A pivotal moment

On The Apprentice You're Fired there's usually one moment when Adrian Chiles shows a clip from the board room that resulted in the losing candidate being fired. I have my own such moment but it wasn't captured on TV. At the very end of Monday's interview I was asked if I had brought the application and medical forms. I hadn't.

Ordinarily I would have filled the forms in, meticulously, and brought them with me. Unfortunately I had been rushing around on Friday and only discovered the form when I came back from an eye test. I was in a rush to go out for a Xmas Do with the guys I play football with, put it to one side and then got horrendously drunk. Saturday was a write off and in the intervening time I'd completely forgotten about the existence of the form.

I'd struggled to sleep the night before the interview and felt dulled by a migraine so I was completely off guard when asked about the form. I said that I'd had a hectic weekend and had forgotten about it. I knew there and then that I shouldn't have said it but it wasn't like it was a considered response because if I was thinking I would have said that it hadn't come in the post or I didn't have it with me. I paid for my frankness and looked unprofessional as a result.


I slipped on a banana skin of my own making

I'm disappointed with myself for making such an elementary error but at the same time I'm not distraught because I wasn't convinced by the job. If they had made a reasonable offer I would have accepted it because it would have been good to have the security before Xmas. However, the nature of the job and the role didn't seem the right fit for me. Furthermore, the location was a little remote and would have required an 8.15 start everyday. I could get up early if needs be but there was only 45 minutes for lunch and the finish was, I think, 5.30. This resulted in finishing at 12.30 on Fridays but I'd rather just work a full week. Additionally, they offered only 24 days holiday, 4 of which had to be used over Xmas so it was effectively 20 days. If I had been offered the role it would have been very reluctantly - for the sake of having a job rather than a job I really wanted.

I'm hoping that I've made a mistake at the right time.

This afternoon I had an interview for a different job. It's a job I would genuinely feel good about doing. I think I demonstrated the right skills and enthusiasm for the role but that I lack enough experience of SQL Server.

As a result of these two jobs in the pipeline I had stopped applying for other jobs. I know that I have to continue to look but that there's little that can happen over the next couple of weeks because of Xmas and New Years. I hope that I can relax over this time because I'll know that there's nothing I can do in that time - or at least I know not to expect to hear anything. I officially become unemployed on Feb 1 and had always hoped to start a new job before that point but, given the circumstances, it looks as though I might reach that point.