After walking out of her last job in the summer, Sarah Klymkiw started the New Year believing she had finally found the post she wanted in the fashion industry. But … Trial by ordeal There seems to be a new trend emerging in the job selection process. No longer is a well-constructed CV with lots of paid or unpaid experience accompanied with the supporting and enthusiastic beg of a covering letter enough to bag a job. The interview process appears to be lengthening. My housemate was 1 of 6 candidates selected from over 200 applicants to get through to interview for a job on a picture desk at a magazine. She now has to endure the wait to find out if she has got through to round two, and then round three and then a trial day.
Another friend had to work a trial week after interview to see if she had got a job. She likened it to being on a 40 hour-long ‘first day’ with no security of being asked back. Unfortunately her lack of experience in that field meant she didn’t get the job. Could this issue not have been ironed out over interview? This process can only be described as draining, or rather mentally exhausting. To be upbeat without being ‘scatty’, to be eager but not desperate, to show all your skills off without being too over-compensating as to allow them to think you are over qualified. To remember everyone’s names, what everyone does and for it to be marked down as some sort of black mark against your name when you forget the IT department’s extension number. Obviously I may be somewhat prone to some exaggeration here - after all, an interviewer will understand that we are only human! But the interview act is hard to maintain and employers appear to be wising up to the fact that talking enthusiastically about yourself and how you’d be perfect for a job for an hour with a few aptitude tests thrown in does not necessarily translate into the work place. WaitingMy job affair is still in the air. Perhaps I was a little too keen to translate the ‘Do you want the job?’ into, here’s the contract and now sign; the accountant is still doing the math and I am still concerned whether or not my job is secure and mine.The feeling of ‘will they still want me next week’, the feeling of being on trial is praying on my mind and having a knock-on effect to my self-belief to do the job. Not much more has been said regarding my role, my pay or anything for that matter. Although my name has been put up on the company’s new holding page while they undergo a new website, I still do not have my own email address. I do feel as though I have been on ‘trial’ for two months now. The confusion over my general working situation combined with the feeling of being somewhat disposable, I feel, has had an impact on my confidence. The desire to keep my job has overpowered my trying to impress and ensuring that my work is subtly recognised. I have chosen to keep my head down and work hard over joining in the office banter bar the occasional laugh and comment and offering to do the Starbucks run to show that I’m not of unsociable calibre. My problem is that I want them to know how much I want to continue working there without appearing desperate. I want them to realise that I am keen to learn and work hard and make a difference and as soon as this is no longer blatantly obvious all day every day, despite it being exhausting, the sooner there will be no position and the verbal job offer will accumulate to nothing. The agency who got me the job in the first place sent me through a job possibility, a similar role within the same industry, in fact completely perfect with regards to what I am doing now. My predicament? Do I stay or do I keep my options open to avoid disappointment? See Sarah's previous blogs: | 
