Getting Hired!
For literally weeks I kept checking our local grocery super store to see if they were hiring. One employee informed me that if they had the application machines up, they were hiring. Every day I checked and they weren’t working. An error code with a continue button was all that ALWAYS showed on the screen. Finally after weeks of checking the machine at the front of the store I asked a cashier if she knew when they were hiring. She informed me that they were always hiring and had cashier spots open right now. She also let me know that there was another application machine in the back of the store.
I made the trek into the back and sure enough, there was another machine, but with a similar error! This time instead of giving up I asked and one of the customer service managers rebooted the machine, bringing it up error free! After spending the next 45 minutes filling out their computer based application and question process I was an official applicant!
On that note……where the hell did the days go when you just went into a place with your resume, a cover letter and a smile? I remember my first real job as a waitress all I did was fill out a one page application and was hired the same day. Every other job I held was either through knowing someone or handing in a resume. Now in some places you can’t even apply at the location you’re applying to, you have to apply online! And besides learning job history, they give you a personality test!
Within the next day I recieved a call from 2 different personnel managers for the store, both from 2 locations. Thankfully, one was for the store I wanted within walking distance from my house. I had an interview set up for within the week. I was really nervous!
I didn’t have to wait long for the first part of my 3 part interview. First I sat down with the personnel manager and she asked me a set of basic questions. Why did I want to work for this company, what were my strengths, weaknesses. Then she pulled in another manager type, this one happened to work in the electronics department. She too asked me a preset list of questions, following a basic guide set on a piece of paper. Lastly I got to repeat almost the same list of questions for another manager, this last one I think a bit higher up in the food chain of managers.
Either they were desperate for mad housewives like me or I impressed them enough because I was filing out the paperwork to become an “employee” and getting my paperwork for my first piss test! The personnel manager told me she’d call me with information on the first orientation available once she got my pee test results.
With the map to the drug testing company in hand I got into my falling apart van and sped away. If they could get my results quick enough to the manager I might be able to start within the next few days, otherwise I might have to wait weeks. It was a small office snuggled amongst a dozen bland other looking businesses in a somewhat large sized strip mall.
A mid 20’s man was walking in the same time I was and he seemed less thrilled than I was at the prospect of peeing into a cup. After giving the receptionist/pee collecter my paperwork, she walked me back to the bathrooms. Never at once did she directly touch me or anything but my paperwork. She pointed at the plastic sheathed pee cups, pointed at the little cubby that locked with a key on the bathroom door for me to place my purse and instructed me to wash my hands and asked what was in my pockets. I almost expected her to frisk me somehow without touching me. She escorted through the bathroom door and shut it behind me.
For those of you who have peed in a cup before you know how akward it is. First off I was to fill the cup up no further than one line but not below another and it seemed these lines were both pretty close to eachother. Needless to say, I ended up peeing on my hand. At least they had diaper wipes in the bathroom to use for just those occassions.
I returned the now filled but not over filled pee cup to the receptionist/pee tech. Once again, she didn’t touch anything but directed me with a rubber gloved finger where to place everything. We retrieved my purse and off I went.
That evening I got a call from the personnel manager at “THE STORE”. She wanted to know if I could make orientation the next morning at 9am. I would fill out the rest of the “official” paperwork then to make me an official employee of “THE STORE”.
Tune in for another episode later detailing my experiences at “THE ORIENTATION”!