Blogs: Jack's job log: 3

As he comes to the end of his Business degree, Jack is just starting his job hunt.

Since the last blog, where I informed the masses to trust your instincts, I applied for a job in a small company on the outskirts of Huddersfield in a place called Holmfirth.

For those who are not too familiar with such fine areas of West Yorkshire, it is where Last of the Summer Wine was filmed, showcasing the county in all it’s glory.

Anyway, the job was for the position of Online Retailing Administrator, which sounded very, very good. The company is run by a pair of brothers, who buy products in bulk from China, and then sell them off through other websites, depending on the sector. The field is one close to my heart - buying and selling, taking advantage of economies of scale.

The interview was more of a welcome and guide to the current business, going through the product range, what they look for in a candidate and a guided tour of the warehouse. The brothers seemed fairly inexperienced at interviewing and the overall HR process, which is to be expected as they have only one other employee beside themselves.

I attempted to try and take advantage of the situation as best as possible, and whenever describing what they have done, and the attributes they have, look for and need in the applicant, I tried to throw some of my past experiences in. For example, when describing that the person they were looking for would have to show initiative, I tried to ring toss my example of diversifying my own business into other areas, and hoping it landed on either of the brother’s pegs.

Overall, the interview lasted about an hour and a half, and only seeing one person come out before me, and no one after, I was feeling pretty confident, and treated myself to a skip and a strut whilst walking back for the bus home. Everything seemed perfect. The brothers were both very traditional, young entrepreneurial Yorkshire lads, who thrive on and in business, and go to watch the rugby - which I casually made reference to. In the bag, right?

Wrong!

I got a brief e-mail saying I was unsuccessful, and upon me prompting feedback, got a thorough explanation indicating that I was ‘too good for the job,’ in the sense that they thought I would find it menial, and they would expect me to move on to bigger and better things fairly soon. Alas.

So although I did not get the job, the moral of the story is to always seek feedback, try and find areas where you can improve, and then look to build upon them.

Over and out.