I worked a shift at Baku with a girl who I hadn’t seen for many months. When she saw me on Sunday she said that in 1 year I had ‘matured a lot’ and that I was different. I’d have to agree. Reading Matty’s recount of 2004 provoked a lot of thought about my own year.
I’d have to say this has probably been one of the toughest years to date. While I was still at uni, my biggest worry was finding a good job with decent pay. I’d whinge about life at Baku and watch TV all day long…..in retrospect life was pretty good.
2004 saw me propelled into the corporate world working for a large company, where deals are made quickly and you either succeed or fall flat on your face; there’s no in between and there’s no second chances. After a lot of hard work June proved to be a great month as I managed to bring in over $40k for the company. The managers were my best friend and the general manager congratulated me on a ‘sterling effort’. But when you do well, the bar is raised and higher expectations follow. How quickly managers change.
In the months that followed, I had to deal with clients that were racist, sexist, obnoxious and just plain rude. In the worst case scenario I had a client tell me that he ‘didn't want an Asian woman working for him’, his excuse? He didn’t want to offend their traditional Chinese values… funny, when the candidate wasn’t even Chinese.
Just when you think clients are bad you meet candidates who have quite possibly escaped from the mental asylum. Not showing up for interviews, pretending to have cancer and calling me at 2am in the morning to see if I received their resume. After telling one candidate to wear her best suit when meeting my client she turned up to the interview wearing pink ugg boots…go figure.
And just because you work your arse off to find jobs for people, doesn’t mean they appreciate it. Candidates use me to get pay rises off their boss and pull out on my role at the last minute; but hey, that’s all in a days work.
I am different. I don’t tolerate incompetence and I don’t trust people as easily. When I look in the mirror I feel like I have aged 40 years, I feel sad that I’m not as naive as I used to be. Ignorance is bliss.
I hit budget again last month and December is looking good. To be honest I’m over it! I’m tired, I really need a break. I need to find myself again and have a bit of fun.
Thank you for listening.
I’d have to say this has probably been one of the toughest years to date. While I was still at uni, my biggest worry was finding a good job with decent pay. I’d whinge about life at Baku and watch TV all day long…..in retrospect life was pretty good.
2004 saw me propelled into the corporate world working for a large company, where deals are made quickly and you either succeed or fall flat on your face; there’s no in between and there’s no second chances. After a lot of hard work June proved to be a great month as I managed to bring in over $40k for the company. The managers were my best friend and the general manager congratulated me on a ‘sterling effort’. But when you do well, the bar is raised and higher expectations follow. How quickly managers change.
In the months that followed, I had to deal with clients that were racist, sexist, obnoxious and just plain rude. In the worst case scenario I had a client tell me that he ‘didn't want an Asian woman working for him’, his excuse? He didn’t want to offend their traditional Chinese values… funny, when the candidate wasn’t even Chinese.
Just when you think clients are bad you meet candidates who have quite possibly escaped from the mental asylum. Not showing up for interviews, pretending to have cancer and calling me at 2am in the morning to see if I received their resume. After telling one candidate to wear her best suit when meeting my client she turned up to the interview wearing pink ugg boots…go figure.
And just because you work your arse off to find jobs for people, doesn’t mean they appreciate it. Candidates use me to get pay rises off their boss and pull out on my role at the last minute; but hey, that’s all in a days work.
I am different. I don’t tolerate incompetence and I don’t trust people as easily. When I look in the mirror I feel like I have aged 40 years, I feel sad that I’m not as naive as I used to be. Ignorance is bliss.
I hit budget again last month and December is looking good. To be honest I’m over it! I’m tired, I really need a break. I need to find myself again and have a bit of fun.
Thank you for listening.
