Throughout the past few weeks I've been a bit busy trying to find a job! Yes, I have nearly finished university and it's time to look further ahead of my life. I knew it was going to be hard and competitive to get a job, little did I know how naive I was when I (finally) realised it was much more competitive and harder to secure a position than I thought!
I applied for a few companies, and I was lazy, I could have applied to more, but I didn't in the end, I thought that I would be able to get at least one or whatnot, man, I shouldn't have put all my eggs in such a low number of baskets, so to speak. Prior to all this, I have only ever went to two job interviews, and let's just say they weren't the sort where interview skills were that important, you pretty much got the job once you got to the interview.
Either way, here's a breakdown of the 'statistics' of my job hunting, I've applied to six 'big' companies, one 'middle' company, and one 'small' company. Yes, that is not a lot, but I realised doing their applications are such a chore, with the questions and filling out the details, they took a lot longer than I anticipated, and it's no fun when you've got to allocate time to study too.
Either way, I got rejected by one 'big' company straight away (Company 1), I think I probably didn't get a high enough score on their logical reasoning tests in the beginning, oh well, couldn't change that either way. I then got two phone interviews by two other 'big' companies (Company 2 and 3), first time I had encountered a phone interview, the first one (Company 2) was okay... it could have been a lot better. I would have thought this experience I gained would help me in the second one (Company 3), let's just say I fell flat on my face, and embarrassed myself... badly. Needless to say I got rejected by the first one (feedback was that I was too nervous and I wasn't specific enough with my answers to the behavioural questions and questions about the company, a fatal mistake that I shouldn't have made), and almost two months later, finally a rejection email in response to the second interview (which I had expected ages ago).
So, that's three down and five more to go. The next three that I had responses in, let's just say they had a better positive outlook. First of all, I got a response from one of the big companies, they wanted me to head over to their office one day (pretty much the day after they contacted me) to do some testing, this was the logical tests that I had done online for a few other companies. I guess they wanted to make sure that it was I who had done them and not someone else, I was fine with that. However, there was a little twist, I had to do an additional, technical test that only people applying to the division I was going for had to do. No problem, I went there on the day, did three tests, two hours later, I left, happy and confident that I did well (all those ones I did online were great practice!), now, let's call this Company 4.
A few hours later, in the afternoon, I got a call from another big company, Company 5, they had reviewed my application, including the online test results and they were interested in advancing me to the next stage of the application, an 'assessment day' in which there will be interviews conducted as well as a few extra activities. It was just around a month away, great, I was happy with this great news.
Time passed, as my uni work piled up I pushed job hunting lower and lower down my lists of priorities. However, I managed to squeeze in one final application before the deadline for most programs, I applied for a small company, as they had interested me. The week after, and two weeks before my interview with Company 5, this small company, Company 6, contacted me requesting an interview for next week, to which I eagerly agreed. The good news didn't end there, later on in the week I also got a call, this time from Company 4, saying they were happy with my test results and invited me to their assessment day, a week after Company 5's. Now this meant in the next three weeks, I would have one interview per week, I didn't mind, it meant that I had a chance, and I wanted to think it was a 33% chance of scoring a position. Little did I know this was a very VERY optimistic thought.
Now, fast forward to the day of the interview for Company 6, I had scouted out the location the day prior and so I knew where to go, I prepared as well as I could and arrived fifteen mins early, I waited for a few mins before being taken to the interview room. Had a very short talk with two team members, I found out there were only twenty employees in total, hmmmm, maybe not as great as I thought, as I do not think that I would have many opportunities or such a stable work environment in such a small place, Nonetheless, I tried my hardest during the proper interview with one of the partners of the small firm, I thought it went well, I displayed enthusiasm, I answered all the questions, the interviewer said that I was the first one they interviewed and so would not get back to me for a while, I was fine with that, especially if it gives me the opportunity to pick up an offer from one of the bigger companies instead (which I honestly preferred).
With my frantically completing my uni work, I had only started researching Company 5 a few days prior. So, a week after my first interview I was at the assessment day for Company 5, again, my first time at an 'assessment day' and reflecting back, it was a good and positive experience. I had my two interviews first, one with a senior manager, and the other with a partner, they weren't like what I expected, very relaxed and they were nice enough people (at that time, they are probably really good at acting nice and friendly anyway), I thought they went well enough. Except with the partner interview where I got shot with an unexpected question which I did not think I answered well enough, I could tell he wasn't that impressed, nevertheless, I was still ever hopeful. The next part was then another assessment, in which we had to summarise 14 pages of information into an email, all within thirty mins (which included reading the document), and then did an online logical test to 'prove' we did the online tests ourselves. A presentation about the company afterwards and then it was lunch, provided by the company (which I totally didn't expect, see? My inexperience shows here, seeing as I've never gone to one of these things before) where we talked and 'networked' with employees. I left, four hours after I had set foot inside the building, feeling exhausted and wanting to go home and sleep.
And sleep I did, taking an afternoon nap (which I don't usually do) I got woken up in the middle by a call, now, from what I've read online, there are pretty much three scenarios after the assessment day, they separate the people into three groups, people they really want and will make an offer straight away, people they don't want and reject straight away, or people that they want but will only offer if they get rejections from the people they really want, falling into the first or third group is fine by me... So if you're in the first group you usually get called either hours after the interview (in which case that would be awesome) or the 'golden' time frame would be two days. Needless to say, I would wish that phone call would be from Company 5, I didn't recognise the number so it wasn't from my friends or workplace, it was, in fact, from Company 6. Okay, I admit it, I thought I would have scored this job, being that I had more than enough grades to be competent for the job, and honestly, I was genuinely interested in the company's working style. Well... I got a rejection, it started with "you are a high quality applicant..." and I knew right away it was a rejection, usually they don't have these sentences 'padding' it out and make an offer straight away. I took the rejection... personally, the reason was "you are a really talented individual but we feel that our business cannot provide you with the work that would keep you interested for long", now I don't know about you, but it seemed that there's more than meets the eye and there were other reasons as well. I won't dwell on it, but it was a big shock especially after the assessment, Company 6 was like my backup, and it was only now that I realised how much hope I was putting on it but I put it behind me.
Two days passed, and still no call, by this time I was thinking 95% fail rate and 5% success. I got a call on the third day, and even though it was more than likely I was going to get a rejection, I still held out the hope. No luck, young man, it was a rejection. One positive thing was that I got feedback, I needed to structure my answers better, using the STAR technique, this was actually something I found trouble in, easy to understand in concept, but a lot harder to implement. I had also realised a few mistakes I had made when reflecting back on the day, I did not research the company well enough (rather, I didn't demonstrate that I knew about the company), and I didn't ask good questions at the end. I needed to remedy this.
My next and final interview scheduled was in over a week's time, but I was even more busier now than ever, what with work and uni commitments, it was coming to the exams, and I had to study for them, I cannot afford to let my grades slip. As such, I only managed to review the company a few days before, which wasn't what I had originally planned. Included in my research were going onto forums where I read replies from people who had gone through the process already and try and gauge what questions were asked.
The day came, and it was time for the assessment day of Company 4. Okay, I arrived at the reception and got a shock, we only had around eight to ten people for Company 5, but today, we had twenty one, what made matters worse was that they were all applying for the same division (as opposed to a mix before), so, I had twenty people as my 'competition', odds were definitely not in my favour, and it pretty much broke what little confidence I had left.
It started with a short presentation and we were then presently split into three groups of seven. I recognised a few people from my previous interview and from my university. In the group I was in, I think that we had the best schedule, first the interview, then the group activity, and then a tour, getting all the 'bad' stuff out of the way first. It was two interviews of twenty five mins each, the first one was with a senior manager, he could see I was a bit nervous at the start but I did gain more confidence later on. However, I found myself blabbing too much, and although I was thinking about the STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) technique in my head, I would only get to Action before he cut me off and we went to the next question (not abruptly, just that he didn't realise I had more to say). It didn't help that I saw for one question I got graded a 3 out of 5, the outlook wasn't that great right now. The only positive thing was that he had an outgoing attitude so that made it easier to speak and less stress, and I actually managed to reveal that I did research on the company.
The next interview was with someone from Human Resource, this interview didn't go as well as the previous one, it didn't help the person had been in the company for only three months so there wasn't much I could ask. My research really helped me here, as the questions I had expected were asked, and I could answer them, if I hadn't looked it up beforehand, I would have stuffed up right there and then. Still, the interview had phases of a look that said she was not impressed and one where she was mildly amused. I was the first one finished, ten mins early, I am not sure if this was good news or not.
Next up was the group activity, in which the seven of us read some information, discussed and settled down for a solution. Never been in one before, I tried to participate in the discussion, making sure my opinions were heard, and that what I spoke was important. I helped steered the direction of the activity, and I believed my performance was satisfactory, all things considered, I could see other people had done better than me, but I had tried my hardest and also displayed what I knew about the company's values and objectives, which I think should have earned me some points.
The last part was the easiest, which was just an office tour, and it was nice, lunch was again provided afterwards, and I spent some time talking, although the conversation would turn awkward later on, I pushed ahead, knowing that I had nothing to lose anyway, and at least try and put on my best performance. The day ended, with me as exhausted as last time, but reflecting back, I am happy with the result, I know that my performance has improved, especially with the company research, and the STAR technique, however I still need a lot of improvement, and although my performance is better, is it enough to gain a job? I clearly did not think so, again, it was more down to 95% rejection and 5% success.
The day passed, as the next day was the weekend, I had two days to relax and catch up on work, I had done all the exams so I was happy. After the weekend, another day passed, and I went to a meeting on the 'second' day, not expecting a call until at the very earliest the next day, to get my rejection, I had lost most hope by now. The meeting went for an hour and when I checked my phone afterwards (it was on silent) I had a missed call, checking my messages it was the senior manager who interviewed me who had called me, okay, when I saw this (he had texted me), I dared to hope... usually when you get a rejection, HR calls you, and either a partner or senior manager calls you (depending on who interviewed you) if they make an offer, well, it was either that or they just want to rub it in. Anyway, I called back, it rang once... twice... he picked up on the fourth ring or so, it was hard to hear, and I expected the worse but... out it came, they asked me if I had went to the assessment day last week and I said yes, he said well, we're pleased to make an offer to you for this position, now, I don't have much experience with this but I was thinking, "are you serious?!?!" and "wtf?!?!", I did not know what to say, I was pretty much speechless and not sure how to answer in this situation, I thanked him, and asked when will I get the contract and he said that someone will contact me. So... success with Company 4.
With this good news, I called my friend instantly to let him know what happened, and he even scoffed at my lack of confidence, but I still stand by my 'stats', I was just being realistic with my statistics. I was pretty much on cloud nine, and would smile whenever I thought about it, I mean, I had so much competition (then again, a couple of them already had offers from other big companies, so even if they were made an offer they would reject it, so I might have just gotten lucky when I was put on the waiting list), and it was a big company, and who am I, I mean, they offered me?! I am just surprised, a lot of people did not even get this chance, and yet here I managed to get it, it was really overwhelming and amazing, I mean, I wasn't stunning during the interview, my performance wasn't that great, I didn't make a huge impression, but who am I to question and with this, a lot of worrying fell away as before this I had pretty much accepted the fact that I would be jobless and need to find another opportunity. Then a shadow of doubt appeared in my mind and I thought, what if I had heard wrong or they had made a mistake? I have already told a lot of people, it would be very embarrassing if that was false. No problem, a call later came that day from HR confirming that I would get a contract in the mail in a couple of days, I was officially confirmed.
This calls for a celebration.
I went online and withdrew for one company that I had never got a response from, Company 7, and I couldn't withdraw from the last company. Company 8 due to them not having that option. However, the next day I got a rejection saying that they had better applicants with better qualifications and work experience, which led me to think, this is rubbish, it is an entry level job, they do not expect you to know anything and I'm pretty sure my grades would not lose to many people. Anyway, I don't really care right now, coz I've secured a position! This actually led me to think it was fate (or a coincidence) that I didn't get that offer from Company 6, otherwise I would have somehow needed to revoke the contract which would be a huge mess. And here I am now, a great kick start to the start of my work life, getting into a company many people would dream of getting into (I know I did, and now it's a reality), little did I expect when I went into do the tests a month ago that this company would be the one that I would get in, I am still trying to digest this right now, it seemed that I was extremely lucky.
So, what's the moral of this (extremely long) story? I guess, at the risk of sounding cliche, you've still got a chance if they haven't called you back, research and prepare well, and even if you think you did bad or not as well as you wanted, there is still that chance, that small chance, that a miracle (or not, depending on what you believe) would happen and you still win, so don't give up!