JOB FAIR IN MALACANANG

Bumming around is taking its toll on me. After five months of doing nothing productive, my mom’s perspective of course, she is now forcing me to find a job. Two days ago, she called me up and told me about a job fair in Malacanang. Apparently, the President opened up a call center job fair where supposedly, 20,000 Filipinos will be given a chance to try their luck in a call center career. Mom heard it on the radio. So she immediately gave me a call and compelled me to try it out.

I said yes halfheartedly. I wasn’t really planning to go there for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t know the place and second, I don’t wanna go alone. Later than night, same day, she called me up again, reminding me of the job fair the next day. She asked me to be there around four in the morning so I could line up early. Duh!? As in? That early? I didn’t fight wit her on that anymore. If I am gonna drag my butt in the fair, I’d leave the house around 7AM.

I texted Joan if she was in Manila so she could accompany me but I got no reply so I texted H&K instead who were in Cavite that night for his friend’s debut. He said he’d catch me up in that fair not later than 10AM. He had to travel back to Manila early in the morning.

So I wasn’t really decided yet if I was going or not and I hate to break mom’s heart again. Before I slept that night, which was around 3AM, I readied my stuff like resumes and pictures. I saved my resume in a floppy disk so I could get it printed before I go to the fair the following day.

I arrived in the fair around 8AM all sweaty and shit from all that walking and asking around. Like I said, I ain’t familiar with that place. When I entered the gate of Malacanang, this security guard who was trying to be funny, I think, asked me where I was going with a straight face, as if I had a bomb on me. I immediately and calmly said I was on the way to the fair. Then with a sudden change of mood, he told me if I had already combed my hair. I let out a big nyehhh…. He was so feeling close. Haha… But it didn’t bother me. At least he would remember me for something – my hair.

I fell in line with the other applicants to get the registration form, which was life forever. When I was near my turn, I remembered I had no pen. So I immediately texted my bf to buy a pen on his way there. Good thing he arrived soon, with a pen of course.

I filled up the form and returned it and they gave me a stub of some sort, which I wasn’t sure what the purpose what. After that, we left the place to print out some more resumes.

We got back and everyone was lining up these booths. I lined up, filled out some forms for the companies, got interviewed by some of them, and then had an appointment for an interview with Convergys in 45 minutes. So my bf and I went to McDonalds to eat lunch and when I got back to the booth of Convergys, they told me I was already called but I wasn’t there. They told me to look for my resume in the huge stack of resumes. I wonder how many of then will actually pass the exams and the interviews. I saw mine right away because I used a different paper for my resume, which was pretty distinct. It was whiter and it had a texture. I was interviewed right away by this guy who I thought was cute when I saw him earlier. But when I came face to face with him, I figured he ain’t that cute, just kinda. After a couple of questions, I told him I already took the exams in their company, did my final interview and that JobsDB, this recruitment agency I was with that sent me to Convergys before, told me I was supposed to be on training already but that I hadn’t received any call from Convergys about it. He told me he’ll look into it and that he’d call me after it was settled. We shook hands and off I went to the next booth, the last one.

This particular booth had so many people lining up in front of it. And considering the sun was almost kissing our asses, people kept on coming. I got a brochure from the company and I checked it out. It had an email address where applicants could send their applications form to so I figured why line up with these people who were becoming sweaty and smelly when I could opt for the convenience of the Internet. So I looked for my bf and off we went.

We watched Raising Helen at SM Manila after, had a coffee and then went straight to our own houses. He hadn’t slept yet since the party last night so I decided he should go home and take a rest. And I was so tired too from that job fair so I went straight home.