A job interview at P&G

Last week, after I finished my temporary work on two days, my job agency recommended another job to me, almost immediately within 2 days. I didn't they were so efficient. I was guessing that my temporary work earn me some credits with the agency, since it was originally planned for 3 to 4 days. Anyway, this job was to be a temporary contract-based (six months) data administrator, and the pay is quite good for me, since I've only O' Levels credits to start with. The downside is that I'm only required to work ten days a month. Well, not really a downside, since i will have more time studying or doing my own stuff.

This week, since the agency didn't contact me, and I'm too lazy (read: shy) to call back coz I keep forgetting the name of my agent (...), I thought the job was pretty much a goner. Little did I expect the agent will call me yesterday telling me to go for an interview. Well, I was pretty excited by the news, since it's a good chance not to be missed.

I was supposed to go to Novena Square, which was an alien place to me. Although I've heard of it, I have never been there before. Luckily it's just on top of the MRT station. But even then, do you believe it took me quite a while to figure out where the office lobby is? My first mistake was my fault, as the signs say clearly "Office Lobby L2", and I failed to realise that L2 refers to Level 2. So I was going around in circles in Level 1. After I did realsie my mistake and got to the office lobby, something struck me (here's my second mistake). There are two office towers on top of Novena Square, and from what I reckon, the office lobby should be catered only to Tower B (the company was at Tower A), as the position of the lobby is too far from Tower A from my perception. So again I went around in the circles, trying to look for the "Tower A lobby". After about 5 to 10 mins, I realise I'm out of time soon and decided to ask the information counter. The lady over there pointed me to the one-and-only office lobby. Embarrassed, I walked back to the office lobby again. It was a good thing I came early, as I was expecting I will get lost, and how true it became!

As I proceed to the reception counter at the company, I was stunned by the view of 10-odd people waiting over there. I followed suit changing my IC for a visitor pass, and waited for a while, assuming that the people there are having the same interview that I'm going to have (I was too stunned to explain anything to the receptionist). It wasn't until a while later when a person came in to change for a pass mentioned that he's coming for a test, did I realise my interview got nothing to do with that. With that in mind, I went to clarify with the receptionist. About 10 mins later, everyone except me were being led away for the test, while the receptionist was still looking for my interviewer, and for a while thought that my interviewer was overseas. Thus, I waited for some time.

It was during this time when I realise what sort of a company is P&G. Previously, when I talk to Phil and gang about this potential job, they didn't know what does the company do. I know I heard of the name, but I forget where I see it, and in the end they dismissed it as some unknown company. At the reception, there were displays of SK-II, Rejoice shampoo and some detergent. There's some more stuff, but that's all I remember. Of course I should know about it, because those P&G commercials on the respective products will end with a big P&G logo. Even though I have not been watching TV, the image was quite vivid in my mind.

My interviewer turned up, with her supposed supervisor coming along to overlook the process. Throughout the interview, although she was supposed to interview me, but probably because she's not used to it, half the time the supervisor was speaking to me. In the beginning, the interviewer tells me the job scope and such, and it was then when I realised I'm not the only one being interviewed for this position. Actually I shouldn't be surprised, but what I'm surprised is that for a temporary staff, they are carefully looking for a suitable candidate. unlike my old working place where i got in without an interview (the rest of the temp staff did go through
one interview, but it was only for show since most get in anyway). Afterwhich, they want me to talk about what I do at my old working place. Due to the facts that it's been a long time since I've quit, I have a poor memory and that I didn't really bother with why am I doing all those logistic stuff (I'm only interested in getting things done fast), I was at a stump when answering those questions. Even though in the end I did answer their questions, it was too much of a summary when they actually wanted details. I guess that was a minus point for me.

However, I don't think work experience is a problem, since I'm quite used to data entry, and I believe I'm good at it (I stressed to them the fact that I cleared all the backlog within 3 months, but I forgot to mention that the other backlogs that are handled by other people are uncleared at the point of time, which rendered my point meaningless). They were saying they were looking for attributes. I think i will call it aptitude instead. Meaning, they want a person who can work well with them (the position I'm applying for is closely related to the interviewer. I guess that's why she's the interviewer, instead of the supervising guy) and can get the job done. Which is why, halfway through, they shoot me a question (what I regurgitate here may not be the exact sentence, but the meaning is around there): In your life, have you ever been in a position where you make changes, and do you think you can make better changes? Crap, this is a difficult question for me, since I don't recall ever changing anything. So instead I told them about my experiences in school, since I was the president/chairman of the CCAs I joined in sec sch and JC. My honest answer to the question for them is a no, I have not done anything that involve changing any status quo. For some weird reason, the supervisor thinks my life is interesting, since I was in dance and drama, and later on I move on to study science (I told them early on that I'm pursuing a science degree. I tried to tell them the name of my degree, but they got pretty confused by it). Maybe he was really interested, or maybe he's just acting for the sake of keeping the conversation interesting. Either way, he was quite the interesting person who kept the interview as lively as he could, and I really appreciate it. The is mainly due to my introverted nature, and the fact that I don't like to talk much unless somebody invoke my interest, which the supervisor sort of did.

Towards the end of the interview, he ask me one question: Dance, drama, logistic and science. Which do you think is the most interesting? My answer to him was that everything was interesting. That's because I have not really found the true interest in me, and I might be changing fields along the way. What I didn't tell him (or rather it didn't come to my mind at that time) was that all of the four were interesting at the point of time, or I won't even be bothered. Initially I do logistics because of work, but later i find it quite fun, perhaps I'm used to doing mundane stuff over and over again.

I will think that the interview actually reflected bad on me, since I didn't speak too well (i did stammer along the way, plus I had some awkward moments of silence), But then again, when I compared the me now to my past self, I am surprised I can even speak properly to strangers. In the past I will have been too shy to say anything, let alone talking about my own affairs. I do hope I can get the job though. Wish me luck.