Not Dumb Enough

A little while ago I applied for a job with a dairy company in the Waikato. It was going to be a little bit away from where we really wanted to be but close enough to Hamilton that we would be able to see my folks a lot more and also a lot nearer our friends down there. Last week I had a phone-call from the recruitment company that was handling the applications wanting to set up a time for a phone interview. That was on Thursday. I thought the interview went pretty well.

I got a call Friday to say that they would like to do a face-to-face interview at the company. Excellent. I went down and met the recruiter, who gave me aptitude tests (at which I scored 99% - the pencil broke and I had to swap it in the speed recognition section. couldn't answer the last question). Then I interviewed with two supervisors from the company. I talked to them for over an hour. I thought it went really well. They were nice guys and seemed to respond well to what I was telling them. I felt really positive after the interview and had a good drive home.

That afternoon I had a dental appointment. Two fillings and two extractions. This was not the best time to find out that my teeth have particularly long roots, or that there was an abcess on one tooth that was preventing them from getting anesthetic to the bottom of the root. The dentist had to hold my jaw firmly to get it out, because I couldn't hold my mouth open against the strain of him pulling the tooth. It took almsot 5 hours for the bleeding to stop and the pain-killers I were only enough for the first 4 hours or so, then I was on the lower strength ones and they didn't really cut it. I didn't get a whole load of sleep. I took the day of to try and recover and Christi got me some better pain-killers that actually worked.

So, I felt better today and went to work as normal. I got a call at around 10:30 from the lady at the recruitment company. I 'did really well', 'aced the aptitude test', 'made a really strong impression' on the interviewers BUT I'm 'obviously a very smart guy' and they think I will 'not be challenged enough by this role' and 'get bored too quickly'. They also had concerns about my ability to fit into the team.

If you show initiative and leadership then you're not a team player. If you spend all your time working in the team you don't have enough leadership potential. And telling me I'm too smart for the job?? What the hell!! How do they expect to be able to promote from within the com[pany if everyone they employ is selected for a good fit at the most basic job in the place?? Sometimes I really dont understand what the hell they think they want from a worker.

So anyway I'm back to looking at job ads again. I'll just have to sell myself as the right kind of mediocre next time, I guess.