I hired a receptionist today. It’s not been easy making a selection. We’re in a high unemployment period so it’s a job seeker’s market and they can pretty much call the shots. The mature applicants wanted too much money and the juniors are thin on the ground.

I’ve only ever interviewed for two jobs ;

The first was when I was 21, fresh out of Uni, decided that I wasn’t mature enough to teach high school so I dipped out (big mistake that was!)and backed up with a crash secretarial course. Humbling to say the least as the only 21 year old in a class full of 17 year olds! Being taught by the troll bitch from hell who was about my age . . .needless to say, the motivation to absolutely BLITZ the course was compelling! I practised my typing till my pinkies hurt!

That behind me, I needed a job.

I had an interview with the Marketing Manager of an American Direct Selling company. I’d never heard of them but my fiancee worked for a bureau that processed their payroll and so reassured me that they were a big outfit who paid well.

The job – Girl Friday . . can’t call ‘em that any more! Basically an office gofer required to do everything from making tea to typing. I guess I intervewied well and despite the nerves, I felt pretty good at the end until my would be boss announced that he’d love to put me on but I was overqualified and would probably do a runner within months as soon as something better came along! My response simply was “Overqualified be buggered, I need the job!” I guess he liked the up-front attitude that usually terrifies most men and I was put on the payroll. I worked with them for 15 years and had roles from Girl Friday through to Marketing Communications before having a falling out with a pretentious little prick who magically machinated redundancies for the entire creative team.

My second interview was in the public sector, working in the IT department that managed the mainframe for a national fingerprint identification system, national names index, AVO index, persons of interest . . .you get the gist. If someone had something to hide, they were probably on our database. Alternatively, if they’d left fingerprints behind – they too were on our database waiting to be matched with their owners.

I secured this little gem as a long term temp assignment after being made redundant from my previous position in 1995. Apparently, it’s CIO was so difficult to work with that his PA had taken 12 months stress leave! By this stage, I’m older, wiser, desperately in need of a job (despite the pay being paltry) and probably a good choice for a petulant boss.

After 6 months I couldn’t handle the hourly rate any more (administrative jobs pay absolute shit and $22 an hour was bollix for the responsibility I was shouldering plus no holiday or sick pay). I started looking around but fortunately, they decided to keep me and pay out the agency fee. However, being the public service and an Equal Opportunity Employer, the position was advertised and I had to interview for my own job! It was close, there were some good candidates but I muddled through. I had another five fantastic years there and an opportunity to grow, get paid well and enjoy the people with whom I worked. I still lunch with a crowd from this organisation even though it is now defunct and has relocated in another form to the nation’s capital.

So whilst I’ve had more than two jobs, I’ve only ever interviewed for two in over 30 years of being in the workforce. I've been lucky, agency work between jobs or opportunities that have just presented themselves. My current job was offered to me and whilst it’s not that satisfying, it pays well, is close to home and I like almost all the people I work with . . not a bad trade off!

So apologies to the young lady that missed out on the position today. She will have a few more interviews to master, nervy moments to deal with and articulation stumbles to work through. I don’t envy her at all, if only she knew that interviewing and rejecting applicants is almost as nervewracking!