Small Steps Appear Bigger Up Close

I am pleased to announce my job interview for TNT postal services went well this morning, and I am very pleased. It’s always hard to read the interviewer’s body language, especially when they keep to a poker-face and let the meeting proceed ambiguously, but I believe I may have one foot through the door. At least that is what I hope as I feel I kept my focus and delivered some decent answers to some pretty straightforward and common interview questions.

The best thing to come out of this morning next to the possibility of getting back my overdue employment status is that I’m finally getting comfortable and commendable at the interview stage. I’m prone to look nervous, often as I am, but I’ve found giving eye contact and a steady rhythm of speech comes more naturally than it used to, and in turn my presence in the room isn’t one of fidgeting and stuttering. It’s about time I got better anyhow, given some practice I’ve had down the years and with the addition of the employability training I’ve received over more recent months.

So what do I expect next from this job opportunity, so long as I’m offered it? Well, for one I’m going to have to rediscover any bike riding skills. As a postman the bike will be my main mode of transport. There is a training programme for the use of the bikes with TNT and I’m told it’s very easy, but I’ve never been so graceful using a bike as some are, and I’m fearful of main roads. Fortunately there is no routes via big, busy main roads for the TNT ‘delivery operatives’ to navigate on, which so happened to be one of the questions I asked the interviewers myself. I can’t cycle behind five huge, noisy and smelly buses and a whole array of other traffic like we have here in Manchester along Wimslow Road that leads to the city centre. It is the busiest bus route in Europe, so I’d struggle but gratefully I’ll be keeping to side streets in whichever area I’m located to. This comes as a relief.

Yet, it’s still in the balance. I am due to receive feedback from TNT either this afternoon, which is now gone, or tomorrow in the morning, and I anticipate that call. If I’m honest after the general steady and positive tone and smoothness of the interview, along with the obvious need for postmen in the run up to Christmas, I’m even a little disappointed I didn’t get word back from them this very same day. The training itself takes a matter of weeks and they are recruiting fast at the moment, with plenty of people undertaking the paperwork and gaining interviews at Avanta alone. So my phone better ring or I might feel obliged to question them over their choices, surely I seem capable of doing the job they want doing.

The other positive about this morning’s venture is I looked smart, and felt it. Although it rained continuously my mood couldn’t quite be dampened (great joke) as I made my way around the city, no doubt looking brighter, more respectable and perhaps more handsome than I might usually do. It is of course nice to look good and feel good about looking good, but I must admit that after a couple of hours the shoes were hurting a little and I looked forward to getting home to enjoy a load of washing up, not before a cup of tea and a chat with my brother who was still in his dressing gown on a day off work.

But my brother earns the right to lounge about some days. Perhaps domestically I will have to encourage him to play a bigger part when, fingers crosses, I start to work a good number of hours delivering letters and such. Either way, I’ll certainly be doing the cooking, and maybe everything else, but if I can work enough hours and get myself off of Jobseekers Allowance then that is truly the most important thing. It’s no use me being available to cook and clean all hours of the day, which I definitely don’t do to be honest, if that is all I’m going to be useful for in life. I’ve got to go for this job head on, and so I will be continuing in my efforts so long as TNT confirms my success thus far.

Small steps can become big ones, and with a few hurdles ahead like bike training and improving map reader skills it remains my best chance of 2013 to break free from the isolation of a worrying mindset, a jobless mindset.

Fingers crossed.

photo credit: zenobia_joy via photopin cc