My work experience that's reflected in my resume isn't actually very long even though I had joined and quit so many jobs last year. Those are definitely not experiences I would like to be reflected in my resume...
1st Job Experience
Design Consultant - The company name is actually a Taylor Swift Song.
Work Duration - July 2013 - July 2013
Reason for Leaving - I really disliked my co-workers which in turn made me really hate my job.
2nd Job Experience
Pastry Cook - The company is doing so well now it's actually low on manpower.
Work Duration - Nov 2013 - Dec 2013
Reason for Leaving - The company is doing so well it's actually low on manpower, which meant I had to do the job of 2 pastry cooks and still get paid the same amount per hour, which was already pretty shit to begin with.
3rd Job Experience
In House Space Planner - My Father's Office
Work Duration - When I am free or am jobless.
Reason for Leaving - Oh, I am always welcomed there.
Out of desperation, I did leave the part about me working at my father's company inside the resume as "job experience", but leaving out the part I was working for my father because he saw me as a charity case.
The whole interview started out with me filling up this form with questions like "What's your greatest achievement in life that you are proud of" and "What's your dream job if you could have any job in the world"... am I suppose to answer all this answers truthfully or just make shit up as I go along.
My greatest achievement in life is probably beating a few million other contestant in the game of life and having the chance to be born and my dream job is to be able to bake and get paid a shit load of money for it. I obviously couldn't put those answers so I left the greatest achievement part blank and put my dream job as "anything related to design".
Coming up with bullshit on the spot is hard work during the Q&A with my interviewer.
Question : What is it about interior design that fascinates you.
Actual Answer I would like to have given : Nothing really, I actually only find it mildly interesting, you wouldn't see me taking an interior design magazine to the toilet as I am taking a poop.
Question : What do you think makes you stand out from the other applications who have applied for this similar position.
Actual Answer IWLTHG : Probably the fact that they might actually have more passion in the field than me. I have zero passion in the field to be honest, it's just something I find much more interesting than being an accountant or anything that requires me to be staring at a monitor filled with numbers to be crunched. ( I actually felt really uncomfortable just thinking about saying "great passion in this field" because I know what passion feels like and it's not present in Interior Design.)
Question : So why did you choose our company.
Actual Answer IWLTHG : Because IKEA didn't get back to me despite their automated email promising to get back to me within 30 days, don't make a promise you can't keep IKEA.
I actually told the interviewer I tried applying for IKEA but they didn't get back to me, in a fun light hearted way like a joke of course, he fake laughed but I knew I should have just shut my mouth about that.
And I just can't get past his slight accent, it wasn't necessarily American, more like how a Deejay on a radio station would speak, so that prompted me to use a fake accent whenever I was talking to him and I really hate when people speak in an accent that's obviously fake and not their own, it's just really really weird and uncomfortable hearing them speak like that, like what are you doing speaking like a Primary School kid during an Oral exam, and when I realized I was doing that, I kept trying to forcibly switch back to my normal accent mid-sentence, but then would subconsciously do it again, so during the entire interview, my accent was a mishmash of Singlish and really bad American accent.
When it was my turn to ask questions regarding the job, I tried my best to ask as much questions as I possibly could because I know my resume isn't impressive and the answers I had to the interviewer's questions were less than stellar. There was a lot of redundant questions, a lot of pregnant pauses because my head was trying to think of even more questions like "Are the furniture here affordable" or "How are all this different from IKEA", like really stupid questions I shouldn't have asked and I always blabbered about school work and design, veering off topic to prevent any awkward silences and at one point the guy just goes...
"I find you are very design oriented and we are actually looking for someone who's more sales oriented."
That's when I knew the interview really went south. After that I kinda knew I was pretty much screwed over and just continued asking more questions, and even though he said I was asking really good question, his earlier comment already answered my biggest question... will I actually get the job.
At the end of the interview, he didn't ask me about the starting salary or my earliest available date... both of which I left blank in the form, he just shook my hand and ushered me out without telling me when I could expect a response from them regarding the job... I had to ask him myself, to which he replied the secretary will get back to me.... no window duration of like 1 week or 2 week, just....
"Oh the secretary who called you and arranged for this interview will let you know again."
Okay, so that means like within a decade to never?
The only reason why I am so paranoid with the salary part is because for the last 3 or 4 interviews that I have went, we always discuss about the salary at the end of the interview or somethings half of the interview will just be discussing about the wages. And for 2 of the 4 interviews, the interviewer actually asked me when I could start work, that I should call them up whenever I am ready.
When I was actually walking out of the shop, I notice a stack of free design magazine at the store entrance, and was really contemplating on whether to grab them or not to create an impression that I was "really interested in interior design" on the off chance the interviewer might still be observing me as I was walking out. I am super paranoid about this thing, in my head, I kept thinking the magazines were placed there as a test by the interviewer to see if the interviewees are really interested and passionate about design, because if they are, they will take the booklet. I would probably do that if I was in a position to hire someone because I am weird like that.
So I am not going to put my hopes too high up for this job, probably not gonna happen, although I really like the shop location, it's really quiet and there are only like 4 workers at one time in the shop and hardly any customers, it's like my perfect place to work in... would have been more perfect if it was a bakery.
UPDATE : So to give a rough idea on how commission works in this company. Apparently you get a basic salary, which I wasn't told exactly how much probably because they didn't feel like they needed to since I won't be considered for the position anytime soon. When the interviewer told me we do get commission for selling the furniture, I was thinking along the line of like 20% of the total amount the customer spend, considering the fact that the furniture themselves are quite expensive and 20% because I have a feeling the basic is quite low and most of the salary will be from the commission... apparently not.
For every $1 000 you make in sales, you get a 1% commission or something like that, I think it's a lot more than $1000 because I remembered being shocked by how low the commission rates were... and when you hit your next target, your commission increases by 0.25%. So that means either you have an actual basic salary that you can survive on or you really need to do hard selling to the point of threatening and endangering the lives of the customer's family members.
"If you get this amazing sofa set for $10000, I will let your son live and he might see the light of day, but if you choose to grab this $200 single seater, all you will get is a finger in a box, and if you buy 2 single seaters you get 2 fingers... you get how this works don't you ? Get something from the discount bin and I WILL MAKE SURE THE ONLY GRANDCHILDREN YOU WILL HAVE ARE PREMATURE EJACULATIONS. The choice is yours."
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