On Wednesday I recieved a phone call while I was with the Credit Union. It was a company I applied for a while ago, offering me an interview on Thursday. The same day that I was due to be interviewed by no limits. This meant I needed to be in Portsmouth at 3 after the 11:30 interview in Southampton. It also threw off my usual preparation as I could not focus on just one organisation. After an evening of training I finally got down to planning my day around 10pm.
The day started badly. Stomach Ache and slight naseua are never the best thing to wake up to. However, by the time I set off for New Limits things had cleared up a bit and I felt a bit better. I arrived at No Limits with around 5 minutes to spare.
After a brief fight with the door I made my way in. I was met by a young woman who informed me the other interview had overrun and offered me a seat. I took the opportunity to quiz her about the organisation and we chatted amiably for 10 minutes or so.
After about 15 minutes the managers emerged from the interview room, took my name and then apologised as they did not realise they were meant to be interviewing me, apparently there had been some mix up and rather than interviewing for one specific role they had people for three different roles. Confusing!
I accepted this of course, was directed to the interview room, offered a drink and waited a bit longer. I talked with one of the interviewers about working with the Credit Union, my origins while I waited for the other to get the job description and begin the interview. At 11:55 my interview began, with the standard question about the company and role. It was followed by a mention of Lizzie, although the name rang a bell with me, the fact I had not heard it, sent the alarm bells ringing with my interviewer who embarrasedly informed me I was possibly in the wrong place. All initial interviews were conducted by Lizzie in the adjacent building owned by a different charity, apparently the two are not in any way directly linked but one is funding the other to employ people. After some frantic phone calls I was sent in the right direction only to be informed there was no longer any time for me to be interviewed and that I would be informed of a new date and time at some point in the future. I took it upon myself this morning to ring and organise myself though, just in case.
As I left I was bemused at the whole situation. It was amazing it was able to happen at all.
1. I failed to understand the interview was not with the organisation. I took a phonecall and wrote things down but got confused.
2. No Limits did not know who they were meant to be interviewing and thus were ready to interview me.
3. One of the interviewer asked "You're Anthony right?" He had met me the day before, but normally when a interviewer says this, it means they are confirming you are the right person.
4. Lizzie made no attempt to contact me or work out where I was, for an interview, where if I failed to attend I lost my benefits.
5. Each party was unaware of the others confusion.
This left me 3 hours till my next interview with a company in Portsmouth. I found my way with no difficulty ending up with about an hour to wander round the historic dockyard before finding my way to the company offices, 100 yards away. The interview was my first in a while and I was a little rusty to start with. The company started by asking, not telling, me about what I knew of the company. I had done some research but it had been minor due to the short notice and other interview. Another question involved breaking the rules of interviewing as I was asked to give my opinion of both their website and brand. The Marketing manager who would hire me, was himself unhappy with it, and I was lucky that I threw caution to the wind and criticised it, albeit tentatively. I feel the interview went reasonably well but that my lack of experience in design may let me down to a candidate with a similar background.
So ends the week and already I have something for every day next week, including 2 interviews. Busy times, hopefully leading to full time employment. I will cover funding in a different post.
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