Day 2: Administrative Assistant for Manpower.

Today was hectic. Crazy from 6:30 this morning until 9:00 p.m. but I somehow managed to sit down long enough to apply for another job. This time it is with Manpower, which is a temp place here in the Springs. The job I applied for was that of an Administrative Assistant and the job description is as follows:

"Manpower is currently looking for a motivated administrative assistant for a christian faith based organisation in Colorado Springs. This is a full time (Mon-Fri,40 hr) temp to hire position. In this role you will answer phones, file, keep calendars, data entry and other duties assigned. Qualified candidates should have good phone etiquette and be comfortable in Excel and Word."

Off the bat, I notice that 'organization' is spelled wrong. I also like how they didn't capitalize "christian". Just saying......

Ok, so here goes, let us see if I am qualified for this job...

It is full time. That is fine by me. I need a full time job and I don't really have any obligations that are keeping me from working full time. My school work will probably suffer a little bit, but I think it will be a welcome break for all the other students in my class who want a little bit of relief from my facetiousness.

Answer phones. Wait a minute, what? What does that mean? Answer phones? I don't think I can do that. I mean, in this day and age, who the hell knows how to answer a phone? I wonder if they offer training for that. Seriously, if I get this job, I am going to make it a point to answer the phones with the microphone piece on my ear and the speaker piece near my mouth.

File. Now, this could have numerous meanings, as file is a noun. They probably meant to use the verb version of this word, which would be 'filing' but who am I to correct the grammar of someone who has a job? Now, I can't be particularly good at file; depending on what kind of pants I wear that day, I can hold up to MAYBE 20 documents and that is without resorting to taping it to my body, which at this point in my job search, I am willing to do.

Keep calendars. Now this I can do. I have numerous calendars at my house, some from even 3 years ago, so my skill at keeping calendars is apparent. Heck, I will keep as many calendars as they can give me if that means they will pay me to do so. However, I will under no circumstance keep any boy band or High School Musical calendars. Those will go straight in the trash.

Data Entry. The first requirement on this whole job description that actually has correct grammar and concise meaning. Now, I have had experience in Data Entry from the time I was 13 hacking into my mother's computer which ran DOS as an operating system. Will that matter though? I doubt it. I have over 10 years of experience in data entry posted on my resume. Here's hoping....

Other Duties Assigned. This could be anything and quite frankly, these kind of statements in a job description worry me. Other Duties Assigned could be "clean the toilets" or "fire the crazy guy down the hall". Usually when job posters include casuistical phrases such as these, it begs me to wonder what exactly it is that is so bad that it couldn't be described. Bad juju....bad juju.

Good Phone Etiquette. Pardon me, but wouldn't this be a repetitive qualification seeing how "Answer Phones" pretty much implied that you aren't going to answer the phones with the opening line, "What the fuck do you want?" Maybe it means that you will be required to not use the phone for 1-900 calls while you are working; or maybe you have to take the phone out to dinner before you do that.

Be comfortable in Excel and Word. Do I have to wear these programs? What does this mean? Maybe not freak out when I can't figure out a formula to set up a call log for customers based on their last known transaction or interaction with the company? Maybe it means that I shouldn't have long standing beef with the paperclip guy in Word. Either way, I have over 8 years of experience in either program and am pretty much beyond comfortable with the two. I'm so comfortable with them, as a matter or fact, that if we were able to be in a relationship, I would be going for third base.

So, considering that I can meet and exceed every single qualification described here in this description, I have a pretty good feeling that I can get this job. It pays 11-13.00 an hour and will start out as a temp position with the opportunity to move up to permanent. The only downside I see to this is the fact that it is a Christian based "organisation" and I could have a little conflict there if anyone tries to push their religion on to me or tell me I am going to hell because I am not pious.

But, other than that, it seems like a sure-shot, right?

We'll see.....