03:16 - 02.11.07
Surveillance
The interview scheduled for today was in the mid-afternoon. The journey to downtown was almost as eventful as the meeting itself. Stepped outside my front door then quickly popped back into my home to grab my winter coat. I had checked both the television news and the internet weather service first, but neither had mentioned the pending change of conditions. To both the west and east, storm clouds, each with a different portent of precipitation. The clouds in the east were definitely snow carriers. The clouds in the west promised heavy showers at the very least. I didn't have time to determine which would hit our suburban areas, but the one really noticeable effect was the very cold wind blowing about the dormant trees. Hence the coat.
The bus was a bit late which made me edgy. Showing up for job interviews on time is rather critical isn't it? I had allowed about an extra 20 minutes for travel delays but I didn't really want to test those parameters. The bus did make good time to the train station though. I had just taken a seat on the train when the storm hit. Hail - y'all. The first bit was pretty mild, but the size and frequency of the pellets increased the closer we neared the downtown core. My first seat mate, looking very much like the gentleman drumming with Phil, tucked me up tight into the corner of our shared bench when he sat down. I didn't mind because it made me feel safe somehow. Don't know where the unease came from but it was definitely there.
Could have been because of the unusual number of police both in uniform as well as what appeared to be undercover officers. There was one uniformed officer at our station to start along with a City vehicle. Along the route several other police cars and patrolmen on foot. That isn't a usual occurence on that particular stretch of track. Even more surprising was the sight of three bicycle patrollers two stops down. They seemed to be conferring with each other about their next move. They rode alongside the train until the next Tim Hortons coffee/doughnut shop. The three turned into that parking lot with great precision then headed inside. Can't begrudge them a coffee break when the weather was so bitter - them in those mylar riding pants and shirts with nary a jacket in sight.
At that stop another male sitting across the way from me taking a seat on the opposite bench. At first glance he looked like many of the homeless people one sees downtown. Long greying hair slightly unkempt and tangled, beard of a similar description topped off by a slightly greying baseball cap, while his knit shirt had a hole just below the ribs. Then I looked again and realized that he was wearing a top of the line leather jacket and what appeared to be brand new black corduroy pants in the latest styling. Even though the pants were a bit dusted, one could tell that the quality of the fabric was excellent. When I was in school we used to call them velvet cords. That dense, brushed thin-wale corduroy that looked so dressy. I loved mine with a passion - high waisted, fit tight to the skin at a time when I had the figure to carry them off. Guess you can tell I worked in retail in clothing once upon a time. Through high school I worked at one of the main department stores in the teen's clothing department. Knew my prices and the value of the garments on that passenger I did. Didn't make sense. Both of those seat mates disembarked at the first stops downtown. Next up a gentleman sat across from me now wearing khakis and - be still my beating heart - a Black Watch jacket. Red-headed celt; handsome. I wondered if he was still on active duty or not. I think probably still active and I know some of their members are in Canada right now - deployed with the British units that seem to be part of the team engaging the unauthorized overflights of the Russian fighter planes in various parts of our country. One of my sisters - the one living just north of the city - discussing the import of the extra activity at the airport with the addition of those Harrier jets and a lot of helicopter surveillance that has also been a bit unsettling lately, later on in the day. Comparing notes on who got what weather too today. And there is the Ian Fleming (Black Watch) theme again. That gentleman got off the train at the same stop as me near the end of the downtown line. Hmmmm.
I had just enough time before my scheduled interview to tidy up in the nearby powder room. Wind damage you see. These days the paperwork one has to fill out for most interviews takes at least half an hour even if you know the detailed responses to rather invasive questions right off the top of one's head. Next I was shown into the testing room for analysis of my skills on Excel, PowerPoint, Word and typing speed. I was surprised how well I did on PowerPoint given how little work I've needed that for. On the other hand my mind decided to blank out portions of the commands for Excel so I didn't score as well as I though I should on that test. The Word stuff was easy. Overall I scored intermediate to expert in all the tests. The typing - sigh well that is just a matter of doing, isn't it? There were two different interviewers to see after that. Everyone kept offering me chocolate during my visit there. I kept looking around to see if there were dementors about. I would love to meet Professor Lupin - being one of my favorite Harry Potter characters, but then again he was killed off in book seven.
The first interviewer came to see me about five minutes after I finished the tests. Escorted to the boardroom table I was. She was the short term assignment co-ordinator. Really nice, bubbly personality and very pretty too. She grilled me on aspects of the work I had done and tried to determine what it was I really wanted to do. When I don't really know myself that is hard to explain. I likened it to when the boys Dad had just left and I had to re-enter the workforce after a 17 year absence. Having just finished working as a volunteer on the high school curriculum committee for our community's first high school, I had seen all the stats and had had the opportunity to interview the local Canada Manpower specialist in the analysis of trends and coming employment needs. What I did know was that what the local employers and pundits were touting as the next wave of new jobs was inaccurate because they hadn't factored in all the variables - like high mobility positions - that artificially inflated some job potentials many times over mixed in with the lack of foresight to predict growth in work areas that didn't have much of a profile at the time - like tech jobs you know. After a decade of building my work choices around the Returning Officer position and the immediate need to make enough money to support my sons, I am basically "re-entering" the current workforce in a similar way. I'm a bit cautious about accepting at face value, what and where the jobs are supposed to be. Add in that my reasons for working now are slightly different and that I now want work that satisfies me more than anything else;it makes the whole playing field looks different. What do I want to do? Work for the theatre complex absolutely. I enjoy the qc work too. Just can't make quite enough money to keep my bank account in the black, so what are the options out there?
She left after that discussion while I went and grabbed a few of their work magazines so I could get some extra employment research in while I waited for the second interviewer - the one who had called me - to arrive. Not long after the first interviewer returned and asked if I'd mind some coaching on sharpening up my resume. Great as far as I was concerned. I've had very good reviews of it's substance from the interviewers in the industry I used to work in but each industry has it's own protocols and insiders language to convey the same information but in sometimes radically different ways. Can't get one's foot in the door of a new industry without knowing what their ground rules are. I was grateful for the pointers and suggestions offered in that session for certain. Could I email the changes in draft form back to her? First time any placement agency has offered that service for me, so of course, with thanks attached.
Went back to the employment research until the second interviewer - the permanent placement co-ordinator arrived. She was interviewing someone else for the original position that had brought me to their attention. Next up came a follow up coaching session on how to look reaassuring enough to employers in other industries so that they would feel I fit into their corporate culture. Some of those are very different from what I have done in the past so the tutoring was much appreciated. One can't fix what one isn't aware is a problem. I balked at the suggestion of lipstick though. I'm allergic to almost every so-called makeup product and it makes me feel dirty to have the stuff on. There have to be other ways to look the part without making a mess of my skin. I'm too old to want to deal with zits. Suggestions about clothes and hair were much more to my liking because I was being encouraged to dress up instead of being reprimanded for it - "trying to make out you're better than the rest of us?" was a common remark, on a daily basis from the loud supervisor at the last assignment remember, even though the only differenc was that it tied my hair up and back and wore a skirt instead of pants. Anyway that's past. Walk on say the Zen masters. Indeed. After 3 1/2 hours I finally left catching the rush hour train home. Stopped at the post office one community before mine to pick up a package and some milk then walked home. Even with my winter coat on I was still really chilled by the time I walked in my door. That biting howling wind you see. What I really missed was my headband - my ears were burning by the time I had reached the halfway point in my walk. I should know better by now, shouldn't I.
Anyway time for bed. Another piecework job to del with tomorrow and some editing duties too. Good night dear diary.
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