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.

I'm back!

Hey guys! First of all I must apologise that I haven't blogged for a week, sometimes I have just forgot other days I've been busy. When I say busy I've been:

1) trying to get a job - I've recreated my cv and sent it to loads of people in my battle to get a job over summer as I need money for next uni year as well as some more for Reading...I also want a PS4 so like I guess not the cheapest taste but ya'know! Interview tomorrow, so there is hope!

2) I've taken up trying to become good at darts, as many will know I'm useless, well my doubling is very slowly mildly improving as well as well as power scoring, although it would be nice to become consistent! That's a target, maybe by the time I'm back in Plymouth I can throw decent scores and win a few games against mates! I haven't seen much to claim that I will be beating Philip Taylor anytime soon though.

3) I've watched the sport keenly on tv. Now this involves Wimbledon which of course ended with an an epic finale as well as the European Darts Championship which Adrian Lewis has won and more recently I have watched the Ashes a bit. 

4) Who can resist watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares USA. I mean if you haven't watch the one about Fiesta Sunrise, the Mexican guy is a hero! I'm not joking! 

Anyway I shall post some better stuff here shortly but for now ill cya all later!

General Concerns From A Student

I'm currently frustrated that I can't seem to get a job. I have a CV that I've tampered with to make it feel like it's the best CV I can come up with and commonly write individual personal statements per job I apply for yet I get nothing, therefore I have taken the time to email various MP's with my issues. Here is the letter.

Dear Sir or Madam,

This email I am sending you is of my general concerns as a student and as a citizen of this country, I shall cover various points and I would appreciate it if you could read my email. First of all though I shall go through why I chose to include you in this email.

Regarding the MP's of Nottingham and Gedling this is area where I reside in the summer when I'm not at University. 

Regarding the MP's of Plymouth this is where I study my degree in Criminology and the Criminal Justice System with Law.

Regarding Geoffrey Cox the MP of Torridge, this is where I used to live before my parents moved in 2011. 

Regarding David Cameron, George Osbourne, Ian Duncan Smith and Michael Gove of the Conservative Party this is because I feel each of you are relevant to issues I am going to bring up within this email. 

Regarding Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Stephen Twigg and Liam Byrne of the Labour Party, I believe you are in the equivalent opposition members to the people mentioned in the Conservative Party. 

Regarding Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, I believe his party once built a reputation about caring for young people as well as the rest of the country.

Regarding George Galloway and Caroline Lucas, I believe being sole representatives of their party that they should also receive this email (I have not included parties from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales due to the slight differences regarding having seperate parliaments as well as Westminster and my knowledge not spreading to how this effects their roles regarding the concerns in this email). 

First of all may I congratulate you on winning the seats that you did in the last General Election. I would also like to thank you for being part of the Parliament that has discovered the truth of the Hillsborough disaster and I hope that this leads to those families getting the justice that they deserve. 

I am an average 20 year old student attending the University of Plymouth, I attend all my lectures and carry out all my essays to what I believe is the best of my ability, however I also enjoy the social aspects of University too. I believe this is the same with many of my friends who agree with the majority of the concerns which I shall raise in this email. 

First of all I would like to highlight my concern of a lack of opportunities for students in the Summer, due partly to the current state of the economy which let's be blunt, it's not exactly great. Therefore many students like myself live summer with little money so the chance to go out and do something can't be taken, this is a point that applies even more to a rural community miles away from the nearest town. Without money students are left all day being this lazy picture that many of the media seem to paint of them, but this may not be out of choice like many perceive. Even in a prosperous area the amount of jobs going for students is not great. Why? you may be asking. This answer would be that a lot of employers now don't have the funds to invest in extra staff for the summer, this may involve time taken by training the individuals or simply that the public have less money so despite it being summer they don't feel they need these employees. I realise that one of the things you may email back are the opportunities to volunteer. I would like to clarify here that although my next point will cover it more that because of the rent and money involved with some university courses that just volunteering and gaining nothing financially can be detrimental to the student. But if these students are not getting an income (and only a few really have the "bank of mum and dad" as our parents are generally not millionaires), then it can be detrimental to businesses that depend on young people, these businesses being for instance nightclubs, which hold a lot of jobs for people in the society.

So now onto my second point, the student loan. Now here I'm not talking about tuition fees despite my anger that this was put up to £9,000 for students the year below me, which means many years with a debt in their name, there were alternatives that I can point out to each of you about this (a graduate tax for the graduates who are earning over £30,000 for instance), but I really wish to talk about the actual maintenance loan. I read somewhere and have been told by a lecturer before that the rent of a property for a student should be around 50% of the loan. Now I live in Plymouth at term times and I'm living in a house that is £86-£90 a week, which is considerably cheaper than some places. This is costing £4,500 a year however as all landlords seem to charge for June and July despite the fact that exams finish in May in Plymouth. Therefore this year that was £860 extra I've paid for rent without being there. This therefore works out at 75% rather than 50% of the maintenance loan, giving a student £1500 to live on for about 8 months. You may say you can do this, as I know one of the recipients of this email has essentially said, well try it. It isn't easy. Therefore this year that was £860 extra I've paid for rent without being there. This may be easier if every student could get a job, however as I previously highlighted the lack of opportunities made for them because of the economy means only some students can get a job. Even more annoying for some, particularly myself is that when me and my sister who is two years younger did our student finances, in my third year where I have a dissertation which I have always aimed to do a survey using an iPad. Apparently the dissertation that the majority of students have to do in their final year is overlooked by this loan as when I phoned to ask about this my answer was because my degree finishes in May, however with the money students have to put into their dissertation that reason I'm sure you'll agree is outrageous.

Both these point I have risen with you leads to students feeling like they are not listened too which leads to a lack of motivation generally. These young people are the future of the country and therefore making them feel like no hopers is a negative stance. I realise there are the arguments around no money to spend, but this is not the case, if there is more money put in, there will be more money spent by these people eventually in the long term leading to the upturn of the economy and preventing any scenario like Greece. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the current ways aren't working but are letting people suffer, in the case of this email the young adults, but I'm sure other age groups suffer too. Look at the average age of someone buying their first house for instance, it should be in the early twenties really, we should be looking to get people to settle rather than to live and depend on their parents, it's extra strain on everyone the way people are now in their thirties or forties when they get their own house. It's something to be proud of and someone in their twenties getting their house if they've worked for it and houses are affordable for them, which right now they are not, would lead to pride. It would make communities safer. Me and my cousins were attacked on my sisters 18th birthday last December in Arnold. We hadn't had a drink, but don't you think that the young people who attacked us would be somewhere else, doing something more positive or at least legal, if they felt like they had hope with doing what they want to do with their life, trying to create a fulfilling career rather than watching the country melt down with shops closing, buildings being boarded up, people losing their homes? And let's be honest with people losing their homes, I'm sure we all agree that keeping people in their homes is more important than paying millions to a funeral for a woman that the public seem mixed on.

I also would like to raise both the NHS and legal aid in this email. As a Criminology and Law student, I know stuff about legal aid and as a citizen of the country I'm bound to know about the NHS, and taking these services away, or making people pay for them will lead to even more of a meltdown as a country, I want to see the country be able to proudly shout about how we have a health service for everyone in the country, I want to hear us shout about how whether you be rich or poor you can get a fair trial with a decent lawyer. This country has been proud of these things for decades, privatising the NHS or making legal aid very niche is a very negative thing to do. The NHS is one of the best things about this country and in all honesty I'd rather see the defence budget cut, and nuclear weaponry lessened or stopped as the nation won't be attacked in a way that needs a nuclear bomb, than the NHS, something that doesn't attack other nations but actually looks after it's own people in their times of need. The NHS saved my uncles life when he had a brain tumour and I am incredibly grateful for the great service they gave to him. Privatising it seems to only make it much more of a confusion institution. 

I hope you can respond to my concerns. And I hope you can see into my reasoning. There are times with the way the countries run that I would like to stand in an election to just put through my opinions and that of many other people within my age group because right now it's an age group that want to be listened to but just don't seem to get the recognition that they should. 

Yours sincerely

James Martin