Good afternoon lady and gentle readers, as I type this blog on a cold Wednesday in January I find myself in a rather befuddled mood. Allow me to explain, last Thursday I made the trip over to Cardiff for a job interview which I passed! This has turned into a fairly regular occurrence as I have now passed my last four job interviews, however I am still unemployed.
Allow me to explain, in October 2018 I signed with a company called Compass who had the catering contracts for the Liberty Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium and Principality Stadium. This meant that I was in the position of having a bit of money coming in to help with applying and travel to full time work. However during mid 2019 Compass lost the contract for the Liberty and Principality. I then transferred / applied to Sodexo who took the contract for the Liberty stadium and got it. Although truth be told it was more of a transfer than an interview I am classing this as an interview for ego purposes.
During mid 2019 as football and rugby matches were scarce I applied with Hap for festival and event work. Again I passed the interview although due to them taking their time at the time of writing I have only done one event with them a Stereophonics concert. During this time I have been applying for other work and its effectively become the same stuff you'll be familiar with from earlier blogs. Lots of interest that dries up the moment they realise I'm transgender.
Last week I passed an interview with Arc Hospitality which means I should be busy over the coming months. I'm enjoying hospitality looking forward to all upcoming shifts although the major problem is that being casual and mostly match and event day there isn't a lot of hours. However I'm getting good at it, management are training me and upping my skill set. Hopefully this might lead to permanent work in something like a hotel or restaurant.
Personally I'm in a good place right now and can see things getting better.
Showing posts with label Job Search. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Job Search. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Monday, 14 October 2019
Job Application Funk
I'm in a bit of a funk today lady and gentle readers, a proper funk. Like I've fallen down a dark hole and can't pull myself out kind of funk.
I'll tell you why, earlier today I saw my old job being advertised on a job site via an agency. This was a civil service job and I immediately checked if it was advertised on the civil service site - it was. This left me with a decision to make and I'll explain why.
Over the years I have applied for a number of civil service jobs directly and never got one. Despite the fact I am qualified and experienced in admin and call centre management - I believe the fact I'm transgender is a factor in this. At one point in 2015 I applied to what looked like a civil service job via an agency, I firmly believed this was a fake job advert but applied anyway as a job could still come out of this. I registered for the job, interviewed for the job and got the job, mainly due to the fact the recruitment consultant was stoned out of her skull and didn't realise I was transgender.
During the time I was there, the entry level (fixed term) in the workplace was removed which would have been the next level I got promoted up to from a temp. I wasn't allowed to apply for permanently, a number of jobs I was experienced in and qualified for came up and I was unable to apply for them because I wasn't permanent or fixed term. Eventually after 15 months I was phased out due to the temp contract coming to an end. During this 15 months I managed a department over Christmas and New Years, trained countless staff and got nothing from it.
My choice is do I apply for this as a temp or directly. Directly I don't get in, this is plain fact, I have helped manage a department for this branch of the civil service but it counts for nothing because I'm transgender. I've got no choice but to apply for this job as a temp and hopefully get more than three months work out of it.
I should be firmly entrenched in this branch of the civil service by now, a few levels up striving to get back to I was before two decades of work placed transphobia killed my career. But I'm sat here typing a blog with only four hours guaranteed work this week.
Like I said readers, I'm in a funk.
I'll tell you why, earlier today I saw my old job being advertised on a job site via an agency. This was a civil service job and I immediately checked if it was advertised on the civil service site - it was. This left me with a decision to make and I'll explain why.
Over the years I have applied for a number of civil service jobs directly and never got one. Despite the fact I am qualified and experienced in admin and call centre management - I believe the fact I'm transgender is a factor in this. At one point in 2015 I applied to what looked like a civil service job via an agency, I firmly believed this was a fake job advert but applied anyway as a job could still come out of this. I registered for the job, interviewed for the job and got the job, mainly due to the fact the recruitment consultant was stoned out of her skull and didn't realise I was transgender.
During the time I was there, the entry level (fixed term) in the workplace was removed which would have been the next level I got promoted up to from a temp. I wasn't allowed to apply for permanently, a number of jobs I was experienced in and qualified for came up and I was unable to apply for them because I wasn't permanent or fixed term. Eventually after 15 months I was phased out due to the temp contract coming to an end. During this 15 months I managed a department over Christmas and New Years, trained countless staff and got nothing from it.
My choice is do I apply for this as a temp or directly. Directly I don't get in, this is plain fact, I have helped manage a department for this branch of the civil service but it counts for nothing because I'm transgender. I've got no choice but to apply for this job as a temp and hopefully get more than three months work out of it.
I should be firmly entrenched in this branch of the civil service by now, a few levels up striving to get back to I was before two decades of work placed transphobia killed my career. But I'm sat here typing a blog with only four hours guaranteed work this week.
Like I said readers, I'm in a funk.
Monday, 26 November 2018
Advice for Telephone Interviews
These days a lot of companies are using telephone interviews as first stage interviews to screen candidates before meeting them face to face. Yet people aren't taking them as a serious form of interview and fail the first hurdle immediately by making these simple mistakes.
1. Make Conversation
Chances are this person will be working with you in the future. They want to know that you can carry a conversation so as well as asking you questions, they are determining your personality and telephone manner.
It's not an interrogation, so ask them how they are or have they had a busy day. Nothing too serious like what was there childhood like but make sure you talk to them like they're a human and not a scary hiring robot question machine.
2. Do Your Research
So so many candidates don't bother to do any research before any interview. When the recruiter asks what they know about the company they say "nothing" or wrong information. This is just lazy, you are not only failing yourself but also the person interviewing you. Firstly this might be a company that you really don't want to work for. And this instantly speaks volumes about the kind of person you are and makes you seem disinterested in the role.
Companies hire people who want to work at that company. Make sure that comes across.
3. Know The Role
Where possible look at the job description, which is usually on the advert or most companies now will send over the job description to you. Read it. Make sure you check what key skills are required and then emphasise these where possible in questions. Use examples from your most recent roles. Make sure you know day to day if this is something you could wholeheartedly see yourself doing in the future.
4. Avoid Reading From A Piece Of Paper
If you have key points you want to get across, fine. Jot them down but it's so important for conversation to flow and this not to be you reading a script. It needs to sound natural not like your reading your CV to them.
5. Choose Your Environment Wisely
Go somewhere quiet with good phone signal. You don't want your conversation to be interrupted.
And sit up and smile as you are talking. You can genuinely hear someone smile when they are talking on the phone and if you're slouched in bed in your pjs, your tone is going to come over terrible.
6. Ask Questions
If they ask you if you have any questions at the end, have some prepared and make them relevant. If they haven't mentioned salary, then don't have the first thing you ask be the salary, second or third is fine. I mean you're not gonna work for free. Some good questions to ask are:
"How has this position come about?"
"What progression is there within your company"
"How many work within this office"
"If successful how soon would you want someone to start"
"What do you enjoy most about working for this company"
"What are some of the challenges this position may face"
1. Make Conversation
Chances are this person will be working with you in the future. They want to know that you can carry a conversation so as well as asking you questions, they are determining your personality and telephone manner.
It's not an interrogation, so ask them how they are or have they had a busy day. Nothing too serious like what was there childhood like but make sure you talk to them like they're a human and not a scary hiring robot question machine.
2. Do Your Research
So so many candidates don't bother to do any research before any interview. When the recruiter asks what they know about the company they say "nothing" or wrong information. This is just lazy, you are not only failing yourself but also the person interviewing you. Firstly this might be a company that you really don't want to work for. And this instantly speaks volumes about the kind of person you are and makes you seem disinterested in the role.
Companies hire people who want to work at that company. Make sure that comes across.
3. Know The Role
Where possible look at the job description, which is usually on the advert or most companies now will send over the job description to you. Read it. Make sure you check what key skills are required and then emphasise these where possible in questions. Use examples from your most recent roles. Make sure you know day to day if this is something you could wholeheartedly see yourself doing in the future.
4. Avoid Reading From A Piece Of Paper
If you have key points you want to get across, fine. Jot them down but it's so important for conversation to flow and this not to be you reading a script. It needs to sound natural not like your reading your CV to them.
5. Choose Your Environment Wisely
Go somewhere quiet with good phone signal. You don't want your conversation to be interrupted.
And sit up and smile as you are talking. You can genuinely hear someone smile when they are talking on the phone and if you're slouched in bed in your pjs, your tone is going to come over terrible.
6. Ask Questions
If they ask you if you have any questions at the end, have some prepared and make them relevant. If they haven't mentioned salary, then don't have the first thing you ask be the salary, second or third is fine. I mean you're not gonna work for free. Some good questions to ask are:
"How has this position come about?"
"What progression is there within your company"
"How many work within this office"
"If successful how soon would you want someone to start"
"What do you enjoy most about working for this company"
"What are some of the challenges this position may face"
Sunday, 25 October 2015
My Least Favourite Waste of Time (part two)
Fast forward four months and things were still not going well on the job search front. On 10/06/15 I received an unexpected email from Admirals recruitment team. They were looking to run a course called "Getting into Admiral" on 01/07/15 - 03/07/15 it was aimed at people who were "unsuccessful" in their interview. It would be three days of interview tips, sales training and an insight into Admiral. There would be an interview at the end and if passed would result in a job starting on the 13/07/15. The job was actually an inbound sales job which was appealing. I had a few interviews and few applications on the go at the time so phoned Admiral and asked if I could confirm I would attend a week beforehand due to it being three weeks away, which they said was fine.
If any ones reading this thinking "why apply for them again" I'm not in a position to turn anything down, I want to work, this was in a different site to the previous job application (actually with Admiral and not one of their brands) and hopefully it would be with different recruitment staff. I rang them a week beforehand and confirmed I was going to attend. At the time I had three interviews with three different companies over a three week period; week 1 would be HSBC, week 2 would be Admiral and week 3 would be Virgin Atlantic. All in Swansea and all call centre jobs, given my extensive experience and skill I set myself a target of passing at least two of the three interviews and getting myself a choice of jobs. Admiral in fact for various long drawn out reasons was my pick of the three jobs.
The course was situated in Admirals Telelink 2 Building in Swansea Vale, located a short hop from Llansamlet train station which is how I would be getting there. I rolled up to the building at 08:45 Thursday morning, due to confidence issues and the previous application I was dressed gender neutral. I was signed in by security then escorted into the canteen where we were to wait for the trainers. There were a few people already in before me and over the next ten minutes the rest of the applicants arrived. The applicants were as follows;
1. Me, a veteran of call centres, knows their way around the industry, can talk to people of all ilks and coming off a six month period of unemployment after working in the TSB call centre just down the road.
2. Swindon, a woman from Swindon currently living in Swansea. I didn't learn anything of her professional background.
3. Teacher, a middle aged former teacher, rather authoritarian and I found her rather old fashioned.
4. Navy, a former navy chef, currently unemployed and also had recent call centre sales experience.
5. Mac, a young girl who was a trainer in McDonald's.
6. Hardy, an ex squaddie who was currently working in sales in the call centre next door to Admiral.
7. Blonde, a woman a little younger than myself whose professional background I never found out about.
8. Q, a rather quiet guy who kept himself to himself.
9. Tess. a young girl who worked in a super market.
10. Max, a young boy who I never really found out much about.
11. Stylist, a young girl who worked in a hair salon.
12. Brunette, a middle aged woman who I never found out much about.
13. Don, a quiet guy who didn't say much with a beard to differentiate himself from Q.
14. Brad, an Australian who like me had spent most of the last few years working for an Internet retailer.
15. Ben, a rather laid back young man.
I found the trainers and recruiter who ran the course very professional the course included a welcome, facilities talk, Admirals core competencies, interview skills, listening in to agents, sales training some talks by management and sales training. All in all very professional and we got a free lunch which went down well. At the end of day two we drew lots for our interview times on the final day - the final day would be the interview and we'd get the results the following Monday which would mean a potential start a week later.
I arrived for my interview fifteen minutes early - arriving early is good but arriving to early results in sitting around getting nervous. First people I saw were Anita and Ruth who were running the course and interviewing, we were told they didn't have a say who was interviewing who - it was randomly assigned. I found Q sitting in the canteen after a quick chat Anita and Ruth called him in for his interview. I was sat on my own composing myself until Mac arrived. We had a chat and then I was called in for my interview.
This interview is now mentally my benchmark interview, the one I will now think of as the best an interview can go. I was on top form, answers were flowing, no awkward silences, eye contact was maintained and all in all very good and I came away thinking I'd got the job. I'd done everything, I'd brought paperwork that showed when I left Amazon due to productivity I was hitting my targets but when the work dried up I missed them for two weeks - hitting 150% of target the week before I was released. I'd prepared my own role play where I mock sold the interviewers my mobile phone. Feedback from the previous weeks interview with HSBC informed me recruiters when asking for examples want recent examples so when asked about motivation/targets I talked about targets and bonus for hitting them for Amazon because the previous call centre sales targets experience was from 2010. I left feeling confident, walked into Swansea to spend some money to celebrate my start a week Monday and generally felt on top of the world.
The situation for the job was there were 20 jobs on offer, 15 on the course and 20 applicants applied to the advert. I felt I was a top contender and well capable of finishing in the top 20 out of 35. I couldn't judge the applicants who I hadn't met but here's my opinion of the contenders from the course;
If any ones reading this thinking "why apply for them again" I'm not in a position to turn anything down, I want to work, this was in a different site to the previous job application (actually with Admiral and not one of their brands) and hopefully it would be with different recruitment staff. I rang them a week beforehand and confirmed I was going to attend. At the time I had three interviews with three different companies over a three week period; week 1 would be HSBC, week 2 would be Admiral and week 3 would be Virgin Atlantic. All in Swansea and all call centre jobs, given my extensive experience and skill I set myself a target of passing at least two of the three interviews and getting myself a choice of jobs. Admiral in fact for various long drawn out reasons was my pick of the three jobs.
The course was situated in Admirals Telelink 2 Building in Swansea Vale, located a short hop from Llansamlet train station which is how I would be getting there. I rolled up to the building at 08:45 Thursday morning, due to confidence issues and the previous application I was dressed gender neutral. I was signed in by security then escorted into the canteen where we were to wait for the trainers. There were a few people already in before me and over the next ten minutes the rest of the applicants arrived. The applicants were as follows;
1. Me, a veteran of call centres, knows their way around the industry, can talk to people of all ilks and coming off a six month period of unemployment after working in the TSB call centre just down the road.
2. Swindon, a woman from Swindon currently living in Swansea. I didn't learn anything of her professional background.
3. Teacher, a middle aged former teacher, rather authoritarian and I found her rather old fashioned.
4. Navy, a former navy chef, currently unemployed and also had recent call centre sales experience.
5. Mac, a young girl who was a trainer in McDonald's.
6. Hardy, an ex squaddie who was currently working in sales in the call centre next door to Admiral.
7. Blonde, a woman a little younger than myself whose professional background I never found out about.
8. Q, a rather quiet guy who kept himself to himself.
9. Tess. a young girl who worked in a super market.
10. Max, a young boy who I never really found out much about.
11. Stylist, a young girl who worked in a hair salon.
12. Brunette, a middle aged woman who I never found out much about.
13. Don, a quiet guy who didn't say much with a beard to differentiate himself from Q.
14. Brad, an Australian who like me had spent most of the last few years working for an Internet retailer.
15. Ben, a rather laid back young man.
I found the trainers and recruiter who ran the course very professional the course included a welcome, facilities talk, Admirals core competencies, interview skills, listening in to agents, sales training some talks by management and sales training. All in all very professional and we got a free lunch which went down well. At the end of day two we drew lots for our interview times on the final day - the final day would be the interview and we'd get the results the following Monday which would mean a potential start a week later.
I arrived for my interview fifteen minutes early - arriving early is good but arriving to early results in sitting around getting nervous. First people I saw were Anita and Ruth who were running the course and interviewing, we were told they didn't have a say who was interviewing who - it was randomly assigned. I found Q sitting in the canteen after a quick chat Anita and Ruth called him in for his interview. I was sat on my own composing myself until Mac arrived. We had a chat and then I was called in for my interview.
This interview is now mentally my benchmark interview, the one I will now think of as the best an interview can go. I was on top form, answers were flowing, no awkward silences, eye contact was maintained and all in all very good and I came away thinking I'd got the job. I'd done everything, I'd brought paperwork that showed when I left Amazon due to productivity I was hitting my targets but when the work dried up I missed them for two weeks - hitting 150% of target the week before I was released. I'd prepared my own role play where I mock sold the interviewers my mobile phone. Feedback from the previous weeks interview with HSBC informed me recruiters when asking for examples want recent examples so when asked about motivation/targets I talked about targets and bonus for hitting them for Amazon because the previous call centre sales targets experience was from 2010. I left feeling confident, walked into Swansea to spend some money to celebrate my start a week Monday and generally felt on top of the world.
The situation for the job was there were 20 jobs on offer, 15 on the course and 20 applicants applied to the advert. I felt I was a top contender and well capable of finishing in the top 20 out of 35. I couldn't judge the applicants who I hadn't met but here's my opinion of the contenders from the course;
Certs to be offered a position;
1. Me, I was awesome during the interview, contributed to the team and tasks throughout the course. Used a few things in the interview others wouldn't have thought of and had extensive experience.
2. Mac, very professional, carried herself very well throughout the course and came across very well when discussing her current job at McDonald's. I genuinely think she's got team leader potential despite her lack of experience.
3. Brad, a brilliant talker and wonderfully laid back, if I called Admiral to discuss my insurance I'd want to talk to him.
4. Blonde, came really well in the tasks, mixed well with everyone and can only say good things about her.
Candidates I'd Hire;
I'm grouping Tess and Brunette together in this section as I felt they were both intimidated yet showed their strengths during the tasks and group talks. If anything both of these two are prime examples of why the course was set up, didn't shine as bright as others on their initial application but a chance to get them in again, give them some pointers and give them another shot.
The Maybes;
Teacher, personally I'm not sure she's a fit for a call centre environment, she was authoritarian, had trouble getting her point over and isn't going to be able to make sales with her personality. However she put a strong effort into the group tasks and her people skills could improve during the training course.
Ben, I like him, he contributed to every task well and got to know him as I walked him to the bus stop and gave him directions. Can't remember if he has call centre experience but think he can do well on the phones. The only reason I have him down as a maybe is because he's so laid back he may have trouble convincing the interviewers (if he's interviewed by someone who wasn't involved in the course) that he cares about getting the job.
Navy, he has experience but throughout the course he had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, for an example during an example of bad customer service he told a story about how he embarrassed a call centre worker in front of his boss. In short I think he can thrive at this job but could shoot himself in the foot during the interview.
Max, in theory he should be a dead cert but his behaviour let him down, he was often laughing and giggling at other people when they were talking during presentations and discussions. Blanked virtually everyone on the course at one point of other and did the call centre no no of swearing on the call centre floor. Despite that I was impressed with him when he made an effort, he's young enough to grow out of that attitude and if he does as well in the interview as he did in the course deserves a second chance.
People Who I Don't Think Will Get Through;
Stylist, she didn't turn up after the first day and wasn't interviewed. I assume at best she'll be given a spot on the course if they hold another one. She came across as professional and the reason for not attending may have been out of her hands or she have been accepted for another job - who knows.
Swindon, no offence to her but I thought she came across as rather awkward and I just can't see her on the phones or enjoying the job. I think her strengths lay in other areas however if she did get the job call centre turn over is high and I could see her leaving before three months. Good luck, I hope she finds something but I don't think she fits the call centre environment.
Hardy, I felt being the only one of us currently working and working in a call centre doing sales he should have alpha maled the group. However I can't remember him doing or saying anything and sat on the sidelines not taking advantage of this course.
Q, nice guy but again sat on the sidelines and didn't contribute or take advantage of the situation.
Don, god bless him really nice guy but sat on the sidelines and again sadly didn't make an impact.
So cut to the following Monday where I was preparing for the next job interview, I got no phone call. The next day I got an email similar to the previous one and rang it asking for feedback. They said I didn't disclose being released on a previous job - as mentioned I did and even brought the paperwork to the interview to show I was hitting target despite being released for productivity. Said I didn't show passion - believe me I did and was complimented for showing how passionate I was the previous week when applying with HSBC. Finally they said talking about breaking up your day, hitting hourly targets to get bonus and being motivated by spending the bonus money wasn't an appropriate answer to being asked how I motivate myself.
After the first application it just sounds like utter utter bullshit.
I don't know what I want from this blog entry, there are no winners to be found here only losers. Admiral have missed out on a top quality worker twice and I've been trapped on the dole for seven months more than I should. Maybe I should have kicked off a second time but given the results from the first time my heart wasn't in it.
I bid the second interviewers no ill will just hope they are retrained before interviewing anyone else. I would hope that the first set of interviewers have been found out by now (I doubt this is the first time they've done this) and sacked. I'd like to thank everyone at Admiral who contributed to the course and I hope everyone who took part from it got something out of it.
As for me, tomorrow I'll be getting a call from a recruitment consultant about a new job I hope to be starting on Monday.
Here's to new starts...
Thursday, 10 September 2015
My Least Favourite Waste of Time
Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers, I hope I find you fettle. As I write this entry its a barmy August evening and I hope your getting the summer weather where you are. Anyway on with the blog, most of my blogs are written as a bit of fun however sometimes I have to rant and get something out of my system, this is one of those times. For the first time in a while (and because some of you requested) I'm doing a job search entry. This particular blog is going to cover two separate application processes with two parts of the same overall company.
In late December I left my place of work on a temp contract and was looking for work, which is a struggle at that time of year due to the first three months of the year being quiet in most industries. Someone shared on facebook that Admiral Insurance were taking people on so I logged onto Admirals recruitment site and had a little investigation. For those of you who don't know the Admiral Group is a large insurance company located throughout South Wales (Newport, Cardiff and Swansea). Apparently Admiral is expanding and was going to be doing some things I would like to do as well as things that I'm experienced in. So I filled in the on line application form for a CSR (Customer Service Representative) under the Gladiator brand. After completing the form I received an email saying I'd got through to the next stage which was a phone interview and asked to log back into Admirals recruitment site to select an interview slot. I chose 14:30 the following Thursday the 29th of January.
This was a few days away and it gave me a chance to have a more detailed look at the company. Go over my weak spots in interviews and come up with some answers for competency questions which I was a little out of practise with. Thursday 14:30 soon arrived and I received a phone call from a polite cheery voiced woman who proceeded to interview me. After forty-five minutes of stringent interviewing we reached the end and I was informed that I had passed and was invited to a 'meet and greet' the following Thursday at 09:30. All in all not a bad result and I had a week to prepare myself for what I was informed would be a three - maybe four hour chance for me to find out a bit more about the company plus be interviewed.
A week later and off I popped to Swansea, I'd been asked to get there for 09:00 which meant an early rise to leave the house 07:30, a twenty minute walk, half hour train journey and a slow amble to SA1 as I composed myself. Wearing my hair & makeup as professional as I could get it and dressed in professional top, trousers plus bag I looked the typical interviewee. I do have a confession to make at this stage, Admiral have three buildings in Swansea, one out in the vale and two in the SA1 development near town, along with 95% of my fellow applicants I went to the wrong building - I went to the main building 'Admiral Group House' when the Gladiator brand is located in the Ellipse building. After being informed we were at the wrong building I got directions from the security guard and led my fellow applicants three minutes down the road to the correct building.
We were greeted at the door by one of the recruitment girls (the recruitment team in Group House had phoned ahead to tell them what happened) and led through the call centre into one of the meeting rooms. The three recruitment people then took us through a presentation about Admiral (having done my research I knew most of it although I made sure to look interested). We were then given the traditional task of quizzing the person sat next to us fortunately me and the girl talked 10 to the dozen so we were able to get all the requested information out of each other. We were then given another presentation this time centring on the job itself and Gladiator itself.
At this point things got a little bit strange, we were then divided up into two groups of seven. The first group were to listen in to some agents on the floor (buddying) and be interviewed one by one while the second group (included) me stood waiting in a corridor for an hour. Every so often one of the first group would be pulled off the floor to be interviewed then we would 'buddy up' when they were all done. They did say we could wait in the chill out lounge but we didn't have a pass to get back in out of the corridor.
So an hour later the other team had been interviewed and left, meaning we got to 'buddy up' to an agent. I should say at this point that any name I give will be made up... just because. I sat down next to a young chap called Tim who gave the worst performance I'd ever seen in a call centre. After a few minutes I was having to point out where the information he needed was on the screen. During one call he put the client on hold and left the desk, I have no idea how long he was gone for but in that time the client had got bored, hung up, called back and had his query dealt with by another agent. Ideally I was hoping to pick something up to ask about during the interview but it didn't happen. Essentially for forty-five minutes I was sat at a blank screen whilst my agent was doing a tour of the room occasionally coming back to his desk (just to be clear he was not on a break) for a few minutes now and again. If this guy could get a job I was a dead cert to get a job if this was the level of worker Admiral had.
So after enduring this one of the recruitment staff collected me for the actual interview. It was her and another recruiter who I hadn't met yet sat side by side at a table with myself at the other end. The first question I was asked was 'had I enjoyed listening in?' I didn't want to start off on a bad foot or get a new colleague into trouble on the first day so I tried to sidestep by saying I didn't get to hear or see much due to the calls being long and awkward. After a 'how do you,' handshake and positioning myself on the chair in a positive open manner the interview began. The recruiter who I'd met I'll call Julie and the one who I'd not seen before the interview I'll call Bindy, they were both a bit 'sensible shoes' and it was quite hard getting them to open up - especially when they were the ones who should be getting me to open up. The interview didn't actually last long, I was asked a bit about my background and personal life which I answered in detail. I was asked a question about building rapport and asked to give some previous examples. I'd been expecting this and had practised an answer, I spoke about my previous call centre work and gave the examples of when I worked in a loan brokers talking about what the loan was for, when I worked for Vodafone I'd often chat about their model of phone and if they'd seen any models we had coming out they had their eye on for a future upgrade. Just giving examples that I could chat with a client and not leaving them hanging in an awkward pause - that kind of thing. They then asked about the gap I had in the last five years when I left the industry, rather than lie I said I'd left due to transphobia in the workplace and had looked to get out of the industry due to it having a negative affect on my career.
What I'm going to explain now is what every person in the transgender community has gone through. Their jaws hit the table and the penny dropped, given the clothes I was wearing, the makeup and the hair I'd have expected them to notice when I walked through the door. All of a sudden there was a panic in both their eyes, Bindy must have had some kind of auto reflex as she then gave a speech about Admiral being an equal opportunities employer. All very good to hear and at that point inside I gave a sigh of relief and was perked up for the rest of the interview, when (bearing in mind we're about six minutes in) Bindy ended the interview and and asked me to leave. I kept myself composed as its not the best idea to create a confrontation, a sentence famously said by Terrance Dicks or possibly Malcolm Hulke. I have put up with a lot of transphobic crap but I've never had the interview stopped and been removed from the building before. Everyone else got at least a twenty-five to forty minutes interview I was turfed out when the penny dropped that I was trans. Utterly disgusting.
I trudged home fully knowing I hadn't got the job, despite the experience of this 'meet and greet' when I'd looked into Admiral I thought it looked fantastic and thought (as I do now) it was an ideal workplace for me. The following Monday I received a generic email saying "we received a high calibre of candidate and some of the other candidates demonstrated a closer match to what we are recruiting for at this present time" in short absolute bull shit. My call centre experience was extensive - I'd done customer service, sales retentions, worked for brokers (which is what Gladiator is), managed departments, actually set up departments and worked in industries as extensive as banking to broadband suppliers.
However what this email also had which was rare on this day and age was a phone number to ring for individual feedback. I was still in this! Perhaps I could resit the interview with a non transphobe while management investigated Julie and Bindy! I proceeded to ring the number and spoke to a recruitment girl, I asked for feedback first before I made any complaints and the feedback was 'I hadn't given any examples of building rapport' if I wasn't already livid I was even more livid now. Not only had they been discriminatory during the interview they'd put a load of rubbish in the recording of it to cover their backs.
I told them that was incorrect and retold the exact examples I had given in my interview, I also said my treatment of having my interview stopped was nothing short of trans phobic. She escalated the call and eventually I spoke to two separate people who repeated the phrase: I'm sure that's not the case. Over the course of those two calls I stated my case that I'd had my interview stopped and been discriminated against by a transphobe but all I got in reply was 'I'm sure that's not the case' repeated back at me after every sentence. Eventually I was offered a call back from the head of recruitment which I accepted as I was getting nowhere with these two but I never received a further call.
There ends my first attempt to get a job with Admiral, ending in transphobia and a cover up by recruitment staff who didn't care. Despite my experience I still held hopes of working with them in the future, the fact is they are doing things I would like to do. Nevertheless as is the norm these days after getting rejected I would be unable to apply with them for six months. I'd like to say that I think this isn't an isolated incident and that Admiral is an equal opportunities employer but I'm sure that's not the case.
In late December I left my place of work on a temp contract and was looking for work, which is a struggle at that time of year due to the first three months of the year being quiet in most industries. Someone shared on facebook that Admiral Insurance were taking people on so I logged onto Admirals recruitment site and had a little investigation. For those of you who don't know the Admiral Group is a large insurance company located throughout South Wales (Newport, Cardiff and Swansea). Apparently Admiral is expanding and was going to be doing some things I would like to do as well as things that I'm experienced in. So I filled in the on line application form for a CSR (Customer Service Representative) under the Gladiator brand. After completing the form I received an email saying I'd got through to the next stage which was a phone interview and asked to log back into Admirals recruitment site to select an interview slot. I chose 14:30 the following Thursday the 29th of January.
This was a few days away and it gave me a chance to have a more detailed look at the company. Go over my weak spots in interviews and come up with some answers for competency questions which I was a little out of practise with. Thursday 14:30 soon arrived and I received a phone call from a polite cheery voiced woman who proceeded to interview me. After forty-five minutes of stringent interviewing we reached the end and I was informed that I had passed and was invited to a 'meet and greet' the following Thursday at 09:30. All in all not a bad result and I had a week to prepare myself for what I was informed would be a three - maybe four hour chance for me to find out a bit more about the company plus be interviewed.
A week later and off I popped to Swansea, I'd been asked to get there for 09:00 which meant an early rise to leave the house 07:30, a twenty minute walk, half hour train journey and a slow amble to SA1 as I composed myself. Wearing my hair & makeup as professional as I could get it and dressed in professional top, trousers plus bag I looked the typical interviewee. I do have a confession to make at this stage, Admiral have three buildings in Swansea, one out in the vale and two in the SA1 development near town, along with 95% of my fellow applicants I went to the wrong building - I went to the main building 'Admiral Group House' when the Gladiator brand is located in the Ellipse building. After being informed we were at the wrong building I got directions from the security guard and led my fellow applicants three minutes down the road to the correct building.
We were greeted at the door by one of the recruitment girls (the recruitment team in Group House had phoned ahead to tell them what happened) and led through the call centre into one of the meeting rooms. The three recruitment people then took us through a presentation about Admiral (having done my research I knew most of it although I made sure to look interested). We were then given the traditional task of quizzing the person sat next to us fortunately me and the girl talked 10 to the dozen so we were able to get all the requested information out of each other. We were then given another presentation this time centring on the job itself and Gladiator itself.
At this point things got a little bit strange, we were then divided up into two groups of seven. The first group were to listen in to some agents on the floor (buddying) and be interviewed one by one while the second group (included) me stood waiting in a corridor for an hour. Every so often one of the first group would be pulled off the floor to be interviewed then we would 'buddy up' when they were all done. They did say we could wait in the chill out lounge but we didn't have a pass to get back in out of the corridor.
So an hour later the other team had been interviewed and left, meaning we got to 'buddy up' to an agent. I should say at this point that any name I give will be made up... just because. I sat down next to a young chap called Tim who gave the worst performance I'd ever seen in a call centre. After a few minutes I was having to point out where the information he needed was on the screen. During one call he put the client on hold and left the desk, I have no idea how long he was gone for but in that time the client had got bored, hung up, called back and had his query dealt with by another agent. Ideally I was hoping to pick something up to ask about during the interview but it didn't happen. Essentially for forty-five minutes I was sat at a blank screen whilst my agent was doing a tour of the room occasionally coming back to his desk (just to be clear he was not on a break) for a few minutes now and again. If this guy could get a job I was a dead cert to get a job if this was the level of worker Admiral had.
So after enduring this one of the recruitment staff collected me for the actual interview. It was her and another recruiter who I hadn't met yet sat side by side at a table with myself at the other end. The first question I was asked was 'had I enjoyed listening in?' I didn't want to start off on a bad foot or get a new colleague into trouble on the first day so I tried to sidestep by saying I didn't get to hear or see much due to the calls being long and awkward. After a 'how do you,' handshake and positioning myself on the chair in a positive open manner the interview began. The recruiter who I'd met I'll call Julie and the one who I'd not seen before the interview I'll call Bindy, they were both a bit 'sensible shoes' and it was quite hard getting them to open up - especially when they were the ones who should be getting me to open up. The interview didn't actually last long, I was asked a bit about my background and personal life which I answered in detail. I was asked a question about building rapport and asked to give some previous examples. I'd been expecting this and had practised an answer, I spoke about my previous call centre work and gave the examples of when I worked in a loan brokers talking about what the loan was for, when I worked for Vodafone I'd often chat about their model of phone and if they'd seen any models we had coming out they had their eye on for a future upgrade. Just giving examples that I could chat with a client and not leaving them hanging in an awkward pause - that kind of thing. They then asked about the gap I had in the last five years when I left the industry, rather than lie I said I'd left due to transphobia in the workplace and had looked to get out of the industry due to it having a negative affect on my career.
What I'm going to explain now is what every person in the transgender community has gone through. Their jaws hit the table and the penny dropped, given the clothes I was wearing, the makeup and the hair I'd have expected them to notice when I walked through the door. All of a sudden there was a panic in both their eyes, Bindy must have had some kind of auto reflex as she then gave a speech about Admiral being an equal opportunities employer. All very good to hear and at that point inside I gave a sigh of relief and was perked up for the rest of the interview, when (bearing in mind we're about six minutes in) Bindy ended the interview and and asked me to leave. I kept myself composed as its not the best idea to create a confrontation, a sentence famously said by Terrance Dicks or possibly Malcolm Hulke. I have put up with a lot of transphobic crap but I've never had the interview stopped and been removed from the building before. Everyone else got at least a twenty-five to forty minutes interview I was turfed out when the penny dropped that I was trans. Utterly disgusting.
I trudged home fully knowing I hadn't got the job, despite the experience of this 'meet and greet' when I'd looked into Admiral I thought it looked fantastic and thought (as I do now) it was an ideal workplace for me. The following Monday I received a generic email saying "we received a high calibre of candidate and some of the other candidates demonstrated a closer match to what we are recruiting for at this present time" in short absolute bull shit. My call centre experience was extensive - I'd done customer service, sales retentions, worked for brokers (which is what Gladiator is), managed departments, actually set up departments and worked in industries as extensive as banking to broadband suppliers.
However what this email also had which was rare on this day and age was a phone number to ring for individual feedback. I was still in this! Perhaps I could resit the interview with a non transphobe while management investigated Julie and Bindy! I proceeded to ring the number and spoke to a recruitment girl, I asked for feedback first before I made any complaints and the feedback was 'I hadn't given any examples of building rapport' if I wasn't already livid I was even more livid now. Not only had they been discriminatory during the interview they'd put a load of rubbish in the recording of it to cover their backs.
I told them that was incorrect and retold the exact examples I had given in my interview, I also said my treatment of having my interview stopped was nothing short of trans phobic. She escalated the call and eventually I spoke to two separate people who repeated the phrase: I'm sure that's not the case. Over the course of those two calls I stated my case that I'd had my interview stopped and been discriminated against by a transphobe but all I got in reply was 'I'm sure that's not the case' repeated back at me after every sentence. Eventually I was offered a call back from the head of recruitment which I accepted as I was getting nowhere with these two but I never received a further call.
There ends my first attempt to get a job with Admiral, ending in transphobia and a cover up by recruitment staff who didn't care. Despite my experience I still held hopes of working with them in the future, the fact is they are doing things I would like to do. Nevertheless as is the norm these days after getting rejected I would be unable to apply with them for six months. I'd like to say that I think this isn't an isolated incident and that Admiral is an equal opportunities employer but I'm sure that's not the case.
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