Tell me, why do you want this job?

'Tell me, why do you want this job?'


A standard opening gambit in an interview by the interviewer. To which there is a standard reply.


'I need the money, Job Seekers Allowance is less than the weekly pocket money most kids in the area where I live receive, JSA is about to run out and I can't find anything else, I am desperate, I'm over 50, vastly over qualified for any job that's going and I know it.'


No, we all know that's not what we say and we find an acceptably diplomatic reply, the interviewer nods and goes on to ask 'So you're over 50, do you find that you've slowed down to the pace of an arthritic dormouse, brain no longer agile, no idea what's going on and do you know what a mouse is if it it isn't the small rodent from the Muridae genus?'


Yes I know they don't say that either but that's what the 23 year old who is interviewing you is thinking.


Why do you want this job is a question you need to seriously ask yourself. Here's another one; 


Q; Why do people have low paid jobs?
A; Because they accept them.


I used to be able to control the seas, make the tides ebb and flow. Just four years ago I had responsibility for 400 staff, £24m T/O and the organisational strategy. Now, 70% lower salary, a job so dull I can barely make it through the day without wanting to hurl a piece of furniture across the room in frustration. Sometimes I want to hurl a member of staff across the room for patronising me. Again.


Amazingly I had two interviews within 48 hours of each other this week.


The first, where I currently, er 'work', was for a position two grades above the lowly one I'm on now. 
The first issue is that it is two grades above the one I'm currently on. The Higher Education establishment I work for say you can't jump two grades but have to go one by one - even if you are the most qualified candidate. Meh. But they interview me anyway. Meh again. This proved to be a classic 'You can't have this job unless you've done the exact same one before.' . Why are they interviewing me then? Then they go on to the condescending questions. Have you any experience at dealing with senior people. Can you use a pen? Sadly the desk is to heavy to throw and we are on the ground floor so defenestration would be fun but ultimately not very rewarding. Through gritted teeth I explain 'I was a Director of a substantial company four years ago and had been for a number of years before that and dealt daily with MDs of organisations of substantially bigger than this one.'
Ah but I hadn't dealt with the senior staff of this particular HE establishment who, apparently, were more senior, more wonderful, more everything than anything I'd ever dealt with before or could possibly comprehend, and therefore could not be considered for the role. I also was not able to express a view about the ideal location of the printers on each floor of the offices so that counted against me in a big way. No of course it wasn't printers, that was just a facile comment, but the actual question posed was one that only an insider could have a view on and then only if they'd considered having a view on everything else first, such as could a weasel stand for parliament? Considering it's an HE establishment the concept of applied knowledge is an alien one.

The second - the second lasted six minutes before I walked out. The opening question was 'Tell me, why do you want this job?'. Once I'd got over the creativeness of the MD in coming up with such a novel question, and answered in a diplomatic fashion, we then got onto the 'Why, as you are obviously so skilled and with a very wide background, are you applying for a job with a salary of £utter peanuts?'
I blinked. 'It says salary subject to negotiation and dependent on skills' I said showing them their very own document they had emailed to me.'
Oh how we laughed about that. We didn't, that was the salary, even less than the derisory one I already suffer, so I walked out. No point in wasting any more of my time. Don't get me wrong, I was polite. But I was out of there.


So why did I want the job?


Because I'm disillusioned, disinterested, demotivated, under employed, stressed, barely using 1% of my potential, ignored, invisible, patronised and condescended to (and I've only been in work two hours so far today). I'm in my mid 50s, with two degrees a very wide business background and no body seems to want me anymore. And that hurts.


 I used to own the streets I now clean.


Still there's always tomorrow.