Thank You For Your Interest
Based on my personal experiences, being a cancer survivor does not warrant reverence. In fact, having a history of cancer puts me in an unfavourable position, acting as a colossal deterrence in the eyes of potential employers. It has been extremely tiring and demoralising looking for a job. Take the listing below for instance:
Yes, the company censored lest they sue me for libel. That day, the HR called to ask why I had been idle the past year. Because honesty is the best policy (my foot), I told her the reason but also informed that I am now in remission. To which, she stammered, "Oh...wow...hmm congratulations on that." Said to forward my resume to the hiring manager and I'll be notified if I'm shortlisted. They rejected me a few days later without an interview.
You might say that the rejection could be due to other reasons. But I think that for such a simple role with such simple requirements, were they seriously expecting first class honors, major competition winners, and multi-club presidents? Moreover, it was only a contract job. If were someone of such calibre, I would have been elsewhere earning at least 4k per month. Let me add that I had been in customer service before and communication is key, and I also consider myself someone who pays attention to details, which hiring managers wouldn't know if true or false, if they hadn't even granted the chance to meet me and understand me more as a person. Of course, this isn't the only company that probed about my inactivity. And there were others who only asked during the interview itself, and then their faces turned grim upon hearing the reason.
The society judges ex-convicts and is apprehensive about hiring them. That is why the Yellow Ribbon Project came about, isn't it? To integrate ex-convicts into society, to assimilate them into the workforce, to help prove their worth and change perceptions. I think I can actually understand the difficulties they face. Employers seem to shun me thinking I'm a ticking time bomb, threatening to collapse any minute then they have to clear up the mess and waste time and effort again to recruit another employee thereby taking a toll on productivity. Or they think cancer is a contagious disease that can spread after long-term contact with the affected? I don't know. Maybe there is a need for a Red Ribbon Project to help people like me. AML is not like AIDS which I can still try to prevent. It caught me totally off guard and was beyond my wildest dreams okay? Similarly, it can also happen to any being who is healthy at the moment.
I left some interviews feeling hopeful, but it looks like having a positive experience doesn't mean a positive outcome. You must have come across articles berating "millenials" for not being able to endure hardship or demanding benefits that are too high (e.g. salary). First and foremost, I do not like the term "millenials". Why did they have to coin a special term and put a label on us? That aside, I think those articles are one-sided and lack depth. Millenials have had enough of the spotlight, it is time to shed some on the employers instead. Read "Dear Employers, Don't Blame Millenials For Leaving Your Toxic Workplace" by Rice Media. Before you start mocking, yes I'm not even in the position to leave a workplace because there's none to begin with, but point is, the article raises some salient points about not always pushing blame to millenials because employers are also flawed in their own ways.
Indeed, there are jobs whose salaries are not commensurate with experience and expecting too much from fresh graduates. In another interview that I went to, the HR asked me if I knew the financial terms "A", "B" and "C". I said I did not, and I swear she must've thought "What a noob". The job wasn't really a financial job but merely one that does documentation work, so you prepare papers such as "Letter of Credit". Throughout the interview she kept repeating the same 3 terms - well it seemed like her scope and extent of knowledge were limited to those 3 which she kept using to flaunt and intimidate. I sincerely believe that despite not knowing what documents they are, I could pick them up quickly with on-the-job training. Just like you do not sack all your current employees and select new ones who know because the company has introduced a new system or platform. But apparently, they want something more.
Do companies really value inclusivity, or is it just something they flaunt and "pride themselves on" just so that they create a good image of themselves?
Yes, the company censored lest they sue me for libel. That day, the HR called to ask why I had been idle the past year. Because honesty is the best policy (my foot), I told her the reason but also informed that I am now in remission. To which, she stammered, "Oh...wow...hmm congratulations on that." Said to forward my resume to the hiring manager and I'll be notified if I'm shortlisted. They rejected me a few days later without an interview.
You might say that the rejection could be due to other reasons. But I think that for such a simple role with such simple requirements, were they seriously expecting first class honors, major competition winners, and multi-club presidents? Moreover, it was only a contract job. If were someone of such calibre, I would have been elsewhere earning at least 4k per month. Let me add that I had been in customer service before and communication is key, and I also consider myself someone who pays attention to details, which hiring managers wouldn't know if true or false, if they hadn't even granted the chance to meet me and understand me more as a person. Of course, this isn't the only company that probed about my inactivity. And there were others who only asked during the interview itself, and then their faces turned grim upon hearing the reason.
The society judges ex-convicts and is apprehensive about hiring them. That is why the Yellow Ribbon Project came about, isn't it? To integrate ex-convicts into society, to assimilate them into the workforce, to help prove their worth and change perceptions. I think I can actually understand the difficulties they face. Employers seem to shun me thinking I'm a ticking time bomb, threatening to collapse any minute then they have to clear up the mess and waste time and effort again to recruit another employee thereby taking a toll on productivity. Or they think cancer is a contagious disease that can spread after long-term contact with the affected? I don't know. Maybe there is a need for a Red Ribbon Project to help people like me. AML is not like AIDS which I can still try to prevent. It caught me totally off guard and was beyond my wildest dreams okay? Similarly, it can also happen to any being who is healthy at the moment.
I left some interviews feeling hopeful, but it looks like having a positive experience doesn't mean a positive outcome. You must have come across articles berating "millenials" for not being able to endure hardship or demanding benefits that are too high (e.g. salary). First and foremost, I do not like the term "millenials". Why did they have to coin a special term and put a label on us? That aside, I think those articles are one-sided and lack depth. Millenials have had enough of the spotlight, it is time to shed some on the employers instead. Read "Dear Employers, Don't Blame Millenials For Leaving Your Toxic Workplace" by Rice Media. Before you start mocking, yes I'm not even in the position to leave a workplace because there's none to begin with, but point is, the article raises some salient points about not always pushing blame to millenials because employers are also flawed in their own ways.
Indeed, there are jobs whose salaries are not commensurate with experience and expecting too much from fresh graduates. In another interview that I went to, the HR asked me if I knew the financial terms "A", "B" and "C". I said I did not, and I swear she must've thought "What a noob". The job wasn't really a financial job but merely one that does documentation work, so you prepare papers such as "Letter of Credit". Throughout the interview she kept repeating the same 3 terms - well it seemed like her scope and extent of knowledge were limited to those 3 which she kept using to flaunt and intimidate. I sincerely believe that despite not knowing what documents they are, I could pick them up quickly with on-the-job training. Just like you do not sack all your current employees and select new ones who know because the company has introduced a new system or platform. But apparently, they want something more.
Do companies really value inclusivity, or is it just something they flaunt and "pride themselves on" just so that they create a good image of themselves?
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