ID4 Interview Again.

I had a second interview today (27/12/2016) at ID4, turns out the Hiring Manager was telling the truth when she told me the boss hasn't gotten back to her about my application.



Received the call at 11.30 am and was expected at the office at 3.00 pm,when they called me and told me about the boss wanted to talk to me today, I had to double confirm if they actually meant today, talk about last minute.



I reached the office at 3.00 pm sharp, after an hour transport, or as Google likes to call it, "34 minutes". The first time I went for the interview, the trip didn't feel as long, the only thing I remembered was that it was sweltering hot, so realizing that it would actually take an hour to reach the office was a bit of a buzzkill, just sitting in the bus, wondering...

"Are we there yet?"

... and learning that the journey isn't even at it's halfway mark. My motion sickness can only take so much before I have to throw up in my mouth and swallow everything back down.




If it was a direct bus, I would still be alright with it, it sucks to have to travel so far, but at least I don't have to worry about missing my  transfer bus and having to wait another 10 minutes for the next one to arrive, with this trip, the transfer bus takes an average of 15 minutes to arrive and I do not ,and did not, enjoy waiting under the hot afternoon Sun. Every time I look for a job that is located a great distance away from home, I will make sure there is at least direct bus to make my journey smoother, this time however, I did not and that was a mistake.



As I entered the office upon reaching my destination, I pretended I didn't know where I should go and started asking the people around just for the sake of asking, my mouth was asking "Where?" but my legs were already bringing me towards the stairs leading up to the second storey.



The girl who called me took notice of me as I reach the second storey and directs me towards a meeting table where I was told to wait until the boss was ready to see me. I was expecting maybe a 5 to 10 minutes wait for the boss to quickly finish up whatever he was in the midst of doing, I was called to arrive at 3.00 pm, it's not ridiculous to assume that the boss would be ready to see me at 3.00 pm, if he needs a few minutes to  prepare, then fine, take 5 to 10 minutes, every interview I had gone for, the interviews will always start on time, you ask to schedule the interview at 3.00 pm, at least be semi-ready when I arrive for my interview at 3.00 pm. I ended up waiting a whole half hour.



I actually thought they had forgotten about me at one point because I was literally left alone at the meeting table until 3.35 pm when the boss finally comes out from his office and heads to the toilet. The girl then comes up to me and leads me into the boss's office to wait for the boss to return from his toilet trip.



The boss finally returns back from his toilet trip after I had plopped my bag down on the chair next to me and he introduces himself to me, he informs me he of an annual employee review he was doing today and I guess that is the reason for the half an hour wait. I would have appreciated it if someone had told me about it instead of just asking me wait aimlessly for half an hour.


He asked me what I knew about Interior Design, what my expectations were and I don't think I gave him the answers he was looking for, I just told him what I had learned from ID3, the design process, the renovation process etc, I thought that by sharing all this knowledge with him, he would be impress by my understanding, since I was applying as an Entry level candidate, but instead he goes....

"Don't be so rigid. There's no such thing as a perfect renovation process. What will happen if the sub-contractor gets held up at his previous site, then what will you do? You have to be flexible when it comes to the renovation process."

.... Ummm....okay.




There were a lot of pauses during our conversation that made the whole interview feel very disjointed, he spoke Mandarin and I spoke English, it was quite hard communicating efficiently with him and I think every time I spoke to him in English, what he ended up doing was slowly translate whatever English I had said to him into Mandarin in his head, but the one thing I remember him telling me during the interview was...

"I actually asked for them to look for an experienced Interior Designer, I have no idea why they chose you. But it's alright, when I look at you, I see potential."

... after that revelation of realizing I'm not the ideal candidate they have been looking for, the idea of working for them suddenly felt uncomfortable.



If you are looking for an experienced designer, then hire an experienced designer, don't hire me and expect me to have the standard of an experienced designer, adjust your job as a "Junior Position" and not an "Entry Level" position. My main aim is to learn first and sell later, I want to learn the ropes and not be expected to know the ropes on my first day. The boss tells me to learn from the other designer, but I'm not going to be attached to anyone team leader until my second month, so I'm worried that he doesn't actually have a proper training program for people like me and I will end up be learning stuff from the junior designers.





I have been "trained" by these Junior Designers before and 100% of the time, it always ends in frustration because they can't provide a proper paced out training for fuck, the only things these "trainers" know who to say is either...

"No, this is wrong."

or 

"Wrong, all wrong."

... tells me everything I do is wrong but never offers me a proper solution, if what I had found isn't exactly what they are looking for, it's considered wrong. Or even worst, gives me the wrong information without even realizing and make me waste my time searching for the wrong images.





When the boss tells me that I had potential, I felt like he was overestimating my abilities because that's not the feeling I got from ID3 when they fired me....

"Your trainer said she saw potential in you, that is why she chose you."

...and then she gave up on me and my contract got terminated 2 weeks later. Well, to be fair, it was the boss who told her that I didn't have what it takes, and from what I've heard from HR, my trainer did contemplate on continuing to train me further and give me a chance, but still ended up throwing in the towel.




Later I learnt what the boss really meant when he said I had potential was that my face had the potential to attract customers because I didn't look like a con-man who would cheat customers off their hard earned money, the face of innocence. It's not the potential to becoming a successful interior designer, it's just potential based purely on aesthetics.




As the interview was about to come to an end, he finally asks me when I would be able to start work, I wasn't really excited about the idea of working with them after our interview, I told him that tentatively, I would prefer to start on the 2nd of January, I have been looking for a job for a month now, so I was desperate to say yes. He tells me he wants me to confirm fast, preferably the end of today and inform the Hiring Manager of my decision, I thought that means he will give me time to think about it at home after the interview, but instead, he sends me to the Hiring Manager right after the interview to speak to her.




She was confused when I walked in with the boss, he explains to her that he was busy and couldn't really spend too much time with me, so she put her work aside, looked at me still a little confused and I gave her a brief summarisation of my interview with the boss. I wasn't ready to confirm with her about the job offer yet, but I told her my tentative starting date and as the conversation went on, I realize she was talking to me like I had already accepted the job, so I asked her if I have been confirmed, and she goes...

"Yeah, you have been confirmed."

... there goes my time to think about the offer. I was a bit flustered when I realize I had been confirmed, I didn't agree with the confirmation, but instead just went "Oh! Okay". Looking back, I probably should have asked to be given a bit more time to decide, but I wasn't really thinking at that moment, I felt relieve to finally be receiving a job offer when she told me I had been confirmed, but as I was on my way home in the bus, when that sense of relief starting to fade, I realize I wasn't actually happy with the job offer.





This would be my fourth attempt at trying to make this career work, my confidence level isn't exactly at it's highest right now, when I first decided to try to do Sales again, I was optimistic that this could work out, but after a round of quitting and another round of getting terminated, my optimism level is really at an all time low, especially after getting terminated.




I would like this to be my last attempt at trying to make this career as a Sales Designer work, so I want the next company I join to be the perfect one, I don't want to have doubts about it before I even join them, I want to be sure it will be able to offer me the best chance to flourish as an Interior Designer, so if it still doesn't work out in the end, at least I can tell myself, I have tried my best and move on without any doubts lingering at the back of my mind.




I was never interested in joining this company, prior to the interviews I had with them, it wasn't a company I was dying to be a part of, the vibe I'm getting from this company is very similar to the vibe I got from working at ID2.




ID2 was offering me a $1500.00 basic on top of a 20% commission, at that time, it was the most stable salary offered to me by all the companies I had interviewed at. I didn't really like the company and a lot of their design styles shown in their company portfolios are not my to my taste, but I decided to join them anyway because of their salary scheme and my first day ended up being the most regretful and dreadful experience.




This is very similar to what's going on with ID4 right now, nothing about the company attracts me, when I went for my first interview, for some reason, I already wanted out, until I was told of the 2 day work week schedule. I'm attracted to this company for all the wrong reasons and now that I have accepted the job offer, I'm starting to realize that this is probably a very bad move.

Huh?

This job hunt is starting to feel extremely frustrating. I'm starting to wonder if this is a sign for me to stop looking for Sales Designer position. I have tried and failed 3 times, getting fired should have probably been a wake up call, but alas, I'm still very attracted to the idea of being a veteran Interior Designer, it's not really about making money at this point, it's more of just becoming knowledgeable and confident in the craft. I require knowledge to feel confident, and when I'm confident, then I can focus on making money.






Logging into Jobstreet and staring at the list of Job Openings has become a stressful routine, looking at companies I have send my resumes to reposting the jobs I had applied for is extremely demoralizing, especially those that didn't even set up an interview with me. I mean really? You haven't even given all those applicants who had applied during your first round a chance, haven't even spoken to them and you are already reposting a new job ads, hoping to find someone who would fit your idea of a dream employee. I really have no idea what some of this companies are looking for sometimes....



What the ad writes....

"No work experience required"

"Minimum "N" or "O" Level" certificate"

What I have written on my resume....

"2 Years Work Experience"

"Diploma in Interior Design.

What the company really wants...

It's the first thing on the Ad, right at the top.

"Malaysians are welcome to apply"

It's ironic how some companies talk about supporting local brands, but when it comes to hiring workers, they choose foreigners over local Singaporeans.

ID4 hasn't called me back. I was very skeptical when the hiring manager told me the boss hasn't gotten back to her about my application, I was hoping, but I had a feeling she wasn't really telling me the truth.

ID5 has reposted their Job Ad on Jobstreet, so I guess instead of being given a choice, I was given an ultimatum by them.

"Pick us before Friday or we will throw your application in the fire"

Guess in the fire it goes then, it's not as if I wanted to join that company in the first place. Better to take a longer time to find a company I want to join then to join one out of desperation and become miserable. 

Apart from the boss's lack of interest towards me, another reason why I'm not keen joining the company is because they have a celebrity ambassador. It makes zero sense because this particular celebrity isn't really known for hosting an Interior Design program or anything even remotely related to Interior Design, he's just a veteran actor in Singapore and that is it.

That's like asking Grumpy Cat to be the ambassador for Doctors Without Borders because Grumpy Cat is famous.

Called ID4

I've send out the email to ID5 but I've also decided to keep that option open. Rather then telling them I'm not interested in the position and completely withdrawing my application, I thought it'd be best to just let them know I am still interested, but should an offer from another company arise, I want to have the choice of actually weighing out my options and choose what I'm comfortable with.




What ID5 really wanted was confirmation and I gave them none of that, so I'm not really sure if they will still entertain the thought of hiring me, but it's better than telling them I'm not interested, I still might enter their list of potential candidates.





I may have blogged about not wanting to give ID5 a thought at all and just withdraw completely, but I'm not really presented with a lot of choices right now, as far as ID5 is aware, they think I am being shortlisted by a bunch of other companies and am some hot commodity everyone wants to hire, that's unfortunately quite far from the truth because most companies I'm interested in, I've either applied in the past before and failed or I have been hired and quit/fired from. My options right now are quite limited, which worries me, I don't want to be hired by a company I'm not interested in, only to see a company I'm actually interested post a job advertisement one week or a month after I have found a job.





One thing I've done is call ID4 this afternoon to check on the status of the job, the interview went quite well so I was a little peeved when they did not get back to me, I understand why the food writing company did not get back to me, I completely fucked that one up so I'm not surprise and I'm not expecting to hear from them ever again, it also didn't really feel like the right fit for me when I went for the interview, seeing how I was extremely unqualified with zero professional writing background and a lack of any relevant diploma to compensate for it.





After my interview at ID4, the marketing manager who interviewed me gave me her name card and told me to call her if I had any queries, so I did. She was a little confused as to who I was at the beginning, the tone was a little impatient, like I was some telemarketing person, until I told her my name and reminded her of the interview I had with her 2 weeks ago, her tone instantly lighten.






Turns out, according to what she has told me, the boss hasn't gotten back to her yet, I'm not sure if she meant that the all positions are still open and the boss hasn't filled them yet or if the boss hasn't gotten back to her about my application yet but have already hired a few people to fill up the slots because I did ask her during our interview how many people the company was planning to hire and she said they had 4 positions available.





Right now, it's a waiting game, ID4 said she will get back to me by the end of the week, which I guess is Saturday, but that's Christmas Eve, so I 'm not very sure. I would honestly prefer working at ID4 because they are aware my past working experience as an In-House Designer was at my Dad's company, their expectations of me are probably not as high as ID5, who have clearly overestimated my abilities it's actually making me feel a bit uncomfortable.





It's been probably a month since I got fired, so I'm not really keen staying jobless any longer, but at the same time, I also want to wait till after Chinese New Year to see if more companies will start hiring, I assume that's the period when people would start quitting, which would also maybe allow me to broaden my career options and start looking for cake decorating positions.

Having Doubts

My interview on Monday was interesting.



The interview was suppose to start at 4.00 pm, but I underestimated the travel time and ended up being about 10 minutes late.



When the time reads 3.50 pm and my transfer bus is estimated to arrive in 6 minutes, I get very irritable at every hiccup that would make delay my arrival to my destination when I do manage to board the bus at 3.56 pm, be it the traffic light constantly turning red, the bus driver deciding to stop at every single bus stop even though there's obviously no one who's going to be boarding or exiting at that stop or those Aunties that like to stop every other bus that drives by their bus stop to ask for directions, so imagine my surprise when I realized that the bus driver was even more impatient than I was feeling.





As the bus driver was about to make a left turn, he realizes that the vehicle in front of him wasn't, the traffic light was red except for those turning left, so he was stuck.

The bus driver, upon noticing that a motorcycle was blocking his way, did not just honk at the guy to fuck off, he actually started shouting at him, and it wasn't words that were coming out of his mouth, it was like "EHHHHHHHHHH!, the rider looked a little terrified as he started inching his bike to the right so the bus could drive through and I felt a mix of joy and fear.



I managed to reached my stop at about 4.10 pm and made haste towards the Interior Design Showroom, the rush of cold air as I opened the glass doors was heaven because the Sun at 4.00 pm is a real bitch.






As I entered the office, I notice a bunch of people sitting around a table, talking to each other, a few of them notices me and just stares at me, not really sure if I was a customer or not, I walked up to them and told them I was here for an interview.

"Boss, someone's here for an interview."

....a lady at the counter behind the office started shouting at the crowd of people around the table. At this point, normally the boss will stand up, introduce himself to me and lead me to a private area to carry out the interview, but that didn't happen, instead, the boss just goes...

"I'm not interested to do the interview, look for someone else."

... his back was facing me the entire time and he doesn't even turn to acknowledge my presence. I stood there, feeling a bit awkward as the counter lady started shouting for another person's name from where she was sitting. I walked back to the entrance area and started admiring their bookshelves until someone came up to me and went...

"Hi, you can come in here and take a sit while I get the person-in-charge to come and  speak to you."

.. he leads me to the pantry area and I take a sit, as I was about to remove my bag and place it on the chair next to me, the person-in-charge finally descends from the second level and introduces himself to me, he leads me back out again and carries the interview at the table nearest to the entrance and the furthest from the crowd of people.

Well, the interviewer was not prepared for me at all.

'Sorry, no one told me you were coming for an interview. Are you a walk-in or did someone tell you to come today?"

I told him I had applied for the job on Jobsteet and was scheduled for an interview today. I was going to apologize for being late, but felt that there wasn't a need to since he wasn't even expecting me in the first place.

He starts asking me where I had heard their company from, if I was comfortable with the full commission salary scheme, took a look at my online portfolio and was impressed by it and then asked me if I still wanted the job after learning about the lack of a basic pay. He wanted to make sure I wanted the job before he spoke to the boss for me, telling me he will try to fight for a higher commission for me if I was still interested. I told him to give me a week to think it over, he tells me to inform him before Friday. 

Right now, I'm not very comfortable saying Yes to this company because the boss's attitude was a huge turn off. I really don't want to be working for someone who just completely ignores the interviewee, who can't even take a second to turn around and exchange a greeting, who speaks about that candidate like he's not standing right behind him. If you cannot interview me at that moment, turn around and say something simple like...

"Hi, sorry, I will get someone else to interview you today, I'm a little busy right now."

...it's not that hard. I would understand if the boss was cooped up in his own office busy doing work and be unable to meet the candidate directly, that's completely normal, if you have already scheduled someone to interview me, then fine, don't bother with me, but there was none of that happening.





Beggars can't be choosers, but I have a bad feeling about this company, just from the lack of professionalism the boss was exhibiting, all the other companies I've send my resumes to haven't gotten back to me and  I am really starting to wonder if they will ever get back to me. I've had time to think my choice in career through and I'm not sure doing Sales is such a good idea, I would be more suited becoming an In-House Designer, unfortunately, that position would require software knowledge skills I'm severely lacking.



I've already written a draft email withdrawing my application but I guess I will think it over for one more day before sending it, although the fact that I am actually blogging about it is essentially makes it a cemented decision. 

I'm on Google Maps

I have an Interview tomorrow at an Interior Design Firm and as I was searching for a route to get there tomorrow through Google Maps, I noticed that they had updated their Streetview Images.


The only reason why I'm even bringing this up is because a few months ago, as I was walking home from another Job Interview,  talk about being a serial job hunter, I notice this vehicle that was driving by that had a weird contraption mounted on the top that it looked like a 360 degree camera, there wasn't any Google logo slapped across the car or any sign it was a car that belonged to Google, but I had a feeling that it was, so every time I was on Google Maps, I would take a look at the time stamp on their Streetview to look for any updates.

I'm on Google Maps

I was right because I'm now on Google Maps as one of the millions of blurred out individuals.



The only reason why I know I had seen that vehicle after my job interview is because of what I am carrying in my right hand in the picture, a bag of Cupcakes!



I had gotten my hands on some cupcakes from Fluff Bakery because the interview had gone well, so I was in the mood for some cupcakes, they were deliciou, I also got the job but that didn't go down quite as well as the cupcakes did. I finished the cupcakes in a span of 2 days, which was about as long as I lasted at the new job.


I was actually planning to get Fluff Bakery cupcakes after the Writing Internship Interview, but lost any mood to actually eat any cupcakes after how it went down, so I headed straight home instead.



Over the weekends, I started binge watching Westworld.

The good thing about watching TV Shows weeks after they have aired their final episode is knowing I won't have to wait for new episodes every week.


Westworld is the kind of show I won't necessarily look forward to at the start of every week because it's a little too complex to keep me interested in the long run, but throw me 10 episodes at one go and I'm going to spend my whole weekend watching it from start to finish.


Have to admit, when I first started watching the show, I got a bit confused and actually thought I was too dumb to actually understand what was really going on, that is until everything started unraveling itself in the final few episodes and clicked. Some scenes are not meant to make any sense until the final revelations at the end, so it is nice to know I wasn't actually getting stupid and I was also glad I didn't spoiler myself by reading their Wikipedia page, that would have really ruined the whole show for me, seeing how huge a lot of the twist are.


I would imagine those who followed the show from the beginning and actually waited for new episodes every week would have a much larger reaction to the many twist this show had to offer.




That's about all I have to blog about, I do hope the interview tomorrow goes well, at this point I'm also no longer interested in calling up ID4 to ask about my application.


Lacking basic courtesy to let a candidate know the position they have been interviewed for has been filled.


 Check!

Botched

Today, I botched my Writing Internship Interview.



Google Maps and Gothere.sg has estimated that the travel time from my home to the office location would be about an hour long, so I left the house around an hour before the stipulated interview time and actually reached the office 15 minutes early.




They were having a meeting when I arrived so I ended up waiting for that 15 minutes till they were done and as soon as they were done, I  was ushered into their office by the Interviewer.




The office isn't necessarily huge, but it didn't have to be because rather than having individual work desk, everyone shared 2 long communal tables that extends almost the entire length of the room where they do their work, also in the office is a smaller breakfast/booze table that seats 4 people at the end of the office, it was a very open concept and my interview was carried out on that breakfast/booze table.


The interview starts with the typical "Introduce yourself to me." segment where I talked about myself, I talk about my diploma that carries zero value for this internship application, my careers in Interior Design and F&B, I talked about my lack of professional writing experience which was met with questions like...

"So what makes you want to write for our company?"

"Do you have any writing background? Have you written for you school publication before?" 

... I thought the interviewer would have read my blog before and gotten a grasp of my writing style from there, so I just told her my only writing experience was through my blog, telling her that my writing style is able to attract the readers to continue reading because of how simple it is, she was a bit confused because she has never read my blog, she didn't even know I had shared my blog URL with the company, the only website she had seen was my Interior Design Portfolio website, at this point, the boss who has been hovering beside us chimed in and went...

"You never read his blog? I got read his blog, he complains a lot about his bosses... but he can write."

*cue nervous laughter*

... I knew sharing the blog with them was a bad idea but I guess it was what got me the interview in the first place, so it was a necessary sacrifice, and then the interviewer went...

"Can I take a look at your blog? Do you have it with you now or...?"

I wanted to say No, to have her read it when I'm not around her, like maybe read it when you at home and have nothing to do, judge me at the comfort of your own home, away from me, but that wasn't possible because of course I have it with me now, it's on the internet.



 I had to give her a disclaimer and let her know it was full of profanity, she gave me a patronizing laugh as I typed in my blog address on my phone, tried to look for the most harmless post and showed it to her and as I watch her eyeballs darting from left to right to left to right, reading my post, I can't help but feel nervous as her expression started becoming more serious, so I looked outside and tried to enjoy the scenery until she was done reading.

I thought the post was harmless until I actually read it again after the interview was over, it wasn't a harmless post, it was a post about me talking about how I can sometimes tell if a job interview has gone south and then bitching and moaning about how companies should have the basic courtesy to let the people they have interviewed know if the job position has been filled, I still stand by that because basic courtesy, but it really wasn't the best post to have let the interviewer read. Now when I think back about letting her read that post, I feel a cringe coming over me.

She hands my phone back to me with this unimpressed look on her face and carries on with the interview. Who can blame her for being unimpressed, prior to her reading my blog, I was complimenting myself on how my writing can keep a reader hooked, she only reads a quarter of my post before handing the phone back to me, proving that wasn't true, people who write for a living probably find my writing style a mess, what I said to her is probably the equivalent of a home baker walking up to Pierre Hermé and telling him "I make amazing Macarons"

Also if someone I was interviewing for a job opening shows me what I had shown her, I would probably be scowling for the remainder of the interview, she wasn't though, she remained professional through out the interview and I'm not typing this out because she might be reading this post.

Oh, and at one point she asks me how well I can handle stress, so I told her about the stressful situation I was in when I was working in the Restaurant, and like an idiot, I didn't think it through because I quit the job when the stress got to me, that was how I handled that stress. That's one way to get hired for a job, let them know about your penchant to quit if the stress becomes too much to handle, although in my defense, it really was an extremely overwhelming situation.

The next portion of the interview consisted of a series of test that I pretty much screwed up completely.

"Can you come up with of a headline for an article about this Christmas Hamper?" *points to a generic looking Christmas Hamper on the table beside me*

My mind went completely blank, I had nothing, normally I would be able to come up with some stupid rhyming headline like "Christmas Hamper to Pamper Yourself" or "Last Minute Gift Ideas for Jesus" but I was just drawing a blank and after what felt like a decade of silence, gave the most "No Shit Sherlock!" headline ever.

"Christmas came early with Christmas Hamper"

The interviewer was obviously a bit underwhelmed by what I had came up, I made her wait for probably 30 seconds and that was all I could come up with, I was actually waiting for her to share what headline she would come up with, to compare how horrendously bad mine was and give me an example of what a seasoned journalist would come up with, but she never did and moved on with the next test...

"Can you share with me the latest food trends."

Once again, I drew a blank on this question, so I said "Rainbow Bagels and rainbow uhhh.....", I knew that was an old trend but it was something that consumers were still attracted to, I know because I had to bake so many fucking rainbow cakes before in the bakery.

I am a baker, not a foodie, so I really didn't know what the latest food trend in Singapore was, the melted cheese trend did cross my mind, but I thought it was a one time thing, after that whole raclette cheese saga that happen a few months back, I thought it became famous because of the controversy and not so much because of a food trend, but as it turns out, it is actually a food trend and was one of the answer the interviewer was looking for.

Next test, I was asked to talk about 3 different items..

1. What's the difference between Champagne and Sparkling Wine?

I really have no idea because I don't drink alcohol for leisure, so I talked about how one was a fruity desert wine while the other was better paired with savory food.


It was wrong, they are the same thing, the only difference is their name. This feels like a trick question though, it sounds like the kind of sarcastic answer a smart ass would give when asked a question like...

"What's the difference between Hitler and Jesus?"

And the smart ass would answer..

"Oh, their name. LOL!"

...and proceeds to get brutally beaten up by the Nun with a Jesus Loves Me Whip

Yes He Does....

But in this case, it really was the name difference, that was all. Sparkling Wines made in the region of Champagne in France is called Champagne, that's it, it's called that way because that's the name of the region in France it's made in, it's just Sparkling Wine trying to be cool and different.

2. What is Foie Gras?

I knew this so I answered correctly. I talked about how the practice was unethical and when asked by the interviewer if I would eat it after I had told her how horrible the practice was....

"Yeah, I ate it before"

3. What is Wagyu Beef and what makes it different from regular Beef?

I have heard of Wagyu but I think I might have confused it with Kobe Beef during the interview. I read somewhere that all Wagyu is Kobe but not all Kobe is Wagyu, but the answer she was looking for was the marbling of the beef.


I have eaten Wagyu before but I really couldn't taste the difference because it was all minced up in a lasagna, which I'm assuming is some sort of crime in the eyes of the Wagyu Beef Gourmet Association.

After the series of mini test where I was able to showcase how incompetent I was, the interviewer proceeded to talk to me about the job scope, asking me if I was comfortable going for food tasting alone, travel overseas alone, talking to media companies alone, how long I could work for them as an intern and everything she said sounded pretty amazing, except the alone parts, but I already had a feeling that I was never going to hear from them again so I didn't voice my concern about having to do all those things alone.




I'm not the only person they are interviewing for the Internship position, I'm sure there are going to be individuals who are infinitely more qualified then me, like Mass Communication students, real Foodies, real Foodies who studied Mass Communication, who have applied for the position as well, and at this point, I would honestly be surprised if I actually do hear back from them next week.

Just to let it out...

I have managed to score 2 more job interviews for 2 very different job positions.



I feel like I am now in the same position I was in 3 years ago, picking between Interior Design and Baking, except this time, it's between Interior Design (again) and Food Writing. It's only the interview, so nothing has been confirmed yet.



I have been contemplating whether or not a career in the Interior Design industry is the right one for me for a very long time, 3 years in fact, right after I left the army. It has never been a passion but an obligation when it came to Interior Designing, obligated to that $7000 Diploma my parents had to pay for me, which I'm slowly paying back through my CPF at a glacial pace of $110 every month, every time I'm in the Interior Design industry, I always end up questioning my decision to return to it.



I have managed to develop a genuine interest in the field and I am very enticed by the commission scheme so many of this Interior Design firm has to offer.

"It normally takes a year for a Sales Designer to be able to afford a car."

That was what a senior designer from ID3 told me, only a year. When he told me that, I just imagined myself driving into camp during my next reservist with my own car, how convenient it would be to just go home after my duty ends and return before my next duty starts, speaking of which, I have to go back for reservist in August again, that's just great, just 4 months after I had completed my last High-Key I get another call up, my camp is really making full use of all the ICT Personnel.



I digress.




When I went for my first Interior Design job, the other guy who came into the company the same time as me did not have any Interior Design background, no degree in the field, nothing, he was fresh out of the army like I was and every time I had doubts about the job, I would ask him...

"Is this job something you plan to do in the long run?"

... and he would always tell me it was, he didn't tell me it was something he was passionate in, to him, it was just a job. Out of the 4 of us who entered the company at the same time, 2 girls, him and myself,  the 3 of us who are trained in Interior Design, who either have Diploma of a Professional Certificate, left the company and he was the only one who stayed till this day.



I entered the company 1 week before him and 1 week before the 2 girls joined us, that would have made me the most senior out of the 3 of them from our batch. Right now, he's probably a very experienced Interior Designer, with 3 years worth of Interior Designing work experience, he's probably considered one of the more senior designers in that company by now. There are moments when I would think, had I not had that itch to pursue baking as a career, would I have been able to stay in that company as long as he did and find the level of success he is probably experiencing right now, how much would I have earned by now and how busy would I be right now.



(Also important is  not being assigned to that 4 month old designer but to the lady boss herself like he was, I mean he was extremely lucky to be mentored by her, I think that's a huge reason why he was the only one who  actually stayed.)



Those thoughts are what is constantly making me look for careers in the Interior Design industry, every time I enter a new company, I would ask the designers who are around my age how many years they have worked in the industry.

"I have been with this company for about 2 years now"

"About 8 months."

"Less than a year"

And when I hear the way they talk to the customers, how knowledgeable they are about what they are selling, I can't help but feel envious and just think...

"That could have been me, had I not left the industry when I did 3 years ago, I would be in their shoes right now, equipped with an additional 2 years worth of experience."

It's that constant "What if ?" that drives me insane sometimes and it's that need to know what happens in that "What If ?" that made me want to work in ID4 for as long as possible.

I didn't want to quit and be left wondering "What if I had stayed" 2 years from now. I wanted to stay and learn because I was very willing to learn unlike 3 years ago when all I could think about was baking, I wanted to know where I will be at 2 years from now as an Interior Designer and not be left wondering. Getting fired 2 weeks into the job at ID4 bugs the hell out of me right now, now that I have spend 2 weeks at home thinking "What if I hadn't gotten fired?" 

Had I not gotten fired, I would have been their employee for a month now, I would be talking to customers right now, trying to clinch deals right now, doing up floor-plans and presentations, quotations and custom carpentry designs, going up to my trainer and asking her if what I had prepared is acceptable to be presented to a client I'm meeting tomorrow or a week from now, probably becoming good friends with my colleagues. Maybe all that is being too optimistic, but I would definitely be a lot more knowledgeable about the Industry right now had I not been fired.

What I really wanted was to work for at least a year or two in the industry, to become knowledgeable about the industry, to experience what it's like to handle a project, to be comfortable enough to talk to customers and confident enough to answer whatever questions they might have about renovation works. I wanted to get to that stage because that's where I would have been right now had I not left 3 years ago.

When I worked in the bakery, I was able to reach that stage of being efficient at what I do, just 3 months into the job and I didn't have to refer to the recipe book anymore, not because I had memorized the recipe willingly but because I had been doing it for so long it just became ingrained in my memory, when I first started, it took me a whole day to prepare just one recipe but as the months went by, I was able to triple my production speed, it wasn't as fast as my sous chef but I was able to meet the customer demands, that's the level I want to reach in my Interior Design career at ID4, to reach that stage where everything just becomes second nature, to look at a floor plan and be able to map out the space planning almost instantly, to know how much the renovation would cost just from a glance at the space planning, this isn't about being passionate, this is just me wanting to stop feeling like a newcomer and actually become an experienced designer so I can fully experience that "What if" scenario.

And now that I have that Writing interview coming up, I'm going to be presented with another 'What if" scenario if I actually choose to go for the Interior Design position instead and end up regretting it completely.




I came across the writing internship when I was still working at ID4 and it was during that period when I was just in a state of frustration, when all I was thinking of was "what have I gotten myself into again", it really felt like a wasted opportunity at that time because I was already working and then this internship offering shows up on Facebook.... and then shit happen, I got fired and was stuck in a quarter life crisis situation, I mean I'm still stuck in a quarter life crisis, until I can find a stable job, I shall diagnose myself as an individual suffering from quarter life crisis.

Genius

This long wait for a job always feels very unfruitful.



I've recently send in an application to be a Writer for a food website that's pretty well known, it's an internship position since I have zero experience in writing apart from this blog and the only contributing factor I have of offer to them is my past experience as a pastry cook, well sort of a contributing factor since the two jobs revolves around food.




Since I didn't really have any writing samples to give to them, I thought I should just share with them my blog, it was one of the optional information they required. For the first few hours, I was hopeful, I had enough content on this blog for them to get a greater understanding of my writing abilities, and then once I had slept through that decision, that was when I realized I had probably just committed job-seeker suicide by sharing with them my blog, a place where I bitch and moan about past job experiences.

at-sunrice still hasn't gotten back to me about my Food Hygiene Certificate, no shocker there, so hasn't the Interior Design firm I had went for an Interview for a week ago.

I'm not really sure how long I should wait before I call them to check if they are still in the midst of deciding or if someone or somefour has already been hired, it was stupid of me to not have asked, now every time my phone vibrates, I get so hopeful, thinking they it's the Interior Design firm who's calling me to ask me when I can start work, just yesterday, I received a call from a foreign number and got all excited about it, thinking it was them, only to find out it was URA, calling me about some project my Dad was doing. 

My Dad had this great idea of putting my number as the one to call should the authorities have any issues, it really wasn't a great idea because for that few minutes I was on the phone with URA, I identified myself as a wall.

So, maybe I will give the company a call next week to double check, I mean if they still aren't getting in touch with me by the end of this week, it probably means they are no longer interested, but I would rather hear them tell me I'm no longer being considered for the position than to be left hanging. Something I think companies should do is inform job seekers who have gone for an interview whether or not the position they have been interviewed for has been taken up, a simple email such as...

"Thank You for your interest in joining our company, unfortunately, we regret to inform you that the position you have applied for is no longer available"

...it would be nice to know because ignorance isn't always bliss.

Small companies should really practice that, informing only candidates they have interviewed, I mean we took the time out of our "busy" schedule to travel all the way to your office for an interview, the least you could do is let us know if the position has been filled so we can at least move on. It's not as if I'm expecting you to come to visit and tell me the bad news in my face and see that look of disappointment I will be expressing towards you, drop us an email informing us about it, maybe put a little p.s at the bottom telling us "Please do not reply as this email is automated" if it makes you feel uncomfortable to have to respond to a..

"Why didn't you pick me? Am I not good enough for your company?"

...kind of reaction, I know I would.

ID4

Went for my first Interior Design interview today (06/11/16) and I have to say, I'm tempted to say yes to this company.

I'm just gonna refer to this company as ID4 and the last one as ID3

From the get go, I have to admit, I wasn't very sure about the position, after talking about maybe returning to the baking industry, I went into this interview pretty closed minded, thinking I will hear what they have to offer but don't really consider it as an option, any questions they have to ask of me, I will just give them answers that would make me come across as disinterested, to let them know I really wasn't interested in the position anymore, even the journey there was a nightmare, the weather was sweltering and my transfer bus took 15 minutes to fucking arrive, so I was almost drenched in sweat when I reached the office...... but everything changed when I learned about their working hours.




ID3 had this horrible working schedule that I absolutely abhorred, that was why getting fired brought me some form of relief, it still felt horrible to get canned not even a month into the job because there were many times I just thought to myself how lucky I was to be in a company filled with such friendly colleagues and how I was being taught by such a passionate Interior Designer, there were moments when I just felt like I had found my job, that this was it, and then BAM, contract terminated. I guess I was pretty bi-polar when it came to working there.




ID4 on the other hand has presented me with this amazing work schedule that was just unbelievable, instead of having to report to the showroom 5 days or 6 days per week like most other design firms do, ID4 only expects their Sales Designer to be present at work 2 days per week, talk about flexibility. The reason why the Sales Designer had to report for work 2 days per week is so that the showroom needed to have at least 2 designers present at anytime to attend to the walk-in customers.





During the interview, rather than asking me what I could offer to the company as one of their employee, it was the marketing manager who was telling me what the company could offer me should I get the job, I have to admit, the lack of a basic salary was a little bit worrying, but I guess that's the reason why they are practicing the 2 day work week schedule, no basic pay means no obligation to report to work every day. The commission they are offering is about the same as the ID3, which is 40% of the total profit and I guess that's the profit sharing amount a lot of Interior Design firms are sticking with.





I did ask them about their "Entry Level" position needing at least "a year of experience" requirement and was told that it wasn't a necessity to have a year experience but it would be beneficial, so that answers that, but I have seen more ads on Job-street putting similar requirements on their ads and really, all I can say is...





If the position requires at least a year of relevant work experience, don't advertise it as a FRESH/ ENTRY LEVEL. It's so frustrating for me to see a job that's being advertised as Fresh/ Entry Level, feel hopeful about applying for it, only to open and read in the requirements that the job "requires at least 15 year of relevant working experience". Makes me wonder who was the fucking moron who started this false advertising in the first place because Fuck You.





Right now it's just a waiting game, I forgot to ask them how long it would take before they will give an answer, so that's dumb, I have also applied for positions at other design firms but so far, none of them have called back to arrange an interview, the bakery I've applied to also hasn't called me up so I think that one is definitely not going to happen, I've seen the list of other applicants who have applied for the bakery job and I am probably the least qualified individual just based off my previous job position.





Most of the other applicants are either "Bakers" with an expected salary of "Not enough to survive per month" or "Head Pastry Chef" with an expected salary of "Lower than a Fresh Grad per month", and then there I was "In-House Designer" with an expected salary of "Not even gonna bother considering this applicant per month". Now that I think about it, I would actually be surprised if I got a call from them, I did write that I had experience in the past but I highly doubt they are going to bother reading that part, that being said, the amount of applicants they have so far is really quite low, only 6 local applicants and 16 foreign applicants, bringing the total applicants to a staggering 22, wouldn't harm to just give me a call, I'm desperate to feel wanted.





After I applied for that baking position on Jobstreet, I actually called up at-sunrice to ask them about my hygiene certificate, I was suppose to receive an email from them once it was ready for collection, 3 fucking years ago.

Amazing Administration as always at-sunrice, when I called them up 3 days ago, they told me they will check on their end and get back to me either later that day or the next day, they didn't.

"Can I just double confirm your email address?"

Double confirm my ass, confirm also don't use then what's the fucking point? I even went to ask the guy who picked up my call if they had blacklist my email and all he could say was...

"Sorry, we can't check that information."

... I bet you can't, because it would be awkward as fuck if it turns out they did and had to explain why they did it that to me.




I called up to ask about my certificate because I thought having that certificate would be advantageous towards getting the job at the bakery, but since they are not even considering my application, then fuck it, I will probably call at-sunrice again 3 years later to ask about my certificate so I can once again be held up by them.

Unsure

Over the past week since getting fired, I've been scouring on Jobstreet and JobsDB trying to find a decent Interior Design company to join, sadly, a lot of the companies that have positions to fill right now aren't really up to standard.



As such, I have decided to expand my search and start looking for a wider range of job positions under the Interior Design umbrella, In-House Designer positions with responsibilities that includes drafting among other things.



I've also started sending out my resume for Baking positions, since I'm now stuck at a crossroads and am unsure of what I really want to do, maybe I should just return to what I enjoy doing instead of forcing myself to do Interior Design. The Baking position I have applied so far seems promising, it's starting pay is already higher than the last bakery I joined and it's following a 5 day work week schedule instead of a 6 day work week.


I called up at-sunrice this afternoon to ask about my Food Hygiene certificate and thankfully, they are able to print out a copy, I was afraid they had thrown my certificate away after 3 years.




A few days ago, I managed to snag an Interview with a furniture company for the position of Sales Executive Cum Stylist, the position was applied the day after I was fired from the Interior Design firm, so it wasn't really a decision I had thought through, it was a desperate move and they responded to my application the next day. The office is quite far and the job-scope is exactly how it sounds, selling furniture, I'm really not very interested in doing that though, and I guess the HR Personnel could sort of see that, so rather than tell me the company will get back to me, she instead wants me to call her up should I still be interested in the position after I had gone home and think it over. I didn't call her back so that is that.



So far the jobs I have applied for are...



1. Sales Executive cum Stylist (Furniture)

2. Visual Merchandiser  (Beauty Products)

3. 2 Sales Designer (Interior Design)

4. Interior Designer (In-House)

5. Baker



The office for job position No.2 is actually located in the building next to the furniture shop, so I will probably not bother to go for that interview should I actually get a call from them because it's way too far, having to travel such a great distance once or twice a week, it's still alright, but 5 to 6 days per week, fuck no.




With regards to the Sales Designer position, I have applied for 2 and will be going for an interview tomorrow at one of them.



The one thing that's really confusing about some of these job position is that they will put the job as an Entry Level position right at the top but they will require the potential candidate to have at least 1 Year Experience in the detailed job description.

Huh?

That is the job I will interviewing for tomorrow, I did not realize it was necessary to have more than a year experience when I applied because it was clearly listed as an Entry Level position, so I am going to have to ask the interviewer about that tomorrow.



Although I'm not sure if they mean they are only accepting candidates with a year worth of experience or they are also accepting candidates with a year worth of experience because its written in Engrish.



Whether or not I will continue with Interior Design or return to Baking remains to be seen, so far I've only receive the call from the interior design firm, I'm hoping the bakery can also call me for an interview so I can really decide between the two although to be honest, if the bakery actually calls me up and offers me the position, I will most likely return back to the F&B industry.

1 more try....

A few weeks ago, days after I quit my Interior Design job at the Design Firm, I made a list of the things I wanted in the next Interior Design Firm I joined.


1. I wanted a job that would allow me to focus on Design and Project Management.

2. I wanted a job that would allow me to become a freelance designer.

3. I wanted a job that would provide me with training from a qualified Interior Designer.

4. I wanted a job that will have more local than foreign talents.



Out of all 4 the things I've listed, my last job I got fired from only managed to tick off 2 of them from the checklist, them being Point 1 and Point 3.


Point 1.


The company didn't force me to use AutoCAD to do my space planning, they allowed me to use whatever software I wanted as long as it got the job done, the main reason being the fact that none of the senior designers knew how to use AutoCAD themselves, so it wouldn't be right to force the newer guys to do that, although all the younger designers uses AutoCAD.


Point 3.


I was assigned to a senior designer to train me and she wasn't just a senior designer with 14 years of experience, she was one of the 2 bosses of the company. She knew what she was talking about when she was teaching me stuff and I really wanted to learn from her on the rare occasions she was in the office and had time to teach me stuff.


After getting assigned to her, I just can't imagine why the last company I went to would assign an Interior Designer with just 2 years of experience to train me, it's just so fucking stupid because he honestly can't train for shit, instead of adjusting to teach me things at my pace, he teaches me stuff at his own pace, which was way too fast, he is after all, according to the boss, one of the fastest to learn the ropes out of all the designers in the office, so thanks for overloading me with information that I couldn't absorb at all. I honestly learned nothing from him, it was such a horrible experience, and I'm not even going to get into the first Interior Design firm I joined where I was assigned to a 4 month old designer, that was a fucking joke.



Point 2.


When I said I wanted a Freelance Job, what I meant was a job with a more flexible working hour, that means I wanted to have zero obligation to report to the office everyday from 10.00 am to 7.00 pm. I understand for the first few months, I will have to do that to receive training and learn from the other designers, to get leads etc, but I don't want to have to follow that schedule 2 to 3 years down the road.



I want to be able to plan when I want to come down to the office and when I want to work at home, I'm not going to get paid a basic salary so I shouldn't be obligated to follow a schedule set out by the company, especially one that demands such long working hours from their staff.



My trainer doesn't follow the schedule because she's half a boss, so I don't really see her often at work and she even tells me she doesn't come in on the weekends. She comes in at 12.00 pm after a site visit in the morning and leaves at 6.00 pm in the evening, sometimes she doesn't even come in at all. That's the kind of flexibility I want in a job.



When I had my 2 weekends off and came back to work on Monday, one of the junior designers asked me if I had both my weekends off, I told her I did and she got a bit offended.



"You got Sat and Sun off ? Why do you get to enjoy that privilege? Do you know that all of us here only get 1 weekend off every 2 weeks? If other people hear about this I think they will get really angry."



My biggest gripe with ID3 is definitely their working hours and that's one of the reasons why I felt a little relief when I was fired, just a tiny little bit, I was still mostly sad though.




Point 4


There were a shit tone of Malaysians, like 80% of them are  Malaysians, 15% are from China and Indonesia and the remaining 5% are local.


But it really wasn't a big deal in the end because everyone there was really nice, so fuck xenophobia.

-----

I haven't given up on this Interior Design career yet.

2 weeks did not give me the proper "try" I was looking for. I actually managed to learn quite a fair bit from the trainer but was canned before I could even put the knowledge I had received to use. It's not that I didn't want to talk to the walk-in customers, but during that one occasion I wanted to, I was told by one of the designers in the showroom.....

"Don't worry about it, you just sit down and do your stuff"

....I wasn't given a proper chance because my trainer also didn't think I was ready to talk to the customers. I was told during my interview that the new guys are expected to be able to handle the walk-in clients in less than a month, I was fired before that month even ended, I did not realize that less than a month equates to half a month, what about that third week? if I could talk to customers by then wouldn't that make it less than a month as well?

I think I'm going through the 5 stages of grief right now and I'm in the stage of Anger. I was alright on the first day but now when I think back, I can't help but feel a bit angry.

Even though I had mixed feelings about the job, there were moments when I would think to myself...

"Wow, I actually think I could end up liking this job a lot."

... there were actually moments when I would actually think of how lucky I was to be in ID3, to be taught by an experienced designer and be surrounded by a group of actually nice colleagues. All that was why I didn't throw in the towel despite the horrible work schedule and the influx of information being thrown at me.

This was a good 2 weeks, but it isn't the final try I was looking for.

Le Sigh~

Now that I've got time to digest what just happened at work, I guess it would be better to rewrite how I really feel about it.




I got fired and it sucks.

"We wish to terminate our contract with you"

It feels so weird to actually hear that, I've never been fired before, I've always just quit. Now every time I played back that moment when the HR Personnel dropped that bomb on me after beating around the bush, it just feels weirder and weirder.



I mean she was really beating around the bush for a while and that was a define sign that she was feeling extremely uncomfortable to be the bearer of bad news.

----------------

Here's how the firing happened to the best of my recollection, it only happened yesterday so it should be pretty accurate. I'm not going to list out the whole conversation, but instead just summarize the important bits because the entire conversation lasted for almost half an hour, like beat around that bush for a good 20 minutes why don't you.


I was called by the HR Personnel to drop by the main office after work as she had wanted to talk to me, so when the clock struck 7.00 pm, I packed all my belongings, said my goodbyes to my colleagues and headed to the main office.


Waited for about 10 minutes, shivering in the office, as the HR Personnel was busy talking to the boss, so I went to take a piss and returned like 3 minutes later, the HR Personnel sees me and rushes over to me, looking really apologetic.




HR: Hey, sorry to make you wait, the discussion with the boss took so long, come, sit down, I want to have a chat with you.



Me : No worries.



HR: So, it's already been two weeks, how is the job so far?



Me : Mmmm.... well if I'm going to be honest, I feel like I'm underperforming* a little bit and the amount of things I'm expected to learn is a little bit overwhelming.



*When I say underperfoming, I don't mean me not contributing to the company, what I meant was that I wasn't given any work to do during the last 2 weeks. The trainer is either off at a site meeting  or when she is around, I will be stuck in the showroom where I'm suppose to be "learning from the designers" who are always busy handling their own projects.*



HR: Actually I have spoken to the boss, your trainer as well as some of your colleague about your performance this past 2 weeks and what you have said is true, you are indeed under performing. You also say that you have difficulty digesting all the information that the trainer is giving you?



Me: Yeah, I feel like like there's information overload* sometimes, with all the price guides I have to learn, all the material libraries I have to familiarize myself with, HDB Building Rules etc.


*There is really a lot of new information to learn, apart from the HDB Building Rules and Regulations, there is material knowledge I need to familiarize myself, wet works I need to be knowledgeable in, different kind of lighting I have to know about, the type of air cons available in the market etc, the list just goes on and on and it is extremely overwhelming when a new person comes in, gets presented with that and have the company say "You have to learn and familiarize yourself with all of this information within a month" 


HR: Actually all that information overload really shouldn't be an issue because all this are basics that you should have already learned in school. When the other designers came in, they were also given the same amount of information as you are currently receiving now and they are all able to digest it well.



Me : Hmmm....okay



HR: If I were to be honest with you, during the interview period, we were actually deciding between you and another candidate and honestly speaking, I actually preferred the other candidate and I hope you don't take this the wrong way.



Me: Mmhmm.


HR: And the reason why I took so long to get back to you after the second round of interview was because I wasn't sure you would be the right candidate for the position.  But your trainer saw something in you and insisted on hiring you. She said there was something about you that was different from the other candidate, the reason why I agreed with the trainer to hire you in the end was because she has the final say and also because you are bilingual and you had some knowledge in interior design.



Me : *nods head to show that I understand what she was talking about*



HR: Unfortunately, over the past 2 weeks, the trainer and I have come to realized that you are actually lacking even the basic knowledge in Interior Design.




Me : *nods head to show that I understand what she was talking about, but started to feeling a little sting from that last comment*




HR : The boss, your trainer and I have actually come together and discussed about your future with the company. The boss feels that you aren't the right candidate for the job because you are too quiet and reserved to do sales, she told that to your trainer but told her that the choice was ultimately hers to make as you were under her. Your trainer really wanted to train you further, but after much deliberation, decided that it wasn't going to be such a good idea after all and so Timothy, unfortunately, we are going to terminate your contract with the company.

Yup, even writing that out feels weird.



Me : sigh *I honestly felt a bit sad when I heard that I was being terminated, despite having my doubts about this job, there's a difference between actually quitting and getting fired*



HR : I just want to let you know that having to do this to you is honestly making me feel very bad.



Me : Honestly speaking, I already had my doubts about this position during my second week, so don't feel too bad about it, if you are not firing me today, I will probably tender my resignation by the end of the year. The main reason why I continued to stay here as long as I have is because the workers here are all actually really nice people.



HR : Yes, everyone here is very nice and we are very frank with each other, I'm glad you could see that.



Me : Yeah.


...and since I was already getting fired, I thought I should be honest....



Me : Truth to be told, I actually lied during my interview as well, this isn't my first foray as a Sales Designer, when I first came out of the army, my very first job was as working as a Sales Designer in another firm, but I hated that job and left 3 weeks later to pursue a career in the F&B industry. I only came back to Sales Designing because I thought after 3 years, I might have grown and have a change of heart, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.



HR : Because your personality isn't suitable for this field right?



Me : Yeah, so really, don't feel too bad about being the one to do this to me, what you are feeling now is how I feel when I quit, so I really understand what you are going through now.


HR : Thank You very much for telling me that, hearing you say that really makes me feel a lot more at ease.  Let me go get your cheque for you. You have worked for us for 11 days, so here's the payment for the 11 days, just sign here.



Me :*signs the payslip*


HR : Thank you very much Timothy. So what do you want me to say to your colleagues about your departure, do you want me to tell them that you didn't feel like this job was the right fit and you've gone back to the F&B Industry?


Me : Huh?


HR : Well, they were definitely be asking questions when you stop appearing, our company workers are all like that one, if someone isn't at work long enough, they will ask what happen to that person.



Me : Ummm, you can just tell them the truth really, it doesn't really matter, in a way, this termination was a mutual understanding so it's really fine.


HR : I will just tell them you quit and went back to the F&B Industry.


Me : Ummm, maybe not the F&B industry, actually I also don't know what to say to them, I'm fine if you just tell them the truth.


HR : Okay lah, well thank you very much Timothy.


Me : Thanks for giving me the opportunity to work here.


HR : I wish you all the best! Bye Bye!


And that was it. I left the company and never looked back.

------

I felt a sense of relief after I got fired, but the feeling of inadequacy was definitely stronger than that sense of relief. I've never thought that I would get fired that quickly from a job.




When I told my Mum and Sister about it, they both got shocked.



Right now, I'm still a little confused as to how I feel about getting fired. I did not really like the job but at the same time, I also couldn't just quit, I didn't have any back up plan to fall back on.




After getting fired, I've been surfing Jobstreet and JobsDB, looking for a new job and I'm stuck, I have no idea what job to look for.




Jobs that I find interesting, I am not qualified.
Jobs that I enjoy, the pay is too low and the working hour is too long.
Jobs that I am qualified for, I'm not a right fit.




Now I'm jobless and I have no idea what to do with my life. I literally have no plans now, Interior Design is no longer an option for me, returning to the baking industry doesn't feel like a step in the right direction, going back to school also feels like it will be a decision made in haste. I'm now a headless chicken.




It's just a little sad to know that all the things I had imagined in my head I thought would happen a year from now isn't going to happen anymore. Getting my first deal, getting my first commission, entering the first house I've designed, getting my first car, all that is never going to happen now.

And it sucks.


What sucks even more is just thinking of how the other designers are going to think of me when the HR Personnel tells them that I had "quit to return to the F&B industry".  I get that she is trying to help me save face by telling them I had quit but I would rather them know that me leaving the job wasn't a decision I had made on my own, I wasn't the one who gave up, the company was the one who did.



When I first went for the interview at this company, I was told by the HR Personnel that they had fired someone in the past for doing something that was against company regulation, so after I got hired, I looked at a name list on the system and asked some of the designers them about the people who were no longer working with them anymore, I was sure one of names on the list was the guy who got fired. When I asked about those ex-designers, a lot of the reason why they were no longer working there were because of personal reasons, none of them got fired, all of them "quit" on their own accord ......

"Oh, he left the job because he had some family issues back in Malaysia, he didn't quit."

"Yeah, she was working with us for 9 months before she quit."

"That person is a senior designer, worked for us for 7 years but left to open her own business"

Now that I know how the HR Personnel handles people getting fired, it only makes me wonder how many of those ex-designers really quit and how many actually got fired.