Tuesday 3rd April (Day 33)
After the fun
and games all the fundraisers left the office to hit the streets and the interviewees
were left behind. We were all sat around
the room in a big circle and a tall bearded guy called Ben introduced himself. I had met him before, last week when I was
first approached by the fundraisers from this company.
After he
introduced himself he went round the circle one person at a time asking people
to introduce themselves and tell the circle a little bit about themselves. When each person had finished introducing
themselves he asked them for a nickname.
Most people
just said a shorter version of their first name like Vicki etc. Ben would always reply with “that is a boring
nickname, from now on you will be known as Sugar lips”. He came up with completely random names like
Snow drop or Petals or something. It was
interesting to see what random name he would pluck out of his slightly crazy
head next.
When he came
to me I told him that recently people had started calling me Harry Potter
because apparently I look and sound like him.
As Ben was English as well he agreed with me that I didn’t look nor
sound anything like that specky little prick, but he still gave me the nickname
“Potter”. I wish I had just said “Mike”
because then he would have had to come up with one of his interesting random
nicknames for me.
After the
round of nicknames he then went round the circle again asking everyone random
questions like “if you could live in any age, what age would you live in and
why?” or “if you could have dinner with anyone who would it be and why?” They were somewhat random questions and I
suppose he was judging people by the way they were able to think on their feet
rather than what actual answers they gave.
The question
he asked me was if I could be any superhero who would I be and why? I said batman because I am not a big
superhero fan and the only superheroes movies I have watched recently was
Batman and Spiderman and I much preferred the Batman films. Plus I don’t like Spiderman much, like Harry
Potter I seemed to have some kind of unknown deep seated hatred of geeky main
characters. I also prefer the idea of an
average guy using an array of equipment to be a superhero rather than the ridiculous
idea of some loser being bitten by a genetically modified spider, how stupid.
After the
circle of random questions he then went round the circle again asking everyone
to sell something to the person next to them.
I didn’t get the chance to sell something because we did this in pairs
and the person next to me was the seller.
I had to play the role of the customer and the item being sold to me was
the whiteboard in the room. Every item
was something in the room that Ben picked randomly.
The whiteboard
in the room was a self standing whiteboard (rather than a wall mounted one) and
it was in a terrible state of disrepair. It was interesting watching the guy sat next
to me try and sell a whiteboard that was moments away from collapsing. You couldn’t write on the board on your own,
you really needed at least one other person to hold it still whilst you wrote
on it to prevent the whole thing falling apart.
I played along
with the role play and asked a few questions but I generally kept it
simple. I resisted the temptation of
being cruel and giving the other guy a hard time by asking difficult questions
or pointing out the state of the whiteboard, although it was tempting.
At the end of
the selling role-plays Ben told us the interviews had now finished. He said that he would be phoning the lucky
people who had made it through that evening, but he then added that if you
weren’t picked he would not phone you.
I thought it
was a bit harsh that he wasn’t going to bother to phone me that evening.
That was a
joke, I was feeling confident about my chances but it is still a bit cruel in
not bothering phoning people who came to the interview but hadn’t been
successful.
I left the
interview thinking about the people I had met and which ones I thought where
going to be successful and which ones weren’t.
I remembered one guy who was over an hour late, one guy who answered his
phone during the interview and a girl who looked miserable as hell. These people surely weren’t expecting a phone
call that evening? There was a very
attractive looking girl but her English wasn’t very good and a tall guy who was
a bit quiet. I thought these people were
boarder line. The rest seemed fine and I
was expecting to see them in the training day (providing I was one of them).
I walked the
long journey home thinking about this and about the job. I got home and waited for the phone to ring.
(Some time
later...)
The time is
now approaching 4:30; surely he would have phoned by now? I thought I had a good chance. I started doubting myself now. I wasn’t feeling very well that day and I
probably looked terrible? I didn’t
shower that morning either and the long brisk walk probably made me a bit
sweaty and smelly. Maybe I just wasn’t
good enough for the job?
I had tried
not getting my hopes up during the day in the event that they don’t call me but
I was still bitterly disappointed, this was my opportunity to really see if I
can do this, and it is going rapidly.
It is funny
really isn’t it? Last time I applied for
a fundraising job I was in 2 minds about whether I wanted it or not with a
large part of me hoping that they would phone me to say I hadn’t got the job. But this time I wasn’t in 2 minds, I really
wanted this job, this opportunity. And I
haven’t got it. Isn’t that ironic?
Just when
this thought was passing through my head the phone rang, “Hi Mike, it is Ben
here, I would like to offer you the job”.
Yes Ben, I
would like to take you up on that offer.
I felt relieved and very happy.
“I should never have doubted myself” I thought. Saying this in my mind made me feel smug in a
very satisfying way. I am usually a very
modest person but this evening I am wearing my smug face. I feel like nothing can stop me now!
 |
| My smug face |
