A work experience
Posted By Luana on June 13, 2011
Last week I went to a job interview. A door and windows manufacturer in my town was looking for a young computer geek to hire as a company website manager – a webmaster, to say it bluntly. I was so happy for the chance to work in Genzano that I emailed the company immediately, through the contact they left on the online ad I was viewing (yes, I spotted the job offer online, and I have to thank my mom for that). I asked for further information, regarding the job itself, what would be expected of me, what qualifications they required, etc. Someone replied back saying that I needed to go on site for an interview to learn more about it. They gave me the phone number of a secretary I had to contact to get information about the interview and the job, and I felt really excited as I noted it down. After all, that would have been my very first contract job, wouldn’t it? 
The secretary that picked up the call wasn’t the one I was looking for, but she told me to call again the day after, as she would be available.
The morning of the following day, I phoned up the company and the woman I was looking for picked the call, finally. I asked her information about the job, but she said she was not able to give me the right answer, and that it would be better if I talked to the direct responsible. I fixed a date for the interview on Friday 10th at 10:30 AM, and then, right after ending the call, I began exploring the company’s site: apparently done in Joomla!, the site looked pretty good overall, but I knew nothing about Joomla! as a CMS; therefore, I installed it on a subdomain of my site and began playing with it, to figure out how it works. Well, the learning curve with Joomla! is a lot slower than with WordPress… WP is so easy compared to it!
On Friday, I went to this interview. I met and shook hands with the secretary – a truly nice person! – and then went to see what this job was about. Unfortunately, I did not have the right requirements: besides my scarce knowledge with Joomla!, their ideal candidate needed to have previous experiences with company websites… and all I had was 5 years of ‘personal’ experience. Yes, I have done and maintained websites on commission in the past, but they weren’t company websites anyway. Regarding Joomla!, I told them I would only need a few days to get used to it, but the past company website experience factor was a must for them, so I simply thanked them for their time and waved goodbye.
They were very kind and honest, so I have nothing to complain about that… but they would have spared me and themselves precious time if they had inserted the requirements right on the ad, or had told me by email or phone.
Next time I see a general job offer like that, I will hire a resume service and then give them my resume. Perhaps that would help avoiding time waste. Oh, if you don’t know what a resume is, that’s a written page stating your skills and competences (but your weaknesses and personality as well), presenting them in a professionally written argumentation that’s potentially pleasurable on an employer’s eyes.
Now, I wonder where I could start working to build my first working experience… Everyone keeps on asking for past experiences, but if no company gives young people a chance to start working, how can they possibly build their years of experience requested elsewhere?! I know it’s not just Italy, but employers should give more space to first-time workers, especially young ones. I’d be open to internship and apprenticeship as well, if only given the possibility…
About the author
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Hi! My name is Luana. I'm a 26 years old Italian girl living in a province of Rome.
I'm engaged to my one and only soulmate Simone (and married to a Transformer, 
It’s too bad you couldn’t get the job!
Obviously, I’m not going to be dealing with jobs for quite a while, being only 15, so I don’t really know how hard it is to get a job that doesn’t require past experiences, but it must be frustrating. If all of the companies are asking for past company experience, where are you even going to get it?
I hope I can eventually earn a living web designing, but for now I’m just doing favors for friends.
One day I should try figuring out Joomla! All I know is WordPress!
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Luana Reply:
June 14th, 2011 at 11:20 am
@Clarisse, I wish you the best of luck and success with your future web designing company. *hugs* You’re young, so there’s no need to worry about that now, but the world is truly unkind to young people willing to work earnestly and gain experiences; I hope it will be a better world when it’s your turn to find a job, in some years. ^_^ I envy those people who get internships and stages… they certainly build up experiences for the future; even though they’re not being paid cash, they’re being paid opportunities to find a good job later on.
My hope is to find a company that accepts interns, to start building my package of past experiences. ^_^
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Well that sounds exciting! I guess job interviews can be nerve-racking sometimes, and that would see like a good job for you to take.
Ugh, and waiting must have been horrible, I would’ve gone crazy. I’ve always wanted tot try using Joomla, and Drupal and everything but I’m already use to WordPress and I love it, haha. Well just to I guess get experience with it.
Aw, and that sucks. That’s what I’m scared about when I go and get a job, like when I’m older enough to get a summer job because I always see they’re always looking for experience or something, but you gotta start out somewhere, right? And that sucks.
I totally agree with you on that one!
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My sweet love, this experience will be very useful for you in your life. It’s one of the steps you’re doing for your own growth, and I’m proud of you for handling that in such a wonderful manner. Those people only want the “best”, but they can’t find it if they’re anchored to an idea and not to reality.
I know you’ll find the best work in the whole world, because you have all the skills to succeed. And because, of course, YOU’re the best.
I love you <3
PS: IMHO, Joomla! is harder at the beginning compared with WordPress. The former is more tailored to web designers who want to make sites, so it has more options to deal with; the latter is simply perfect for weblogs. Not that WordPress can be extended to handle everything, it’s only a matter of choice (and hacks
). ^^
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[...] with a different, more difficult to use CMS – Joomla! – for my attempt at a first working experience, which failed alas. I have Joomla! installed on sonyqrio.luanasworld.it, an old subdomain of mine I [...]