Assigned A Seetec JobPath Adviser

My first meeting with my JobPath adviser took place on the same day as the group session. I was assigned a female adviser. My JobPath adviser came to the reception to greet me and shook my hand and welcomed me to the tower of misery where I was to spend the next 52 weeks to suffer this terrible fate along with all the other poor souls who were also here today and no doubt just as happy as I was to be here.

We walked over to my job advisers office, now when I say office its really not a office but in fact just a work cubicle in the middle of a large room with another work cubicle about 10 foot away and 15 computers where the jobseekers look up their jobs which are placed to the right sides of these work cubicles and to the bottom of the room.

The photo below is just like the cubicles that are inside the People1st building in Letterkenny where the job advisers sit and where you have to talk to them.

This one to one meeting was to take place here in this open space cubicle where others could see and hear you talking, so no privacy what so ever from prying eyes or ears. Now my job adviser asked me to confirm my PPS number and date of birth as well as other personal information and as I already mentioned in my last post anyone who was near could hear everything I said as could the other jobseekers who were using the computers to look up jobs right beside me and I could see and hear the other adviser asking personal questions to a girl who was less than 20 feet away from me as well as the other adviser right next to me who was talking to a woman not more than three feet away and I could hear everything she said and whatever question he asked her, so not one bit of privacy at all and I again ask the question how can this be a confidential service when everything is talked about in public and not in a private room?

When my job adviser was finished asking for my PPS number I was then moved to one of the computers that was less than two feet away from me that some of the jobseekers were on looking up jobs. My adviser then set up an online skills assessment survey that I had to complete. I will tell you what it is, it is a Likert scale which is a psychometric scale that is a psychological measurement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert_scale

This involved multiple choice questions and you ticked one of the boxes that said, strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree before moving onto the next question, there were about five questions per page and after you answered the questions on the page you were on you clicked save before then clicking next and moving onto the next set of questions. The survey is only about 5 minutes long and there is about 20 questions.

One of the other job advisers told another jobseeker, "There is no right or wrong answer"

I just clicked this box and that box as its all a load of nonsense anyway. They tell you its to find out your list of strengths and weaknesses but how can that be when anyone can choose whatever answer they like. You could click strongly agree on everything or you could click agree on everything or you could click disagree on everything or you could mix it up a bit and click, agree, strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, agree, etc. Yet this Likert psychometric scale is meant to know your strengths and weaknesses?  What Likert scales are really used for are to collect data and they are often used in commercial market research!

After I had finished my survey I was then invited back to my advisers desk and with one step I was back in the chair beside her and I mean only one step that is how close these computers are that the jobseekers have to use, and of course I will have to use them next week for jobseeking so I will then be one of those computer jobseeker users and I too would be able to listen to any conversation that takes place between other jobseekers and their advisers as there is no privacy and its not all that big of a room.

My adviser then asked me what I wanted to work at and all the usual stuff that anyone who has been unemployed will have been asked at one stage or another so its the same questions all over just a different person asking them.

Once she was done asking me about all I wanted to work at and that she asked to see my C.V. and had a look at it, now even though she couldn't find fault with it she still insisted on putting me on a C.V. course just like I had predicted on my previous post last week. Before I left she made me an appointment see her again as well as putting me on the C.V. course in September which I will write about here.

I told her I had already done C.V. courses, her reply, "You might learn something new." Somehow I very much doubt I will learn anything new, as a matter of fact I know I will learn nothing new, why you ask, simple, I have done it all before thats why.

I was annoyed that I would have to do another C.V course as I had done C.V. courses on the Jobclub as well as the Pathways To Employment and both of these courses covered typing up C.V.'s doing mock interviews and watching videos of people doing interviews, doing covers letters, getting the local newspaper and looking at the jobs sections and writing up a letter and replying to a job that is advertised, learning what to say in a interview, learning what not to say in a interview, learning what to wear in a interview, learning what not to wear in a interview, and all the other things that are covered on these courses I have done more than once, I have even done a day long interview skills course which covered all of the above, now I have to sit and do it all over again.

After she had typed up my review she then digitally signed her initials on my review on her computer and I had to do the same by moving the computer mouse and signing my initials on screen after which she then printed out my review and handed me a copy to take with me and also gave me her card with her name and number on it and the time and date for my next review. We said our goodbyes and I left.