Bai bai cadetship this time round, probably
Apologies for the long absence from this blog. I’ve been pretty swamped in the past week with work as well as with studying for the West Australian cadetship test that I sat for this afternoon.
I didn’t want to mention it to too many people in case I jinxed my chances, but now that it’s over and done with, I don’t mind blogging about it.
Basically what happened was that a few months back I applied for the West Australian’s cadetship program, and I got a call to come in and sit the preliminary 3 hour test. There were roughly around 15 people in the room with me, although they might be testing more people on different days. And the aim of the test was to narrow the list down even further. Whoever makes it to the next stage then has to sit for an interview before landing the position.
And how did I reckon I do?
OMG. I suck. I COMPLETELY suck.
There were TWO questions asking us to name The West Australian’s editor, and my mind completely blanked out. I knew who it was! (It’s Brett McCarthy.) It was only two questions out of the entire paper, but I reckon knowing the name of your potential boss should rank quite highly, shouldn’t it?
Plus, I spent the whole weekend combing through all the papers, but the news questions all dated to the beginning of this year. This is when I am glad that my habit of perusing through my news feeds every morning has finally come in handy.
That and I completely blanked out when it came to the sports trivia questions. I wasn’t the only one, as one of the girls I spoke to also ran into that problem. Sports. Must be a non-girl thing.
Some of the people there were already quite experienced in the journalism field, with only a few candidates there being fresh out of uni. I was glad to at least have SOME experience on my belt there, or I would have felt completely out of my depth.
On the general reasoning questions, I reckon I did all right. There were a couple of math questions as well. Being Asian and being made to do lots of math as a kid, as well as handling money at my last job did help me sort through those questions quite fast.
When it came to the writing section, my papers got so messy. We were supposed to outline a potential article for part of that section, and I numbered my paragraphs and had arrows pointing in different directions because I discovered that I needed to rearrange my points. Well done, Char. The blank pieces of paper were there for a reason, although I had used up most of it with calculations and the working out of other problems.
I’m not very confident in making it through to the next stage, but if and when I apply for it the next time around, I’ll definitely be more prepared. And next time, I WILL know who the editor is right off the bat.
Until then, I won’t know for sure until I get the call sometime next week or the week after next informing me my test’s outcome…
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