What happens when you rehearse too much, I think.
Went for an interview last week with one of those large IT solutions companies (for the turns-out-not-to-be-in-Dubai job), and was terribly abused by HR.
It was my fault, really. I didn’t REALLY want the job, but to escape the tedium of work, I like to think of myself working somewhere else. Not that the current one is really THAT bad, but I’ve been frisky.
HR woman picked up on that immediately. This particular one belonged to a variety of HR women I’d only heard of, but never come across before–the Recruiter. In my mind, HR people used to be all kindly matronly types who asked if you were hungry, offered you biscuits, sat at the back during the interview and smiled sympathetically as the Project Manager asked technical questions. This one didn’t even bother with the Project Manager–technical questions were the least of her concerns.
The first question she asked me was if I was really interested in the job or if I was just one of those bad bad people who plague HR recruiters like herself and waste their time.
Well, that second part was probably more implied than explicitly stated, but I knew even then that I wasn’t going to get a biscuit this time. I was as unprepared as Ms Teen South Carolina.
The next 45 minutes turned into a nightmare as she whisked out my resume and shredded it in front of me (figuratively speaking)– arching an eyebrow over “Computational Physics” (I’ve never been so ashamed to admit to being a Physics graduate), dismissing my previous work experience as “bits and pieces” and generally making me feel as bad about myself as I ever have professionally. All this she did, whilst doling out advice about career planning and not playing around with employment no matter how good the job market was. I vaguely remember just nodding, or making single-word answers to her questions, all the while wondering how soon it would be before I could run.
I left the interview feeling light-headed and almost ready to cry, partly from the shock of the interview, and also because I hand’t been able to answer anything on Marshaling, nor the intelligent portion of the technical quiz (IT technical proficiency tests always contains a prerequisite out-of-the-box kind of question).
This has been, so far, the worst experience of my professional career.
Today, Scary HR-woman, through one of her underlings, called me back for a second interview. I know it was her because the callback contained strict instructions not to be late THIS TIME (I was a little late the previous time round–shows you how much I want the job).
I’m scared. I think she’s going to force me into submission with a painful wrestling grip before making me sign a contract promising to work in an orange jumpsuit for a year with minimum-wage and no benefits.
In an ironic twist of fate, as my personal blogging life falters, I’ve been asked to contribute to my company’s experimental corporate blogging exercise as a blogger as well as a potential administrator/moderator. One of the first tasks I have been assigned is to modify the standard template to include the Terms of Use, as well as a Report Abuse button for horn-blowing.
I really don’t see writing there more than I do on this one.
