Andy is dead set against it because I will not be at his bellow and call ("Bee! I can't find my slippers!" while he's wearing said slippers) but I look at it as a way to push ourselves over that little slump. He finally said he'd stop giving me crap about it but suggested I look for something I liked. I told him I liked buying shoes but I doubted there was anybody out there willing to pay me to buy myself shoes.
I decided to just put as many applications out in the hopes of getting a few nibbles. I think any job would do because I don't feel like anything is *beneath me*. Except being a hooker. I draw the line at that.
In this day and age, applications are mostly taken online. I applied to most of the retail giants and then decided to apply to a couple of places near me, one of them being a craft store with locations all over the US.
To be honest, I don't know the difference between lace and tulle but I thought I could BS my way through the application. See example answer to the question "why do you love crafts":
"I love crafts because it gives me the opportunity to bond with my 6 y/o niece over something productive!"
It sounds like something I would say, right?
However! I did not count on the online application consisting of 3 parts. 3 parts! To work in a place that sells googly eyes.
DO THEY KNOW WHO I AM? I WORK AT ARKHAM ASYLUM!
This application was more time consuming than the one I had just completed for a drugstore that sells, you know, DRUGS!
Here are the 3 parts.
Personal:
Where they ask you for your address, work experience and if it's okay to do a credit and background check.
Mmm okay? I promise to pay off those boots once I get the job and I'm pretty sure I was cleared of the library incident where I "accidentally" walked out with a book in my bag when I was 9 .
That was the easy part and only took about 2 minutes to fill out.
Next we have:
Common Sense/Problem Solving/Intelligence:
This test/questionnaire had 60 questions with a disclaimer that read "we know you won't be able to answer all the questions in the allotted time of 10 minutes, do your best"
I shook my head in disbelief because I have always hated taking tests and here I was taking one for a job I didn't really want where the employees, from prior experiences, are not, by any stretch of the imagination, Mensa candidates (which, by the way, Mensa in Spanish means dumb girl).
Anyway, back to the quiz. I did what any
Guess what? Once I highlighted it, it gave me all the answers! You all know how much I love to cheat so . . . Score!! I will be classified as a genius that finished the 60 question test with a perfect score under 10 minutes. Take THAT Mensa!
Solve the following problem and click the option box that contains the correct answer.
A box can hold 4 books. How many books can 5 boxes hold?
a) 9 b) 10 c) 20 d) 30
√ Answer: You should have selected 20.
Read the following definition and choose the first letter of the word that best fits it.
An open area free of woods and buildings
E
F
G
Q
√ Answer: The word is FIELD. The letter F is selected because it is the first letter of the word FIELD.
I mean, these seemed to be swiped form Mensa's website under the category they call ""FUN TEST""! I know some people like to test their brain power but I just need my brain to get me to the pot of coffee in the morning and then home at 5 o'clock. See examples:1. Sally likes 225 but not 224; she likes 900 but not 800; she likes 144 but not 145. Which does she like?
a) 1600 b) 1700
Answer: Sally is a gold digger.
2. If two typists can type two pages in two minutes, how many typists will it take to type 18 pages in six minutes?
a) 3 b) 4 c) 6 d) 12 e) 36
Answer: Trick question. The truth lies in the butterfly.
3. If it were two hours later, it would be half as long until midnight as it would be if it were an hour later. What time is it now?
a) 18:30 b) 20:00 c) 21:00 d) 22:00 e) 23:30
Answer: Somebody better tell me what time it is! If I miss The Office, I'll be pissed!
Even though I had a perfect score in the *smarter than a stump* part of the test, I could not get through the last portion of the application which was a 12 part questionnaire with a varying number of questions:
Mental Health/Personality:
Q: If a customer asks you an obvious question, would you help them and not convey your annoyance via facial expressions or verbal abuse such as "Really? You need to know where the fabric is? The giant cardboard roll of fabric right next to you isn't a clue?"
In other words, they want polite, friendly people.
I find this interesting because of an incident that happened when my mom and I were in there. I think I was looking for fake snow for my Christmas village and my mom was browsing in the fake flower section. She stumbled across a vase with a beautiful arrangement, she touched one of the fake flowers when all of a sudden a little Asian lady comes out of nowhere and starts yelling at my mom, telling her not to remove flowers from the display. I immediately make my way to them so that I may add her to my key chain collection of "people I have bitch slapped for being mean to my mom" when I realized my mom had it under control. She looked the woman in the eye and said "Shut up!". The Asian lady, stunned, walked away, shoulders hunched over in defeat.
Who was sleeping at the gate when they employed that dud?
Next question:
Q: If you see Bob hit a coworker over the head with a fake Christmas tree would you,
a) help your defenseless coworker
b) help Bob
c) hide and call the police
Well, it all depends on what that coworker did to Bob. Did he/she eat Bob's skittles? Because then I would hold him/her down while Bob went to town. And maybe would thrown in a couple of kicks myself. Some people need physical encouragement to behave.
I gave up on this part because there are only so many times I can answer the same question, worded differently, over and over again without tripping up and showing my true, blood thirsty, colors.
So screw you Craft Store. You missed out on one extraordinary employee! An employee that would bring you joy, booze and gentle mocking. An employee that would be late for work 55% of the time and early to leave 100% of the time. Not to mention my brute strength and ability to control "Bob's" psychotic outbursts. Your loss.
There's lots of serious pyshcology behind this kind of testing, but it's probably mainly a way for companies to easily produce a shortlist. In France they do it by using handwriting analysis.
ReplyDeleteShops do pay people to be mystery customers, so perhaps you should contact some of the shoe retailers. You could also be one of those personal shoppers - there must be someone famous living in Chicago. Preferably a famous shoe addict.
I once applied at a fabric store years ago, and got a similar "application". I did my best, but never even got a call back. Same thing happened the one and only time I applied for a waitressing job. Who knew they would be so selective? I got a job with the city instead, and they basically just asked me when I was available to work and hired me. I wish I still had that job, actually.
ReplyDeleteBee, you've got to get that job and give me your employee discount--I never have enough freakish looking styrofoam skulls
ReplyDeleteyou should be a shoe shopper for hookers. youd be doing what you love and oh, those fringe benefits....
ReplyDeleteMy teens and I have been doing those on line applications for a few weeks now...they are rediculously long and pointless...and when they put a clock on you...brain cells start bursting and dying off as each second counts down.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter took the Wal Mart quiz..I mean application..and failed it. Why? Cause she was honest with her answers. SO her first lesson in obtaining a job in America...lie through your teeth. Nice.
great article...was just considering do one similar this week.
Thankfully I have not had the "pleasure" of having to submit applications on-line. Back in the "olden days" when I first got my current job, the internet didn't exist... you know... 'cuz Al Gore hadn't been elected yet. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI hate filling out apps of any kind... too many questions! Good luck with your search.
An intelligence test to work at a crafts store? What the hell? The fact that you were able to accidentally cheat probably means you are over qualified for the position.
ReplyDelete