As I sat down, my heart raced but deep in my mind I tried to calm down and took deep breaths,
trying not to look anxious . The Human Resource(HR) manager introduced himself as Mr Dapo and gave a brief history of the company. After that he asked me, "tell me about Miss Clara"
As i spoke, I noticed the full concentration the HR manager had on his face... I could not really say if he was impressed or disappointed but I tried not to make sure that did not bother me ...what kept on ringing in my head was “make sure you come back with an offer letter” as I finished introducing my self, the manager went further on to ask me to discuss my past job experiences and also highlight my people’s skills while I worked for my previous organization. I gave him a brief history of my past experience and I also tried to highlight some ideal skills i portrayed while i was working at my previous workplace.
He gave me a detailed explanation of the job role I applied for which is a Personal Assistant role to the Administrative manager of
the company. He said they needed "10 years work experience" for this role and I only had 3 years work experience. In my mind "i couldn't recall seeing 10 Years work experience in this job advert" , all i could remember was, the job applicant must have a required level of experience in Business Administration, so I was wondering where all this 10 years experience story was coming from.
I kept calm and smiled and looked very joyful, taking to my dad’s advice earlier on. After the HR manager read the job role and gave me an idea of the remuneration, I was placed in both worlds of confusion and excitement because first he pointed out the fact that I had a 3 years working experience and the company is in need of an applicant who has 10 years working experience. The weird thing was that he made this statement with a huge smile on his face, which made me wonder even more... "is this man smiling" and saying“sorry dear this job is not for you or hey dear I will still give u the job regardless your little experience in the field.
He excused himself and said I should give him 7 mins he would be back soon. As
he left the room I took a deep breath and was tempted to send my brother a text message immediately telling him how the interview is going but on a second thought am
thinking "hmmmm there might be a spy camera in this room, what if they are all
seated in a room watching me from the camera screen trying to see my comportment".
As I thought of that I crossed my legs and kept a calm face and acted like my
mind was blank
…..(till this date when I think of the how comported i was, I just laugh out loud). I heard the door handle twist and behold the almighty HR manager walks into the room... I gave
him a smile as usual and then was expecting to continue talking with him and all of a sudden I heard some one entering in to the office, another man in a suit and tie... in my mind i am wondering
what is happening here I hope this new guy does not want to ask me more questions because I have been here for almost an hour.
Being a very restless person, sitting
down for an hour can drive me nuts, and behold this second gentleman sits directly beside me, greets me with a
smile on his face... I smiled back at him, giving him a handshake. He introduced himself and as I was about to introduce myself, he quickly cuts me short and says "no
worries my dear Mr Dapo has already given me a brief history about you ".
In my head I was kind of excited because I felt that was a positive feedback.. at least they discussed me. (my brother once said "people only discuss relevant people, you must have said or done something striking for two or more persons to talk about you "). Mr Dapo the HR manager clears his throat and says " Okay Miss Clara... I and Mr Austin here have talked about your past experiences and we have seen you don't have enough of what we want in order for you to perform excellently well in this job"
…… When I heard that my heart almost pooped out of my chest!!!!!!! But guess what? we have decided to give you another job role, on hearing that I thought I was dreaming, hot blood flowed through my face... infact I could feel my face
go pink. The two managers looked at each
other and Mr Dapo said "Miss Clara would you
be okay to take the job as an Administration Assistant in this company? Presently we do not have any
body in that field, we would be very grateful if you accept it.
I had a very big smile on,my eyes sparkled and i said with a very confident voice "of course sir" I replied. "would be glad to accept the role". He smiled back and said Clara "we appreciate your personality, we want you in our organization. We believe you can lighten the atmosphere around here. The Business Administration department, needs a jovial spirited person like you ". On hearing those
words I even smiled and laughed out in more excitement, I could not just believe my
ears.
Mr Dapo told Mr Austin who happens to be the assistant HR manager in the company, to draft up a job description for me, so I could have a look.
"Miss Clara follow Mr Austin to his office and discuss with him on your working contract and remuneration. "In my mind am like wheww…finally!( if only human beings could see the minds of people am sure Mr Austin would have laughed out loud)". As I got to his office he offered me a seat and then we started to discuss on the working contract and the remuneration once we agreed on the terms and conditions regarding my employment. He told me he would send the contract via email which would entail my date of my resumption.On hearing that I quickly told him I will like to resume as soon as possible,since I have nothing doing at the moment, he smiled and said that’s fine but I will give you a month so you can try and get yourself together. Okay miss Clara we are done here you would hear from us soon, and as usual with a big smile I gave him a firm hand shake and then took my leave. I walked out of the office and knocked on Mr Dapo's door, and got in to his office to tell him I was done with Mr Austin he responded with a smile and said,"Miss Clara we are looking forward to working with you, I stretched out my hand and gave him a hand shake.
I kept calm and smiled and looked very joyful, taking to my dad’s advice earlier on. After the HR manager read the job role and gave me an idea of the remuneration, I was placed in both worlds of confusion and excitement because first he pointed out the fact that I had a 3 years working experience and the company is in need of an applicant who has 10 years working experience. The weird thing was that he made this statement with a huge smile on his face, which made me wonder even more... "is this man smiling" and saying“sorry dear this job is not for you or hey dear I will still give u the job regardless your little experience in the field.
In my head I was kind of excited because I felt that was a positive feedback.. at least they discussed me. (my brother once said "people only discuss relevant people, you must have said or done something striking for two or more persons to talk about you "). Mr Dapo the HR manager clears his throat and says " Okay Miss Clara... I and Mr Austin here have talked about your past experiences and we have seen you don't have enough of what we want in order for you to perform excellently well in this job"
Mr Dapo told Mr Austin who happens to be the assistant HR manager in the company, to draft up a job description for me, so I could have a look.
"Miss Clara follow Mr Austin to his office and discuss with him on your working contract and remuneration. "In my mind am like wheww…finally!( if only human beings could see the minds of people am sure Mr Austin would have laughed out loud)". As I got to his office he offered me a seat and then we started to discuss on the working contract and the remuneration once we agreed on the terms and conditions regarding my employment. He told me he would send the contract via email which would entail my date of my resumption.On hearing that I quickly told him I will like to resume as soon as possible,since I have nothing doing at the moment, he smiled and said that’s fine but I will give you a month so you can try and get yourself together. Okay miss Clara we are done here you would hear from us soon, and as usual with a big smile I gave him a firm hand shake and then took my leave. I walked out of the office and knocked on Mr Dapo's door, and got in to his office to tell him I was done with Mr Austin he responded with a smile and said,"Miss Clara we are looking forward to working with you, I stretched out my hand and gave him a hand shake.
As I walked out of the office, to the security office to
sign out, the security man who signed me in asked madame how did the interview
go? I told him happily "sir I made it oh!
I thank God I got the job", the security man was so happy he said "wow congrats
madame and I will be looking forward to seeing you regularly, I quickly said yes
ohhhhhh!
I had smiles all though, I signed out at the security post and left
the company”s complex, picked up a taxi and off to my hotel, in fact I didn’t bother
pricing down the taxi cause i was super excited. I just jumped in and told the taxi driver
where I was heading to.
As soon as the taxi moved, I immediately dialed my Mum's number to give her the good news. As soon as i spilled the news she screamed out with excitement and she said, "call your dad".
As i spoke to my dad and gave him the news he too was super excited and wished me congrats and said to me," you didn’t have to stay too long since your arrival from the UK, I always told you not to worry God is in control". After speaking with my dad I called my brother he was so happy as he heard the good news, especially when i mentioned the salary I will be getting, he said " Clara I hail ohhhh”.
As soon as I got to my hotel it suddenly clicked to me, i had a very close friend of mine I had known over the years. I gave her a call and told her I was in town ,she quickly said she would send her address,so i could come pay her a visit later that evening.
-Step-6-Version-2.jpg)
As i stepped in to my room, i closed the door and gave praises to God, sang worship songs glorifying God
and thanking him for everything. I rushed in to the bathroom had a long shower
with smiles and sang though out. As i got out of the bathroom, I dried my self up and wore a simple gown, fell on the bed and dozed off.
By the time I woke up it was 8pm, I checked my phone and saw various missed calls from both known and unknown numbers, I decided to quickly rush out of the hotel room, because I had promised my friend I would come visit her. I picked up a taxi and decided to call back the missed calls on my phone I called the known numbers of family and friends who had called earlier, while i was sleeping after speaking to them, i decided to ring back the unknown number that called, as it rang I realized I was just getting to my destination, so I quickly cut the call and paid the taxi, got down of the taxi, and knocked at my friend's door.
I started thinking to myself "should i call this number?" or should i just wait till the next day since it was already too late to call an unknown number? at a second thought, I decided to dial the number again it rang for a while,just when I was about to hang up, an unknown voice picked up saying hello who is this? I quickly replied saying hello I saw a missed call with this number on my phone this afternoon ...sorry I was not close to my phone, my name is Clara Benson who is this please? As i was talking on the phone my friend opened the door screamed my name, I quickly gestured to her saying she should hold on am on the phone.
The voice on the phone said oh Clara good evening yes I did
call earlier on, this is Mr Austin from ***** company you had an interview with
us earlier on today, I quickly responded anxiously and said”oh hi Mr Austin
how are you doing? thanks for having me in your company today. He responded " the pleasure is mine" Errrm my dear ...Hello! Hello!! can you hear me? I was trying to hear him but the network seemed poor, hello Mr Austin i can not hear you what did you say? hello Clara! hello Clara!!, and the line went dead... I tried to call back," the number you have dialed is switched off please try again later" his phone was switched off... I was in a state of confusion, Mr Austin sounded worried, he sounded anxious, just like me.. what could be the problem, I sat in my friend's house trying to reason with her on the situation .... i hope there is no problem? What could be the matter, why would he call me after 5 hours of the interview, I was lost in reasoning and thoughts ...i did not know how i would sleep that night, i hope there is no story about this job.
As soon as the taxi moved, I immediately dialed my Mum's number to give her the good news. As soon as i spilled the news she screamed out with excitement and she said, "call your dad".
As i spoke to my dad and gave him the news he too was super excited and wished me congrats and said to me," you didn’t have to stay too long since your arrival from the UK, I always told you not to worry God is in control". After speaking with my dad I called my brother he was so happy as he heard the good news, especially when i mentioned the salary I will be getting, he said " Clara I hail ohhhh”.
As soon as I got to my hotel it suddenly clicked to me, i had a very close friend of mine I had known over the years. I gave her a call and told her I was in town ,she quickly said she would send her address,so i could come pay her a visit later that evening.
As i stepped in to my room, i closed the door and gave praises to God, sang worship songs glorifying God
and thanking him for everything. I rushed in to the bathroom had a long shower
with smiles and sang though out. As i got out of the bathroom, I dried my self up and wore a simple gown, fell on the bed and dozed off.By the time I woke up it was 8pm, I checked my phone and saw various missed calls from both known and unknown numbers, I decided to quickly rush out of the hotel room, because I had promised my friend I would come visit her. I picked up a taxi and decided to call back the missed calls on my phone I called the known numbers of family and friends who had called earlier, while i was sleeping after speaking to them, i decided to ring back the unknown number that called, as it rang I realized I was just getting to my destination, so I quickly cut the call and paid the taxi, got down of the taxi, and knocked at my friend's door.
I started thinking to myself "should i call this number?" or should i just wait till the next day since it was already too late to call an unknown number? at a second thought, I decided to dial the number again it rang for a while,just when I was about to hang up, an unknown voice picked up saying hello who is this? I quickly replied saying hello I saw a missed call with this number on my phone this afternoon ...sorry I was not close to my phone, my name is Clara Benson who is this please? As i was talking on the phone my friend opened the door screamed my name, I quickly gestured to her saying she should hold on am on the phone.
The voice on the phone said oh Clara good evening yes I did
call earlier on, this is Mr Austin from ***** company you had an interview with
us earlier on today, I quickly responded anxiously and said”oh hi Mr Austin
how are you doing? thanks for having me in your company today. He responded " the pleasure is mine" Errrm my dear ...Hello! Hello!! can you hear me? I was trying to hear him but the network seemed poor, hello Mr Austin i can not hear you what did you say? hello Clara! hello Clara!!, and the line went dead... I tried to call back," the number you have dialed is switched off please try again later" his phone was switched off... I was in a state of confusion, Mr Austin sounded worried, he sounded anxious, just like me.. what could be the problem, I sat in my friend's house trying to reason with her on the situation .... i hope there is no problem? What could be the matter, why would he call me after 5 hours of the interview, I was lost in reasoning and thoughts ...i did not know how i would sleep that night, i hope there is no story about this job.
To be continued……..
HR Suggestions/recommendations
- As an HR specialist always endeavor to write a well detailed job description when advertising for a job vacancy
- Before you interview a job applicant, try and make the applicant feel comfortable by giving a warm welcome/salutation and a compliment i.e Good morning Miss Clara, nice to have you here, Do u mind a cup of coffee,tea or a glass of water? Nice hair do or nice outfit. Doing these makes the applicant feel very relaxed and confident in him or herself.
- Always put a smile on your face regardless of the way you feel about the applicant.
- Give eye contacts and Nod your head to every thing the applicant says even if you might not go well with every thing he/she mentions
- Always try and give hand shakes after each interview with a smile on your face.
- Give the applicant a time frame on feedback in hearing from the organization.
- Never be biased to any applicant.
- Be confident, simple and attentive.
Enjoying this piece, continuation please?....
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