Working on trial

Water Cooler Careers
#1

I am currently looking for a job. Recruiters tell me the market is brightening up but I can not honestly confirm that.

I have some years of decent experience but I feel like nobody out of nowhere at times. Every tiny-tiny shop seems to have defined its candidate requirements down to the molecular level and it feels like they have all the time in the world.

So far I got an offer to work a few weeks on trial. It is a sort of a staggered proposition whereby I may - in the end - receive an offer.

Have a mixture of feelings about that. On one hand, showing what I can do over interviewing endless rounds is a plus. But, on the other hand, I am a little bit nervous.

It is a decent place, they will pay for this period and, yes, I would kill for the job there. I can do the job. But what makes me nervous are all those factors which are hard to predict in advance - these weeks will definitely put my job search on hold which is worth it if everything goes well.

Has anyone done similar experience?

Feel like Will Smith pursuing his internship except that I am not in Hollywood.

I am certainly glad and grateful bit a little bit freaking out too.

#2

Why not, worst thing that can happen is you don’t get it after a few weeks and you can look for something else. And why can’t you do parallel job searches, most of my friends in banking were able to do interviews while working FT and their schedules are much more demanding.

#3

The company told me it could be extremely intense. But, again, we will see. Sometimes it is wiser to focus on one thing.

I am so curious if anyone has done something like that?

#4

There’s no reason not to, really. It sounds like you’re not working at the moment, so you might as well take the shot. You can still manage to look for other jobs at the same time.

I did basically the same thing after I graduated. I took a two-week ‘trial’ because I figured “why not?” and they handed me an offer by the end of my first week.

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

#5

Yeah do it

#6

Thanks. I have already given my word and I will do it. The company seems to be a solid place run by people responsible for their words. It is not an easy money option but I want to do it.

There is a one complicating factor though and I would like your advice on how to handle it. Quite recently I had an interview which went quite well. However, I told them the situation and asked them to schedule the next round before my trial experience starts. And they are funnily scheduling it… to interfere with my trial. There is no option to take this meeting unnoticeable as I would need to travel to another part of the country to meet the rest of the team. Risking the trial experience is not an option for me - I am pretty sure it is a no go for the counterparty as well. About this new company: the person I met was very knowledgeable, but they are definitely less solid than option number 1 on all fronts, including pay.

How would you approach this tricky situation?

#7

Why can’t they reschedule it based on your current situation?

#8

Well maybe they can. Depends on their willingness to wait.

#9

I’d say the key here is to commit to one or the other. Don’t ask for time off from the first to interview with the second, that’ll look bad and could doom your chances to get that offer.

There’s nothing wrong with being honest to the second company about scheduling issues. If they want you, they’ll work around your schedule. And knowing that you’re a hard worker who’s willing to meet after hours for the first interview will only make you a more attractive candidate in their eyes.

#10

Huskie87, totally agree with you, I am not playing with my reputation.

#11

The funny thing is that I got 2 more invitations from companies who suddenly can not wait to see me. One HR person has angrily told me it was dead urgent -funnily it took them over a month… to make that call. I am not sure if I should laugh or cry about this situation.

#12

Maybe their top candidate dropped out and you are next on the list. Anyway congrats looks like you are a hot commodity.

#13

klaudine, sadly I can not attend to either unless they are prepared to wait - long distance. I wish I knew for sure that it is worth it.

#14

del

#15

How has everything worked out so far?

#16

The firm is very different to what has been told to me in an interview.

First, it is 3 times smaller. I made an educated guess in an interview, the interviewer confirmed it. The size is important to me for legal reasons (job security). I lost interviews with what I thought to be smaller firms for this “larger”, “less risky” operation.

Second, the closed-door-policy. You arrive, you go to your room, you maybe utter a few words over work with a colleague but that is it. It is incredibly odd. I saw intern working long hours on an assignment due asap to discover that the person who gave the assignment has long gone. No one introduced me in advance, I went from person to person introducing myself. The person who is supposed to monitor me is extremely busy, so the assignments are replicas of the work already done/ being done by someone in the firm. The strange thing is that he knows nothing about me - and does not seem interested to even ask about my vita. Some assignments like basic clerical work make me furious about losing interviews (of course, I smile!) More interesting assignments require time and I always keep hearing that analyst X has guessed the numbers (yes, educated guesses are the thing here) in a more exact way (even before I reveal my guesses). The most outrageous thing is that this analyst has N times less experience than me, let along never heard of CFA exams and works on basis of valuation models where cost of capital is ONE number (no calculus!). Of course, such model can be pretty exact, you can twist it the way you are told! That very analyst kept complaining to me about the company not investing anything in research databases, uses bits and pieces of recognisable financial models without bothering to remove the tags and brags about having made them himself - out of the sudden, in the best American English! Yet he is my supervisor’s favourite and that is it!

A few days ago the supervisor decided to read one of my assignments, well, the paper was read with marks, none on the content, he made every bit of attention to really silly issues like a missing article or maybe punctuation sign, to emphasise that I am not a native speaker. Yes, true, but it has never been an issue in this country. Funnily, I saw the document compiled by that very analyst. Very superfluous research and total lack of interest in the subject of his research.

I am trying as hard as I can to stay positive, to talk to people, to discuss interim progress with my supervisor. I am continuously offering him to have a look at my models, for which, naturally, he never has time.

All in all, I am not welcome there. Besides, for a person with experience like myself the whole issue of trial work is humiliating and degrading. I will never do it again, even for an hour, that is for sure.

#17

On the bright side, you can leave after the trial period is up, right? The trial period goes both ways and two weeks isn’t something that needs to be included on a resume since you were job searching beforehand as well.

The other good news is that you didn’t leave a job to take this trial period.

Sucks to hear about your experience with the company, hopefully you find a good spot soon! Good luck.

#18

Well, the workload is very-very solid so as to eliminate the jobsearch.

I had a brief in-between feedback with the MD and I got grilled on one question - as to what I am going to do about my communication. The team members are predominantly introverts, and not great communicators, he told me. I asked him as to what is his problem exactly then, I still do not quite understand this communication moment he keeps emphasizing. I was told that they had some bad experience with foreigners, their clients do not like them, where is the tolerance limit for non-native speaker.

I told him that I will stay foreigner for the rest of my life and I will always make some mistakes of minor kind, they should leverage on my other skills which are plenty, the team members should be complementary. I work for senior executives all my life, was told multiple times that I barely have accent, speak and write like a native from a foreign diaspora, in fact I spent some time representing the interests of this country abroad. The MD told me that he is honest and the others did not tell me the truth (LOL). I responded that we probably should seek the opinion of the third party with a know-how in linguistics and with a plan upon how long the polishing phase can take.

BTW, the firm has some workers of exotic background who barely speak any language but their own, to cold call the relevant markets, and here they somehow do not care for their clean racial policy.

And here comes the thing with the small size: these small companies are totally free of any legal compliance in this country. I am no planning anything, but they may act the way they like. One guy told me that the turnover is mad, especially among young people.

#19

Are you working in Japan? This cultural issue keeps coming up. Where are you from? You haven’t provided any of the details here so no one knows what kind of culture they’re dealing with.

#20

It is a country in Western Europe.