That's not how you get hired

[bhskittykatt]

So Hubby's been enjoying his new job. Manufacturing airplane interiors = no customers = no SCs (lucky bastard). He loves the work and his CWs. He shared this story with me, which I had to share with you.

They went through two weeks of training before starting work, partly in order to weed out who they ultimately did and didn't want to hire. Hubby said several people walked out.

There was one kid who was only 19. He told Hubby that it was he'd been a stay-at-home dad the last couple years, and it was his first time entering the workforce. Perhaps he should have had some work etiquette classes or something first, because according to Hubs, he was always asleep in the classroom. Surprisingly, he didn't get kicked out, and went through the full two weeks, probably because the instructors didn't care since they were paid regardless of who ended up being hired.

They had a final exam after two weeks, and those who made it were called back. Sleeping guy didn't get a call back, but he showed up Monday anyways. The poor receptionist had to be the one to explain that no, he didn't have a job, and had to give him a hard reality check. (Even if he did well on the exam, his behavior in class was likely the nail in the coffin.)

Bonus
The training involved math. Nothing too difficult. There was a lot of fractions. We're talking about elementary/middle school stuff. More than a few people, when handed the first math quiz (merely meant to gauge their level of knowledge), got up and walked out.

Now, the guy who sat next to Hubs was really bad at this math. He couldn't seem to get even the simple stuff, and was freaking out about it. He toughed it out, though, and was hired. Just goes to show that attitude is important.

[Sapphire Silk]

Hurrah for math freak out guy. You're right. Attitude IS important.

Got me through nursing school . . . I'm horrible at math, but I worked at it.

And I can understand why the sleeper didn't get hired. It's hard to take the commitment seriously of someone who sleeps in class. I had a student last spring who did a lot of that, then acted surprised when he flunked the course. I had to explain to him you don't learn by osmosis.

He's back in my class again (repeating it essentially) and is not sleeping this time around. We'll see how he does on the first exam in a couple of weeks.

And congrats to Hubby as well.

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Now, the guy who sat next to Hubs was really bad at this math. He couldn't seem to get even the simple stuff, and was freaking out about it. He toughed it out, though, and was hired. Just goes to show that attitude is important.

Agreed - I did something very like it, actually failed the test but was hired (talking about a bunch of jobroles ago) because I did try hard.

[tropicsgoddess]

Hurrah for math freak out guy. You're right. Attitude IS important.

---<SNIP>---

And I can understand why the sleeper didn't get hired. It's hard to take the commitment seriously of someone who sleeps in class. I had a student last spring who did a lot of that, then acted surprised when he flunked the course. I had to explain to him you don't learn by osmosis.

You got that right! Attitude is everything. I worked a temp job as a CSR for a health insurance company and while we were in training, one girl was sawing some logs while the trainer was in front of her! It was no surprise she was let go. I suck at math...hard. I applaud the guy that freaked out but toughed it out in the end with the math issues.

[Eisa]

I also suck at math. Selectively, it seems, as I'm horrible at the elementary/middle-school stuff and could never do algebra and geometry...yet I passed trig with flying colors and wasn't too bad at calculus. Just weird.

But yeah...it would be hard for me to do a math test, I applaud that guy.

[NateTheChops]

I find the application process is becoming more and more daunting these days because it's mostly online. But the Unicrew system must be handing out cheat codes because I see such complete idiots making it to the interview/hiring process when they get to the store.

Fortunately, once I get to the interview process I'm usually pretty good at landing the job if they're hiring to begin with. And more to the point I always come through with my "campaign promises", which always endears me to the management.

[chainedbarista]

i applaud math guy's tenacity; you're right, attitude means everything and can save your ass.

[Seshat]

It's not too hard to teach someone who wants to learn. Even if they have a learning disorder, that can be worked around.

It's finding the people who want to learn in the first place that's hard.

[TheRabbi]

It scares me that enough people got up and walked out at having to deal with fractions, though...

Math is not all that hard. It's made out to be daunting but really if you're doing all your other subjects properly they should be daunting too. (For example, literature: you have to be willing to bare your own opinion about what someone was trying to convey to not necessarily you about something you may not be able to relate to at all. And you have to convince the people around you that that's right.)

Learning is hard. But math is not harder than anything else. (Okay, putting on my asbestos overcoat and putting away the keyboard now.)

[Andara Bledin]

Math shouldn't be hard, but I suspect that a lot of people are taught that math is scary by their parents or peers, or just end up with sucky teachers, and that ruins it for them for years to come.

And then, for some people, it's just hard. *shrug*

^-.-^

[Mondestrucken]

For me, it was also a matter of maturity. In high school, math was a struggle. In college, for my major, I had to take statistics. I took it early to get it over with, and studied like crazy. Did well, but was still scared to death.

At age 30, went back to pick up some computer classes. Took some fairly advanced math: calculus and the like. And it was worlds easier. It just made so much more sense than it had over 10 years earlier. I think it was a combination of being a less anxious person in general, plus my brain had become more logical.

[zombiequeen]

I was told by my math teacher that the reason I'm so bad at math is the same reason I'm bad at music, my brain thinks on the wrong tempo. I don't think the numbers like where they're supposed to be, but in a different order. She said it's numbers dyslexia. I think it was more to make me feel ok after almost failing Algebra2, but I still feel really numbers stupid. I did get a B- in Intro to Business math at college though, and my parents took me to dinner they were so excited.
Funny story, when I was little and had an Easybake oven, I used to ALWAYS misread 1/4 cup as 1-4 cups. Mum never thought to stop me though, so I drowned my first oven. Apparently that's how I learned the hard way.

[Sapphire Silk]

I have the same learning disability. I have a really hard time with things like ratio and proportion and algebra because I'm always putting the numbers in the wrong places.

Affects my spelling as well. I scramble the letters between the first and last letters (example dwon instead of down). I've trained myself to pick up the most common words I scramble, but a lot of times when I read my own typing my brain interprets what I've typed as correct.

Spell check was the greatest invention of all time to me.

[zombiequeen]

My husband has Dyslexia, so he doesn't read or write well. He takes a while to do math, but he's at least good at it. Or at least catches his errors. I've noticed the more time I spend with him, I'm slowly getting better at doing math, but my spelling is suffering.