A work experience

Tweet

Last week I went to a job interview. A door and windows manufacturer in my town was looking for a young computer geek to hire as a company website manager – a webmaster, to say it bluntly. I was so happy for the chance to work in Genzano that I emailed the company immediately, through the contact they left on the online ad I was viewing (yes, I spotted the job offer online, and I have to thank my mom for that). I asked for further information, regarding the job itself, what would be expected of me, what qualifications they required, etc. Someone replied back saying that I needed to go on site for an interview to learn more about it. They gave me the phone number of a secretary I had to contact to get information about the interview and the job, and I felt really excited as I noted it down. After all, that would have been my very first contract job, wouldn’t it? The secretary that picked up the call wasn’t the one I was looking for, but she told me to call again the day after, as she would be available.

The morning of the following day, I phoned up the company and the woman I was looking for picked the call, finally. I asked her information about the job, but she said she was not able to give me the right answer, and that it would be better if I talked to the direct responsible. I fixed a date for the interview on Friday 10th at 10:30 AM, and then, right after ending the call, I began exploring the company’s site: apparently done in Joomla!, the site looked pretty good overall, but I knew nothing about Joomla! as a CMS; therefore, I installed it on a subdomain of my site and began playing with it, to figure out how it works. Well, the learning curve with Joomla! is a lot slower than with WordPress… WP is so easy compared to it!

On Friday, I went to this interview. I met and shook hands with the secretary – a truly nice person! – and then went to see what this job was about. Unfortunately, I did not have the right requirements: besides my scarce knowledge with Joomla!, their ideal candidate needed to have previous experiences with company websites… and all I had was 5 years of ‘personal’ experience. Yes, I have done and maintained websites on commission in the past, but they weren’t company websites anyway. Regarding Joomla!, I told them I would only need a few days to get used to it, but the past company website experience factor was a must for them, so I simply thanked them for their time and waved goodbye.

They were very kind and honest, so I have nothing to complain about that… but they would have spared me and themselves precious time if they had inserted the requirements right on the ad, or had told me by email or phone.

Next time I see a general job offer like that, I will hire a resume service and then give them my resume. Perhaps that would help avoiding time waste. Oh, if you don’t know what a resume is, that’s a written page stating your skills and competences (but your weaknesses and personality as well), presenting them in a professionally written argumentation that’s potentially pleasurable on an employer’s eyes.

Now, I wonder where I could start working to build my first working experience… Everyone keeps on asking for past experiences, but if no company gives young people a chance to start working, how can they possibly build their years of experience requested elsewhere?! I know it’s not just Italy, but employers should give more space to first-time workers, especially young ones. I’d be open to internship and apprenticeship as well, if only given the possibility…