The first one was for another fake hedge fund research company.  These seem to be springing up at quite a rate of knots at the moment.

I had previously obtained a position with a company who gave me a lovely looking contract, only for the one for signing to be entirely different.

5k a month sounds good doesn’t it? 3k basic plus bonus?

The reality was a hard head hunting job finding experts willing to talk for what to them would be the miniscule fee of 2k for an hour for the princely sum of commission for me of only £80.  This would require two a day to be obtained to be a worthwhile endeavour, and since I have done a similar job, globally for 13 an hour in the past and know how difficult it was, I can tell you you would not get your 2 a day very often, so I declined. Let the poor/rich graduates of London put this on their CV.  I cannot afford it. I get 30 an hour for research work, for good reason. I do four times the work for three and a half times the pay, which is at last somewhat reasonable. I am not, unfortunately full time doing this, open to offers if anyone needs someone with a spectacular success rate of engaging people on the phone.

Anyway, this one was offering about 30-50k, sounded promising, the interview went unusually well, although the company is new and wanted me to take it on part time.  As I am currently full time and unusually happy I was wary unless this offered hours in the USA which I could do alongside it.  In this line of work, this is perfectly reasonable but the dude would not commit. As I am well used to the fake interview process now, I was not inclined to rush into it.

Next thing I know, I am getting requests for me to review his company.  So this is why the interview went well.  He isn’t offering a job at all.  He is getting reviews for his new equity research company.  I have not reviewed it, instead I sent him an email requesting his proposed part time hours. He did not reply, and I got a reminder to review his company this morning

The next one was a company who sell drama based courses on the topic of diversity.  Two gay men interviewed me for this one.  I wrote an 8 minute speech for a ten minute presentation, unfortunately, and they were not the most flexible of people.  They announced that they would be timing me before I delivered.  As sales is not really my thing, I did not expect to get this interview in the first place, so I was not harbouring high hopes.

When the managerial one asked me about my experience of diversity his face formed this disapproving insincere mask.  I explained that one major bank, whose exams i have been acing for several decades, had cocked up three interviews with me on different grounds each time, to the point that I eventually told them to ‘fuck off.’

“We’re all mothers here.” was the most insulting one, after asking me extensive questions about my writing and art.

I get this a lot from fintech companies, they are astonished that anyone has a life outside their dry, dry job.  It makes you clam up, essentially, because you are regarded as too colourful.

Anyway, having explained this and the experience of walking in and seeing the people these companies hire instead – often spotty 15 year old golfers who resemble my dishonest, corrupt and lazy brother, I established that yes, I do have quite a bit experience of being discriminated against.

What I should probably have said was “well, at one point my ex was a Nazi Ukrainian, my best friend was a male, fascist criminal North African Muslim with ASPD and I was in love with a Hindu that hates me and cost me my job for sport, is that diverse enough?”

Which is perfectly true, but I imagine their little heads would pop off.

Now I have good reason to detest ‘woke’ people as much as I detest people who refer to them as ‘snowflakes.’  There is as much latent and overt racism on both sides, but do I particularly want to spend my time selling to them? Probably not.

He offered me some feedback after the interview.  I declined.

Apart from that, nearly bought a dog this week, on the grounds that men are pointless and I would like to go out without worrying now and again, but the house and cats come first, so not quite at the peak of achievement that would be spending two hours a day walking yet. Not feeling very motivated generally as a result of timewasting pish like this.

That’s how things are going.

Ina