Say ‘Good night!’ and Go

What a non-event the interview was. I woke up at 6:58am after hitting the hay at 1:30am. Prepared a breakfast of toast, slice of Kraft Singles cheese and honey. I drank water because I didn’t want to drink anything with milk in it.

Left Mum at Church and Dad drove me to the place. It was 8:30am. The registration was scheduled to take place between 9am and 9.45am. Dad parked the car around the corner (in front of Public Bank) and when I saw how early it was, I insisted on waiting in front of AmBank. I wasn’t going to stand in front of the entrance to C0smopoint. So we read the bank brochures placed behind the glass wall, and peeped into the premises. We started evaluating the cleanliness and table clutter, just like my5tery 5hoppers.

It was 8:45am and I couldn’t stand it anymore. We walked to the entrance and found the doors locked. Some guy and his friend were waiting too and he asked if I was there for the interview. Soon, a girl arrived with her dad. A few minutes later, a woman came to unlock the door. My Dad left for church and I decided to sit out there with the rest of them. The girl’s dad asked me if we should go in (it was still before 9am), and I waited a few seconds before deciding that it was probably best to wait inside. Nadia introduced herself to me in the lift and we weren’t quite sure which floor it was. We went to the 3rd floor, it didn’t look right. The floor in front of the lift looked like it had just been completed (bits of cement stuck on the tiles) and there was some rubbish strewn around. I pressed the button that said ‘2′. We peered out the lift door to see no activity. So it was the 1st floor then. Good thing it was just me and Nadia and not a whole bunch of people. I’d hate to be the brunt of their annoyance.

A C0smopoint employee was there and he asked if we were there for the interview, which we confirmed. He told us to take a seat at the lobby and soon two guys joined us. The employee told us to sign the attendance. Then he gave us an interview form to fill. He led us to a lab and we filled in the forms there. The first part of the form had this:

Bachelor in: _____
Majoring in: _____
Graduated from: ______

and I filled it in accordingly. There were four pages of questions, ranging from English proficiency to questions about prior working experience. At the end of the form, we had to write a 100-word essay on why we would be the right choice.

Someone arrived at 10am. The person handling the interview wasted no time in saying that tardiness was bad form. After about an hour, the interviewer gave a powerpoint presentation about the course that the government was sponsoring. It was known as the ACCP (Aptech Certified Computer Professional) and had the best of both worlds (CCNA and MCSE - why limit oneself to one?) and the government was going to sponsor RM20,000 on one person for the duration of the 5.5-month course. Apparently, the interview was only to shortlist the applicants which met the barest minimum for the course, as the real interview (to be handled by one government official and a C0smopoint official) would be held at the C0smopoint HQ in KL.

After the video show of past trainees who had succeeded in the programme, the interviewer called out the names of those eligible to be interviewed (for the shortlist). I was the last name of five to be called out of the thirteen who attended. Two men and three of us women.

The men were to be interviewed first as they had to prepare for their Friday prayers. But the interviewer called us all to be seated around a table during the interview process. He just wanted to judge the English proficiency of the candidates. Two were encouraged to try again in January after taking an intensive English course. One guy was passable. And then it was my turn. The interviewer said that I had all the requirements, except the first one. According to government policy, those who held a degree in Software Engineering would have no problems securing a job. I interjected, saying that I had applied for a government post and was unsuccessful. And the interviewer laughed at my truthfulness. He agreed with me that the policy was unfair as he knew a lot of unemployed SE graduates. He gave me some advice and I could finally leave at 2pm.

What irked me was that he couldn’t have taken me aside before the interview and tell me these things. I could have had my lunch early! I wouldn’t have been subjected to listening to people attempting to murder the English language. I could have been sleeping!!!

Yes, I do think that he was trying to help me by giving general advice for the next time I had a job interview. He told me that I could try teaching myself J2EE and .NET frameworks as those were the hottest skills sought in the job market today.

Arrived home at 2:20pm, had lunch at 2:30pm, watched some Nip/Tuck until 3:45pm and then collapsed. Unfortunately, I didn’t fall into a deep sleep. At 6:10pm, Mum ‘woke’ me up when I was awake (but eyes closed, trying to sleep). If there’s one thing that will make my blood boil, it’s being woken up when I didn’t get to sleep. I get cranky as hell. You have been warned.

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