There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Thursday, February 18, 2010

A station break for these important whatevers

The US Census is hiring, and there's a local temporary office in Painesville (Regional Office is Detroit). At one of the colleges Bette works at they'll be having a test tomorrow. So I called up and asked if they had any office jobs left open (the flyer implies that they do). Hemming and hawing proceeded. Of course, any position I would receive would be based on the results of the test they administer. Sure, fine, but I really don't want to be an enumerator (those are the people on the streets, knocking on doors). I did a canvasing job in college and I only lasted a few weeks. It's not something I wish to re-experience. But I'm good and numbers and statistics, and I do really well in an office setting. At the end of the call the person answering the phone (who had to ask if I, as a non-student, could take the test at Lakeland. Yes, I can, BTW) said I should make sure to take the sample exam so I'd be prepared.

Sample exam and actual test both have 28 questions. Both only allow 30 minutes to answer the questions. They suggest you set a timer for the sample test. Okay, so I set the stove timer for 30 minutes and dug into the sample test.

Am I bragging if I say it took me only 20 minutes, including the time to walk from the kitchen and get all the papers and a pencil ready, reshuffle the papers, get up and turn the timer off. What if I say I got 100%? Now would that be bragging?

3 comments:

Matt Hughes said...

That would be bragging. Rightfully earned bragging, but bragging :) Hope something comes of it for ya.

WendyB_09 said...

Uh-huh. Better watch it. Now with results like that they'll want you to be a superenumerator. Good luck on the test.

Job market is a bitch all over. I'm still working part-time for an attorney, but yesterday he got a huge pile of orders back from a judge on a case that went 98% our way. Yay US!!

Translation - judge put other side on notice they've got 30 days to get there act together b/c he's ready to set the trial date. AND will probably mean increased hours for me in the short term. Yay ME!!

Bonus!! I love doing trial prep!

Steve Buchheit said...

Matt, thanks. We'll see today and next week.

WendyB - I'll only do the superenumerator job if I get to wear a cape. And yeah, the job market is a bitch. One of the jobs that got reposted went from wanting an experienced employee (3-5+ years) to entry (no experience). The job description, however, didn't change.

And congrats on getting the majority of decisions going your way. And I hope it does translate into more hours for you. One of the things I've learned is it's easier to ignore someone who isn't there. When you are there, you tend to pick up more work just because you're there.