How I Got The Almost Perfect Job from an Interview For a Job Position I Hated and Failed! Part 3 (final part)

If you haven’t read the pioneer posts on this Job Interview topic, you should. So you’d get the full benefit of the idea behind retrospecting to this event. Don’t make your understanding of the lesson here incomplete please! Here’s part one, and here’s two!

Read: How I Got The Almost Perfect Job from Interviewing For a Job Position I Hated and Failed! Part 1 

At the third stage of the interview, we were expected to write an essay on the topic “Why I want to work as a Customer Service Officer” (Being the position we were interviewing for). Every other person got to writing immediately, like writing essays at interviews was a common occurrence. I wasn’t sure how to react, so I subsequently joined the act involuntarily. Since we were all going to pretend it was a routine.

What I had in mind, as I said in the previous post, was to go for the truth. Why I wanted to work as a Customer Service Officer.

Although Customer Service is a decent and honest profession, I must say I’m overqualified for it. This is besides the fact that the profession tends towards minimum common knowledge capacity building, no technical or complex skill I’d rather be built on. Hence I wouldn’t want to build a career in one. But seeing as that is the only vacant position your company has to offer and I’ll rather be busy than idle, I just thought I would apply myself…

But offensive, rude and improper it was, so I didn’t write that. It formed and stayed in my thoughts only. The supreme, non-disputable reason being the desire to actually get the job so I can be given some money at the end of the month to pay the bills (even if I still lived with your parents at the time).

Why I want to work as a Customer Service Officer”
Knowledge, they say, is power. And knowing that information begets knowledge, how could it be extracted to fully empower the larger audience to a wider understanding (knowledge) of the benefits of your corporation, better than in the position of Customer Service Representative – the know all of a brand/business. This translates onto the customer/client you wish to know all about your brand…

Lifeless, incoherent, and boring, but still got me qualified for a physical test. We all were, to be honest.

Read: How I Got The Almost Perfect Job from Interviewing For a Job Position I Hated and Failed! Part 2

Probably The Last Stage of the Job Interview Process

This test was one-on-one interview with the HR, which hastily commenced and was completed in a whim. The regular attitudinal questions, only brief. Too brief. Was I even asked up to three questions? It felt like they only wanted to mark the stage as being observed, not necessarily as a tool for determining employability. I was told to expect a response from them. Which I never did till date. But I didn’t know that until months into a new job I secured. To explain…

About a week after that interview, I got a text message inviting me for a follow-up interview of the same job role. Naturally, I assumed it was the same company. This time, I had to contemplate making an appearance. Did I want to go ahead with a job that I felt was common and wouldn’t satisfy my thirst for challenges?

If I could hold up a little longer, I possibly could get my wish for an opportunity in my chosen field? Much ado about contemplation *insert blink here* Eventually, I chose to prepare to be present for the interview.

Source: Twitter/@vunderkind

The first sign I missed was the fact that the interview venue was different from the first rowdy and chaotic one. I wasn’t disturbed about it. Maybe it was their real venue, I thought. We were about five that participated in this round, so I felt it was the number screened from the presumed seventeen earlier, and they could therefore accommodate a less robust venue. It didn’t bother me that I recognized not a single one from the previous exercise.

Another round of computer tests and then one-on-one with the HR. It was all a breeze, somehow. The computer test was just similar to the first one. I wondered why it still had to be conducted. But I didn’t wonder too much. I assumed maybe they needed to ascertain we did the tests without assistance, as the present conference room was a lot more closed up than the first one. So, it would provide a greater chance for monitoring (unlike the first).

The one-on-one was with a different person I didn’t see at the first venue, but it didn’t matter. The staff swarmed the first place, maybe this one was in the restroom all the while, a possibility. During the one-on-one, she asked if I was aware of the position I was being interviewed for. I quickly said “Customer Service” with no hesitation or side thoughts. Why did she ask? After all the stages and processes, did she think I’d be confused at the reason I was messing with my frustration threshold and even expending time and money?

She hummed and kept looking through my resumé, worrying over what she called a mismatch between my course of study and the position she was offering. Her colleague that interviewed me the last time didn’t worry about any mismatch. This could mean this lady was probably the head of HR. Perhaps why she didn’t make an appearance at the first meeting. So I concisely discussed why I was deviating, which I felt she should have read from the essay anyways. I wasn’t saying anything newer than what I already wrote.

We talked some more, HR to potential employee kind of thing, and she wished me a lovely day when we were done. Some days after I and some other lady were successful, and yet another interview. And another one. And then I got the job. To resume the week after I was called.

The title was “Customer Service Officer”, but with time I realized it was a Human Resources Admin Assistant which was a 3-in-1 position. Ergo, they preferred to slim it down to CSO. Here’s the bit. It had no string whatsoever attached to the CSO suit professional “LEAVE” job interview. I figured this out after I searched through my mails and found that I singly applied to the renowned organization months back and I thought they were never going to get back to me.

Read: New job, New problems 

The CSO position interview coincidentally collided with the period of the Asst Human Resources position so constructively, it seems unthinkable such could happen so directly. The timing, job role, and interview sequence matched so well. The pay was slightly higher than an entry-level would expect, and the perks were incredible. A complete switch of the package of the CSO. I think about the mix up sometimes and I laugh! All is well that ends well.

Source: Twitter/@vunderkind

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8 Comments

  1. ThankGod I didn’t have to wait as I read this first😋
    Quick question please,
    My younger sister is in her 3rd year in the university studying human resource management. She loves it but my dad doesn’t think she’ll go far in life with such a ‘nothing’ course.
    So I’ll like to know if the head of HR is like someone who studied human resource management?

    1. I understand your dad. He understands that in this part of the world, HRM is no longer a stand alone course. The level you can attain in an organization is usually dependent on the strength of the qualification, more or less. Like having to take certifications like CIPM, PHR, SHRM-CP to push it up.
      And again, the profession is mostly restricted. You almost cannot branch out in another field. What I mean is, to answer you question too, the head of the HR did not study HRM. He merely got heavily certified and proceeded to pursue a career in HR. He progressed with his level of experience.

      Your dad is scared that, as others could simply decide to pursue HR without needing to get a degree for it, your sister wouldn’t have that advantage.

      Which I see as untrue, because now, she can narrow down her options and be more focused in the pursuit of a career. It’s a huge advantage

    1. Oh. Well, this was about how I got my *former* job 😂 The one I lost. I stated it in the part 1! But thanks for being happy for me though. You’re sweet

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