Jobseeker’s Diary

A couple of months ago, I did an interview with a distribution company. See I’m always trying to find opportunities better than my current one. It wasn’t something I’m really qualified for but neither is my current job, and besides, we were told that previous experience wasn’t required and that the successful candidate would be offered some training so I was confident I would get it. However when I didn’t get that all important call I’d been promised in a couple of days, I started to wonder if I had been overly enthusiastic. Eventually, I just assumed I hadn’t made the cut. As with previous experiences, I was of course disappointed but after the string of interviews I’ve done, I didn’t let it get to me. As far as I was concerned, it was their loss. Then early this week, I got a call and to my surprise, I was being asked to pass by the company for an important message. Oh they want me to pick my documents, I thought. How nice of them since many companies don’t bother to return those even when they’re certain they’ll never hire you. As I later found out though, I was being offered the job I’d applied for. “What?” I exclaimed. Not the impression I wanted to give the Human Resource Officer for I didn’t want these people to think I was desperate though that wasn’t far from the truth. “You didn’t think we would call you?” the guy asked. “Well after all this time, I wasn’t sure…” I recovered in time to say. “I’ll be honest with you,” he went on. “We did hire someone but he found a more exciting opportunity and left so we checked through the other applicants’ files and picked you because you came close the first time.” Long story short, I was offered the job but there was a catch. I had to start immediately. Now I’m one of those people who don’t like to burn bridges because I don’t know what the future holds. The restaurant may not be my ideal place to work but they offered me an opportunity when I really needed one and despite all their shortcomings and the fact that I knew I’d eventually leave for another job, I wanted to do it right. Give notice and let them find a replacement, not just spring it on them. Sadly, I was unable to do that because the people at the new place were very clear. If I couldn’t start immediately, they would find somebody else and so I really had no choice but to break the news to my supervisor. He wasn’t amused as expected but since I didn’t have a binding contract, there was little he could do to stop my move. I will miss the restaurant, the friends I’ve made among workmates and clients alike and strange as this may sound, I’ll also miss the routine. As I said earlier, it wasn’t perfect but when you get used to something, you sort of become comfortable and getting out of that comfort zone has its challenges. There will be new things to learn, strangers to work with and of course new rules where I’m going. I’m sure I’ll get around these, just like I did at the restaurant and who knows, it might even be a great experience. The other good news, well according to me, is that my favourite nuts are back to their affordable cost – 300Rwf. I could be wrong but I want to believe that last week’s article had something to do with it, in which case I have this paper to thank. To be continued... nsophie77@yahoo.com