I was going to add this to the interview thread on my members' board, but this is waaay too long for the board. So I thought I'd just blind y'all here.

I had my interview with the temp agency a couple of weeks back, and let me tell you...ineptness is at its best (or should I say worst) at this agency. Should it be that the candidate applying for jobs at the agency be a better employee than the people doing the interviewing? I wouldn't think so, but it seems to be that way.

1) I had a 9 a.m. interview on a Tuesday. On Monday afternoon, at 4:35 p.m. (yes, I'm anal and I actually remember this stuff), I called to confirm the appointment. I don't know why, but I just had this strange feeling that I needed to do so. Good thing I did because the girl stated to me, "Oh, I'm so sorry, but I won't be able to meet with you tomorrow. We'll have to reschedule." Hmmm...and when was she going to get around to letting me know this information? When I appeared in person for my interview. Yeah...not professional.

2) I was given two options of when to reschedule the interview: Wednesday or Friday. Well, of course I pick Wednesday since it's closest to when my original appointment was occurring. So, she and I go this whole discussion of when on Wednesday I can come. I ask for a late morning appointment. She says she'll be tied up and can only do the afternoon. So I ask for an afternoon appointment. She says she can put me down for a 2 p.m. appointment, but she'll have to squeeze me in between two other clients and I might have to wait an hour or two to be able to see her. Again....hmmmm. I say to her very sweetly (and slightly impatiently at this point), would Friday work better for you. She exclaims, oh yes! Ah ha! Why didn't she say that in the first place instead of giving me a choice?

3) Remember, I wanted a Tuesday morning appointment, right? Well, when I finally get in on Friday and see her and another woman at the agency, I'm told how perfect I would have been for a position they just filled. Why oh why wasn't I there earlier in the week. Doh!!! Unbelievable. Do you see what I mean? Ineptness.

4) When taking the various tests to discover how well I knew my stuff (including a typing test, on which I scored 99 wpm. On a test, mind you! Flying fingers, huh?!), I had to ask the woman for the instruction booklet, the booklet I was supposed to type information from for the test, etc., etc. What if I was someone who hadn't been through all this interviewing "stuff" before? I would have scored horribly and looked like a dumbass just because the woman in charge wasn't doing her job.

5) The woman I eventually did the major interviewing for said she was going to revamp my resume and help me to get it to one page. Three business days later, I still hadn't received and hadn't heard from her. She gushed on the phone and said, "Oh yes, I have it right in front of me. I was just talking about you to recruiters. Let me get on this right away. So sorry for the delay, and then I'm going to submit to a company that has an opening for a position I think you'll be perfect for." Uh huh. So, I get the resume back...the submitted resume...the one that went to the company that I was supposed to be an excellent, detail-oriented candidate for. There are clerical mistakes and formatting errors all over the resume. I'm fuming at this point, and I call her up and very politely but firmly let her know that there are mistakes in the very resume that she sent off to the company. Suddenly, the story changes. "Oh no...I didn't submit it yet. I was just doing a quick change to it to show you how to get it to one page and then you can make whatever adjustments are necessary and send it back to me." What?! The woman out and out lied to me.

6) I asked to be told about one- and two-day temp jobs so that I can take those and work them while waiting to hear about other things and while I search on my own. Have I heard a thing? Nope. Sigh.

Ahhh...the pleasure of working with a temp agency.

Needless to say I've gone my own route and been putting feelers out with a few people I know and letting them know that I'm looking. I've passed my resume along, and I'm answering whatever I qualify for on www.monster.com and www.craigslist.com. I have an interview tomorrow with a SAT-prep and college-prep tutoring business, and I have an interview on Monday with a major clothing store for a human resources department position. I'm hoping I'm qualified for something like that.

It's interesting. A lot of people forget or don't realize what skills a teacher has. As a former high school teacher, I managed a classroom, created my own filing system, made Power Point presentations, typed up and formatted my own worksheets and tests, used databases for keeping up with grades, spoke with the public, created short term and long term goals and made plans to reach those goals, played mother, babysitter, and psychologist...shall I continue? And yet, when someone looks at my resume and sees that I haven't been in the corporate world for over eight years, they question whether I can handle a simple administrative assistant position.
What was the parting statement from the woman I worked with in real estate a year ago (she was not the nicest woman in the world, and yes, I'm putting that mildly): "All you've ever been is a teacher." Ahem. Cough. Choke. Let me catch my breath here. For the first time in my life, I said exactly what I wanted to say at the very moment I wanted to say it (not five minutes later while driving off in the distance and banging the steering wheel with my hand because the perfect words came too late). "Without teachers like me, you wouldn't be where you are today." Drum roll please. I hate when people have that attitude.

Now, you might ask why I don't go back into teaching. Good question. Have you visited my website lately? Of course you have, or you wouldn't be reading my journal. Since when did your high school English teacher sport a piece of dental floss between two naked cheeks? Yep. That's one perceived problem. Remember, I'm in the south and we're talking about the public school system. I'm also a bit of a rebel and like to do things my way (noooo...you could never have guessed that...lol!). I just sometimes feel there are more efficient manners of doing things, even if they don't go with the convaluted system at hand. Well, that rubs people the wrong way sometimes. Oh yeah, and I don't kiss asses. I rarely play the political game, which I'm aware is present in every faction of society, but it's still something I don't agree with. To top it all off, the pay sucks. Sorry, but it does.

Instead, I'm slowly trying to get the word out about my tutoring services. I'm a damn good teacher, and I'd rather my abilities be put to good use, so I figure if someone chooses to hire me, they're doing so because they know and understand that I can get the job done and get it done right. Plus, I can do the tutoring on the side while having another job, whereas with teaching, there was so much work with grading essays. (Have you tried reading 90 ninth-graders' research papers? I don't recommend it unless you happen to like torture.) Not to mention, outside bus duty isn't my cup of tea. Okay, I jest about several things with teaching, but right now I have other goals in my life that I want to accomplish, and it just isn't feasible or healthy to work 60 hours a week just to live paycheck to paycheck and still try to train for shows and get only four hours of sleep a night and get yelled at by parents because it's obviously my fault that their child is failing and is a holy terror (even though I've only had the kid for six weeks, and they've had him for what...15 or 16 years? But of course, it's my fault.). And I haven't even touched upon the absurd amount of jealousy that older women exude. It seems that the perceived notion by those who are jealous is if a woman is attractive and in shape, then one obviously isn't intelligent. Wrong!

I'm really going off on a soap box now, aren't I? Lol! I just felt a need to explain beforehand why I wasn't looking for a full time teaching position right now. I'd like to be able to have income coming in from a few different directions, and it's just not possible while teaching and training for shows (which is a second job all in itself).

Okay, my rant is done.