F**K!!

[evilhomer]

I had a shot at a job with my city's public transit company. It would have been a shitty job but no worse than the piece of shit job that I'm burdened with now. It would have been double the pay, union protected so I'd actually have some worker's rights, and a pension so I wouldn't have to stick to my current retirement plan of dying. In case you can't guess, I didn't get the fucking job. They couldn't even give me a phone call, just a letter in the mail. And it's just a fucking form letter with no explanation at all of what's up.

I busted my ass trying to land this job. They herd us in like cattle and give us a bullshit aptitude test, I aced that. They give a phone interview that I aced. Then you've got to do this bullshit assignment where you go out and talk to bus drivers about the in and outs of the job. I did more than double the requirement for this, putting in over 24 hours work to pull that off. Then I had my in person interview. I stumbled a bit on that because you had to come up with actual real life examples of situations and how you handled them. Overall though, I don't think I did too bad in the interview, I just wasn't as eloquent as I would have liked. Other than that, the only other reasons that it could have been would be that I've got an at fault accident on my record, which wasn't supposed to be a problem but who knows, or it's the good old politically correct inequal oppotunity hiring practices fucking me over once again.

I'm going to be a fucking mover for the rest of my fucking life.

[mhkohne]

Sorry you didn't get it, EH. Hopefully something else will turn up soon.

[Pixilated]

Same here. Hopefully the new year will bring you something good.

[Geek King]

Homer, I'll tell you now: Every job interview I thought I'd aced, I didn't get. The ones I've gotten were the ones I walked out thinking, "Well, I'll never hear from them again." Hell, my first computer job, I got mainly because the guy at the job fair for the company came from my home town, and we talked a bit about it. Sometimes its the damndest things that get you hired.

Keep trying. There's something out there for you.

[evilhomer]

Thanks guys. I was thinking about the interview and I'm probably overanalyzing things, but I think I figured out a couple of things that worked against me. I had to list an incident where another motorist put me in danger so I talked about a time when I was travelling at legal speed, and another asshat in a stopped lane on the right cut in front of me. I handled the situation perfectly, but they probably considered it reckless for me to be legally travelling in my lane at legal speed, as in I should have stopped because the other lane was stopped. Another was learning a new skill, so I figured I had the perfect one, how I was thrown into a truck and had to learn how to drive it with no training (I was however legally permitted). I thought it showed ambition, a willingness to learn and how I was a guy who does things for the benefit of the company, but once again, it was probably considered reckless to do something that I wasn't properly trained and prepared for. Another was where I had to explain a difficultly dealing with another culture, so I told about a time when I was supervising a crew and half of them didn't speak english. I singled out a guy who was doing the opposite of my instructions and talked about how he couldn't understand me so I had to get someone to translate for me, I handled him politely and professionally (which was the actual truth), but one of the girls seemed very offended that I singled him out and couldn't communicate with him. I didn't think much of that at the time but that alone could have been what sunk me.

The thing that really pisses me off is how much time I put into the assignment of interviewing bus drivers. I talked to more than one who did the bare minimum, and only asked simple bullshit questions like "what do you like? - the pay and benefits" and "what don't you like - the hours and assholes". I put a hell of a lot more effort in and just talked to the guys. I made my reports a story of my experience rather than simple bullshit questions that any idiot would know without even talking to anyone. I don't know, maybe that was another factor that sunk me, they just wanted the standard fluff and didn't feel like reading my long ass stories.

I'm going to write the girl and ask her if she can give me a more in depth explanation as to why I wasn't chosen. It will help me if I reapply and hopefully put my mind more at ease.

[Pixilated]

Evilhomer, is it possible there's a different reason for your efforts to have gotten the opposite result of what you wanted? A relative was telling me about another relative who had a diploma in a medical field and then decided she wanted to become a paramedic. The college that offered the program (same one I'm attending) refused to accept her into the program. Their reason? "You're overqualified. You could teach the paramedic program.)

I'm wondering if, ironically, your extra efforts convinced them that you are overqualified and would be bored and leave within the year.

Anyway, good luck and I hope you do get some answers.

[Sapphire Silk]

A relative was telling me about another relative who had a diploma in a medical field and then decided she wanted to become a paramedic. The college that offered the program (same one I'm attending) refused to accept her into the program. Their reason? "You're overqualified. You could teach the paramedic program.).

Something similar happened to me. I wanted to train as a paramedic with the thought of becoming a flight nurse, and was told I was overqualified--which made no sense to me since what paramedics do is very different from what nurses do.

Evil Homer, definitely follow up and ask what you could do better on if you applied for a similar job in the future. Some insight on what caused you not to be picked, whether its your over qualified or you didn't do as well on the interview, or whatever, will help you fix the issue for the future.

[mhkohne]

Something similar happened to me. I wanted to train as a paramedic with the thought of becoming a flight nurse, and was told I was overqualified--which made no sense to me since what paramedics do is very different from what nurses do.

Evil Homer, definitely follow up and ask what you could do better on if you applied for a similar job in the future. Some insight on what caused you not to be picked, whether its your over qualified or you didn't do as well on the interview, or whatever, will help you fix the issue for the future.

But don't be too shocked if the answer boils down to you being one of three great candidates and they rolled dice to pick one. There are a lot of folks out there looking for jobs, and it may be that there is NOTHING wrong with you - but they don't have enough jobs to hire all the good people that they interviewed.