So, here’s the deal: I’ve been on the job hunt for a while now, and let me tell you, I’ve learned a couple of things along the way, two of which I found the most interesting. One of them, I must admit, sent me into a bit of a panic… unnecessarily. But hey… how about we start with the other one first?
Here are two lessons I learned about job hunting so far, and how it helped me grow as a person… written in a funnier tone than the actual experience…
One-way Interviews
Okay, this may be very obvious to a lot of people, but for me, a job searching noob, it was quite interesting to discover one-way interviews. If you think about it, interviews are like a tour around the house you want to buy or rent, you are looking around for its qualities and how well it can suit your liking and preferences, while at the same time discover its flaws. But here is the kicker… while houses and interviews can both vary in shapes and sizes, in interviews, you can ace in one type, while totally bomb the other ones… *sigh* you already know I failed some of mine by reading my previous posts…
Okay, listen, I have heard the question “Tell me about yourself” a lot of times by now, but the first time I got asked the same question by a computer with no one assessing me on the other side was confusing. I was sitting in front of my computer with my camera on, I had two minutes to answer each question, and there was only one attempt for each one. It was like taking an exam, but I was looking forward to it.
“Hello, welcome to your digital interview” a happy natural voice was heard from the computer.
“Hel-” I stopped myself before I said anything, “You are talking to a computer Michelle, think!” I said to myself as I placed my hand on my forehead. The voice kept talking: “You have 30 seconds to complete each question…”
Yeah, this definitely feels like my “Industrial Organization” final exam…
Flash forward
There were seven questions in total, and you could see yourself at all times. Oh! It is important to mention that before the interview you could record yourself for a practice round. Once you are finished you can play it back.
Have you ever heard yourself after a voice recording? And all you can think is: “This is how I sound? Wow, I sound horrible.”
Well… the opposite happened after I watched my video, I still didn’t know why I was listening to myself and didn’t hear a very scared girl trying her best not to repeat the word “Iike” 5 times in one sentence. It was quite impressive, I sounded professional… Why can’t you always be like this Michelle?
But then it hit me: so this is why digital interviews exist… I started reflecting on this experience. In many cases, we prioritize on how we sound and look over what we are actually saying when actual people are interviewing us, we are also scared of making a mistake and think that the hiring managers are judging us at all times. In a digital interview… you are the only person there, we will always show the best of us when we stop thinking about how other people can judge us. I turned off my laptop, and I stared at myself through the laptop’s reflection and thought: “Well… now this is definitely not like an online exam…”
Yeah, those does make me anxious.
Staffing Companies
Yikes! This one is a hit or miss. One time I was looking through LinkedIn when I realized that a company had job posts that were completely different from each other. One had the title of Financial Advisor at a Bank, and the other one a Restaurant’s Manager. Hmmm… I thought to myself, this is a weird company. I didn’t think much about it and applied to a few jobs under its name. Naive me really was something…
Days later I received an email, saying that the company wanted to interview me, and once again… I was jumping up and down. I clicked on the link they provided me, hoping it was an interview invitation. When out of a sudden a form popped on my screen. It required my signature and some information, and guess what? I filled it in… Please don’t be like me, and read every single line before signing anything… thank you. And guess what again? I regretted it immediately afterwards… because it asked for my social security number before I even got a job offer, I panicked and thought I was getting scammed again. I tried to calm down as I didn’t find any information about the company and its relationship with scamming situations online, phew, at least I can cope with that. Hours passed, and an agent called me, saying that she will be helping me throughout the process, I asked if my information is secure, and she told me that only their financial agents know about them, I chose to trust her. She said that if she thinks a position would fit me, she will email me.
Weeks later she calls me again, saying that a well-known clothing company wanted to have an interview with me, and like always, I prepared myself for it.
The interview went well, and the hiring managers were very professional, I was glad I answered their questions. I was also hoping to wait for a week or so, but then my agent called me 20 minutes after the interview ended, saying: “You got the job…” And based on experiences and past red flags… I got hesitant. I asked my agent if I got to sign a contract, and guess what… she said no, Well… and once again it hit me… I was not working for the clothing company, I was working as a freelancer, someone that has an assignment but is not part of the company. I was at risk of not having a stable job and there was no contract that could back me up when something bad happens. I said no… and here is another lesson, the first thing you should do when you are not familiar with something, is research. If I researched about staffing companies before I applied for the job, I wouldn’t have wasted my time and the companies’ time…
This time it was not a scamming situation, but a situation where if knowledge lacks, worse things can happen.