Part One: The Interview
Being unemployed sucked. And it sucked even more when realising that doing freelancing job wasn’t enough to support the kind of lifestyle I had. After being unemployed and trying to do make it out there as a freelancer, I finally realised that I – expectedly enough – was not an enterpreneur-type of person.
So I tried to get back into the employment line.
Except that I was getting nowhere. I sent resumés after resumés to different types of companies but I only got as far as being interviewed. There was one company that published several posh magazines which I managed to get an interview with, but even I was unsure that I wanted to work there – it seemed that long hours were involved and I had to be one of those people who liked mingling with the likes of Adinda Bakrie and many other socialites who carried forty million worth of handbags, when the only expensive item I owned was my gold and silver Raymond Weil watch.
There was one company that offered the job as an english teacher to young children, and it seemed like a better option for me as I liked teaching and English was one of my forté, until the interviewer (which was also the academic director of the institution) said that to be able to work there I had to hand in my college certificate as a warranty. I decided not to go through with it because there was no way I’d entrust my college certificate to someone I didn’t know well and obviously had a trust issue of his own!
There was another job that offered the position as an illustrator – it was an educational book publishing company – and I got as far as being tested to draw one piece of illustration, but even that I didn’t get in. The work environment was very friendly, and they were all using Macs (which was expected), but I somehow fucked it up because I wanted to draw using an Intuos (which was provided) instead of manually which I thought would be quicker as well as saving time for me so that I could color it properly, but I didn’t know that I was expected to draw it using the latter technique as what the other illustrators did. So that was another blow for me too.
Being an overseas graduate, anyone would’ve wondered why it was so difficult for me to get a job. If I got a dollar for each time I got asked the same question, I swear I’d be a rich woman. The fact was that, it was beyond my understanding as to why and how did I manage not to score a single job in the year since I’d quit my last job. It was a mystery that no one would be able to figure out.
Until my fiancé, being the ever optimistic person that he was, mentioned a job vacancy he saw on the newspaper which was looking for an english teacher and located in Cikarang. For me that sounded like music to my ears. Cikarang was a much better and much nicer option for me rather than Jakarta. I’d rather work in the Cikarang or Cibitung area rather than Jakarta. The traffic alone was enough to drive me crazy.
So I sent my application, and I didn’t think much about it until I saw another vacancy at the same city, which was looking for a graphic designer. It was posted on Mario Teguh Superjobs website, so I applied for that one too. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t expecting much on the teacher job because I knew beforehand how much did teachers usually earned. So I was hoping more to the designer job.
The week after, I got a telephone call asking me to come in for an interview. The woman told me the name of the company but I couldn’t remember it (I sent a lot of CVs) because I was concentrating on writing down the address and the time of the interview, so I assumed that it was the company of which I’d applied the position as a graphic designer, because the address was located in Cikarang.
So off I went, bringing along my portfolio and feeling confident because my fiancé had coached me beforehand as to what I should and should not say. As I was driving, I kept praying to God, saying that whatever happened, should happen for my own good. I trusted my life completely, as I did before I met my fiancé. At that moment, I only had my faith, and nothing else.
The problem was that the appointment was at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, and I got to Cikarang at 12, but I couldn’t find the address of the company. I even stopped by at the police office and asked one of the officers for the correct address. I was driving around Cikarang for about 45 minutes, looking for the turn I was supposed to take, until I realised I was going to be late. So I parked my car at one of the mini markets nearby and caught a public transport instead.
I nearly gave the driver a heart attack as I called him so suddenly, because I wanted him to drop me off near the street where I was supposed to get off. Luckily he was not pissed off, instead he answered cheekily, “Aduh, teteh, kalo mau ngasih tau berenti dimana, bilang aja, jangan teriak gitu, saya jadi kaget atuh (Please miss, if you want to let me know where you want to get off, just tell me, no need to shout please)”. He even managed to tell me to get an ojek (another means of public transportation in a form of a motorcycle driver) because after I got dropped off it was still a bit far from where I was supposed to be.
So I was finally there, at ten to one, and as I gave my ID card to the security guard at the front gate, I was feeling slightly suspicious when I saw the title of the building. As I stepped inside, I felt even more confused because there was no receptionist’s desk to be found, and there were a lot of young men at the right side of the building wearing white shirts, bow ties and black pants, lining up to get lunch. On the left side of the building, there was a door that said ‘Front Office’ so I decided to walk in and I saw a bunch of people wearing marine-like uniforms.
But of course, my foolishness didn’t stop there because I adamantly told one of the personnel that I was there for an interview as a graphic designer. The person who I was talking to got confused, until another woman who looked like she was the coordinator came up and asked me, and when she saw how confused I was, she told me that they only offered the position of an English teacher, not graphic designer.
Oh, the shame! I realised straight away that I came in with the wrong perception of the wrong company and the wrong job! But I got interviewed nevertheless, and the coordinator woman and the American academic director who both interviewed me at the same time, told me that they were interested of my graphic design skills because they wanted to publish their own educational textbooks. They also told me what they expected from a teacher, and the salary that I’d get if I got accepted. I was booked to present a teaching demo to a class of thirty students for next week, and I was told that I could look around the building if I wanted.
So I did. And there were all these funny name placards for each room that sounded interesting; Lido, Half Moon, Northern Lights, Promenade and so on. Until I finally realised that the building itself was a replica of a cruise ship. Immediately, I took a strange liking of the place. The classrooms on the second floor had powerpoint projectors, everything was nice and clean and the ceilings was very high (a lot of open space was always a good thing) there was a gym and a bar on the third floor, a soccer field at the back of the building and the atmosphere, strange enough, gave a comfortable feeling for me.
When I returned to the first floor, the AD came out of his office and had a small talk with me. I told him I didn’t realise before that the building was meant as a replica of a cruise ship, but I really liked the environment nevertheless. He said that it was made that way so that the students wouldn’t get confused when they boarded the ship. So I bade my farewell to him and as I was leaving he said, “I think it’s going to rain soon.” I smiled and told him that I’d better hurry.
As I walked out the building, I was feeling lighter than usual, so I decided to take a walk to the main road and catch the transport car instead.
When I got off the car, it started to rain heavily. I was soaked from head to toe, I had to run to the nearest depot. My car was parked right across the road, but it was definitely impossible for me to cross – there were a lot of cars passing by and the rain would make it difficult for me to see – it was pouring in buckets. There were cardboard boxes stacked up nearby, so I asked one of the depot keeper whether I could have one. “Yes, please, take them! Sorry, we don’t have an umbrella!”said one of the keeper nicely.
So there I was, crossing the road, where cars were passing by, and I was wearing a rather nicely formal work outfit with a cardboard box on top of my head. The heavy rain made everything blurry and when I finally got inside the car, my car seat was soaked with water.
As I drove home, I turned the heater on full blast. It was strange but in a way, I knew something great was about to happen.
Actual event happened on March 4th, 2009.
10 comments
bah.. cerita bersambung geneh.. buruan sambungannya.. (kaya baca cerbung majalah2 jaman dulu)
rima fauzi´s last blog post..To love is not always to have
LoL I second that, Rima!
But you wrote this v nicely. Bittersweet which makes me teary and smile at the same time.
So when’t the next chapter published?
Finally Woken´s last blog post..The Twitting Generation
Yupe something great was about to happen!
Glad hear u got this job, Ther!! Good for u.
cc´s last blog post..Besok akhirnya pemilu juga.. CONTRENG mana neh??
Ther .. semoga rejeki elo ya …. biasanya kalau nyarinya lama, sekalinya dapet langsung yang asoy
.
santi d´s last blog post..Going Dutch
(yes, if you click on it, you will find it connects to a ‘nicer’ blog of mine, as I have entered a bit of a rant on my normal blog)
(actually, it’s hard to use the word ‘normal’ when describing ANY of my blogs…)
None-the-less….got good news/bad news/ and best news of all.
Good news…iterviewing is easy, as is a job search, and there are plenty of folks out there willing to help. And, cheap, too. [1jobsearch1, penelope's brazen careerist, world news and business job search]
Bad news…your entrepenurial skills will be an integer of your interviewing skills.
(best suggestion, read any of these books: Over the Top, by Zig Ziglar. the Magic of Thinking Big (I don’t know who wrote this one because I’ve read and re-read it so many times, I’ve lost the cover and first few pages) Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa …the Charles S. Terry translation. Hey…you’de be surprised at the respect you’ll get right off the bat when you walk into an interview with a samurai sword. (not really. It’s the book about the guy who wrote Five Rings and then, when you read Five Rings (easily do-able in a day) you can kick butt and get whatever job you want.)
Best News of All…You’ll do fine if you keep a few things gathered close to you. Be you, remeber Winston Churchill’s words: “Never, never, never…give up,
and David Schwartz: The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.
Meanwhile, if I can help any, be sure to ask. No problem at all!
boneman´s last blog post..HI YO SILLLLVER! and, away!
jadi inget pernah training BST bareng crewnya HAL…orangnya macem2 dan dari berbagai daerah juga…musti agak sabar kalo ngajar ther…semangat maju terus…BTW jadi guru itu profesi mulia lho…bikin orang lain nambah ilmu juga…
oscar´s last blog post..change? emangnya kampanye obama…
All the best Therry.
Is there any chance that you’ll get free cruise ship holidays as one of the fringe benefits? Nice!!!!!
Selamat ya.
katadia´s last blog post..Lactational Infecundability: Thank you blogspot and facebook
ktemunya aja antik caranya.. ntar2 pasti bakal kejadian hal2 yang antik2 juga deh!
emmy´s last blog post..Weekend Update
Ther, your description of the location and the building is so clear. I could see it in my eyes.
Now I know how this story ended, but this doesn’t take the fun away of me reading this entry. Thanks for sharing, If you hold on & keep believe in yourself, you’ll get to reach you goal (this applies also on Santorini thing ;-D).
Lorraine´s last blog post..Why I detest Radicalism
Wow, so that’s your new job? an English teacher eh
seeing your plurk,
in Santorini perhaps? *grin*
look’s like this story will end good
Eru´s last blog post..[Fiksi] ~ Black Wing ~ Raziel