CheenaTown

My job interviewed happened on Friday.

As expected, the weather was insanely hot that day and the bus ride to the location was long, I had thought the design company I had went for to be interviewed at prior to my job at the bakery was far, but this location was twice as far, or even further.

When I first found out the firm was a Shophouse at Chinatown, I was picturing the environment where the office was located at to look a bit like the image above. Somewhere with very little human traffic, a very quiet part of Chinatown with the only traffic being from the cars and a random guy on a bicycle, like a very quiet and relaxing place to work in...

But dreams don't always come true...

Because the office was located somewhere in this mess of a place, like right smack in the middle of the busiest part of Chinatown. The only thing I knew about the architect firm was that the office was a red shophouse, that was it, I couldn't check their website because it was down, their facebook didn't really have much information regarding the exact location except it was a red shophouse with a photo of the shophouse that looked like every other shophouse in Chinatown.

I was there at around lunchtime and the whole place was filled, not just with working adults who were out for their lunch break, but with Aunties who were doing their shopping, queuing up to buy moon cakes, tourist just aimlessly walking around taking a picture of anything that catches their fancy, children following their parents tightly lest they get lost, and then there was me, very lost and confused, clutching on to my iPhone and staring at Google Maps as I was navigating through the crowd.

I might have walked pass the "red shophouse" many times without realizing because everytime I looked at my Google Maps GPS navigation, I would have walked pass the place, so I had to make a turn and walk back, check my phone and then realize I just u-turned the wrong way and repeat that a few times, the architect firm was NOT EASY TO FIND AT ALL.

Turns out the architect firm wasn't a shophouse, but it was located in a shophouse under like some Chinese herbal medicine shop, and the entrance into the shophouse wasn't even obvious. Since the first level was a Chinese herbal medicine shop, the only way to get to the higher level where the architect firm was located was through the side entrance of the shophouse where the stairs was located, it looked fucking dubious, it looked like the entrance to some illegal child prostitution den where pedophiles will go to book their place in hell... because the whole side entrance was very run down looking, a little bit dirty, like the very first place the police will raid for a drug den or something.

Got up to the third level and finally, cold air from the air conditioning. First thing I noticed when I walked into the office was how different it looked compared to the exterior shophouse, it was very clean, modern looking and also very small. I thought that I would be ushered to a conference room to fill up a form, turns out their conference room wasn't really a room but just a huge long table at the other end of the office, because the other end was where all the computer magic happens, all the cadding and drafting stuff that happens in every architect firm... like really boring shit that I will probably not be able to withstand for an hour straight without taking a break by going to the toilet to just sit down and think about the direction I am going with my life. Haven't even get the job yet an I'm already being so negative, well that's not a good sign.

That being said, the office felt very cosy because of it's size, which I really liked, but the last time I said that about a company, I ended up quitting 3 weeks later because that cozy environment was infested with senior colleagues who had the worst attitude in general.  So anyways, I filled up my form and waited for the interview to start, must say though that I appreciate the lady passing me a gel pen instead of those shitty company ball point pens to fill out the form. The last few interviews I went to, I had to fill up my interview form with lousy ball point pens that made my handwriting look so much more atrocious than they really are, but I digress.  

So I didn't really have to wait long for the interview to start though, was interviewed by 2 people, one I think was the boss himself and the other probably someone of a high senior position. The interview went well, one of them was very friendly and asked a lot of questions, the boss, wasn't as talkative, just gave me a general rundown of the company and what I was expected of as an employee should I get the position, asked me about my computer software skills blah blah blah. 

And then at the end, they asked me if I had any question. Being the fucking idiot that I was, I thought when interviewers asked you if you had any question, it would be questions regarding the company, because those were the questions that I asked... 

"How old is this company ?"

"This company is quite small huh, so how many people are there here ?"

" Oh so little people, so do you handle multiple projects at once or one at a time..."

Dumb questions I shouldn't be asking because I didn't really care about them, the boss knows I don't care about them and they are really because the only reason I should be asking them those questions would be when I am planning to hire them for their services, which I wasn't and never will. I went online to check afterwards about the questions I should have asked and realized I should have been asking questions regarding my job position, not about the history of the company. I feel so stupid thinking about it now and all the other times I was asked if I had questions and asked those questions.

The interview took around 15 to 20 minutes, which was long enough and I honestly have no idea how the whole thing went. It didn't go bad but it also didn't go too well like when I was interviewed at the bakery, so at this point, it could go either way. I did tell my Father I will start working for him soon though, so I have already made the mental preparation to not get contacted back by the company because at the end of the day, they are an architect firm and I have a Interior Design diploma, it's kinda the same, but not really. And it's located in Chinatown, extremely far away, the bus ride was very long, and the bus ride there was generally quite smooth with minimal traffic, when I imagine having to go there everyday  during the morning peak hour and coming home during the evening peak hour, I can't really see myself lasting very long there.

Plus apparently when they saw my portfolio, they thought the reference images I had on some of my work were interior design projects done by me when they are really just pictures I got from pinterest. It's like when you see someone's profile picture online and think she's really pretty, only to realize that she's really a dog disguised as a human on Facebook when you meet that bitch in real life.





When the hell are all the interior design companies in the west gonna hire new employees.