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 Unemployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unemployment. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Wednesday, 8 January 2020
A Good December And A Rubbish 2019
Good afternoon lady and gentle readers, as I start this entry it is a dark wet Wednesday and the start of the second week of 2020. With a clear week between the present and the previous year I want to take a look back at 2019, reflect and see what I can bring forward into 2020.
2019 was a very low year for me personally, towards the end of 2018 I had joined a hospitality company who operated the contracts for the three biggest stadiums in South Wales. I shall be referring to them a "the company" as I signed forms that said I wouldn't mention them by name on social media and quite frankly I really enjoy working with them and don't want to screw it up. So even though I was unemployed I would have 4/5 hours a weeks work casual employment. At a low ebb going into this job I was enjoying my weekly trips to work but unfortunately it had little effect on my job hunting. Looking back to my diary January is littered with applications that looked positive until the employer realised I was trans gender then dropped interest in me.
This is the story of my year up until May, at that time I found out that the company had lost the contract for the Liberty Stadium as well as The Principality. Meaning I could only do matches at the ground of the Cardiff City which after travel and being taxed 63% of earnings as I'm on Universal Credit meant I'd be making about £1.00 a shift. Fortunately a new company took the contract at Swansea and I was transferred over. However as we were now approaching the end of the football and rugby season work was about to dry up.
I put my name down with agencies that I knew had contracts for venues in Wales but on hearing I was trans they would shelve my application or come up with blatantly made up excuses not to take me on. Eventually I passed an interview with a company that cater to events and venues all over the country. They were doing a good number of events in my area so summer should have been busy. However they shelved my application, after two months of phoning and making a nuisance of myself I was finally registered but at this point there was only one event left in Wales which resulted in me going a few months without work.
I'd love to be putting something else into this blog entry at this point, telling you about something amazing that I did or someone I met that would go on to have a significant effect on my life. But when the world decides to put you on the shelf it stops everything and at some point during this year I lost the will to do anything. I stopped doing the things that I enjoyed due to feeling low and cost - long term readers might have noticed there were less entries on this blog. But as the title to this blog points out there is a good ending.
At the tail end of July the football season started back and with friendlies fast approaching I found myself booked for a number of Saturdays in a row. Summer was in full force, there were faces I hadn't seen in months, new systems, a new company, a new menu and I threw myself into things. Typing now from two thirds into the season I've done every home game at the Liberty bar one due to public transport on Sunday mornings being non-existent.
Around October I was asked after a shift if I was interested in being a team leader to which I said yes. My hours were extended at this point coming in to help pre match on game days and a few other various things that I enjoyed. In December there were a lot of Hospitality shifts and I put my name down for all I could. Which meant for December it felt like I was virtually full time employed, during this time a manager happened to be nearby when I was briefing a team of mostly newbies and apparently I impressed them.
So what have we learnt readers? I for one am greeting 2020 with good vibrations, I'm keeping the positive energy from December, tearing up the rest of 2019 and throwing it into the bin.
Lets make this a good year...
2019 was a very low year for me personally, towards the end of 2018 I had joined a hospitality company who operated the contracts for the three biggest stadiums in South Wales. I shall be referring to them a "the company" as I signed forms that said I wouldn't mention them by name on social media and quite frankly I really enjoy working with them and don't want to screw it up. So even though I was unemployed I would have 4/5 hours a weeks work casual employment. At a low ebb going into this job I was enjoying my weekly trips to work but unfortunately it had little effect on my job hunting. Looking back to my diary January is littered with applications that looked positive until the employer realised I was trans gender then dropped interest in me.
This is the story of my year up until May, at that time I found out that the company had lost the contract for the Liberty Stadium as well as The Principality. Meaning I could only do matches at the ground of the Cardiff City which after travel and being taxed 63% of earnings as I'm on Universal Credit meant I'd be making about £1.00 a shift. Fortunately a new company took the contract at Swansea and I was transferred over. However as we were now approaching the end of the football and rugby season work was about to dry up.
I put my name down with agencies that I knew had contracts for venues in Wales but on hearing I was trans they would shelve my application or come up with blatantly made up excuses not to take me on. Eventually I passed an interview with a company that cater to events and venues all over the country. They were doing a good number of events in my area so summer should have been busy. However they shelved my application, after two months of phoning and making a nuisance of myself I was finally registered but at this point there was only one event left in Wales which resulted in me going a few months without work.
I'd love to be putting something else into this blog entry at this point, telling you about something amazing that I did or someone I met that would go on to have a significant effect on my life. But when the world decides to put you on the shelf it stops everything and at some point during this year I lost the will to do anything. I stopped doing the things that I enjoyed due to feeling low and cost - long term readers might have noticed there were less entries on this blog. But as the title to this blog points out there is a good ending.
At the tail end of July the football season started back and with friendlies fast approaching I found myself booked for a number of Saturdays in a row. Summer was in full force, there were faces I hadn't seen in months, new systems, a new company, a new menu and I threw myself into things. Typing now from two thirds into the season I've done every home game at the Liberty bar one due to public transport on Sunday mornings being non-existent.
Around October I was asked after a shift if I was interested in being a team leader to which I said yes. My hours were extended at this point coming in to help pre match on game days and a few other various things that I enjoyed. In December there were a lot of Hospitality shifts and I put my name down for all I could. Which meant for December it felt like I was virtually full time employed, during this time a manager happened to be nearby when I was briefing a team of mostly newbies and apparently I impressed them.
So what have we learnt readers? I for one am greeting 2020 with good vibrations, I'm keeping the positive energy from December, tearing up the rest of 2019 and throwing it into the bin.
Lets make this a good year...
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...
Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Selling Yourself For the Pound
For those who aren't aware I recently left Swansea's Amazon branch for the fifth time (sadly this is not a record) and have been since looking for work. However all this has resulted in endless days of applications and a few phone interviews. Although proving the old adage you wait half an hour for a bus and then two come along at once I recently had my first two proper interviews within a few days of each other.
I was perusing the Directgov website for jobs one day and noticed that Save Britain Money had been advertising for jobs about a month earlier. For those unaware they are best known as BBC 3's The Call Centre.
Rather than apply through some old out of date adverts I thought I'd send them my CV and details directly by the web site. I've got a lot of experience in call centre environments and thought it would be a good place to get my career on track. Lo and behold after sending my CV I got a call ten minutes later from a chap called Stephen on behalf of SBM. After a quick chat I was invited to an interview at 13:30 the following Wednesday.
I always say if you've got a company which suits your background and skill set nearby send your details in and get yourself noticed. I have an extensive background in call centres ranging from front line, inbound, outbound, sales, customer service, training, floor walking and management. On top of that after looking at the web site I found they were branching into financial services which is where I've had my most successful period in my career and got my management experience.
After doing my research on the company I set out to Swansea, a 20 minute walk to the train station followed by a 20 minute train ride into Swansea Central and then a 45 minute walk to Swansea Enterprise Park in pouring rain saw me arrive a good 20 minutes early. I stepped through the door and was greeted by the sound of a massive crash, I turned to my left to see that Hayley the tea girl crashing her trolley trying to exit a lift.
I was shown in to the canteen by the security guard and spent half an hour chatting to staff and other people here for the interview. On chatting to some new starters I found the procedure was a quick one on one interview and then you'd be brought back for a group interview. After fifty minutes I was called into an office by Stephen who I'd spoken to on the phone. I politely listened when he told me about the company and various things I had already found out and a number of things I hadn't. I then told him about myself making sure to focus on my call centre experience, extensive sales background and experience in managing a sales force selling financial services. After five minutes the interview was over and Stephen said he would call me later to schedule a second interview. I made my way home, that evening while playing Mass Effect 2 Stephen called. Apparently they had "sold their available slots" and would contact me in six weeks when they had openings. Needless to say this was disappointing stuff, I had hoped that given my experience it would have been a case of "blimey this candidates good get them in ASAP" however I went to them and knew they weren't recruiting at the moment. As I type this its two weeks on and only four weeks until they start taking people on so its something in the bank if nothing turns up in the mean time.
The next day I had a text from Hays (a recruitment firm) asking me if I was interested in working for Virgin Media in customer service. This offer brought up conflicting emotions, long time readers will know that I'm transgender. A number of years ago I applied for a job at the Virgin Swansea site (when it was NTL), I applied for a job as a Com which is a managerial level job. I interviewed for the job, however on informing them I was trans all of a sudden instead of a Com I was offered a front line job on customer service. It was my second experience of HR and the recruitment industries transphobic attitude and I took the job with the agreement after three months I could re-interview for the Com job. Three months went by and the Com job interview never happened and I left.
After some thought I emailed them saying I was interested, theres no way Virgin could be as bad as NTL so I had little to lose. The following day I had a phone interview which I passed and my in person interview was scheduled for the next Monday at 10:00. However I woke up that morning to see that there had been an explosion at Didcot which had screwed up the Great Western train line. This resulted in me having to run from Swansea Central to Matrix Court. The interview was a one on one in which I had to give examples of certain situations and also put over my experience. I mentioned I'd worked on the site before and went into detail on my call centre experience. On finishing I was told I should hear back later that day, in reality it would be a week until I heard back and that was after I had to politely push them that it had been four days when I was meant to hear back later that day.
The following Monday I was called and told I didn't get the position due to "a lack of experience" which is complete bullshit. As said earlier I have a number of years experience in call centres ranging from front line work, inbound, outbound, sales, customer service, training, floor walking and management. It really knocked me for six, I had done enough to get the post and had the experience. I should be used to this by now as its something the trans community are used to, ie not getting jobs we should walk in to. Sadly the last few years have resulted in me going in and out of Amazon on a temp basis. Hopefully the next application will have a happier outcome.
I was perusing the Directgov website for jobs one day and noticed that Save Britain Money had been advertising for jobs about a month earlier. For those unaware they are best known as BBC 3's The Call Centre.
Rather than apply through some old out of date adverts I thought I'd send them my CV and details directly by the web site. I've got a lot of experience in call centre environments and thought it would be a good place to get my career on track. Lo and behold after sending my CV I got a call ten minutes later from a chap called Stephen on behalf of SBM. After a quick chat I was invited to an interview at 13:30 the following Wednesday.
I always say if you've got a company which suits your background and skill set nearby send your details in and get yourself noticed. I have an extensive background in call centres ranging from front line, inbound, outbound, sales, customer service, training, floor walking and management. On top of that after looking at the web site I found they were branching into financial services which is where I've had my most successful period in my career and got my management experience.
After doing my research on the company I set out to Swansea, a 20 minute walk to the train station followed by a 20 minute train ride into Swansea Central and then a 45 minute walk to Swansea Enterprise Park in pouring rain saw me arrive a good 20 minutes early. I stepped through the door and was greeted by the sound of a massive crash, I turned to my left to see that Hayley the tea girl crashing her trolley trying to exit a lift.
I was shown in to the canteen by the security guard and spent half an hour chatting to staff and other people here for the interview. On chatting to some new starters I found the procedure was a quick one on one interview and then you'd be brought back for a group interview. After fifty minutes I was called into an office by Stephen who I'd spoken to on the phone. I politely listened when he told me about the company and various things I had already found out and a number of things I hadn't. I then told him about myself making sure to focus on my call centre experience, extensive sales background and experience in managing a sales force selling financial services. After five minutes the interview was over and Stephen said he would call me later to schedule a second interview. I made my way home, that evening while playing Mass Effect 2 Stephen called. Apparently they had "sold their available slots" and would contact me in six weeks when they had openings. Needless to say this was disappointing stuff, I had hoped that given my experience it would have been a case of "blimey this candidates good get them in ASAP" however I went to them and knew they weren't recruiting at the moment. As I type this its two weeks on and only four weeks until they start taking people on so its something in the bank if nothing turns up in the mean time.
The next day I had a text from Hays (a recruitment firm) asking me if I was interested in working for Virgin Media in customer service. This offer brought up conflicting emotions, long time readers will know that I'm transgender. A number of years ago I applied for a job at the Virgin Swansea site (when it was NTL), I applied for a job as a Com which is a managerial level job. I interviewed for the job, however on informing them I was trans all of a sudden instead of a Com I was offered a front line job on customer service. It was my second experience of HR and the recruitment industries transphobic attitude and I took the job with the agreement after three months I could re-interview for the Com job. Three months went by and the Com job interview never happened and I left.
After some thought I emailed them saying I was interested, theres no way Virgin could be as bad as NTL so I had little to lose. The following day I had a phone interview which I passed and my in person interview was scheduled for the next Monday at 10:00. However I woke up that morning to see that there had been an explosion at Didcot which had screwed up the Great Western train line. This resulted in me having to run from Swansea Central to Matrix Court. The interview was a one on one in which I had to give examples of certain situations and also put over my experience. I mentioned I'd worked on the site before and went into detail on my call centre experience. On finishing I was told I should hear back later that day, in reality it would be a week until I heard back and that was after I had to politely push them that it had been four days when I was meant to hear back later that day.
The following Monday I was called and told I didn't get the position due to "a lack of experience" which is complete bullshit. As said earlier I have a number of years experience in call centres ranging from front line work, inbound, outbound, sales, customer service, training, floor walking and management. It really knocked me for six, I had done enough to get the post and had the experience. I should be used to this by now as its something the trans community are used to, ie not getting jobs we should walk in to. Sadly the last few years have resulted in me going in and out of Amazon on a temp basis. Hopefully the next application will have a happier outcome.
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
The Amazon.com Chronicles (Part 1)
Regular readers of this blog will be aware that over the last few years I have been working for the Internet retailer Amazon.com. I say "work" but I use the term loosely its far more accurate to say I have had the piss taken out of me by Amazon and the various agencies who have employed me. It looks as though my time at Amazon has finally come to an end and my overwhelming feelings are relief and disappointment that four years of my professional life have been wasted.
I started at Amazon in October 2010, my career had gone into a few dead ends and I was anxious to kick start it and a world wide company like Amazon looked as good a place as any. A day examining the company and career section of its website showed it had openings in areas I was experienced in and they were doing things I'd like to do. My aim was to get in the door and start applying for jobs of which I had experience to work myself back up the career ladder.
I applied for a job at Amazons Fulfilment Centre in Swansea via an agency called Quest Recruitment. I did the required drugs and aptitude test and a week later they called back offering me the position of a picker. My job would be to collect items that customers had ordered via the website. Each team had an area manager (strangely mine was a temp) and some team leaders, there were also site reps on site to represent you on behalf of the agencies. I informed the area manager and site reps that I would like to be kept aware of any job opportunities on site as I was hoping to use this job as a stepping stone. Every week the site rep would come around with each persons score and give you a form with your stats on. Mine were quite good, often between 100% and 110% dipping down as low as 85% sometimes when there wasn't much work or I was injured. For those of you who can't remember winter 2010 was quite a cold one and at one point in South Wales public transport went down and I had to walk to work, during which I slipped and fell down the footbridge going over the roundabout just before Briton Ferry bridge and did my knee in. I was still able to complete my shift and fulfil my contracted hours.
One day I was going along doing a batch of orders in the pick tower and a chap walks up and stops me. He says he's an operations manager and my area manager has just informed in that my poor scores were bringing his teams scores down and that I should pull my finger out if I didn't want to be sacked at the end of the day. I informed him that my scores were over target for this and the previous few weeks and he walked off. I had a word with my site rep and said if my area manager was going to senior management telling them I had poor scores I wanted him reported to HR. (I couldn't go to HR as HR "do not handle temps") Then the following week I was called back to the pick desk with 10 other people for the area manager to give us a "pep talk." He gave everyone their score except me and us we had to improve, I asked for my score and he said 97%. Out of everyone else in that group the highest score anyone else had was 46%. I then asked why I was included in this group and his reply was "you all started at the same time and as a group are low scoring trouble makers." I immediately told the site rep to sort this guy out.
Anyway around this time the Christmas period ended and we moved into January, also the work started to dry up and lay offs happened. In the first week of January everyone else in that "pep talk" group was laid off and we were regularly sent home after 15 minutes of work (shifts rotated weekly between starting at 6AM or 2PM). On the 17th of January I was called down to the pick desk, the area manager told me when I arrived that I was being taken on as a permanent associate and congratulated me. I was well chuffed, I thought to myself "that's stage one dealt with lets get onto stage two and hopefully get my career back on track". A few hours later I had another message on my gun, with half an hour on the shift to go I was called back to the pick desk. The area manager had gone and all that was there was a team lead and cart runner. The team lead took my gun off me and said I was to wait in the drop zone for everyone else, I asked the cart runner what was happening and he said "your going to see HR." I thought, blimey that's quick, I'm going to be signing the forms and transferred from Quest to Amazon before the end of the shift. Myself and a few others then went up to a room in HR where we met some others from other departments. A HR officer then walked in and informed us we were being laid off as the early months of they year were traditionally quiet and the Christmas peak rush was over.
Needless to say I was pissed off, I informed them I had been told three hours previously I was being made permanent. The HR officer said I must have misunderstood what my area manager had told me, I informed her that I had been using the English language since moving on from baby talk and demanded to make an official complaint about my area manager and for him to be sacked. She said she couldn't do anything and that I should handle this via my Agency, now at this point I should say every other agency bar mine was present and as we were being made to clear our lockers and leave I had no way of getting to the agency desk on the Fulfilment Centre floor. The next day visited the Quest Recruitment Swansea branch, they said they couldn't do anything about my area manager as technically I wasn't an active associate on the Amazon contract anymore, however I did opt to put my name on the rehire list for when things started getting busy on the site.
If you'll indulge me ladies and gentle readers I'm now going to fiddle with the narrative. I would come back later in the year and the area manager not only was still there but had now been made permanent. I was told I couldn't make a formal complaint as six months had gone by. However the area manager (one Andrew Evans) wouldn't last long, it turned out his agency and Amazon hadn't performed a thorough background search on him and out of the blue Amazon would get a call from a newspaper asking about this:
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Dodgy-family-firms-preyed-customers/story-16819547-detail/story.html
It turns out that Andrew Evans had neglected to inform his employer that he had been done for fraud. Now I'm often one to give people the benefit of the doubt but I have to ask how a vindictive sicko who had tried to con vulnerable pensioners out of their savings can be put into a supervisory position without a background check being performed. Needless to say many complaints from temps had been made against him but they were all fobbed off. However when finding out about the above court case he was thrown out so fast his feet never touched the ground.
Well that's the story of my first stint with Amazon, I'll cover the rest of my time there at a later date.
I started at Amazon in October 2010, my career had gone into a few dead ends and I was anxious to kick start it and a world wide company like Amazon looked as good a place as any. A day examining the company and career section of its website showed it had openings in areas I was experienced in and they were doing things I'd like to do. My aim was to get in the door and start applying for jobs of which I had experience to work myself back up the career ladder.
I applied for a job at Amazons Fulfilment Centre in Swansea via an agency called Quest Recruitment. I did the required drugs and aptitude test and a week later they called back offering me the position of a picker. My job would be to collect items that customers had ordered via the website. Each team had an area manager (strangely mine was a temp) and some team leaders, there were also site reps on site to represent you on behalf of the agencies. I informed the area manager and site reps that I would like to be kept aware of any job opportunities on site as I was hoping to use this job as a stepping stone. Every week the site rep would come around with each persons score and give you a form with your stats on. Mine were quite good, often between 100% and 110% dipping down as low as 85% sometimes when there wasn't much work or I was injured. For those of you who can't remember winter 2010 was quite a cold one and at one point in South Wales public transport went down and I had to walk to work, during which I slipped and fell down the footbridge going over the roundabout just before Briton Ferry bridge and did my knee in. I was still able to complete my shift and fulfil my contracted hours.
One day I was going along doing a batch of orders in the pick tower and a chap walks up and stops me. He says he's an operations manager and my area manager has just informed in that my poor scores were bringing his teams scores down and that I should pull my finger out if I didn't want to be sacked at the end of the day. I informed him that my scores were over target for this and the previous few weeks and he walked off. I had a word with my site rep and said if my area manager was going to senior management telling them I had poor scores I wanted him reported to HR. (I couldn't go to HR as HR "do not handle temps") Then the following week I was called back to the pick desk with 10 other people for the area manager to give us a "pep talk." He gave everyone their score except me and us we had to improve, I asked for my score and he said 97%. Out of everyone else in that group the highest score anyone else had was 46%. I then asked why I was included in this group and his reply was "you all started at the same time and as a group are low scoring trouble makers." I immediately told the site rep to sort this guy out.
Anyway around this time the Christmas period ended and we moved into January, also the work started to dry up and lay offs happened. In the first week of January everyone else in that "pep talk" group was laid off and we were regularly sent home after 15 minutes of work (shifts rotated weekly between starting at 6AM or 2PM). On the 17th of January I was called down to the pick desk, the area manager told me when I arrived that I was being taken on as a permanent associate and congratulated me. I was well chuffed, I thought to myself "that's stage one dealt with lets get onto stage two and hopefully get my career back on track". A few hours later I had another message on my gun, with half an hour on the shift to go I was called back to the pick desk. The area manager had gone and all that was there was a team lead and cart runner. The team lead took my gun off me and said I was to wait in the drop zone for everyone else, I asked the cart runner what was happening and he said "your going to see HR." I thought, blimey that's quick, I'm going to be signing the forms and transferred from Quest to Amazon before the end of the shift. Myself and a few others then went up to a room in HR where we met some others from other departments. A HR officer then walked in and informed us we were being laid off as the early months of they year were traditionally quiet and the Christmas peak rush was over.
Needless to say I was pissed off, I informed them I had been told three hours previously I was being made permanent. The HR officer said I must have misunderstood what my area manager had told me, I informed her that I had been using the English language since moving on from baby talk and demanded to make an official complaint about my area manager and for him to be sacked. She said she couldn't do anything and that I should handle this via my Agency, now at this point I should say every other agency bar mine was present and as we were being made to clear our lockers and leave I had no way of getting to the agency desk on the Fulfilment Centre floor. The next day visited the Quest Recruitment Swansea branch, they said they couldn't do anything about my area manager as technically I wasn't an active associate on the Amazon contract anymore, however I did opt to put my name on the rehire list for when things started getting busy on the site.
If you'll indulge me ladies and gentle readers I'm now going to fiddle with the narrative. I would come back later in the year and the area manager not only was still there but had now been made permanent. I was told I couldn't make a formal complaint as six months had gone by. However the area manager (one Andrew Evans) wouldn't last long, it turned out his agency and Amazon hadn't performed a thorough background search on him and out of the blue Amazon would get a call from a newspaper asking about this:
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Dodgy-family-firms-preyed-customers/story-16819547-detail/story.html
It turns out that Andrew Evans had neglected to inform his employer that he had been done for fraud. Now I'm often one to give people the benefit of the doubt but I have to ask how a vindictive sicko who had tried to con vulnerable pensioners out of their savings can be put into a supervisory position without a background check being performed. Needless to say many complaints from temps had been made against him but they were all fobbed off. However when finding out about the above court case he was thrown out so fast his feet never touched the ground.
Well that's the story of my first stint with Amazon, I'll cover the rest of my time there at a later date.
Friday, 16 May 2014
Recruitment consultants and the recruitment industry
Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers, you'll notice things have been a tad quiet on the blog this month, this is down to me throwing myself into getting back into employment. If you'll indulge me for a moment you may remember a blog entry from last year where I went into detail on my ongoing adventures with HR and recruitment personnel, for this blog I'm going to go into depth on my ongoing relationship with a particular recruitment firm over the past few months. Due to the fact I don't want my potential employers reading this and suing me I'm going to refer to the company in question as Nile and the recruitment agency as Abacab.
In late January I was going about my daily routine working for Nile and I asked my area manager if I could speak to HR. I had some ongoing issues and I wanted to speak to someone officially about them (actually these issues weren't work related, they were personal and I felt it was only fair to inform them), the manager said he'd send a message to my gun later in the day when he could spare me. So towards the end of the shift I got a message on my gun to come down to the desk, stood there was a woman I'd never seen and she said she was taking me up to HR. So off we toddled up to the meeting room which was empty, I asked if it was her or someone else I was having this meeting with and she replied "oh I'm not apart of HR I'm a site rep for another agency, I just brought you up here to be released because your agencies site reps were on a break." Needless to say I was shocked, I'd been meaning to talk to HR about being made permanent after six months of target hitting brilliance from myself and here I was being let go.
After being released I hung around the canteen to have a word with the Abacab site rep, when he saw me he came over and said "don't worry, I was shocked when I saw you were on the release list too, your one of our top guys we're going to get you back in here asap and hopefully within six weeks so you can keep your bonus." Reluctantly I exited the FC after putting across how disappointed I was that no site reps from my agency told me, were not even at the meeting and didn't back me up when I stated my case to the Operations Manager over why I shouldn't be released. The following Monday I took the train to the Neath branch of Abacab to hand in my locker key, boots and hi viz. I had a chat with the recruitment consultants and made sure I was placed at the top of the rehire list then proceeded to sign on.
I then spent the next few months applying for various jobs always calling Abacab once a week. By 12/04/14 I was still looking for work and noticed an advert for Nile on line. I gave them a call again on the fourteenth, the girl I spoke to asked when I'd have my tests (drugs/aptitude/alcohol) done and I informed her I hadn't even been in for one. She then asked how I knew they were a recruiter for Nile and I informed her I had been registered with them for 18 months. We then scheduled my tests for two days time although for some reason which I wasn't told I'd have to go to the Swansea branch. So two days later I walked in to find I wasn't taking the tests and I was being registered as a brand new agent. I was then told that the Neath office had been closed down and for the past few months instead of sitting atop the rehire list I wasn't on the Swansea branch systems and my physical paper file was in a filing cabinet they'd had sent from the Neath office which hadn't even been opened yet. After proving I was an existing agent of there's they said they'd get my tests done asap which turned out to be fourteen days later on the 28th.
After these tests Abacab have one month to register and started with Nile, I gave them a ring to check for news twice the following week and eventually got a call on 09/05/14 saying I'd be starting the following Wednesday. To save money buying food on site I popped to the supermarket where my friend Tes goes and bought two weeks worth of work lunches. The following Monday I popped along to the job centre to sign off, mere yards from entering I got a phone call from Abacab. Apparently "Nile lowered the order they placed" and my spot on this weeks income had been cut. Rather than swear down the phone I laughed it off and then asked them to confirm I was now top of the rehire list and get the next spot in Nile that becomes available. Nile tell the agencies how many staff they'll be ordering, as I post this blog its just gone end of play Friday 16/05/14 and after a phone call I made to Abacab earlier this afternoon I have heard nothing. A week after being told I was employed I am unemployed and sadly nobody else is even responding to my applications.
I hope this goes some way to explaining my contempt and loathing for recruitment companies and recruitment consultants. I'm off to boot next doors dog up the bum, here's a video of Abacab by Genesis:
In late January I was going about my daily routine working for Nile and I asked my area manager if I could speak to HR. I had some ongoing issues and I wanted to speak to someone officially about them (actually these issues weren't work related, they were personal and I felt it was only fair to inform them), the manager said he'd send a message to my gun later in the day when he could spare me. So towards the end of the shift I got a message on my gun to come down to the desk, stood there was a woman I'd never seen and she said she was taking me up to HR. So off we toddled up to the meeting room which was empty, I asked if it was her or someone else I was having this meeting with and she replied "oh I'm not apart of HR I'm a site rep for another agency, I just brought you up here to be released because your agencies site reps were on a break." Needless to say I was shocked, I'd been meaning to talk to HR about being made permanent after six months of target hitting brilliance from myself and here I was being let go.
After being released I hung around the canteen to have a word with the Abacab site rep, when he saw me he came over and said "don't worry, I was shocked when I saw you were on the release list too, your one of our top guys we're going to get you back in here asap and hopefully within six weeks so you can keep your bonus." Reluctantly I exited the FC after putting across how disappointed I was that no site reps from my agency told me, were not even at the meeting and didn't back me up when I stated my case to the Operations Manager over why I shouldn't be released. The following Monday I took the train to the Neath branch of Abacab to hand in my locker key, boots and hi viz. I had a chat with the recruitment consultants and made sure I was placed at the top of the rehire list then proceeded to sign on.
I then spent the next few months applying for various jobs always calling Abacab once a week. By 12/04/14 I was still looking for work and noticed an advert for Nile on line. I gave them a call again on the fourteenth, the girl I spoke to asked when I'd have my tests (drugs/aptitude/alcohol) done and I informed her I hadn't even been in for one. She then asked how I knew they were a recruiter for Nile and I informed her I had been registered with them for 18 months. We then scheduled my tests for two days time although for some reason which I wasn't told I'd have to go to the Swansea branch. So two days later I walked in to find I wasn't taking the tests and I was being registered as a brand new agent. I was then told that the Neath office had been closed down and for the past few months instead of sitting atop the rehire list I wasn't on the Swansea branch systems and my physical paper file was in a filing cabinet they'd had sent from the Neath office which hadn't even been opened yet. After proving I was an existing agent of there's they said they'd get my tests done asap which turned out to be fourteen days later on the 28th.
After these tests Abacab have one month to register and started with Nile, I gave them a ring to check for news twice the following week and eventually got a call on 09/05/14 saying I'd be starting the following Wednesday. To save money buying food on site I popped to the supermarket where my friend Tes goes and bought two weeks worth of work lunches. The following Monday I popped along to the job centre to sign off, mere yards from entering I got a phone call from Abacab. Apparently "Nile lowered the order they placed" and my spot on this weeks income had been cut. Rather than swear down the phone I laughed it off and then asked them to confirm I was now top of the rehire list and get the next spot in Nile that becomes available. Nile tell the agencies how many staff they'll be ordering, as I post this blog its just gone end of play Friday 16/05/14 and after a phone call I made to Abacab earlier this afternoon I have heard nothing. A week after being told I was employed I am unemployed and sadly nobody else is even responding to my applications.
I hope this goes some way to explaining my contempt and loathing for recruitment companies and recruitment consultants. I'm off to boot next doors dog up the bum, here's a video of Abacab by Genesis:
Friday, 9 August 2013
Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)
For the past few months dear readers I have been unemployed and just between you and me - I don't like it. Like myself I'm sure some readers will have experienced unemployment and there may even be some of you who have enjoyed it. While I'll admit the hours are cracking everything else is an absolute soul destroyer and all things considered I can't wait to see the end of it - which brings us to the theme of this blog: getting out of unemployment. Lets call a spade a spade, this isn't rocket science (unless your an unemployed rocket scientist) and there are a number of simple steps to follow. You look for a job, you find a job, you apply for the job and then its a case of either getting the job or going back to square one then starting again. I'm sure you'll agree it looks very straightforward, however there is an element to getting out of employment I have yet to touch upon, ladies and gentlemen I present to you the bane of my life the recruitment industry.
Over the last few months I have seen ineptitude from recruitment consultants and HR people that would make David Brent look like a candidate for Mensa. I'll probably touch on aspects of this in future blogs but there's one particular event I want to vent over at the moment. The tale begins last month one morning where I happened over this job advert:
Nothing to worry about there as you pretty much interact with people from birth (although some might say during) and it would be a chance to see who I was up against. Suitably attired that Tuesday morning I set off for CCS Review (also known as Consortium Technology Ltd), I'd done my research on the company, planned some questions and planned a few positive things about myself to slip in during the interview. I was expecting a number of things from the interview: a group exercise, typing/intranet system test, a bit of role play and one on one with the HR person in which to enquire about the company and put myself over to them as a prospective employee.
A quick train trip into Swansea and bracing walk found CCS placed just off Wind Street, for Who fans its quite close to where the exteriors to The Unquiet Dead were shot. A few of us interviewees turned up at the same time and we were led into the building. As we walked through the contact centre floor I dropped to the back of the group and took a few moments to examine my surroundings. The company seemed to exist in the basement of a quite impressive building and was full of the mixture of cocksure, stressed twenty somethings that populate the call centres of the country. In all honesty I wasn't impressed there seemed to be a lack of decorum, in particularly one team leader was busy moon walking instead of taking a call from an agent - it took him three minutes to get around to helping out the agent by which time I'd imagine whoever was on the other side of the phone would be fuming at having been kept waiting. I looked to the sales charts which showed they had a mixture of the impressive salespeople and people struggling who would soon be showed the door.
We were shown into the interview room which consisted of a large central table and some forms. The HR person said we would fill in the forms, then tell the group about ourselves including our favourite films (and if we had a super power what would we have) and could ask questions about the job afterwards. I don't know about you reader but that sounds a bit crap and lacking to me, on top of that the forms would end up regurgitating the information we'd given in our applications. Assuming HR person would go around the table clockwise I positioned myself on the far left of the room, this way I would be able to find out more about them and be in good position to mention something or ask questions other candidates hadn't covered. As we went around the room I found out more and more about the other contenders...
The first contender, was experienced in sales and had worked in a variety of Swansea call centres, had worked at team leader level and conducted himself well. He was a dead cert to get through and from his delivery and description of himself I could tell he'd be one to watch and I suspected when we were put on the training academy he was most likely to be my closest rival.
The second contender was No 1's goofy sidekick and appeared to be joined to him at the hip. They had worked together throughout Swansea's call centres but this guy was far from the talented one of the pair. It was 50/50 weather he'd get through.
No 3 is what we in South Wales call a "shunk" and stood no chance whatsoever. If he had turned up in clobber he was wearing on casual Friday he still would have been sent home, on top of that he couldn't string a sentence together and may have been hung over.
No 4 seemed only interested in the job because it was in staggering distance from her flat, didn't seem to care and was one of those people who think they are a "character" because they once wore orange on a Wednesday.
No 5 was a very nice chap fresh out of university with a Physics degree, had never worked in his life and looked like he had been dressed by him mum. I firmly placed him in the "nice guy but no chance" category, if he got through he would be gone within the month. If this had been for customer service he'd have a chance but in sales he was out of his depth.
No 6 was a competitor, like myself he appeared to have managed sales departments and was coming into the company like myself at a level lower than he would like. His demeanor showed that while he was professional I didn't think he'd do to well at entry level. I think he'd get in but I think he'd get stuck at entry level.
No 7 was a shop worker and had no sales experience. Despite this I think she'd get through as she put herself over very well in the interview.
No 8, Jesus bloody Christ where the hell did they get this guy from? Apparently he was some sort of weekend club manager who did pole dancing in his spare time.
No 9, was me.
As we went around the table telling our life stories and what super powers we wanted I grew more confident. By the time it was my turn to speak I had my speech planned out, I was able to mention that as well as lead generating I had experience of closing - something a few others kicked themselves for not mentioning, took them on a verbal tour of my work history and finished up by saying I'd like Wolverine's healing power so if I got injured I'd still be able to talk to the customers while I healed - I was the only person to link the power to the actual job. We finished off quizzing the HR person about the actual job then left to go about our different merry ways with a promise we'd be called back by the end of the day. I was full of confidence and had a skip in my step after a well done (albeit lacking from CCS Review) interview. However a few hours later i opened my email to find this:
Over the last few months I have seen ineptitude from recruitment consultants and HR people that would make David Brent look like a candidate for Mensa. I'll probably touch on aspects of this in future blogs but there's one particular event I want to vent over at the moment. The tale begins last month one morning where I happened over this job advert:
Company confidential
Out Bound call centre operatives
Job description
Due to expansion Our client is looking to employ new Call Centre operatives within their busy outbound call centre.
You will be making outbound calls offering a variety of services to the general public. You must be driven and sales focused and have the following skills and attributes:-
Excellent telephone skills
An ability to assess customer needs and discuss options combined with an ability work to deadlines and targets.
Excellent communication skills.
Confident and enthusiastic
Friendly and approachable
Persuasive and sales driven.
In return for this we offer a very competitive salary of £300.00 a week plus an enviable commission structure.
After a quick perusal I decided that this job my name on it, I have the sales skills having done door to door at the age of 16, I'd done telesales for a number of companies successfully and had even run a telesales team for a loan broker. Admittedly it was an entry level job and paid a lot less than my previous jobs however with my experience and background it was a case of being awesome at entry level for a month or two and then take the inevitable promotion. Checking the person spec it also looked like it was aimed at me so I sent off my CV and within the day I received a reply saying I'd been shortlisted. I phoned them up and had a brief chat with the HR and Recruitment Manager and arranged a suitable time and date for what I was informed would be a group interview.You will be making outbound calls offering a variety of services to the general public. You must be driven and sales focused and have the following skills and attributes:-
Excellent telephone skills
An ability to assess customer needs and discuss options combined with an ability work to deadlines and targets.
Excellent communication skills.
Confident and enthusiastic
Friendly and approachable
Persuasive and sales driven.
In return for this we offer a very competitive salary of £300.00 a week plus an enviable commission structure.
Nothing to worry about there as you pretty much interact with people from birth (although some might say during) and it would be a chance to see who I was up against. Suitably attired that Tuesday morning I set off for CCS Review (also known as Consortium Technology Ltd), I'd done my research on the company, planned some questions and planned a few positive things about myself to slip in during the interview. I was expecting a number of things from the interview: a group exercise, typing/intranet system test, a bit of role play and one on one with the HR person in which to enquire about the company and put myself over to them as a prospective employee.
A quick train trip into Swansea and bracing walk found CCS placed just off Wind Street, for Who fans its quite close to where the exteriors to The Unquiet Dead were shot. A few of us interviewees turned up at the same time and we were led into the building. As we walked through the contact centre floor I dropped to the back of the group and took a few moments to examine my surroundings. The company seemed to exist in the basement of a quite impressive building and was full of the mixture of cocksure, stressed twenty somethings that populate the call centres of the country. In all honesty I wasn't impressed there seemed to be a lack of decorum, in particularly one team leader was busy moon walking instead of taking a call from an agent - it took him three minutes to get around to helping out the agent by which time I'd imagine whoever was on the other side of the phone would be fuming at having been kept waiting. I looked to the sales charts which showed they had a mixture of the impressive salespeople and people struggling who would soon be showed the door.
We were shown into the interview room which consisted of a large central table and some forms. The HR person said we would fill in the forms, then tell the group about ourselves including our favourite films (and if we had a super power what would we have) and could ask questions about the job afterwards. I don't know about you reader but that sounds a bit crap and lacking to me, on top of that the forms would end up regurgitating the information we'd given in our applications. Assuming HR person would go around the table clockwise I positioned myself on the far left of the room, this way I would be able to find out more about them and be in good position to mention something or ask questions other candidates hadn't covered. As we went around the room I found out more and more about the other contenders...
The first contender, was experienced in sales and had worked in a variety of Swansea call centres, had worked at team leader level and conducted himself well. He was a dead cert to get through and from his delivery and description of himself I could tell he'd be one to watch and I suspected when we were put on the training academy he was most likely to be my closest rival.
The second contender was No 1's goofy sidekick and appeared to be joined to him at the hip. They had worked together throughout Swansea's call centres but this guy was far from the talented one of the pair. It was 50/50 weather he'd get through.
No 3 is what we in South Wales call a "shunk" and stood no chance whatsoever. If he had turned up in clobber he was wearing on casual Friday he still would have been sent home, on top of that he couldn't string a sentence together and may have been hung over.
No 4 seemed only interested in the job because it was in staggering distance from her flat, didn't seem to care and was one of those people who think they are a "character" because they once wore orange on a Wednesday.
No 5 was a very nice chap fresh out of university with a Physics degree, had never worked in his life and looked like he had been dressed by him mum. I firmly placed him in the "nice guy but no chance" category, if he got through he would be gone within the month. If this had been for customer service he'd have a chance but in sales he was out of his depth.
No 6 was a competitor, like myself he appeared to have managed sales departments and was coming into the company like myself at a level lower than he would like. His demeanor showed that while he was professional I didn't think he'd do to well at entry level. I think he'd get in but I think he'd get stuck at entry level.
No 7 was a shop worker and had no sales experience. Despite this I think she'd get through as she put herself over very well in the interview.
No 8, Jesus bloody Christ where the hell did they get this guy from? Apparently he was some sort of weekend club manager who did pole dancing in his spare time.
No 9, was me.
As we went around the table telling our life stories and what super powers we wanted I grew more confident. By the time it was my turn to speak I had my speech planned out, I was able to mention that as well as lead generating I had experience of closing - something a few others kicked themselves for not mentioning, took them on a verbal tour of my work history and finished up by saying I'd like Wolverine's healing power so if I got injured I'd still be able to talk to the customers while I healed - I was the only person to link the power to the actual job. We finished off quizzing the HR person about the actual job then left to go about our different merry ways with a promise we'd be called back by the end of the day. I was full of confidence and had a skip in my step after a well done (albeit lacking from CCS Review) interview. However a few hours later i opened my email to find this:
Hi .........,
Thank you for attending the interview of Telesales Advisor earlier today. Unfortunately, you were unsuccessful in your application.
We wish you the best in your future endeavours.
Kind Regards,
****** *******
"That's it?" I asked myself on reading the email, applied for a job I've previously excelled at, done excellent in the interview and all I get is future endeavoured - who the hell did they think I was, Chris Jericho? This rejection had a bad affect on me, I'd been unemployed after previously doing a job with little prospects and seen a chance to get back into the industry I'd previously excelled at and I get future endeavoured. Naturally I asked for some feedback, so if I'd done anything on I could work on it for my next application but heard nothing back.
I feel badly let down by CCS Review IMO they showed a complete lack of professionalism. The thing that gets me about unprofessional recruiters is nobody wins, I don't get employed, the company don't get the benefit of my experience and the recruitment personnel will just go about doing the same thing bringing down their own value getting found out when they move onto a new employer. I'll bounce back as I always do, someone else will employ me, CSS will continue with their poor recruitment policy and they'll be the ones that suffer long term.
Anyway that's that and as said earlier its time to move on, or in my case back to square one...
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