Events at work that keeps me going

With less one member in the team, I am required to do 2 person's job. All this while working with senior candidates, it's humorous and frustrating altogether working with junior candidates.

Going through resumes these are the things I picked up.

Resume 1

After listing all the personal details it came to this :

Transportation : I do not own my own car but will soon buy one for myself provided I get this job and it pays well enough for me to purchase a car.

Resume 2

Way at the bottom :

Referee : Mr X
Relationship : Father
Years known : 24 years

Resume 3

At the education history :

Highest Education : SPM
Second Highest Education : UPSR

Whatever happened to PMR?

Recently, we posted newspaper ads and received quite a number of phone calls.

Caller 1

I'll just get to the juicy part, after explaining about the job and asking questions on his experience. The call took me 1hour.

Candidate : I'm 59 years old can your employer hire me.
Me : My client is open for any age as long as you have call centre experience and able to manage certain number of staffs in telesales environment
Candidate : I can only work up till Thursday coz I own a farm in perak and I have to get back to it every weekend to make sure they are doing their job.
Me : I'm sorry the working hours are 5 days a week and they will not give you an exception.
Candidate : Okay in that case I will need to leave Friday night. Okay I'm free for interview next week, I'll come and see you and make sure you arrange the interview with employer on the same day. Coz, I'm a busy man and I can't be coming down every time you call me.
Me : I'm sorry that can't happen, you will need to follow their schedule and not the other way around. You have to come over to my office first otherwise I would not be able to send your profile over.
Candidate : Okay, give me your address I'll come by tomorrow if I can.

I gave the address

Me : Let me give you directions to my office coz it's a little difficult to find my building.
Candidate : I'm pretty good with the roads in KL I can get there without a problem

On the interview day

Candidate : I'm driving past this road but I don't see your building. What kind of road signs you people have here. It doesn't even say where I'm supposed to turn in and I don't even see your building from the roadside

After explaining where exactly the building his and I had to be on the phone with him until he found the lift to my building.

At the reception.

Candidate : The architect of this building should be shot, what kind of road signs they have here. Everything is useless. This is not how you build buildings without proper road signs

I ignored his complains and in my mind I was thinking he is not a good candidate for the position. I had to interview him coz the management thinks he would be good for the position. This what happens when the management thinks they are better than the people who actually do sourcing and screening. The management's ideas are useless.

At the online registration.

Candidate : This is complete waste of time, you could do this yourself with my resume. You don't have to get me here to do it.
Me : This is supposed to filled up by the candidate, this is also for us to test if you are good with computers. Are you good with computers.
Candidate : I'm very good at it.
Me : Then stop complaining and just do it.

After filling in his personal details he got fed up.

Candidate : This is absurd, I have many years of experience you don't give me crap.
Me : Why are you complaining so much, do you know that when you get to the client's place you will need to do online tests as well.
Candidate : What sort of test?
Me : English, Mathematic and Computer test
Candidate : First of all I'm gonna test the interviewer's English if he/she is liable to give me an English test. I'm such an experience person, you are giving me a fresh graduates job.
Me : You are 59 years old, no other company is willing to offer a retiree any jobs. This is how employment works. We cannot be giving special treatment to each individual. Everyone is treated the same.
Candidate : You should treat me differently. I don't want this job you can have it.
Me : Just to remind you, you came to us we weren't begging you to apply. You may leave now thank you.

He left complaining over and over and over until he got in the lift.

Caller 2

After having a long conversation with her about the job and she's telling me that she is a CEO of a company and that she can't applying for this job. I had to remind her that she called us enquiring about this position and not the other way around. She chuckled and said she was just passing her time.

What's wrong with the people out there?

Confused

My working place is filled with funny, weird and strange people. If you read my Lift Lobby Story, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Due to confidentiality I'm unable to mention their names in this blog, instead I'll just give them stage names...hehehe...

Just recently, I was in need of candidates for a very niche requirement. I was going through my office systems and I found one candidate that matches my search at least 80%. Checking to see if he was interviewed by any of my colleagues, I found out that Elton <-- stage name, interviewed this candidate.

Since, this candidate was already interviewed I just need to check with Elton on the details.

Me : Hey Elton, I noticed you interviewed Robert, what do you think of him?
Elton : Oh! He's good, a very good candidate I must say. A perfect candidate for your position.

Note : I didn't even mention to Elton what position I am thinking of proposing this candidate for.

Me : You think so?
Elton : Ya, he is very good at what he does.
Me : What does he do?
Elton : Everything he said on the resume la.

Note : Did he even do the interview properly, I wonder.

Me : I notice that you proposed him to one of your clients and he was rejected, why so?
Elton : Oh, the client is useless la. They don't know how to appreciate a good candidate when they see one. They are very problematic, everything also they give excuses and complain about.
Me : Oh, you reckon? How many candidates did you propose to them?
Elton : One only la, he is a very good candidate but the still they rejected him

Note : I felt a sharp pain on my head, oohh I think migraine is hitting.

Me : What did they say about the candidate, did you remember?
Elton : Hang on, let me check their email. They send me email for every complain. So leceh one.
Me : Some clients are very petty.
Elton : Here it is, the client said he wasn't able to answer their questions properly. Did not demonstrate he holds all these experiences that he claims to have. He diverts the questions to something irrelevant. He's communication skills are really bad.
Me : That seems like the candidate isn't good at all. Did you do a face to face interview with the candidate?
Elton : Ya I did at the Starbucks in the Curve.
Me : This candidate is not employed at the moment, why did you have to meet him at the Curve?
Elton : Useless one la this candidate, he refused to come to our office instead insisted that he wants to meet up with me at the Curve.

Note : In the beginning of the conversation, he said the candidate was a good one and I should recommend him to my client.

Me : How was he?
Elton : Very high class one la, he brought his laptop and everything.
Me : What did he wear?
Elton : Very selekeh, t-shirt and shorts

Note : Why was he high class? All because he brought his laptop, makes him high class? Migraine now banging on my head.

Me : Client said bad communication skills, how was his english?
Elton : Very chinapek, his chinese slang is very the thick.

Note : Migraine now clouding my eyesight.

Me : So, the candidate is very Ah Beng and not professional at all?
Elton : Yes.
Me : Should I send him to my client?
Elton : Better not la.

Note : Migraine's killing me slowly now. From good recommendations to bad recommendation from the same guy at the same time.

Me : Thanks
Elton : Welcome.

What did I learn from this? I'm confused. My migraine was so bad, I had hearing problems as I heard voices in my head laughing at me for getting myself in that situation. The next time Elton says "Good candidate, highly recommended" I'm not going to ask further details of it. I'll take the information and swallow it hard.

Heaven to Hell

I’ve been long missing in my blog…sigh…new year…new boss…with new house rules. Yup! That’s right, New House Rules. It’s horrible, having to work without any rules as long as we bring in the sales and now with rules…I mean seriously, are we kindergarten kids that we need rules?

In the past, we were so used to coming in to work say as late as 10am as most of us work really late and some of us have proved that we can still bring in sales without having to work such long hours. Our boss never bothered us unless the sales are bad.

We can chat as and when we like, we can sit and chat with another colleague as and when we like…in short we can pretty much do anything we like. As long as at the end of the day, we have the cash flowing like waterfall that never stops flowing.

We survived as Adults under the supervision of a great boss, as usual, all great things comes to an end. Her contract ended and she left the company…that’s when heaven turned to hell.

Now we have a mean woman in the disguise of a sweet young lady….okay the young lady part is over exaggerated. She had a simple fun meeting with us, to introduce herself to us and at the end of the meeting there came the so-called house rules.

No More IM!! I mean she has instructed the IT department to physically uninstall it from our machines. Having to know about this earlier, I uninstalled mine much much earlier with so much of remorse as I have collected quite a number of cool emoticons…and they are all gone…waaahhhhh….

She even instructed IT to block all the sites that she thinks distracts us from doing our job, most importantly FaceBook!! Sigh…these sites don’t distract us, they actually help us do our jobs, doesn’t she know that!! All those fun games in Facebook gives me ideas to do my work better, to bring in more money the company wants….whhyyyyyy torture me…why!???

Lucky for me she never thought of blogging….muahahahaha….just to be sure, I make sure I do my writings discreetly…hehehe…

Oops…speak of the devil she’s here to have a discussion with one of the managers…well I go to go to my hell of a working life…I’ll be back if I ever survive!!

The Lift Lobby Story

I love working, always looking forward for the morning to come so that I can go to work. Wonder why? Coz I have funny colleagues. I reached my work place at around 8.20am and since I’m early as I start work at 8.30am, I decided to buy myself breakfast.

My timing was perfect when I reached the elevator lobby, it was already 8.25am and I’ll be on time for work. As I reached the lobby I saw a colleague of mine, I said hi and he responded. He’s rather young, a fresh grad and this might be his first job.

Currently, 2 out of the 4 elevators are under going maintenance. Hence, the elevators buttons that control these 2 elevators don’t work.

Upon reaching the lobby I noticed one of the elevators at the end reached the lobby and went back up again and then I took a glance at my colleague, he seemed shocked and confused. I pressed the correct button to call for another elevator. At the same time I saw him pressing the buttons of the elevators that don’t work. I told him, they don’t work and he was like “Oh” and kept pressing the button. I had a disgusted look on my face, what’s wrong with him, it doesn’t work and he kept pressing it till he saw another elevator was on the way down. Then he had the “Ah! Lift’s coming” look. I rolled my eyes and thought what a strange guy!

Anyways, most of my colleagues are strange anyways, it even includes me, and it may be due to our nature of work. We meet a lot of strange people in our days of work. And that could have affected the strangeness we carry in ourselves.

By the time the elevator reached the lobby floor, there were many people waiting already. As soon as the elevator doors opened, my colleague just raced in and strangely enough he didn’t press the button to our floor. I figured he must have thought I’d be pressing the button and I did. People we rushing in and our friend was busy racing to all four walls. He was like, now which side of the wall should I stand, this one!? Or this one? Oh! Wait this one!! By then everyone had their eyes on him coz he really attracted attention, showing what a nerd he really is.

He finally chose to stand near the elevators buttons, and raised his hands to press to the floor he wanted to go. Then he realized it was already been pressed, he had the surprise look on his face, like “Oh! Who pressed it?” He looked around and he saw me. Then he had the “Oh! It’s you!” Look.

Strangely enough I remembered saying Hi just before we got on the elevator and he has forgotten that already. Perhaps, it was the stress of which part of the wall should he stand dilemma made him forget me.

Oh! Well…another fun day at work!

Interview with him...

Last Friday the candidate turned up for interview. The interview started pretty well, he apologized for loosing his temper at me and I apologized if he thought I was rude. I also explained to him again my intentions and how recruitment firm actually work.

Since, I’ve already had his resume; I questioned him on his sales experience that he has gained from the current company. Then I asked him what his KPIs are, strangely he doesn’t know what the meaning of KPI is. He kept mentioning his targets as KPIs. Never mind that, it took me sometime to get into his head what KPIs are. Then he got it right.

Done with the related questions, I asked him why didn’t he write all those he mentioned in his resume? To that he was shocked, he wanted to see my copy. I showed to him and he said I have the wrong copy. I should have the copy that he brought along. I have the wrong copy because he sent it to me. He was puzzled why he sent me the wrong copy. Never mind that, in his resume it shows that he is a job hopper.

Reason being he didn’t indicate that all this while he’s been working on Contract Basis.

Lesson 1

Always indicate if you are contract employee, you don’t want the next employer to perceive that you seek for difference employment every 3 months.

He said he was afraid to do so because he might get another contract employment, therefore he doesn’t mention that he works contract positions during an interview with an employer instead he prefers to tell the truth to the recruitment consultant. Isn’t he causing himself jobs?

After much explaining he reluctantly agreed to indicate that all those was contract employment in his resume.

Lesson 2

When it comes to working history/experience always indicate your current employment first followed by the previous. Never never never state your first job till current, nope, that’s not right. Why? Because when an employer goes through your resume, he may have or have to go through another 200 more resumes; he doesn’t have the time to read through everything written in your resume. You want him to know what you have been doing now, what experience you have gained now, what position you are working now instead of you have done after SPM or after Uni. You may have done a clerk job after SPM per say. Do you want him to think why is a clerk applying to my Managerial position?

Since, this is a junior sales position I suggested we should do role plays. That way it will give the idea if he is suitable for a Corporate Sales position or a Retail Sales position. I asked him if he knows what a role play is. He said he understood. I gave him the scenario and told him I’m the client and you are the sales person. I give 5 minutes and I’ll walk in.
I walked in and he got everything wrong. He started telling what he will do in that role. Rather than acting out the role. After, both the role plays I concluded that he is suitable for corporate sales position.

Lesson 3

Listening skills, is severely important. Listen carefully to what the employer has to say and respond within the question. Do not divert, do not point out your mistake coz he hasn’t notice it yet until you mentioned it. Pay attention, turn off your handphone.

This guy’s problem was he was distracted with his phone. It kept ringing, no doubt he put it on vibrate mode, he kept checking it. Thus, jeopardizing his interview.

Lesson 4

Always check if you have body odour, you don’t want your interview to die in the interview room or decide not to give you the job at their company due to your bodily odour that only you can stand.

Yep, this guy had severe body odour problem. I never knew how to tell people they have body odour problem, no matter how polite I was people always have this reaction that they never smell.

Lesson 5

Don’t be embarrassed with your language skills, if you are not good or excellent in the language that you speak. Make sure you don’t say you are excellent when I asked or state excellent in resume. This again gives wrong impression to the employer that you don’t even know how to rate yourself. Be modest, state either Fair or Good, don’t go over board by saying excellent. You want your employer to say “Your English is very good why you said Fair?” you definitely don’t want your employer to say “Your English is rather on the fair side, why did you state you are excellent?”

Lastly, he said he was very nervous with me and that he thinks I’m strict. Just because I corrected his mistakes and taught him the right way to beef up his resumes makes me scary.

Lesson 6

Always, shake hands with your interviewer with a broad smile even if you know you are not getting the job. You want people to remember you as who you are not as a failure.

Yep, this guy didn’t bother to shake hands, he was too obsessed with his phone and all the calls and messages he’s been getting he didn’t even realize I wanted to shake hands with him.

Oh well, after he left I headed back to my table and a colleague asked me. So, how was he? I do not want to state my comment here. But I found out that this colleague saw him at the waiting area and when the candidate mentioned that I’m the consultant, my colleague warned him as I’m very strict. You better answer her questions well and pay good attention to her. Oh well! That triggered the fear in him and he didn’t do well at all.

Lesson 7

Never let your fear overcome your judgement. Always, be yourself and be confident.

Just listen to us...

I’ve been in recruitment line for the past 3 years and prior to that I was a HR Generalist. I had so much fun working as a HR Generalist, I’ll share my experience and things I have done while working in HR next time. I had to leave my fun job as I was moving to KL, not for better remuneration or anything like that but was starting my new life with a partner.

I became part of a recruitment firm and was enjoying the work here but what’s worst is when you meet clients or candidates who do not understand what you are talking about.

The thing people fail to understand is, our hands are tied, clients have their own requirement since they are paying, they demand for the best. We do not guarantee a job for a candidate as the client makes the final decision.

Though we want to practice equal opportunity, but it’s impossible to do so. Clients are demanding and good candidates are demanding. When we meet a candidate who is either fresh graduate or with minimal experience, it’s the client’s call, these candidates cannot be demanding. As usual they fail to understand that.

Anyways, this candidate called me this morning and said “My contract is coming to an end, I want a job as soon as possible” Working under contract with financial commitments isn’t a game, “When is your contract ending? What sort of job are you looking for? In what field and industry?”

“My contract’s ending end of this month, and I want any job in banking line. I want something with better pay and can earn more”, this is the problem candidates assume recruitment firms are able to meet their requirement.

I explained to him that, he has to be prepared to be jobless for at least 6 months or so and that we normally will match the job and candidate based on the client’s requirement.

Why he has to wait 6 months? Because clients are demanding, we have to be precise in meeting their requirement and we cannot simply send any profiles as we like. If the candidate is lucky he/she gets a job within a month. Otherwise, he/she has to wait.

Since, we work on skill sets as I’m taking care of Sales & Marketing positions I do not want to waste his time or mine. He has to be sure where he wants to head. He insisted that he wants any position in Banking Line, okay, since he has sales experience does he want to remain in sales.

“No, anything that pays higher”

“What is your current salary and how much higher do you want?”

“I’m earning *****, I want something more”

“You only have about 3 years working experience, you can’t actually demand for a higher salary”

“See, the reason we come to recruitment firm is for you to find me a job. If I have any idea, I would found a job myself. Right now I don’t have any idea that’s why I need your help. You are saying I have to wait for 6 months and you are not even specialized in Banking Line.”

There, there, I know, we normally put ourselves in candidates’ shoes at the same time you must understand that we are not drawing the lines, the clients are. If you don’t meet their requirement you are rejected. Having worked with so many clients, we know that.

“I am not rejecting you and I am not asking you to wait for 6 months, I am just giving a scenario of how long does it take for an individual to actually find a job. Don’t limit yourself to banking line alone, open up your options. Look into other areas following your skill sets”

“I only have experience in banking line, nothing else, how to open up?”

“You have sales experience, that’s a skill set, you can sell anything if given the product training. You don’t have to remain in banking line, sales skills are widespread, and you can move in to any industry that doesn’t require specific knowledge. We can put your need for Banking Line as first priority at the same time I still want to send your profile to other industries to give you the possibility of getting a job; otherwise you might be jobless for a long time. Citibank just recently retrenched their staff, Financial Institutions are shaky now.”

“Yeah, I got retrenched from Citibank in 2007 and that’s when I joined my current company. You mean I can go into any industry, yeah you are right I just need to learn their products and I can sell anything coz the consumers are the same”

There you have it, now you understand where I’m coming from.

He’s coming to see me for a face-to-face interview in the afternoon and he even apologized for loosing his temper at me. If only candidates’ listen to what we have to say, all we want to do is help you and since we are in this line we know what the client wants and we know what to do for you. Don’t take recruitment firms for granted, don’t think we are in your spell and we have to do what you want. The job don’t belong to us, it belongs to the client.

As simple as that!