Round one of Swish Lish versus the Recruiters has begun.

As part of my plan to do 6 months of travelling, I have to stay at home and earn lots of money first. Given I only have 3 months till I leave, I figured that temp work was probably the easiest to acquire and hold on to, since most proper jobs won't want me for just 3 months. And I don't feel like saying how devoted I'd be to the position only to run away on a long trip when the time for my trip arrives. I think they might get suspicious that it's been in the works for a while and I'd neglected to tell them.

In any case, I've sent off my resume to 5 or 6 recruitment agencies, and now the waiting game has begun. They were sent off around 10-11 am yesterday morning. The first one to call me back did so last night at about 6:30 pm. It's only 10 am now, but I've already been to an interview with her this morning. She seems quite nice and reasonable.... and dear god she talks fast. But there's an air of knowledge and experience about her that I like. It's funny, actually, how recently I've been dealing with various customer service people and the ones I like turn out invariably to be either team leaders or directors, like Naomi (the recruiter from the interview this morning) is. It's happened 4 times now. Usually with travel agents, actually. You can really tell if they know their stuff.
Naomi only really had one position for me to consider, but as much as I enjoy doing reception casually, working at a switchboard with 10 lines and 80 extensions doesn't really sound like that much fun. Particularly not when it's full-on work and you barely have a moment to yourself all day. Which is how she described it. Part of me is quite glad she figured I was a bit too green for the role. And I think I'm worth more than $18-$19/hr.

Coming second on the recruiters' side is Jay from an agency in North Sydney. I've just received a call from him and I have a second interview for today booked at 3 pm. It sounds as though he has a number of positions he can put me into, which would be nice from the perspective of having a choice.

I guess I'll see how the interview goes.

Speaking of interviews, it's funny just how nervous I wasn't this morning. It's like my brain decided that 'eh, it's just a recruiter, who cares what they think?' and I wasn't nervous at all.
I rocked up to their office at 8:30 or slightly before, and was greeted by an empty front desk and a sign asking me to dial extension 100 for assistance. Was this a test, I wondered. Usually, if you're arriving for a planned interview, there's someone there to greet you. There appeared to be no one in the office at all - I could have nicked off with a whole lounge suite if I'd felt like it... and if it'd fit into the teeny weeny lift. :)
I called out to see if any one was there, but was answered only by my own echoes. Strange. So I picked up the phone and dialled the extension as requested and within minutes Naomi was by my side.
The various cubicle/offices in this office all had funny names, too. We went into the Hillary room, right next to Einstein. I wonder if there's some symbolic meaning behind which room people are taken into... aside from which one is both available and closest.

It must be my psychologist brain doing funky analytical things, but there were a few things I thought of on the train home. It looks as though a lot of what a recruiter has to rely on is her own gut feeling. They have to make snap decisions, and a lot of them. That'd probably get very stressful, but if you had a knack for judging character, you'd most likely be very successful. I have to marvel at the time and effort these people put in, too. Apparently, Naomi was talking to a client around 8 pm last night regarding the position she was thinking she would put me into, but said she'd be in the office from 7:30 this morning. That's a bloody long day. And if she's going a mile-a-minute all day long like she was with me during this morning's interview, then wow, she must get through a lot of stuff. No wonder she's the director. And I wonder how addicted she is to coffee and cigarettes.

The other thing that came to mind was me analysing my own behaviour. I didn't feel even remotely nervous this morning, but I must have felt out of my depth because looking at where I sat in the Hillary room, I went for by far the least intimidating seat. The room had only a small round table in the middle, surrounded by 3 chairs; two of these were on the side of the room with the door, the other was towards the back wall. I sat in one of the chairs on the door side of the room, but not the one with its back facing the doorway. My back was facing a side wall. In retrospect, it's by far the safest seat in the room. Easy access to the door (ie, no table blocking the way), but also little chance of someone sneaking up behind me. It's funny how defensive you can be even when you don't realise it.