The Job Interviews

These days and with the downward turn in the global economic climate jobs are not only hard to come by but people are being laid off left, right and centre. People who do have jobs will do just about everything to hang on to them.

I would also presume that people who do not have jobs will fight tooth and nail to get a job, do all the required research when a job opportunity arises and be on top of their game if an interview was granted.

Henry is somebody I have known for a while. Since he got laid off almost two years ago, he has had a hard time finding a job. He has walked the streets, he has worn out the soles of his shoes and his jua kail CV has been thrown into the dustbin the moment he leaves and office.

So he comes to me asking that I use my connections to get him a job at one of the hotels. I kept on giving him the brush off till I could do it no more and till I could no longer ignore his phone calls.

When I asked him what job he wanted to do in the hotel he was very assertive and was quick to answer: “TB, you know the hotel better than I do, what do you think l should do” he asked.

I had to be miffed. It was he going to work there and not I so he ought to have done some research into the various jobs in the hotel. But he wanted me to hold his hand, he wanted me to offer him a job on a silver platter yet all I could do was get him an interview.

I told him what he would need – a letter from the LC, his CV and his papers and that his interview was set for Thursday at 2:00pm.

Come Thursday at 1:30pm he sends me a txt to say he will be late because he has yet to pick up the letter from the LC. But why didn’t he do that days before so I asked myself.

But get this, he eventually strolled in for the interview at 4:00pm with not a care in the world. I obviously was not surprised when he was in an out of the HR office in less than five minutes.

Sometime back when I worked with WBS television, on her first day, a young girl had been given a job by a higher authority and I was to place her. When I asked her what she can do, she replied, “anything.”

“Anything” so I said and added, “I like that, I really like that.” Young Girl smiled and was very confident about herself and her abilities.

The smile was soon wiped off her face when I took to the janitor’s closet and handed her a mop and bucket and told her she was to wipe down the corridor every hour.

Ha, Young Girl shot me a look then barked and said: “I came for a job!” I fired back telling her that she said she could do anything. With that she turned on her heels and walked out. Ten minutes later I got a call from Higher Authority instructing me to give her a proper job if not it would be I mopping the corridor.

So I gave her a ‘proper job’ and watched very painfully for almost a year while she screwed up. By then Higher Authority was tired of her messing up and tossed her out.

Moral of the story? The six P’s – Proper Planning Prevents a Piss Poor Performance