Since I´m finishing my higher education this spring I´ve done one interview course at school and five real job interviews. The last job interview was taking place in Stavanger, a major business community in the western part of Norway, 290 kilometres away from Bergen. This was my second experience with a professional recruitment and selection firm.
My approach was naturally positiv since I was intersted in the job position. The recruitment consultant I had talked to on the phone, Bob, told me that my background was very interesting and he wanted to meet me. Later that week we made an appointment to meet, communicating with e-mail. At that stage I knew that Bob is the chief executive officer in the firm.
Since I saw on the map of the area that this firm is situated not too far from the airport I desided to take the local buss when I arrived. The problem was that the buss driver and other inhabitants I spoke with didn´t know the street or the firm I was supposed to find. Luckily I had estimated plenty of time before my appoinment with Bob, 13.00. I jumped of the buss at a spot where we, me and the buss driver on route 9, figured out to be close to my final destination. Since my map from the Internet was poorly exact I sent an sms (text message with mobile phone) to Bob asking him to please guide me from the shopping mall where I was. When I didn´t get an answer I started walking. I called the firms switchboard but the girl answearing the phone didn´t know any of the streets nearby and it also seemed like she didn´t know the difference on west and east.
When I finally found the building it was situated in a new business park (the place was a big construction site), and the time was 12.54. I was trying my best to cope with my ambivalent attitude towards this firm when I, warm and sweaty, entered the large building. The switchboard girl was just as I had imagined (the thing I remember best from her apperance is the tattoo on her neck). When I introduced my self and told her about my appointment with Bob she told my to take the elevator. I asked her which floor and off I went. Strangely I was not that nervous. Maybe the detour had help on that. When I entered the fourth floor a lady greeted my in the corridors. I was told that “Bob is not at the office today” and that she was stepping in for him. I was suprised.
The lady consultant (I´ve checked out and she is really a secretary) started the interview by praising the recruitment firm. I told her that I was more interested in the firm that had an open job position and asked her if I could meet some of the firm’s representatives. They were not there and the secretary started asking me questions from a readymade list. I felt disappointed. She seemed more nervous than me, he he. And obviously I had put on a rather severe look. Her major question, she asked it three times (in a bit different composed sentences), was: What is your dream job? Isn´t this the question we where asked in primary school?! Here I was, visiting KAS AS (the name on the recruitment firm - the firm has now changed their name to Amesto AS), spending my time and money, in the finishing stage of many years studying… Young applicants for job positions must indeed put up with a lot of monkey business!
The jobinterview lasted for 45 minutes and it had a friendly end. We shaked hands and I left. Outside 100 meters away from the SØRCO- building I found a bus stop where route 9 passed.
Trechinsky - Reliable Source, significant-minority viewpoints
