SOBs about an interview

Yesterday I went to an interview at The Story of Berlin (SOB) for a job of a tour guide. The interview was a group interview, a fact which wasn't really specified prior... so it was a little weird when I got there. It reminded me of the good old Melb Uni days back in the end of the 1990's of trying to get into Myer for a customer-service job... checkout-chick or the like. Those must be some of the most traumatic experiences of my life - I mean I HATE group interviews. Everyone pretends to be really nice and interested in each other, except that everyone is also competing for the same number of places. And the kind of crap you got told about how wonderful working for Coles Myer really is... and how it's great to be part of such a friendly and helpful team. BULLSHIT!!!!! Can't stand corporate propaganda.

Anyhoo... this was actually one of the more sensible group interviews I've been to. The two leader ladies told us a bit about the whole deal - the job, the company, the pay, the hours, etc. Then the eight of us went around telling a bit about each other and then they tested our language knowledge... everyone had to say a couple of sentences in English, French, Spanish, whatever their language abilities were. I only spoke German, 'cos they couldn't really test my Russian and also assumed from my resume that my English is perfect. Ha! They didn't see the mistakes that are being constantly made on this blog *grins* But yeah - I was the only "native" speaker there apart from a guy who has a British Mum and a German Dad... so he grew up with both languages... has a really strong British accent, too.

This procedure took about 1hr and 15mins, after which we got given information about the nuclear bunker (this is one of the more famous features of this "otherwise not-to-be-recommended IMHO" museum) of which we would have to do a trial tour for them to be able to actually test us. This first tour would have to be done in German.... hmmmmm

I kind of assumed from the ad on the Internet that one will only have to give tours in English which is why I actually bothered to apply. So today after speaking with that lady again I had to decline coming for a trial, 'cos I don't think my German is good enough for tour guiding just yet. Mainly I just feel sorry for the poor German souls who would have to be subjected to this torture.

And so ended my second attempt at a tour-guiding...