Applying for jobs - bureaucracy...

For the first time since about February 2008 I find myself without a primary, full time job. I've still been doing some consulting work and that's at least meant I've not had to eat as much into my mortgage redraw.

My first interview I've gotten so far has been with a public service organisation.

Don't get me wrong - the public sector and service, whilst not always the highest paying, does have excellent conditions generally speaking. That said, there's always going to be a level of bureaucracy involved.

You might also think it's a bit strange that after all the tech stuff I've done, that I'm going for a phone role. I think it'll be good to move back to a more structured environment for a bit, and hopefully it'll also give me some after hours time to upskill on my computer stuff.

Anyway, thus far, this is how the application for this particular public service organisation has gone:

Step 1. Internet assessment

I found the listing on APS Jobs and decided to apply. As part of the application process, they asked the usual questions, for a copy of my resume... and then also some reading comprehension: "Read this part of our website, answer the following questions".

Tip for punters: Generally speaking the search engine supplied by a given website will be a pain to use. If the site's publicly accessible, then often Google will have it indexed and be far more reliable at delivering very specific keyword searches..

Eg. If you wanted to search for the term "sustainable" on the website "example.com", you could use the google query:

site:example.com +sustainable

This will only return matches on websites on or under the example.com domain that contain the word sustainable.

Step 2. Telephone assessment

They then put me through a telephone assessment asking about how I've dealt with a variety of customer service interactions over time and confirmed that I understood the potential remuneration package.

Step 3. Call centre simulator + Two-on-One interview

Today I had my first "in person" experience... 40 minutes of practical and however long it was an interview.. then apparently I'll get a hearing test at some point.

Timespan

I originally applied for this job back on the 19th of July. The phone interview was then on the 2nd of August. Today, the 18th of August I've had my in person stuff, and then I'll know mid September if I passed and then if I get a job (otherwise if P pass, but don't get a job, I'll be on their register for 12 months).

Gotta keep pluggin' away..