Modern Day Job Searching, The Multiple Choice Test

When I talk to my parents, they do express that getting a job was not the easiest thing in the world, however they also explain memories of their interviews of sometimes a panel interviewing one person to see if they came across as the right person for the job. To get to this stage they would send a CV and a cover letter that would be read and a shortlist decided. They’d hear back from these people soon afterwards to hear about whether they were accepted or rejected based on the interview.

Nowadays applying for a job has changed. From ASDA to agencies of the British Government we are subjected to tests on our computers, worse than just being a test these are multiple choice examinations asking a person what they would do in a certain situation. From here the most common thing to get back is an automated response, not even telling you where you have gone wrong or any advice to make your search for work any more successful but merely that your attempt for a job has not been successful and often that they will not accept another application for twelve months. This email can be as quick at coming through as a minute and the tests can take as long as an hour.

Obviously my issue with this is clear, I regard myself, as a hardworking, determined individual who can be trained to do a job fairly easily, regardless of what boxes I tick in a job application. I regard my achievements in my education, where I have just completed the final year of my degree in Criminology and the Criminal Justice System with Law and activities I have taken part in like the Ten Tors, various rowing races, the Crimsoc society at university and being a Youth Councillor in Bideford to say more than any multiple choice test can. Maybe I’m not the person for the job, there is a chance of that and I am aware of that chance, but this test doesn’t really prove it either way. In fact as far as I see it this test proves next to nothing.

One group I applied for a job for this summer, was a government agency. I applied for this more as a stab in the dark, not really expecting to hear anything back from it. I was actually  surprised as not once in my application for this job did it ask for my Curriculum Vitae, something I have spent a fair bit of time on improving. I did, I heard they wished me to do these tests, the first of these was a very simple mathematics exam I would say. In fact it was simple enough that I could probably have done that test when I left Primary School (admittedly I was fairly gifted at Maths), the second was a multiple choice test about situations and so on. Together I would say these tests took nearly an hour as the multiple choice test was very long with many similar scenarios and to be honest the answers were all very similar too. Within a minute of finishing this and having my brain fried by the boredom these tests put on you when they’re too easy I got an email. I opened this email to find that I had not got the job and an excuse to why they could not provide reasons to my job application being unsuccessful.

Left feeling insulted by the fact my job application had failed due to a multiple choice quiz being answered in a way their computer did not like and therefore not being asked on the reasoning’s to my answers, I decided I would reply, despite imagining the scenario other companies have done when I have emailed them in this instance, where they have refused my email and bounced it straight back at me telling me the email address is just for automated messages as this has happened with businesses including ASDA and Orange and since then the company they have become, EE.

This time I did get a reply answering telling me it was not in the groups interest to advise me where I went wrong and if I wanted to apply again, not to do so for at least twelve months. They also talked about experience which I could have believed to be a valid reason if it wasn’t for the fact they had talked about experience not being required on the jobs advertisement and not once had they mentioned experience in their process, they had based this on a few answers where the options were not too far apart in a quiz. Answers that could change with only a couple of days of training and with no means to explain an answer with a text box meant they could not see a persons reasoning, which may show them to be the appropriate person for the job with the couple of days training.

I am not saying face to face or over the phone or even a test where you actually write your answers out would change the fact I did not get the job in this case, but I am sure I would have been able to show off why I should have been considered for such a job in a far better way, through presentation, answers, passion and showing the fact that as mentioned before I am a hardworking, determind individual who would not mind being trained to do a particular job. I want to be challenged in the work place and prove myself to be a good employee, not a bad participant in a multiple choice quiz and that at the moment is more what is going on.

I am sure I am not the only person with this at mind when it comes to the process of trying to get employment, I believe myself to be one of thousands who is left frustrated by these tests. I am also sure that many times the best possible employee for a job does a test like this and is refused whilst many employees that won’t reach the same level, that lack the same drive, the same passion, the same dedication to be a success in a job pass these tests.

I am somebody who has just come out of university, I have the ambition of the sky being the limit, I have the determination to be the best I can be, the drive to make sure I can prove myself to be the ideal employee and to make an effort to make any opportunity that is made to improve my status in a job, I have developed a mind that can come to reasonable and sometimes important judgements quickly. I want to be the best person I can be in the working world and I am not the only one but the current way the job system works is negative for many people who are like this as well as myself.

Frustrated

Hey guys! Now I've been feeling frustrated and bored the last few days, you may ask why, well it's summer and I'm a University student. More to the point though whereas most University students get to go back to where they went to secondary school and hang out with their friends as well as work, a lot of them at jobs they got before University which are open to them going back to in holidays. However my family moved to Nottinghamshire on the days I got my A level results and confirmation I would be going to Plymouth University. For those that don't know getting from Nottinghamshire to either Plymouth or Barnstaple does cost well over £30, sometimes closer to £60, a trip I have to make a few times a year to go from the family home to my University home, it's not something I can really afford to do though to see my friends back in the town I would refer to as home in the Summer and lets be honest, there's no point of any of them going to Nottingham, the only good event that has happened there that I noticed was Blink-182.

So why am I telling you all this in this blog? Well it's frustrating. I have applied for countless jobs, at places at anywhere advertising and places that are not. I have considered walking into the supermarkets and telling them I won't move until they give me a job or at least interview me or give me a job trial because lets be honest they can afford it. I'm not sure why it seems easier for my friends to get a job in Bideford but it does, maybe there are just not as many people of my age group going to University here and deciding to work in a shop for the rest of their lives and more teenage parents here (although there were and I believe looking on Facebook are a fair few teenage parents in Bideford) who can't afford to go to University or courses away from here due to that commitment. For some reason though, it seems harder to get a job in this more densely populated area of the country, this might be because ASDA like to employ their employees children here, seems to be one of the reasons, the rest seem quite backwards in all honesty, for instance when my Mum bought some goods there explained to the person putting the "freshly" baked "pasties" (they were not of a sufficient quality to bear the name pasty to be honest) that both her and my sister were vegetarians, the person put the pasties into the same bag. This person shouldn't be working at a food store if she does this, what if a person who is due to beliefs a vegetarian and this person puts them next to a product containing meat that they don't eat, it could to the customer "contaminate" their food. Yet this person has a job and I do not. Takes away my belief in the best people getting the job, as even if I'm not the best, she clearly was near the worst. Also I need money to see my friends, so I can't see my friends because people hire idiots like that and don't give students a good chance as far as I'm aware (if anyone in Nottingham reads this and wants to give me a job, please send a comment, email or tweet yeah?).

Secondly, things here happen that wouldn't so easily happen in Bideford. I may have had my fair share of scraps in Bideford, but I was the type of person who wouldn't keep my opinion quiet if I was offended and this could lead to myself falling out with people that made racist comments, especially Tom Benson (if you wanna send your Mum to my old houses door to complain to my Mum but not to my face, or send your army mates round there to "get me" because you can't face up to your own racist remarks yourself, please do) and the chavs. But in Nottingham on my first full day back from Univeristy for Christmas it was my sisters 18th party, me and my cousins however were fed up of her taste in music and stuff and thought about going to Wetherspoons, only to have some thugs try to mug us. These were low life scum mugs that you seem to see more of here than in Bideford, attacking three people unprovoked asking for our phones. Now I must be honest, I didn't get punched, I thought they had a knife and found the nearby bouncer for Wetherspoons to get the police on these scumbags, and I hope they were arrested, I also by a streak of luck didn't have my iPhone 5 on my but my iPod touch, although I wasn't giving it to them, they wouldn't understand the music on it as it contains instruments and isn't just full of "I'm gonna fucking shoot you, because I am hard, because I do rap, and emo's are useless" but proper music from the Arctic Monkeys, to Green Day all the way to odd hits by pop groups like Marina and the Diamonds, Eliza Doolittle and Ellie Goulding. But this showed me a sign that some of the people in Nottingham aren't exactly receptive of people who don't just give their phones. At least in Bideford I knew who some of these problem people were and to watch out for them, I also could predict that a couple of people in my year would end up in prison (I got at least one right unfortunately). Also the people of Nottingham seem to go out wearing joggers, (the type of thing you wear when you're staying in because you have a hangover after an intense night in Oceana Plymouth, busy on the sambucca and beer without getting into trouble...). This is a just no, to me you look like an idiot, especially if you have lines in your hair, the only reason for having that is that your friend did it when you were asleep or your name is Mario Balotelli. You just look like a twat.

Thirdly, not knowing anybody here (and not really being willing to associate with someone who has dressed up like a member of D12), I don't really have a friend here. The people who I have met seem to have this idea that the original people who lived there must be better and therefore leads to me having a lower opinion of them too. Grow up is all I can say to those people. Then there is the fact that due to the timings of moving, my sister obviously went to six form and made friends, I on the other hand didn't get any opportunity to do this and therefore know nobody, so I've went from Bideford where we went to the cinema, went on nights out, hung out on the beach to Nottinghamshire where I lack friends to do any of this with (which will make me a lightweight by Reading Festival/Freshers 2013 as well as miss new films like The Man Of Steel), partly down to the time of move, partly down to myself only being in Nottingham during short periods other than the long long summer, and secondly there is no bloody beach! I miss the beach, the beach was amazing, a nice pint of cider by Westward Ho! beach on the pebble ridge was great, it was one of the best things to do really! I do really miss the regular meeting up with friends.

And then there's the issue that whilst in Nottingham I am always with my family, it's great to go and see them, it really is, but it can become irritating living under rules again, not having to worry about times you come in, or nobody would worry if you just go out and stuff like that. Also people sleep later at uni than at home, so of course you can be louder, and people won't tell you to get quieter for instance. Also was nice to order a Chinese or Indian randomly at 10pm for instance. You also didn't get comments about the time of getting up, mind you staying up late is definitely not as fun at home. Also University had daily meet ups with friends, which was great. Going from that to very little of a social life is frustrating.

There may be a part two to this post, you never know, there is probably enough to write about, so ya'know.

Got any comments about frustration in your life, particularly regarding summer for uni students, or moving, then leave a comment or tweet me, alternatively you can email and I shall get back to you.

Cheers guys