Utter nonsense
Ok I just had an interview with BT who are a telecoms company for those who do not know. They are recruiting "Service management advisors" which in plain English means you answer a phone and help people with their landline problems. So myself and 3 others were all given a computer with 139 multiple choice questions. The choice of answers are:
-Strongly agree
-Slightly agree
-Unsure/dont know
-Slightly disagree
-Strongly disagree
The pass rate is 70%. I got the highest of us at 63%. I asked him why we failed and he answered "you did not answer enough 'Strong' answers". So I said "so if we all sat there and ticked the top or bottom answers we would pass yes?". The reply? "yes". Pffffft! Who thinks this crap up? Someone tosser somewhere is paid a truckload of money to think this garbage up. So all of us fail and are given the obligitory limp handshake by Mr. Smarmywanker with a jolly "good luck".
So we left and had a chat outside for a bit then went our separate ways. We all had the relevant experience to be able to do this work extremely competently IMO. I have over 6 years experience of telephone work and in a lot more high pressure environments than the one we applied for.
I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth because I could have spent my time a lot better than this crap. Oh well, it wasnt meant to be I suppose. It would have been ideal as its only 1 minutes walk away from where I live.
Rant over - im feeling better now :)
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Just ask yourself: Do you WANT to work for that company knowing that their policy is that it doesn't matter if people lie as long as they say what the company want to hear?
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Gormash at DeviantArt: Home of my WOW comic.
The answer to that would be a resounding "No". But at the moment my wallet/bank account would say "Yes please!"
I should also add that they give you 4 weeks training to brainwash you around to their way of thinking so I cant help but feel that the whole thing was an utter waste of time for all the people involved. If 6 years experience doesnt get you the job then im screwed really.
Bah, this damn country and its recruitment processes that are full of fail. Anyone need a lodger in a few months time after I sell my house? Time to get out of this pile of crap called England.
Yeah sure, you can stay at mine!
If you don't mind moving to Manchester, that is!
Thank you Fraden but I was thinking of somewhere abroad! Plus it rains more there than it does here in Exeter :)
How dumb is that? Did you point out to the recruiter that their questions and their passing system was setup in such a way that they would be only likely to get sycophantic applications through?
In any event, consider New Zealand if you are serious about it. Our Telco (Telecom) is splitting into three arms, networking, and two others, to promote competitin in the market place, etc. (Used to be a state owned monopoly, now it's just a monopoly, being broken up by the state) Lots of interesting things happening there at the moment.
Of course, it is New Zealand. We are very, very far away from everything.
except poisonous spiders, scorpions, big spiders, big flying things that eat and bite you, sharks, killer jellyfish, killer jelly.
Uhm, actually no. There are only two poisonous spider types, if I remember correctly. No snakes. No scorpions. No agressive wild life, although there are birds that eat rubber far to the South.
The state of employment in this country is a complete farce. After I wrote this earlier I called the main office, agency of course, as hardly anyone employs direct these days due to the insecure market. I spoke to a very nice person who agreed with what I said & will pass my comments forward. She said that BT have paid millions for an American....ummm....for want of a better description "employment analyst guru type company" to set up their employee selection system. Pffffffffffffffft.
So what I can fathom from that is that a foreign country is now looking after whether I am suitable for a position in my own country which I am actually qualified to do. I know this goes on and has done for years but it really pisses me off. I also know this happens from a British perspective to other countries aswell, so thats not my issue as such, but for heavens sake I can do the damn work, so give me a chance please?
Oh yes, I definitely told all parties what I thought about it and they really have no defense apart from "sorry, computer said NO". The girl I spoke to said that it is ridiculous and that their hands are tied and they get lots of calls regarding this nonsense and also said that I sounded like the perfect person for the position as my telephone manner is both confident and assuring amongst other nice compliments :)
WTS house & WTB ticket anywhere! Grrrrr
For what it's worth - I strongly agree you're better off not being with that company. *nod*
I do work for the dutch Telecom giant KPN. Same situation here. We have to work with all kinds of buggy systems and procedures, but those are not solved, instead management keeps thinking in marketing solutions... and when you have 6 million customers maybe it doesn't matter if 100,000 have serious complains.... Sigh.
anyway I have seen that Irish companies from Dublin are recruiting people even in Holland.. For telephone work. Maybe that would be something?
Wouldn't solve the Rain, I hear it rains even more in ireland