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Friday 12 September 2008

World's shortest interview


Cute little furry creatures. They are my friends. Including rodents. Hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, gerbils etc. I have had some of these as pets.

I went for a job interview yesterday. It lasted one minute. I blame the furry creatures.

No, I was not attacked by a stampeding herd (?) of distressed degus whilst I was trying to remember how to spell my name.

You see I found this job which looked promising in the advertisement. So I applied. After I applied I was sent the link to the research group's website. There I noted that while I was totally cool with most of the work they did, there was this tiny aspect which challenged me ethically, but more on a personal level. 

I phoned a friend (I want to be a millionaire) who informed me that the probability of them getting me to do the not-so-cool work was very low, because it takes skill and experience that I do not have. He advised me to go for the interview and I did.

I missioned all the way there, paying £22 for a train trip that totalled one hour (that is R317! Is that even conceivable? Did I mention that I am unemployed?). I even put on makeup and  (relatively) smart clothes. 

Not that there was much point to my beautifying process, because by the time I arrived for the interview I looked like a drowned, er, rat. Not a good look at any time, but considering the place I was about to enter, potentially a life threatening appearance!

Yeah so after a few seconds of me saying how wonderful I look in a labcoat, the interviewer began to explain the work to me. It involved 100% work that I was not prepared to do. So within 1 minute I was apologising profusely and leaving. Sigh. 

Apparently they couldn't advertise the nature of the work for legal reasons. I'm guessing it is also to protect them from certain types of activists.

I don't think I would have survived the job anyway. It's at the number one institution of its type in the UK, possibly the world. What would a little seamonkey from Durban who is on a permanent chill pill know about surviving in a place like that? They probably only hire royalty anyway.

So, back to the drawing board to find me a job that does not involve little furries and the harming thereof.

7 comments:

Miss T said...

I hear you ...i could never work on animals. Had to do some work as part of my honours and I just bawled my eyes out!

po said...

Hey miss T, I remember dissecting stuff at school, but that was once. I can't imagine having to slice open little mice every day!

po said...

P.S. what did you study your honours in?

Sweets said...

well good for you! eish over R300 for a ticket?!... to end like that! well i'm sure you made some furry rat's day by refusing their awful offer :)~

po said...

Hey sweets, R300, I know, even after 5 years the prices of stuff here still blows me away. Yeah, I have a strong urge to get a pet rodent now!

Anonymous said...

Ugh, I would have also hightailed it out of there pronto.

Or maybe asked if I could go to the loo, and snuck into the animal room and opened a few cages!

Jokes aside though, animal testing is something I feel is one of the worst animal 'wrongs' - not only due to the horrific experiments, but it's also so heartbreaking that the poor buggers have to live in cages while they await their fate.

I hope something better comes along soon that doesn't involve stuff like that!

po said...

Hi rox, yeah i really don't want to be involved in that.

I felt bad enough cutting off leaves when I used to work with plants!