Les Responses d'Escalier

[David Davis]

Les Responses d'Escalier refers to the situation we have probably all been familiar with. You go to a job inteview, you answer all of the questions to the best of your ability, but after the interview is over, as you walk down the stairs, (l'escalier in French,) you think of lots of brilliant answers which you could and should have given at the interview itself!

Background

 

In 1995-6 I trained to be a careers adviser having been out of work in the recession of the early Nineties.  I was the oldest man on the course. Though based in Shrewsbury, I worked for eighteen months in schools in London and Birmingham before moving on to a project in Shropshire where I helped clients who had been mentally ill back into work, education or training.

 

After a further eighteen months in this post I started work for what was then Shropshire Careers Service as a careers adviser in their adult team; the pay being much better than in the mental health project. I worked with a wide variety of clients until the summer of 2005 when I started to specialise in working with disabled adults, not to get them directly into work but assisting them to get onto suitable courses of education or training, so that they could eventually get off the dole and back into work. Over 70% of my clients succeeded in making good progress and I was given an award for this work by the Department of Work and Pensions in 2006. The following year I was made redundant due to government cut-backs. I was 59 years old at the time.

 

It was in my interest to opt for early retirement and in the following year I was interviewed for half a dozen jobs but didn't get any. I had a pension but it was not enough to live on. I set up Telemaster Sales UK but having sold only 29 kits in since May 2008, I cannot depend upon this venture for an income! I restored a few old cars and by dipping into my savings got by. In March 2008 I got a job as a part-time collection and delivery driver for Hatfields, the Jaguar agent in Shrewsbury. £5.80 per hour. Not what I was used to but it was money.

 

At the end of January 2010 I noticed a vacancy for careers advisers in a number of locations on the website of the Institute of Career Guidance.

 

 

Now Gentle Reader, Read On.

 

I contacted one of the advertisers and explained that I had not worked with the core age range (14-19 year olds)  for ten years, but they still seemed interested. I decided to devote the evening of Thursday 4th February  to applying for the vacancy. As I live by myself, I decided to get an Indian take-away that evening rather than cook a meal, so there I am, waiting for my meal  in the Seven Spices and I'm reading through the sits.vac. section of the Shropshire Star, when I see that the Shaw Trust, a national charity specialising in working with disabled clients wants a Level 4 adviser, my grade, to help disabled graduates get into work. I thought this is just up my street. Trouble was that I had to get the application in by the end of the following day, Friday 5th February.

 

I stayed up half the night filling in the application form on-line, no mean task when your work history dates back to 1971 but having almost completed the form, the screen froze! I left the computer on and went to bed hoping that the screen would unfreeze itself. I awoke the following morning and found the screen still frozen. I started again but the screen froze again this time on the second page. I started a third time but the same thing happened! I decided to chuck a sicky, print off the application form, fill it in in longhand and see if they'd accept  a late application form. I contacted the Shaw Trust, they said that they would not be shortlisting that applications until the following Monday morning so that if I sent  the form off on the Friday, my application would be considered.

 

On the Saturday, 6th February, I applied on-line for the core-age range vacancy with no trouble.

 

On Monday 8th February I received an email from the Shaw Trust inviting me to an interview on Thursday 11th at a hotel in Birmingham. I replied to the email confirming my intention to attend, bought a train ticket, polished my shoes, and researched the firm and the job, matching myself to the job spec. and the person spec. I booked a day's leave from the Jaguar agency and having assembled lots of paperwork to establish my competence, I put my suit on and set out for Birmingham. However, there were a couple of domestic matters to attend to first, like giving my brother-in-law some money which I owed him and visiting my aunt who had just turned 85 but there was plenty of time as the interview was not till 2 o'clock in the afternoon. 

 

Just before I left the house however, I thought, "Perhaps I'd better phone the Shaw Trust to make sure they've received my confirmation." They had, so after attending to the domestics I caught the 11.15 train out of Shrewsbury  for the 45 mile journey to Birmingham.

 

On the train I read a couple of articles in "Career Guidance Today" underlining a few relevant passages to see whether I could slip them into the interview Then I looked for the invitation to find that it was not there. I had left it on the telephone table at home!

 

Not to panic, I had cut out the advert from the paper and the Shaw Trust's phone number would surely  be on that. It wasn't, only the email address. I

• Quote

[Bob Cotsford]

we're waiting with bated breath here!

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]