Interview please - Thanks but No Thanks

Last week I was just surfing the net when I found Niniane Wang's blog (She was one of the pioneers of the Google’s Desktop Search). I remember that she had mentioned an interview where an interviewee accidentally dropped a soft drink can; the can exploded :) … She had commented this can be the possible worst situation. However what just happened with me is not less in any way.

This was not my first interview. My first interview was at Gulf Oil. There I met a few very nice people who advised me to remain true to my field. I currently have an offer to work for AlTuwairqi; however I have decided not to accept it due to some factors. A nice friend of my father gave a reference of his friend at Eram Engineering. His friend Mr. Saifudeen was even nice enough to forward my Resume’ to his manager and himself arranged for a date to meet his mgr. I really thank Mr. Hussein and Saifudeen because they tried to help me in good spirit but what happened was not their fault at all. It was the carelessness of the stupid managers over there!

I went to meet the manager on Thursday morning. He asked me that whether I would feel comfortable to work at Jubail and asked some other general questions as well. Then he said the actual interview would be held by client on Saturday. He told me that your post would of a technical secretary! I said “Sorry!” He said “Technical Secretary”. I told him I was a computer systems engineer and further I am SAP certified developer consultant. Why would I work as a technical secretary? I then later on asked him again whether they even had SAP XI systems or were planning to install one. He said “Yes”. I said I would be there on Saturday morning at 7.30. When I came out of the manager room I told Mr. Saifudeen about the confusion about Technical Secretary term. He said may be they have some SAP expert who needs some help from a junior SAP consultant and It could easily mean a Technical Advisor. So I went back to my place but I was still confused.

Now today, Saturday morning had arrived which I was thinking about. I slept only 4.5 hrs at night. I slept pretty late at night and then couldn’t sleep immediately after Fajr. However I did manage to somehow reach Eram Engineering office in Al Khobar at 7.35 (abt 5 mins late J O come on we in East don’t talk abt being On time; we talk abt being In time). I had to wait for the manager who arrived at 8.15. Then at about 8.30 we left for Jubail Branch of Eram Engineering where the client was supposed to be present. The car was simply superb, it Air conditioner WASN’T working. That is an absolutely killer in Saudi Arabian Summers. Jubail is about 100+ km away from the Al Khobar. And as they all come together so Unfortunately today was the hottest day since I have arrived in KSA. The driver was a man who was not aware of the driving style in KSA. He was an Indian new over here. He didn’t know that the only place you show rush in Arab countries is on the Road. When I complained, he said that his motto was “Safety First”. Well @ about 10.10 we reached their Jubail branch. When I arrived there, I could even feel my coat being wet from my sweat! We enter the office, I meet a guy and he tells me that "Ah one minute, I will call you". FORTY FIVE minutes passed at my wrist clock but his one minute… I couldn’t stand it any longer and I stood up and went into his office. He saw me coming and obviously that look on my face must have told him what I was feeling like, so he said Come in please!!! So the process of starting an interview has taken from about 7.30 to 11.00.
Warning: SPOILER follows

He asked me what sort of a job was I looking for. I thought this was a just another HR sort of a question which I have to answer displaying my devotion and passion to work! Oh Now I will never read those articles on the Internet that tell us how to attend job interviews. This is Mideast and this is not West. However when he said “I haven’t read your Resume' ; I just checked it out that you are quite technical person; Would you like to do CLERICAL Work; We have a few jobs they all involve SAP systems; you will have receive and gather invoices” and I was like WHAT THE F***. His stupid excuse was that I didn’t read your resume' actually. I said I also asked the mgr at Al Khobar branch twice whether they had SAP systems. And he replies “No No, they have SAP systems but the jobs are of clerical nature”. Well what could I say then? He was very nice enough to say that he would contact IT Dept. of some companies and let me know in case there are any vacancies! Then I had to wait for another hour since the driver had gone somewhere. We left Jubail at 12.00 and then they picked up some other person which wasted further one hour. At last I reached Al Khobar back at 3!

I was sort of shocked after all this since none of them said Sorry even once!!! I had to travel in a car going at a snail’s pace without air conditioner for about 5 hrs. They called me there but they were so busy that they had not even read my resume'. They wasted my entire day and not even a single f***ing apology. What I learnt from all this “NEVER go for an interview in a company which has an Indian management because they really don’t know anything”