Nervous I was before my first job interview yesterday. Nervous but yet confident actually. Does that make sense? So I drove to Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East campus. My interview timing was 1:55pm. But I was there early at 1:30pm. Went up to the Management Block but it seems like nobody was around. Until I met a lady and she told me everyone went out for lunch. So I waited for 10 minutes before the lady I was supposed to meet, came out to meet me. She put me in another meeting room where I waited for 30 minutes. During that wait, I continued to look at my portfolio and resume seeing what I want to say later. I thought she was the one who was going to interview me. But I was so wrong.

She brought me to another meeting room where a Section Head gentleman and another Senior Lecturer gentleman from Wireless Networking course already were. The interview started quite okay but as it progresses, I felt it got bad. I was still nervous and when they started to ask me questions, I really did not remember much of my polytechnic course work I studied. One question was, “How will you setup and LAN gaming centre?” I mentioned about the LAN networking and computer system required. But I forgot to mention about the server setup. :( Then another weird question pop-up, “What brand of firewall or server did your school use?” Seriously till now, I do not even know that answer! So the Q&A was quite bad already.

Then when they further explain to me about the position I was applying for – Technical Support Officer (TSO), I suddenly felt it was not what I wanted anymore. Initially I thought there was some teaching/guiding of student factor in that position. But they told me ITE now wants to have 0% teaching and 100% supporting role. So example if a computer fails to boot during lesson, I will be ask to go fix it. And not actually assist any students of any sort. So I was quite put back by that already. I wanted a job that I can interact with students, to teach even if is just a little portion. But yet after they explained, it seems like TSO is more mechanical hands-on position now – which is not what I wanted.

When I asked about career advancement, it did not seem appealing to me either. So when they finally asked me if I have any more questions, I did not even want to talk about salary. Knowing that most likely they will not want me, or for this case now, I might not want that job anymore. So I left the place quite disappointed with the outcome.

So at this point of time, I am quite lost and confuse to what I really want. Seriously, I feel I am lack in skills because I am those who forget what I learn quickly. As the days go by, I feel more and more stress up to get a job even though as much as I would like to lead my life now this way at home, I cannot do it forever. I will have to consider what I want to do next.

Freelance photographer? Singapore Police Force? Immigration & Checkpoints Authority? Teacher? Private section IT position? WHAT! :( Or anyone got job position to recommend?