Have you ever screwed something up that was really important to you? That’s what I just did.
I was scheduled to take two tests today to qualify for a pool of government writing jobs. I really want one of these jobs. They’re one of the few government jobs that don’t require bilingualism. Actually they’re one of the few jobs of any kind in Ottawa that don’t require bilingualism.
There was a Situational Judgment Test from 8:30 to 11:30, and an English Writing Test from 1:00 to 3:00.
I google-mapped the location, I OC-Transpo-Travel-Planned the location, I wrote down the directions, I planned an earlier-than-necessary departure just to be sure I wasn’t late, I trained GC to feed the baby birds their lunch, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, showered, gave the babies their breakfast, and by 7:05 I was on my way. I had my directions on an index card in my back pocket.
They disappeared somewhere along the way.
I got off the bus where I was supposed to get off the bus, according to the directions as I remembered them, but it didn’t seem to be the right place. There was supposed to be a Westin Hotel. I seemed to remember I was going to 3700 Carling, but I was at 3685 Richmond. I distinctly remembered seeing Moodie and Carling on the Google Map.
I still had 20 minutes to spare. I phoned GC, who immediately came and got me and drove me to 3700 Carling. We got there with two minutes to spare.
BUT.
You know what was at 3700 Carling? A Mini-Golf place, complete with a polar bear, a zebra and a hippopotamus.
I felt sick. Then we went to 3701 Carling, which was government-y, but not the right place.
Then we went to 3500 Carling, which was at Moodie, and which was the old Nortel complex.
Then we went to 3500 Richmond, which was almost directly across the street from where I’d originally gotten off the bus. It was a Best Western motel, not a Westin Hotel. And it turned out that that was where I was supposed to be.
I had been in the right place at the right time at 8:10. I just thought it was the wrong place. And now it was 8:50 and I was back at the right place but twenty minutes late.
There were signs on the hall door saying testing was in progress, do not disturb. There was nobody in the hallway to plead with. I left.
I’m still going to go back for the afternoon testing, and I’ll go early and try to find someone to plead with about rescheduling the morning testing, but I’m not optimistic. I think I screwed up any chance I had at qualifying for this pool of jobs.
I’m not very happy with myself right now.
Oh dear. That back pocket system of yours has let you down more than once, as I recall. Good luck with the test this afternoon and with trying to get them to let you do the morning test. If they’re running another test session you should be okay. For pools they often have more than one test session. Fingers crossed.
Stay positive! I’m sure they’ll let you take the other one.
The Situation Judgement Test is a common test that is held often. They might be able to reschedule you to the next text.
In times like these when you see 8:30 coming soon, it would have been a good idea for GC to find the invite you received and call the contact person to try to reschedule or get the right address at least. Now you can’t even say that you tried calling them…
Also, the people this afternoon might be general government people and not the people who are doing the hiring so they might not be able to give you any info on if you can reschedule the morning test. You’ll have to call the contact person that was indicated on the invite to reschedule.
Good luck!
Oh no. I feel for you and it happens to all of us. Best of luck re-scheduling (fingers crossed for you!)
Oh no! What a nightmare. Good luck and be gentle with yourself..
My heart sank into my stomach when I read this and I know how you feel. Be brave, stay calm and watch for the signs – it’s always good advice, even if it comes from CBC’s “Dead Dog Cafe”.
These test do happen quite often. Contact the person on the e-mail you received to schedule the test and re- book. Next time take a cab : ) If you cannot find the contact person, call the 1 800 line listed and insist on a callback for someone to call you regarding testing.
I wrote that test (and a couple of others) on Halloween last year. You may recall that that was right around the whole H1N1 situation. I don’t recall having received information about what to do if you had to reschedule (and I remember thinking that was odd because of the whole H1N1 panic at the time) but I seem to remember the people running the tests were willing to help people reschedule. I hope you were able to do so.