously neither of us was looking forward to Monday but it was for different reasons for each of us. Priya because she had a lot of work to return to and she knew she would be working long hours (staying late and working on the weekends) trying to accomplish all the new tasks that have been placed upon her since Penguin Publishing and Random House decided to merge. For me I didn’t want to go back to work not because I didn’t want to work but because I was afraid of how much I had forgotten after a two week vacation. I had only been training for two weeks before we left and now I had been gone just as long. I was scared because I didn’t want to let my team down or just look stupid.

Sunday night I did not sleep well. All I could think about was the fact that I honestly couldn’t remember how to do my job. In my head I couldn’t remember what systems I was supposed to use, how to help the customers with new claims or even what my user name was. The next day came and sure enough I had to ask for help just to open my account. In many ways it was similar to my first day of work because I had to have someone sit with me for the first hour and remind me of all the things I had forgotten. They told me not to worry about it but I was quite embarrassed about all the help I needed. The timing was particularly bad because I had applied for a full time position at the company and was offered an interview Tuesday the 12^th. The interview was being preceded by a test and that is not the best time to have forgotten things. The worst part about the test was the fact that no one could really tell me what was going to be on it. I was handed study materials that covered months of training for the position and I had no idea what I should study. All I knew for sure was that there was no way I would be able to even look at all this information let alone study it before the test. I had to just pick and choose what to study. I focused on a more general overview of the department, the systems they used and the most common tasks they worked on rather than the specifics such as varying statistics or housing pricing. I also spent a lot of time memorizing vocabulary and various welfare benefits that affect the work they do here. I spent all week and weekend studying. I find it truly frustrating to study for a test for which you don’t really know what material they are going to test you on. Give me the information I need to know, let me go learn it and then I know I’ll be fine. But if you make me guess what kind of things you might ask me then it makes studying seem all but pointless.

So Tuesday came and I took the test in the morning. Sure enough a majority of the test was over material I had not studied. The test was composed mostly of very specific questions such as knowing the exact number of claims the department deals with or what the set award amount is to a family with three children and a non-dependant adult in a house with 4 bedrooms. These were not the types of things I had studied. Like I said I had decided to study the more general overview of everything the department did. The only good thing about this test was that it was multiple choice not fill in the blank or essay format so at least I could guess and who knows maybe I got lucky a few times.

My interview came in the afternoon and overall I felt pretty good about it. I was with my interviewers for quite awhile, almost an hour. That was mostly because I talked a lot and provided them with long answers to all their questions. Now I might find out that I ended up saying something I shouldn’t have simply due to the fact that I said so many things. But generally I think it is better to give too much information rather than too little. None of the interview questions really stumped me so that was another thing that I took as a bonus. At the test there were four other people taking it with me so I knew they were all up for the same job and all of them were being interviewed that day. The test was at 9am and my interview was until 3pm so I was their last interview for the day. Whether that is good or bad I don’t know? After my interview they told me they would hopefully have their decision by the end of the week and they would talk directly to everyone they interviewed and let them know what their decision was and why they made it.

So today is the last day I have to live with hope for a full time job before I find out if I’ve got it and if I do if it is a job I should take. The main problem I had with the interview is they were not very specific about what the salary would be. It was clear that the salary would vary depending on who they asked to take the job. After talking to my manager and Priya they both thought that in a sort of weird way my lack of experience might be an advantage in that they would be able to pay me the least amount of money to do the job. When I heard that it made me both optimistic and a little sad because I really want to be offered a fair amount if I’m going to do this job. I don’t want to just make minimum wage. But that isn’t something I really need to worry about unless I’m offered the position.

Now Priya’s time back has been really rough. She has had to stay late at work almost every day and even had to work on the weekend. The company just doesn’t seem to grasp how much work is required to make this merger succeed and have thus not picked a sufficient number of people to work on it. Most nights Priya is not getting home until 8 or 9pm leaving her with no time to do anything except eat, shower and jump right back into bed to sleep for 4 to 5 hours before she has to get up and do it again. Sometimes I hang out late downtown so I can go home with her but I still get to stop working at a reasonable time. Priya deserves better whether that means more help or at least more money.

So that’s where we are at right now nothing exciting to offer just a lot of work. Anyway fingers crossed about me being offered the new job here.