The Recruitment Process Aint for Sissies

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, which doesn’t bode well for my blogging aspirations. BUT, I have an excuse! – a good one too. I’ve been job hunting.

Now, anyone who has been through the recruitment process will know what a daunting procedure it can be. You search through reams of jobs you can’t do, just to find the handful of jobs that you qualify for. You send out your CV. This is followed by any of the following – silence, email exchanges, assessment tasks, interviews, second interviews, negotiations and hopefully a suitable job. Times are tough in South Africa and you know you’ve got more than healthy amount of competition to deal with too.

A Good Dose of Curiosity

Of course, what many fail to realise when job hunting is that you should be sussing out a company as much as they are interrogating you. The said company is where you will spend 8 hours (or more) of your day. Apparently there are 249 working days a year in South Africa. Let’s do the math:

249 * 8 = 1192 hours

That’s a lot of time! So, to prevent the onset of madness, it goes without saying that you should at least be vaguely comfortable and happy with your working situation. Amidst the nerves and heart palpitations that are part and parcel of interviews, you need to be able to gather yourself enough to ask good, insightful questions. AND, take a good look around. What does the office look like? Do the people seem content with their working situation? Can you visualize yourself sitting there for 1192 hours of the year? If these thoughts cause the onset of even more heart palpitations, then perhaps there is no point in pursuing the job any further.

Who’s Bluffing?

What I find most challenging about the recruitment process is the ensuing negotiations that take place when a company is interested in you. Nowadays, it is standard practice for a company to ask you what your salary requirements are before you are even invited for an interview. I understand why businesses ask; because they don’t want to waste time interviewing you just to find out that they can’t afford you – but still, it really sucks that you could be shooting yourself in the foot before you’ve even had a chance to reconsider your expectations based on other factors.

Yes, you’ll want to earn a decent wage for the 1192 hours a year you’ll work, but other factors still play a part. Personally, my working environment and the people I will work with have become determining factors as to whether I’m even interested in a job.

But, what I’m trying to get to is the crucial part of the interview phase – money. Don’t you just love how they save that for last? By this stage they’ve drawn the process out so long and reminded you just how many other applicants they are considering. In other words, don’t be too fussy now. There’s a line of people waiting to snap up this position.

Image via Graela

Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be flexible with finances, but it is good to go into the recruitment process knowing what your absolute cut off is. My experience has been that companies play their cards very tight to their chest - and you should do the same. Don’t be too forthcoming. Think about things carefully before you talk. Listen, wait and then talk.

When I think back to my first job interview, I want to laugh every time. They asked me where I saw myself in 5 years; I said England. They asked me what career I wanted to pursue; I said I didn’t know – maybe teaching!? And no, I wasn’t interviewing for a teaching post in England, I was interviewing for a copywriting job in Cape Town. Thankfully, they saw past my faux pas and were gracious enough to give me the job anyway. It was my ‘foot in the door’ so to speak and I will always be grateful for it.

One thing I can say is – interviews (whether you’re offered the job or not/whether you want the job or not) are good practice. But, they aint for sissies. So, wear your bravest face and put yourself out there. And above all, pray!  

P.S. I got the job J

My Review of Midnight in Paris: Chasing After the ‘Golden Age’

~ A light, whimsical and fleeting romance with the past. 

Film critics have labelled Midnight in Paris an unexpected comeback for the Woody Allen of old. Having lived in Paris for 9 months in 2001, I have to admit that I could relate to the overarching theme encapsulated in Allen’s light-hearted comedic exploration of historic Paris – you can’t live in the past, as alluring as the past may seem.

As with all films that pay tribute to iconic Parisian landmarks, I can’t help but feel nostalgic about that brief period in the past when I lived in the most romantic city on earth. The cinematography of the opening shots evoked these wistful feelings once more and had me longing for my personal bygone era.

Midnight in Paris sees Woody Allen cast Owen Wilson as his latest alter ego, a role that I personally don’t find befitting of the altogether generic Wilson. I find him quite intolerable unless cast in the slapstick romcoms in the same vain as Marley & Me, Zoolander, Wedding Crashers and the like. Nevertheless, despite my personal dislike of Wilson, I can still appreciate Allen’s reason for casting him in the role.

Owen Wilson as Gil in Midnight in Paris

Wilson plays Gil, a hack Hollywood screenwriter with grand ambitions to become a serious novelist. He visits Paris with his utterly annoying fiancée, Inez, played by the beautiful Rachel McAdams. Gil idealises Paris as the city of inspiration and idolizes literary and artistic giants of old. Gil’s holiday is turning into a rather exasperating time with Inez, her stuffy parents and her pseudo-intellectual friends, when he is extraordinarily transported to the Paris of The Twenties over several nights.

During these encounters with history, he rubs shoulders with the likes of Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. Gil is also presented with the alternative to his irritating fiancée in the form of the lovely Adriana, played by Marion Cotillard, former mistress and muse to Modigliani, Braque and recently Picasso.

I want to live in The Twenties too - for the clothing!

Gil, with the final draft of his book in tow, asks Gertrude Stein to critique his work and gets caught up in romantic dialogue with Adriana. She, like him, idealizes a bygone era and wishes for the livelier Belle Epoque of the 1890s. Over the course of his time-travelling excursions, Gil does find the insight he craves for his art and his relationship. Although the past is to be cherished, Gil finds happiness in his present – thankfully not with Inez (good riddance!).

On a personal note, I can say that the Paris of my memories is not the Paris I experienced back in 2001. I too think back nostalgically to my time in Paris, as it is depicted in the opening shots to Midnight in Paris, but it was mostly a city filled with unfriendly people, filthy streets and depressing weather. It’s interesting how the mind works to romanticize memories.

Dug this one up from my old pics. A typically, gloomy Paris. 

If you’re even vaguely a Woody Allen fan, Midnight in Paris is worth a watch. I loved the visual feast that is Paris and the costume designer, Sonia Grande, did a good job in recreating the different periods. I loved the little 1920s numbers worn by Marion Cotillard, although I’m quite sure she’d look gorgeous in just about anything. 

A surprising part of the film is the cameo by the French First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who plays the tour guide at the Rodin Museum. I admit, I did not recognize her as Nicholas Sarkozy's wife when I watched the film, but now that I do, I have to say - move aside Obamas, the Sarkozy’s are quite a handsome pair (okay, it's pretty much all her).

If you'd like to read another review of the film, I usually enjoy Peter Travers' reviews. Here is Peter Travers' review of Midnight in Paris.

So Apparently I’m an Apple Shape...

Image via Diane Kennedy

A few weeks back, I popped by the pharmacy to get my chronic medication. Gosh, the word ‘chronic’ makes me sound like I’m an invalid on death’s door. Let me rephrase – I went to get my monthly medication, hay fever tablets and the like. When I reached the front of the agonisingly long queue, my ‘friendly pharmacist’, who is actually friendly in real life and quite good-looking too, stared deeply into my eyes and reminded me that I had not yet been for my Vitality Health screening. Yes, he even makes health screenings sound ridiculously romantic.

I decided that I would be able to spare a few minutes, and fortunately the nurse on duty at my local Clicks pharmacy was available immediately. This was quite a rarity, as I’m used to seeing an impressive line of people waiting outside the ‘clinic’, which can hardly be described as a clinic since it’s actually a room no bigger than a shoebox.

In any case, she welcomed me in, filled out my details and then did all the tests included in the Discovery Health screening – cholesterol, blood pressure and HIV. She then took all my measurements – height, weight, waist and hip circumference – to work out my BMI. The conversation that took place between nursie and I offers enough material for another blog post, so I will not digress.

At the end of the screening, I was handed a print out of the results. Being a results oriented person, I was proud to see that I had aced the tests, but it wasn’t until a few days later that I really looked at the print-out and saw the words (I quote directly):

You are at a greater risk of lifestyle related diseases (heart disease etc) because you are an APPLE SHAPE (rather than a pear shape).

Huh? Let me just say that I’ve never been a fan of what appears to be a ‘medical’ system that compares women’s body shapes to fruit. I can think of many things that my body may abstractly resemble, but please, a fruit? And then, of all the fruits that exist – an apple!?

I’m that girl who has always been described as petite. My mom bought me a blazer at the start of high school so big that I literally drowned in it, yet she was convinced that I would grow into it – I never did. I’m 24, and if I had to pull out that blazer today I would still drown in it. A carrot maybe, a banana perhaps, but an apple? An apple is round. In fact, my personal body shape aside, who have you ever laid eyes on and thought, ‘ah ha, that girl looks just like the apple I ate this morning’?

And then to top it all off, I’m apparently screwed for looking like an apple. A pear, now that would be ideal, since we’re comparing fruits and all. I still don’t get it, but there it is printed out in black and white on an official looking form – you (Amy) are an apple shape ... and a bad apple at that. 

Third Time Lucky? A Blogger’s Tale

Welcome to Life on a Polka Dot, my third attempt at starting a blog. My disclaimer for this entire blog: Amy is not a constant; Amy is a variable. I have not arrived at my life’s destination and I haven’t the faintest clue where that destination can be found. A couple of years back, I was so sure I was in possession of the map to my life *cough* - apparently not.

Fortunately, I have learnt some lessons about blogging that I hope will steer this one in the right direction:

Lesson 1: Avoid Narrow Topics

Do not, I repeat, do not start a blog about a topic so narrow that you run out of post ideas in the space of one week.

Lesson 2: Avoid Broad Topics

At all costs, avoid starting a blog about a topic so broad that your blog could be described as being about ‘nothing’ or ‘anything’. You will lack inspiration and your blog will be left to gather digital dust in the vast space that is the blogosphere.

I am contradicting myself somewhat, but I hope to strike a balance third time around. Somewhere in-between broad and narrow is a topic just personal enough that people can relate and just broad enough that you won’t scare everyone away.

Life on a Polka Dot is my attempt at writing about things that are light, fun and slightly on the frivolous side, but yet relate to my life – on a space of the world so small it could be said to be the size of a polka dot. I’m reminded of that movie, Horton Hears a Who, in which the kangaroo refuses to believe Horton when he says he believes a whole community exists on a speck. At the end of the movie, the narrator says:

And so, all ended well for both Horton and Who's, and for all in the jungle, even kangaroos. So let that be a lesson to one and to all; a person is a person, no matter how small. 

Yes world, I DO exist! 

I mean, for all the kangaroo knew, her world could also be viewed as just a speck by someone else. It’s all relative at the end of the day. After all, my small little world is big to me.