Update: I got an email from them this morning and I needed to do this online testing to gauge my computer abilities. No problem I think, why I put my own video card in just 4 months ago. I typed my own resume! Then I started the 9 different sections. First up, basic math. Hey, my Iphone has a calculator so I’m good. Next up: vocabulary. This is starting to look scarily like I am applying to go back to third grade, but I press on. Next, 10-key touch. I have 6 columns of varying lengths of numbers I have to replicate. I’m guessing it is judging my speed and accuracy. Not confident as I have to keep looking up and down, but just do my best. I should have had someone just read them to me, but whateves. Next, overall typing. I have 5 minutes to replicate as much of 10 lengthy paragraphs as I can. I get through 5 and about half of 6. Then what they call “business office skills.” I am terrified. Essentially, it’s making sure I know my alphabet. Mostly, it is lists of 6-8 similar names and putting them in alphabetical order. I didn’t know there were so many McNames! Finally, comes the meat. First up, Powerpoint. Really scared here as I just never used it much. I have my Ipad handy in case I need to Google where a menu item is. Fortunately it’s not timed as far as I know. And it actually is pretty easy. But do people still use Powerpoint? Next is my nemesis but I’m anxious to get it over with: Excel. I don’t even remember what a pivot table is. This one is significantly more difficult. I thank God for no timer flashing at me. I think I did okay. Then the one I thought would be the easiest, but was a beast. Word. I had to delve into Developer Menus to do things I never heard of. Was totally sweating bullets.
I know that’s only 8, but I can’t remember one. Right now it’s only 9:15 in the morning and I feel like I need a stiff drink!
Next up: interview Wednesday at 9.
Heh, I remember a very similar test before I started working for the temp agency that landed me my current job. Like you, I casually strolled in, thinking, “Hell, I’ve been attached to a computer for as long as I can remember. This’ll be a breeze!”
Forty-five minutes of panic-stricken realizations later, I felt a deep respect for all Office gurus and was sure I was doomed. Got two temp contracts back to back, though, and the latter turned full-time, so I guess it wasn’t all so bad!
I recall an exam like that. I think they’re designed to make you feel like an idiot no matter how proficient you are. So I’d say don’t sweat it, but I know that’s useless advice. One small thing though, in case it comes up in you interviews, PowerPoint is still used in the business world, a lot. And in government work, we get PowerPoint presentations all the time, from consumer, business and other government sources. So it may be worth brushing up on.
haha, I had the same experience with an Office test a few years ago. I consider myself an expert with Word, but they asked me to do a mail merge which I had never done before. I kept thinking, “People do this?”
Go go go Divorced! Go! Fight! Win!
Well, I think it went well, but you never really know. One thing I did that shocked the young lady doing the interview was she needed to leave the room and go get something from her desk. As she stood up to leave, I stood up as well. I think I scared her, but just for a second. She then said she hadn’t seen anyone do that in a long time and what a shame that was. Standing when a lady enters and leaves the room is just the thing to do as far as I’m concerned. But then again, I’m old.
Anyway, as I said I think it went well. But you never really know. So I guess we’ll see.
Sounds positive! It’s always best, I think, to just be yourself. It’s fantastic when being yourself leaves a positive impression and it sounds like that’s exactly what happened. Of course, as you say, you can never know how these things go.
Thanks so much for your support, too. I appreciate it!
Reemul
1689
Well I have been off for 6 weeks so far. Sent a few cv’s off as well as applying for a few bits that seemed interesting.
So today I sent off a cover letter and CV to an Information Management Company locally who matches my skill sets etc just to see if they had anything. Anyways they have come back to me inviting me for an interview.
So good news maybe.
Since I have been off it has been fine but my wife is not managing well. She does not like the disruption to her routine, having me around and so on. We have disagreed over this as I have no issue with her working a 3 day week with 13 weeks holiday a year but she says it is better if I am working. I did suggest she go to 5 days a week then she wouldnt notice me at home, which went down like a lead balloon.
In the 6 weeks It seems I have worked harder than I ever would at work, Decorated half the house, knocked down the garden fence and did a new one, emptied the loft and so on but it seems domestication is not for me only the wife :D.
That pretty much matches my experience. The worst part for my wife wasn’t the lack of income, it was me being “underfoot.” And, as you discovered, suggesting that a change in her routine might be the solution was, to put it mildly, not very well received. Anyway, good luck with your interview! When they call you immediately after receiving your CV it’s a good sign.
SlyFrog
1691
I’ve never understood this (though I’ve heard it before). It is such an odd concept to me that in a healthy marriage, one spouse would be actively irritated that the other spouse was “around too much.”
It would be one thing if you insisted on disrupting her, and forcing her to do everything with you during your new freetime. But it really bugs her simply because you exist and are at the house? It’s annoying that she might notice you at home?
Reemul
1692
I think it’s more she feels guilty. On her 2 days off which are Thursday and Friday she likes to see her sister and mum and friends, eat out and chill at the beach hut etc but feels she should be with me even though I say I am happy with her doing that.
For example tomorrow she is meeting a friend for breakfast straight from dropping the kids at school, then lunch with her mum by which time she will pick the kids up from school but no worries she should cancel when I say nope I am fine doing my thing.
SlyFrog
1693
Ahh. That’s at least better. I just hear the stay-at-home spouses of a lot of people who go things like this complain about how they can’t stand having the newly home husband or wife underfoot. Always seemed really dangerous to me - a pretty bad sign. (Not so in your case, as you mention.)
Anyway, not really the point of this thread in any event - I now return you to your regularly scheduled job loss/job gain discussions. (And I hope many more of them are jobs gained.)
I don’t think it was nearly as bad as you make it out to be. In my case, it was disruption of a routine she had grown comfortable with, coupled with an understandable anxiety about the future. I don’t think either one of us viewed it as a sign of some deeper relationship problem.
I get the whole disruption of routine, though. I have worked out of my home for pretty much two years now, and if my wife or either kid is home sick or something it really throws me off.
This is really the make or break week for me. After this, I’m pretty much into “too late” mode. After this week, I couldn’t get a job (trying not to laugh as I type those words) and get paid within enough time for me to keep a roof over my head. It generally takes a couple of weeks before getting a paycheck. So this is kind of it. And of course, I have zero in the coming week. No interviews, nothing.
The sun is rapidly dipping below the horizon.
So the last job didn’t come through? I’m so sad to hear that (and still hoping I misunderstood your last pay). I know it’s not worth much but I think about you and check regularly hoping to hear good news from you.
Zylon
1698
No sympathy for people with beach huts.
Reemul
1699
I don’t need your sympathy, just hoping you havent made yourself look like a total dick.
Here I will explain it not that I should have to, but you assume.
My mother in law rents a beach hut on Sandbanks on a lifetime lease, there is a 15-20 year waiting list and she was on it for 17 of them before getting lucky 2 years ago, she is 68. The costs to rent it are pretty reasonable I just looked it up £1809 a year… All the family are allowed a key, so thats the 5 brothers and sisters and their partners it’s a nice thing for the family, I mean there are 5 brothers and sisters and the 12 grand kids so far, I mean it’s a cheap holiday all round.
What that does for me is it gets my wife a key to a beach hut, very useful I suppose we could live there if I don’t manage to get a job at some point this year.
So no need for sympathy…whether you look a dick or not well…
Well, don’t give up. The natural tendency is to think: this is as bad as it can get! How can it get worse? But the danger with that kind of thinking is that things can always get worse, sometimes much, much worse.
Maybe it’s time to get creative? Use your imagination to come up with something, even if it’s an endeavor that seems like it has little to no chance of success. Engage yourself as fully in it as you can, whatever it is. This will keep you engaged day to day and put you in a more positive spot once something does open up. Meanwhile, go back over the field. The job market changes quickly, sometimes day to day. The advantage of being in a desperate position is that you have nothing to lose. Keep calling and knocking on doors until something shakes loose.
Don’t worry about the timing of paychecks and those sort of logistical things. Timing can always be finessed. Make sure you have enough cash on hand to feed yourself and keep your car running. All the rest of it can wait, because it has to wait.
When I get in spots like this, I always just think at the back of my head: fuck 'em. Fuck 'em.
Good luck!
