You may have been attacked by the Clearing recruiters on
campus lately just when you thought it was safe to settle down to a lovely meal
in the café or a stroll on the lawn.
When I applied to join the Clearing team two years ago, mine
was one of 600 applications. Luckily no
one told me until after I got the job or I would have given up any hope of
being considered!
At the interview I was asked a few questions about working
in a team, working under pressure and being reliable. I wondered if running a midwifery practice as
a single parent on call for home births and dealing with emergencies on a fairly regular basis while
juggling quite an erratic lifestyle was
sufficient. We then had skills testing
where we had to do data entry, sort a list of names into alphabetical order and
then do a phone test. My hair kept
flopping in my eyes during the data entry making me so much slower than the
person sitting next to me, then the sorting into alphabetical order seemed okay
but when it got to the phone test any sense of calm just flew out the
window. We were given the prospectus to
look through and then told that we would be phoned up and asked questions about
the courses in them. I was sure I had
done everything wrong and convinced myself I had failed so it was quite a
surprise to receive the acceptance letter.
I attended the three day training in August and by the end
of it I felt that my head was bursting with information.
The first person I
met on the course was Nicola and we have both now worked together for two Clearings
and we often meet up for lunch on the days we work in the Enquiry Unit together.
Everyone is allocated to a team with a leader and the
newbies all have special buddies to help and support them. These ‘buddies’ are fellow students who have
already worked at least one, often two Clearings and are invaluable to the
whole team. As the weeks progress, the
members of each team became closer and closer and a fierce rivalry develops. It
is very hard work and we are trained to always respond courteously no matter
what mood the caller is in.
The phones ring
constantly with anxious callers worrying about finding a place at university or
the progress of their applications so working closely together with team mates
is vital. In between all that hard work,
we do have lots of fun and a sense of humour helps tremendously. It all
culminates in our Theme Your Team event where, in between calls and during our
breaks we decorate our team bay ready for judging on the last day. Our team came second last year with our
Twister Party theme. You can read all
about it and check out the pics in my August September 2011 blogs. Here is a
reminder:
Team
Uzma:
 |
| Our Clearing 2011 Early Clearing team |
Twister Party theme
The winners: Pac man theme
The recruitment drive is for the main clearing period
starting 13 August and ending 7 September. During A Level week there is
overtime available especially on A Level Results Day when the phones are going
from 8am until 10 pm. We oldies will be
working in early clearing from June and late clearing closes at the end of
September.
This work has been so welcome to help pay the bills and my
tuition fees. I have also learnt a lot. I had been self employed most of my working
life so it was quite strange to be employed and working as a team in an
office. I enjoy the interaction with the
staff and my fellow students and, having grown up with quill pens and being chased
by sabre tooth tigers, find myself on the receiving end of much hilarity in the
office when I discover a new amazing thing about computers that is second
nature to the younger ones. My latest
was finding out what the print screen button was for. The ‘reference’ tool in word that Katrina
taught me was almost life changing whilst learning about the tab key increased
my data entry timing from stone-age-slow to almost bronze-age-meandering pace.
 |
| That weird button I have been ignoring for so long |
…so you see working in Clearing that first summer not only
left me with money in my pocket but helped me acquire loads of new skills and led onto two years of
regular part-time work that I could fit in around my studies.
No comments:
Post a Comment