Re-packaged by Adecco

I went for an interview with Adecco this afternoon at its branch office at International Plaza, near Tanjong Pagar MRT station. It was a warm day & I had started sweating ever since I left my home.

Entering into the office, I was surprised to see that it was an all-female work environment! Shocking! Well, okay… maybe it wasn’t shocking, but perhaps I just have something against working or being in an all-female environment. It’s just a strange feeling that I get… & it’s no doubt that I feel uncomfortable.

Anyway, I asked for Gina (the consultant who had called me) & sat at the sofa waiting for her to come out to greet me. This took quite awhile, so I picked up the newspaper & started reading.

Suddenly, my eyes started to get tuned in to female voices that were sounding formal & professional over the phone with clients… only to later hear these nice female voices suddenly change tone & shout across the room to their colleagues! Now this was shocking to me! For a moment, I was hearing courteous & professional female voices speaking in English over the phone… & the next moment, these voices turned loud as they shouted across the room in Mandarin!

I clearly recalled that I just sat there frozen at my seat, still holding the newspaper in my hands… apparently not reading it anymore, but astonished by this audio background sounding in my ear-drums… Wow… It was an impression.

This branch was very different from the other Adecco branch office at Tampines. There was much more guys working there… In fact, I don’t even recall seeing any female working in that branch office!

Soon, Gina came out to introduce herself to me. Both of us looked at each other with a strange expression, as if we silently wondered why the other person didn’t look like how we had expected them to look like.

It was strange… I didn’t know what she was thinking, but I was a bit confused. She sounded so nice & polite over our phone conversation… In fact, I actually found her voice cute over the phone! And I was actually looking forward to meeting with a female consultant with a cute feminine voice… but what I saw kind of surprised me.

She didn’t sound as cute as she sounded over the phone, though she did have an averagely good figure. Furthermore, she had this stern & serious look on her face… giving me the impression that if I had met her on the streets, I might have even thought that she was working as a lawyer! Not cute… not cute at all! Hmm...

Our short interview was serious, as expected… but I’m glad to have picked up some insights from her about how I should re-package myself as a prospective job seeking candidate.

Since she was on my side (her job is to help me find a job), I told her my problem & why I left my previous job at StarHub. Still looking & sounding as serious, she listened intently to my sharing & oh boy, she has very strong & firm eye contact! I didn’t feel intimidated, but I figured that she must be either a very independent woman, or she’s just acting out professionalism in her job.

At the end of that part of the conversation, she told me that it wasn’t because I’m not competent at what I was doing, but it was because I didn’t receive the right support from my boss & there was no training to aid me in doing my job well.

When I heard this, I was pleasantly surprised… coz what she said was very true, though it seemed to be putting more blame on the department than it was about me. Yet it is true… how can someone fit into his new job well, without any bit of training for more than 5 months? That’s crazy! But no matter, that part of my life is over… & now I had a new reply when I go for my next few interviews!

At the end of the interview, I left the place feeling happy coz Gina also advised me (although I had to ask) that for a general biz ad student like me, the only way to branch out to other areas would be to take another course to supplement my general degree. So at least I also learnt that I had to take another course, if I wished to explore other areas of work in future. Alternatively, I could rely on work experiences that are relevant to other jobs… which, at this point of time, seem quite difficult for me, with only one year of work experience.

But all in all, it was a very informative & encouraging interview with her. Plus, she offered to arrange for an interview for me with one permanent job at P&G (located at Outram) & another temp job (located at Commonwealth). Thank You, God! Hope this works out well… if I’m successfully selected… =)