…and on Thursday I had my eighth job interview (since December
2018) and my initial thoughts were that it went ok, but I think I could have
shone more brightly. On further thought I think I would score myself as a six,
maybe a seven out of ten, as there were three questions that slightly threw me.
It’s weird because the main focus of the job is dealing with Freedom of
Information requests and fifteen of my nearly 17 years in the civil service
were spent responding (to a high quality) to Freedom of Information requests!
The first was when I was asked to name some reasons that one
can refuse a Freedom of Information request. I hadn’t been expected to be asked
something that straight forward and my thinking had been that brushing up on the
exemptions would be something to do after getting the job and not before, but I
could name a few of the 23 or so exemptions, so maybe I did ok?
The second question asked what I would want from a manager
and the only thing that came to mind was ‘support’. Support to do the job
without being micromanaged and support to help develop and grow my abilities. I’m
still not sure what the right answer is, but I’m sure it’s not what was my
first thought, which was ‘to do their job and not bother me too much’!
The third question asked how I felt towards people from
different backgrounds, e.g. gender, religion, etc., which again threw me because
the only answer anyone would give is that you try to treat people equally, even
if you had far-right views you wouldn’t admit that you don’t like non-white
people because that would mean you had no chance of getting the job! My answer
was along the lines of I would try to treat people equally, but that I know
that there would be some circumstances where I would offer help/assistance,
e.g. if someone was fasting for religious reasons and were moving some boxes
around I’d offer to help or the time I took over some work for a colleague as the
work involved abortion and they had devout Christian beliefs which made it a
tricky thing for them to deal with.
…I also picked up this week’s New Comic Book Day picks:
...and on Friday I walked a total of 5.79km (3.60 miles), which
took 1 hour 20 minutes and 20 seconds and burnt through 663 calories and took
8,280 steps…
…and I did the G2 Crossword, with the downhill spiral
continuing with Thursday’s crossword as I have to cheat on just under a quarter
of the clues (five out of 18), which I put down to posy-job interview mental
exhaustion and still feeling a bit under the weather. Will this downhill spiral
ever end?:
…and Friday’s crossword didn’t end the downward spiral
ever, as I had to cheat on nearly half of the clues (nine out of 19). And it
was a real grind just to get those ten answers. A couple came easily, but the
rest took forever, like using a spoon to dig up a garden. Slightly annoyed with
myself that I didn’t get ‘Attila’ from ‘King of the Huns, d. 453’, when Attila
the Hun is a famous historical figure!!! But I did learn that a ‘Rhea’ is a
‘South American flightless bird’, an ‘arbour’ is a ‘shady garden alcove’ and
that ‘Biscay’ is a ‘UK shipping forecast area’ and not just a Blur lyric!
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