the interview

I went to a job interview last week. Not that I'm jobhunting these days or anything -- apparently some head-hunter saw my [outdated] resume on JobStreet and figured I was good enough for the job (which, as I will find out later, I waaay out of my league), so I took a shot at it. It's nice to know I'm still marketable, after all. ^_^

The office is in the Telecoms Plaza along Gil Puyat (a.k.a. Buendia -- if you're in Makati, better know the former street names... hehe!) so I took a cab and stepped off dela Costa street. It was nice walking along that street again. My sister stayed at one of the condos in Salcedo Village two years ago and I usually crash her place back when I was still working like a zombie in a call center (5:00am work schedule, anyone?)... good thing my office was only a ten-minute walk from dela Costa. But yeah, it's really nice walking along that street, despite the heat of the eight o'clock sun. Besides, a lot of people in Makati looove to walk. Then again, with the alternate loading/unloading terminals along Ayala Avenue and the killer pay parking fees, one would be forced to. Unless, you know, you're like the manager or something.

The building is dingy. Kinda old too -- the humongous TELECOMS PLAZA sign in front is sooo 1980's. And the elevator sucks, which reminded me of our own office elevator, which is always broken or often overloaded (which is probably why it always breaks down). Anyway, so I went to their floor which was filled with other applicants, mostly fresh graduates I presume, judging from the resumes clutched in their hands. I didn't bring any (feeling important daw ba?). Hee! As expected on a typical BPO/call center office, employees also loitered in the lobby, either too sleepy or talking noisily in their pretentious English accents. The latter is kinda strange, considering their line of work is basically email/chat support. I wonder when and where they are supposed to use the accents?

The job also involves technical writing. Only more technical. As in read-the-codes-and-translate type. The manager who interviewed me is supposed to be like a pioneer techwriter who taught a similar course in the Ateneo a year after I graduated (darn it!), so of course he was asking for some names of faculty members that may provide character references. I was never a popular student -- I'm already snarky in college, so I just dropped some names, even though I'm sure these teachers would either bash me or wouldn't even remember me. *more snark* Basically the interivew sucked. The skill set needed is too technical for my taste -- programming! -- and I was too sleepy to answer concisely (although the fake English accent did come in handy). Besides, I've been working on the marketing side of things for the past two years now (and a year in customer service) to remember things like system development life-cycles.

Oh well, to his credit, the manager did practically say that I almost don't have any chance after the interview anyway, although he also implied that I'm good enough an afterthought than (according to him) most English majors he had already interviewed, all of whom seemed to think that a technical writer is tantamount to a document specialist. At least, he said, I have an MIS background, which could be handy in case the CompSci person he will be interviewing next is not cut out for the job too. I haven't heard from them since so I guess that guy got it. Shit. I'm sooo the sucky runner-up. Call me Katharine McPhee. Or Justin Guarini.

As I traversed dela Costa and Valero streets on my way to Ayala (then to Glorietta from some post-interview window shopping), I remembered Ina's rambles about Makati, which she has written about again and again. She is, after all, a first timer in the CBD, whereas I am the jaded been-there-done-that ex-yuppie who despises the Mini Stops and McDonalds who seem to have sprouted on every block. Maybe because the nearest Jollibee two years ago was in the Enterprise Tower; and the nearest Starbucks was in the Standard Chartered building in the next block. Both of which sucked, unlike now with the newly-renovated Insular Building. Ugh. In any case it was nice to reminisce. It even made me want to go work in Makati someday again, despite the agony of commuting from Taytay to there and back.

Meanwhile, I should start practicing my question-and-answer skills first.