I'm reading a door stop of a book (and enjoying it very much so far), so knowing that it will be days yet before I have another book review to put up, here's a post about not much. Despite (as I said) enjoying City on Fire, the chapters are so long that I keep putting it off after finishing a section, so I've been wasting time with StumbleUpon quite a bit this week. I just did this so-called personality quiz, and since I liked the results, I'm going to share it here: the spacefem.com html color quiz.
#E0FFFF |
Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation. |
I can't say that I really like that colour, but the evaluation is close enough (flattering enough?) for me to memorialise (and that, no doubt, says more about me than any quiz).
Here's what I actually want to talk about:
After 22 or so years out of the work force, I took a chance and applied online to Chapters. Within a week or so, I was invited to attend a "Group Audition", and despite some serious misgivings about the process, I went to it last week. The "audition" involved four of us applicants (apparently another six were expected but didn't show up) being led to a back room of the store where we were evaluated by two managers. I had read online what to expect (hence my misgivings...), but whereas the people online said that the first round involved one manager asking an open question and the applicants shouting over each other to have a shot at being heard, since there were only the four of us, there was time for him to ask each of us in turn questions like, "Describe your last customer service nightmare and what you did about it."
The other three had recent retail experience, and good answers, but I had to begin by saying, "I haven't worked in customer service in over twenty years, and even then it wasn't in retail, but I can tell you what it was like to work in a very busy night club..." So, yeah, out of my comfort zone.
Then we did a group, team-building-type exercise and then we did a role play, acting as CERs while the manager posed as a customer with various issues. In my role play, the manager simply asked me to recommend something as a gift for his mother, and although he had set out various items on the bench, I hadn't really seen what they were until I was standing there, and I fumbled through recommending a candle and some tea and a small book of poetry. As one of the other applicants pointed out after -- when asked to critique the performances -- I never actually asked the manager what his mother's interests were. That's so basic to retail that I could only nod and agree that, yes, I had dropped the ball there.
Then the audition was over and I was a bit gobsmacked: interviewing for a job at Canada's biggest book retailer didn't involve any questions at all about books. None. Nada. Noodle. So as the others were leaving, I approached the manager with the clipboard and said that I wasn't sure if the process had really identified my skill sets. I explained that not only do I have a diploma in Early Childhood Development, but that I had spent my years out of the workforce caring for groups of children in my home -- I would absolutely be suitable for a role in the Indigo Kids area. Also, I'm a voracious reader and keep up with all the latest books, and pointing at a book on the bench (All True Not a Lie In It), I said, "That's a fictional account of Daniel Boone with a love story at its core. I could sell that book. I would also be comfortable out on the main sales floor." She smiled and thanked me, and that was all I could do.
I had already decided that if I didn't get the job it would be the fault of the interview process (oh fragile ego!), but the next day, the clipboard manager called to offer me the role. It's just part time, temporary through the holidays (as I knew it would be when I applied), but it's a toe dip in a new chapter for me, for sure. If I actually do have the traits inherent to a light cyan personality as described above, and if I could bring those to the job, I should do fine.
