I hate

Interviews.

For one, I can never be honest. I have to b*llsh*t to give a smart answer. I have to say what the interviewers want to hear. Most interviews I've been to didn't get the best out of the interviewee. I leave the interviewers feeling muddled, not because I wasn't able to present myself smartly but because I saw no point in the questions asked. Mostly irrelevant. No direction. Purely political correctness.

I'm saying this because K does interviews to applicants who wish to work abroad through a charity organisation. And I am impressed by the way they do things. Although the process takes a whole day but they put applicants in positions where they can be observed from a distance while problem solving or interacting with other applicants. They have a way of getting the best out of every person as well as identifying weaknesses which could affect the job in question.

My first job interview in England was at a hospital. I've only been in England for a few weeks at that time and I didn't have any idea at all how people do things. I didn't have a grasp yet of work culture nor of British sense humour. I was a foreigner: not assimilated, not acclimatised (was still wearing jumpers during the hottest summer of the decade), couldn't understand thick northern accent, and in typical Filipino stupidity, didn't bother to check the British equivalent of my degree because of typical Filipino arrogance that I could speak English!

Anyway. For the sake of experience, the job I applied for was Filing Clerk. Chicken. Kasajon.

During the interview, I went through the normal (and for me, senseless) describe-yourself-why-do-you-think-you-can-do-this-job-how-do-you-interpret-equal-opportunities sort of thing.

Then. What do you think would be the biggest challenge you would encounter in this job?

I replied with half-sincerity but with typical Surigaonon sense of humour: Filing!

The interviewers laughed but remember that the job was Filing x-ray results kept in tattered envelopes.

Next question. How would you improve the filing system, having seen and observed it before this interview.

With all honesty, I said: I would tidy the whole place up. It's a mess, the envelopes are tattered and some labels are out of place!

The interview ended.

Of course I didn't get the job!