Party Pooper

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Well, I went to the call center for my interview. Lots of people there. The room was packed. I did my interview with Cathy of California and we got sent home to wait for the phone call to see if they liked you. I got my call after waiting nervously for hours and I was told to start Wednesday at 9:00am.
I got there early as I only live 1k from the place. When I got into the training room I found out there were only 3 of us. One a young doctor who has just finished his degree and needs some money and a mining engineer. I asked why the class was so small and they said that this was a very difficult campaign to get into and the others had failed.
The teacher has turned out to be pretty horrible with me. First he handed out paper and pencils. There were not enough pencils so I had to go without. Then my manual had pages missing. Yesterday I found out the pages and they are obviously really important. I asked him for copies and he told me I should have said the day before for some reason. The mining guy looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. Later he said how could I have known yesterday when we hadn't got to that bit.
Then the teacher started telling everyone that I am a party pooper. He said that I bet you are a real party pooper. This is from a guy who has told us his life story in 2 days. How his mother put him in the military because she couldn't handle him and he had an eye shot out and his shoulder still has a bullet in it. He did 10 years in jail and got deported. He has lost all his benefits. His marriage has broken up and he has two kids to bring up. He hates the other staff as he thinks that they are betraying him.
This is all the crap that I haven't had for ages because I haven't worked for ages. I am the fall guy. The others can't do any wrong.
Plus we have a woman at the back of the class. She is doing QA. When she found out that I was English she said oh - I had an English boyfriend. I think he must have dumped her as she tries to avoid me when we pass in the corridor. I am not paranoid.
I am not looking forward to today.

Sounds pretty insane....but I would stick it out. This isn't your job, after all. It's just the training (if I'm not mistaken).

As long as you pass the tests, who cares if you're a "party pooper?"

Let the lady avoid you--this is only the "training," anyway (if I'm not mistaken

You have a VERY short commute LOL. My commute is 1.5 hours each way! By car and train! 1 KM would be about a 10-minute leisurely walk for me. I hope your actual job is the same distance from your home.

Once you get out of the "training," hopefully things will get better.

This brings back memories of a bleak time when I was in my twenties and looking for work. I knew some people who were in a rock band and they all worked at a call center and said "anyone could do this, you should try at this place."

So I went, and the manager had me read a script and make a call with him. A few lines into it he said, "sorry man, this isn't for you. It's nothing personal, just some people are good on the phone and others are not."

I couldn't take waiting tables because it was too intense. They never chose me for sales jobs in stores. I tried working as a messenger because it was a no-experience, no-qualifications thing, but going from office to office in mid-town Manhattan in a heat wave was too much. This was kind of a last option, and then I failed the "anyone can do it" interview... What a bad time. I thought I would never work anywhere.

But things worked out. I got some more training in commercial art and then started working on ad layouts, and then got work doing something so much better for me.

I hope this goes better for you, but I hope you get something even better where you don't have to deal with mr. "party pooper" any more.

Good luck!

When I was in my late teens, I was a messenger in Manhattan for a little while.

I wish we could go back to the days where we could walk into a Temp place, take a few tests, and they would send you out on jobs. Jobs were plentiful for me even in during 1980-1982 (when we had, perhaps, a more severe economic crisis than the present one).

One could still walk into some messenger services, give your social security card and proof of address, and get hired right away.

For the most part, though, unless you really stand out, you have to endure at least at least two interviews for each job you apply for. And you have to write a drop-dead resume, since employers won't give tests in person, or even see you, until they decide that the resume is worthy of further action.

Exactly! That time when I was a messenger was around 1983-1984. The phone bank thing was about four years later.
The interview was a couple of minutes with the dispatcher.

I was horrified when I recently saw the online application process for a low-end sales job at a chain sporting goods store. They had all the usual sort of stuff and then what was obviously a psych questionnaire. The thing had questions like--

"You are at a staff meeting and the manager complains about supplies that were not put away properly. A co-worker falsely blames you but you know that another person was responsible. Do you:
A) Keep silent and do nothing.
B) Tell the whole staff meeting who was really responsible.
C) Wait until after the staff meeting and quietly tell your supervisor.
D) Wait until after the staff meeting and tell your coworkers what happened."

And there were 30 questions like this!

This is for a job that is basically selling sneakers, shirts and tennis balls! The whole thing seems crazy now.

I have even been asked for my credit score when applying for a job. Needless to say, I didn't give it to them, and needless to say, I didn't get the job.

That's quite unusual. I've never, in my life, been asked for my credit score during interviews.

What sort of company did you apply with?

It was for a job as a gardener on an estate. I still felt it was inappropriate as my work references were very good.

Credit score seems increasingly like your report card for adult life.

Insurance rates are based on it. Prospective employers use it to judge trustworthiness and competence. Landlords may use it to judge your reliability as a potential tenant.

I am bad at paperwork and financial management and have a problem of long duration with my wife in this area, so my credit score sucks (many late payments for one thing and another.) Now I realize that one of the most important things you can do is protect your credit rating.

Anyway today was totally different. I used my aspie powers to stun the class. I remembered all the user names and passwords to log into all the screens really fast. I got a little applause and someone shouted out that I used to be a programmer. One of last weeks trainees has been sent back to the class as not having had enough training. The teacher and QA bust a gut today to try to help me. It would look really bad on them if I didn't get thru now. I have to learn the phonetic alphabet for tomorrow. I got the ipaddress of the test pages so I can log in from home and practice. I hope I don't get caught.

I passed the exam. I got 4 questions wrong. The doctor got none wrong. I started work in the afternoon. It feels like I have a long way to go to understand what I am doing. Anyway it is my first real job since 2002 and I hope that I make it through the week. We had to go in on Saturday. I was the only one not told that it was dress down day. I was the only one not to get their own computer today. I was the only one who had to get IT out to set me up as someone had missed out a very important part of the setup so I couldn't dial out. Nobody told me that they were moving all the lockers so my backpack disappeared with my phone in it. I feel like I am swimming uphill.

I wish you luck, sir!

I echo Kraftie: good luck madmick. Hope it gets better soon.

Hang in there. So much of a job is the corporate bullsh*t that goes along with it, but if you can learn not to stress out over that stuff, it could be a good income. I used to get annoyed or upset when we were badly managed, pushed to do illogical things, and the like, but eventually I've come to realize I don't have to save the world.

Congratulations!
Sorry to hear about the rough start. I hope you get you backpack and phone back and things get better in general.

Good luck!

Thanks guys. I got the backpack back. Tonight I got detention for being a bit slow. I guess they want to keep me.