Last Updated on: 31st March 2014, 01:07 pm
I always knew that anything to do with the government was full of redundancies and other unnecessary crap. But I had the point driven home this week.
I decided to join this Young Canada Works thing and see about finding an internship through there. I was filling out their 12-step aplication and it was making sense, until it got to the place where I was supposed to list my qualifications. This was the list of qualifications that I was supposed to look through, select 3 that I felt needed work and 5 that I was good at. I’ll comment in between *’s.
Adaptable
Analyzing
Assertive/Persuasive
Assessing/Evaluating
Coordinating
Conceptualizing
Creative /Innovative
Decision Making
Dynamic
*what the hell does that even mean?*
Flexible
*isn’t that being adaptable?*
Goal-Oriented
*wouldn’t that be part of coordinating?*
Initiating
Interpersonal Skills
Interpretative Skills
*wouldn’t that be called analyzing?*
Leadership
*wouldn’t that fall under initiating? You can’t very well lead without initiating something, and if you’re initiating something, aren’t you, um, leading?*
Learning
Listening
*um, isn’t listening part of interpersonal skills?*
Negotiating
*I would assume that you wouldn’t make a very good negotiator if you weren’t assertive or persuasive.*
Observant
Organized
Planning
*um, planning? coordinating? Goal-oriented? Aren’t they pretty much the same thing?*
Problem Solving
Public Speaking
Reading
Resourceful
*I guess it’s a little bit different than being adaptable, but aren’t they kind of in the same camp?*
Self-Motivating
Service-Oriented
Supervising
Teamwork
Time Management
*isn’t that part of being organized?*
Understanding
*if interpersonal skills aren’t listening and understanding, then what are they?*
Writing Skills
Other
Ug. And I was supposed to pick 3 that I felt needed work and pick five that I believed to be my strengths. When there’s so much repetition and overlap, how do you do that?
It asked you to talk about all kinds of things that I never thought belonged on a resume. It asked to talk about your intrests, achievements, leisure and travel! I understand the first two, but leisure and travel? What boss is going to care about the trips you took with your family?
Then, at the end, when I got to the employment equity section, I got another surprise. Having a disability wasn’t on the list of minority groups of which you could be a member. I didn’t know how to feel about that. I don’t want a pity job, but I don’t want an employer to run away screaming once they find out I’m blind, which some do. I was surprised that in a government program, that wasn’t even mentioned.
All I could think was, yup, you can tell this was put together by the government. There’s all kinds of extra stuff you don’t need, and not enough of the stuff you do need.