The Red Queen

On HR and Disenchantment | August 4, 2010

For the past month, I’ve been through 6 (and missed 4) job interviews/tests–and I have 4 more pending for the next five days. Yeah, I’m trying to major in Job Interview and Testing here.

Naturally, I felt really excited upon being called-in by companies. I got lost in Ayala Ave more than twice; came in late for my interview more than thrice; and felt uneasy answering the question “Can you tell me about yourself?” almost every time I face an interviewer (see, I’m really allergic to that question). Yet I still find the idea of having to locate the offices, dressing nicely to appear presentable, and warmly greeting every person I get to talk to exciting.

My recent experience, though, sort of served as a disenchantment.

I’ve always believed that organizations/companies should regard their people as their greatest assets. This high regard for people, IMO, should be expressed (first and foremost) with how they package their Human Resource (HR) Department: the HR people, the things they hang on their walls, their office, their exams and interviews, etc. It is, after all, the HRD that would give the potential employees a glimpse of how things are in their company.

I admire Logica‘s Recruitment Center for being appealing to applicants (at least to me) with all those posters they have on employee empowerment, value for people, and career advancement–and with their posting of their vision and mission which has also to do with them being good employers. Sadly, the position they are offering me isn’t something that could lead me to my dream job. So, yeah, I declined their offer.

A company in Pasig made me feel disappointed and somewhat disenchanted about how potential employees are dealt with.

Their office looked like a factory–I never complained about that since I knew anyways of the company’s background. I just didn’t expect that they would:

- make the applicants wait for an hour in a room with just one electric fan working (no a/c) before calling them in for initial interview;

- make them wait for another hour for an interview with the HR head;

- make them wait for another 2 hours before they are made to answer IQ and personality tests wherein most questions have already been discussed during the interview;

- make them answer 2 sheets of essay-type tests which almost had the same questions anyways;

- and make them answer the question: “What can the company expects from you as a Marketing Officer. Please explain.”

Irritatedly, I slashed the “s” off “expects” and placed question marks where they should have been present–I am theorizing that their keyboard’s “?” key malfunctioned since all of the questions didn’t have question marks in them. Yeah, what I did might be a bit impolite. But hey, shouldn’t they at least be proofreading their materials before having them photocopied for all their possible employees to see?

One of my co-applicants jokingly said that he though of the test as more of a “Patience test” than an “IQ test,” haha.

They called me in for an interview with the Department Head two days ago. But the experience was too disenchanting.

I have a job offer now, but it hasn’t officially reached me yet (I just learned of it through the phone)–so I am still not stopping with my job hunting adventures yet, haha

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