I’m used to copping a fair amount of flack as a contractor at work, as I’m the youngest in the office, and as a result of this get paid far too much for doing far too little, in my bosses mind anyway. In fact, his exact words are (on a daily basis), “…, but you’re just a lowly contractor”. It’s funny though, like an extension of the Pom/Aussie tradition of ripping the shit out of each other for, well pretty much anything, it adds another layer to the whole office rivalry thing.

Now, being the lowly contractor that I am, I don’t expect much, I don’t get holidays, I don’t get sick pay, I don’t get a christmas bonus and I don’t have the same job security an full timer may have come to expect. This is a good and a bad thing, bad for the obvious reasons, good for the fact I have pretty much no responsibility and get paid more (apparently). The last thing I expected to be doing was giving and sitting in on job interviews. Yes, this contractor come contract-er is going to have a fun week.

I guess its good experience, and I should hardly complain, but it seems weird none the less. Least I’m not like the PHP guys, having to give interviews for over 50 people, I’ve only got to do two.

This may have helped

This got me thinking back to a job interview I had a while ago back home at a mining/oil company in Nedlands, Perth. The interview was going great, and I was clearly fit for the job, and I was asked:

Them: “What’s a word you would use to describe a good thing about yourself?”
Me: “Thorough, I need to make sure the job is done” (or something to that effect)
Them: “Now, whats a word you would use to describe a bad thing about yourself?”

Ah, the age old “bad” thing question, always going to catch the unprepared out. Like the scene with the bad thing from Peep Show, Jeremy couldn’t remember what the bad thing was, unlike Peep Show, my bad thing did not involve a blow job. But I was stuck…

Me: “Well, I can be lazy”

(deafening silence, with an odd look on smug interviewer’s face)…

I bet they’re still laughing at my expense. “Remember that lazy guy? That was the best interview I’ve done so far”. Well keep laughing, I would.

Had I have the above book, maybe I would have been able to answer the question. Maybe I would have said, I just try too damn hard, or work is an obsession, but thats not me. Lazy is. I love honesty.

- the HR/IT guy.