interview, work stuff and other things

02/10/2014

618 interview work stuff and other things 1 10 14

Monday: Mock job interview
So I was all set for this job interview. I wore a suit. I had 2 copies of my resume. Since this person didn’t have a copy of my cover letter, I printed out a copy of that as well.
Everything went fine, got to the security desk in the lobby, he put a badge on me and led me to the elevator. I got to the second floor, walked through two sets of doors and someone from a speaker said “who are you hear to see?” I told the lady, walking to where the voice was and she must have been behind a glass window. Pretty uninviting if you ask me. She said that she would contact him. I stood in the middle of nowhere. I guess it was a hallway. She didn’t tell me if there was any chairs or anything so I assumed there wasn’t. I stood for about 10 or so minutes in my own thoughts. Two people had walked by but otherwise, nothing. Eventually a man walks over to me, greets me and I greet him back with a handshake. We walk over to the lady behind the glass because the doors to all the meeting rooms are locked up. Once He took care of that, he led me into the room, showed me to a chair at a big round table and he told me about the program again, as far as this being step one of the hire fare. AND…then everything went wrong. He said that since this is a mock interview, and that I wanted to be a counselor, he’s going to treat this as if I was going for a social work position, since that is what they have at this organization. I honestly, don’t know exactly what social workers do. but I said ok.


I have been on about 10 or so interviews in my life. All of them told me about their company. Then would say “I see you worked at… and you did … can you tell me more about your what you did?” And they have been more conversational than Q-A..

The first thing he says “this position requires you to be here at 8:30 and leave at 4:30. Are you able to get to work on time?” I said yes, I use the MBTA the ride and I always schedule to be here earlier than my work schedule which would give me time to get here.
(and now here is where I totally fell apart)
He asked me “what are your strength and weaknesses?”
I was trying to figure out if he meant for a counseling position or a social worker’s position. I honestly don’t even remembered what I answered, I was all flusted and I was ah-ing and um-ing. I was never asked that Q at an interview.
For Weakness, I said that I would need some time to learn your computer network and program but once I learn it, I will be all set.
He asked me “what type of supervisor would you like to work for?” again, never thought of it, never asked that question. Whoever I got, I would work hard for.
I started to say that I like a supervisor with a good personality. Someone who is trusting and believes in my work. (I paused and said, meaning this to be off the recorded, how I am in just getting a new supervisor and spoke of some of the things he did which I didn’t care for and some of the things my other supervisors did, which I liked. )
Q: can you tell me a time where you found yourself in a difficult position and how did you manage it?
Q: we have a diverse population here, can you tell me a time when you had to deal with a culturally sensitive issue?
Q: what is team work?
And he asked me another question, which had 3 parts that I have no idea what it was, I don’t recall it.
But that was pretty much the interview. Nothing about my type of counseling I do or the population I prefer working with or how I would fill out forms or the classes I’ve taken within the various degrees. To me, he asked me nothing about a job I would be looking for. He asked me these generic questions.
Then he critiqued my answers. Basically telling me that except for the teamwork response and the difficult situation question, the rest I failed on. It frustrated me but whatever. I did take out of it that maybe people may ask me some of these questions and I will have to be better prepared. AND something that totally bothered me, I worked with my mom to perfect my resume and cover letter and to make sure it was printed out in time for my ride. And he never asked for it and when I offered it to him, he said that Joey had sent him a copy and he reviewed it. So it was a waist of my mom’s and my time.

Tuesday work, I did nothing. I did not run a group, I did not talk to any residents. They only came out of their rooms for dinner and cigarettes. So another unproductive day at work.

Wednesday employment group plus snow
I was suppose to attend this employment group for blind people which started at 9:30 AM. However, we were suppose to get between 10-14 inches of snow. So I was in a bit of a pickle. I did not hear from anyone on Tuesday early afternoon so wrote an email to the person running it, asking if the meeting is still on due to the pending snow storm. I didn’t hear back. I went to work and came home. I still didn’t hear anything and by this time, all the schools had called off. I had sent another email to the lady, saying that I won’t be able to attend and look forward to the next meeting. I also emailed my vocational rehab social worker, the one who got me in touch with the group leader, and let her know that I would not be attending due to the snow and I called to cancel my ride.
Here it is the following week and I never got even an acknowledgement about my email. HOW RUDE!

Thursday work
I almost did something… At 5:30 my coworker came up stairs and asked me if I could do the fire safety group because we are due for this quarter. I was like…ok, no problem. She tried to gather the residents up. 3 of the 7 came to the table. After 30 seconds one said he didn’t feel good and wanted to go back to his room. He told us what he wanted to make for dinner then one of the others started to tell us.. I told my coworker that I can’t do the group with only 2 residents. We agreed we would do it the following week.
.So I went to work for 4 hours and did not do a single thing. I hate being unproductive at work.

The wicked awesome part of the week though… Billy Joal is coming to Boston on June 26 to play at my home away from home, Fenway Park and… I’LL BE THERE!

Bad part of the week, I thought of “HER” a few times this week hardcore to the point where I was feeling the painful anger and sadness as bad as I did a few months ago, and I wanted to throw up. I can’t help it. So many things in y life, remind me of her.
I normally think of her 3-5 times a day anyways but it’s for a passing moment or two and I don’t get myself sick over it.

I went to the store with my dad to pick out Valentine day cards for my mom. my father said "so who are we looking for first?" absolutely killed me. I want to sleep Friday away. that's all

OH, another negative thing. I got an email from a lady who works for my company. I don’t know her title-position. She said that I need to sign my affidavit and since Tony M left in December, she was in charge of it now.
This news, that Tony M left the company made me sad that he’s no longer around. He was the one who set up all my meetings with the lawyers and drove me a few times to the courthouse and to the lawyer’s office. He was also the one who set up the grief group counseling when the tragedy happened.
I am mad at my company for not letting me know sooner. He left in early December and this is the first I’m hearing about it?
I told the lady that I had filled out, signed and mailed and emailed my attorney as instructed the affidavit.

And lastly… YAY FOR OLIVIA! And her little family.
They are moving out of a crummy place with a crummy landlord and moving into a nice place with neighbors who have kids too.
She’s moving in today. Happy moving day!