Career Change
by Chris Storn
I loved my
time working on the pig farms when I was a boy. I
always knew it was also going to help me in my
future career as a vet; but it was not to be, and
instead I am now a civil servant of 12 years, but
that’s another story.
It’s fair
to say that I was naïve back then and, perhaps,
also gullible. I ended up with an array of
agricultural qualifications and experiences
through the roles I had over those heady years
and never did I think they would come back to
haunt me. But whilst being interviewed for my
first job in the civil service, I became aware of
a few of things that have helped me
‘present’ my experiences in the porcine
field (no pun intended) more carefully in more
recent times:
1: My final
agricultural role was working for a company who
sent me to various pig units nationally to cover
staff holidays and shortfalls. Apparently I need
to be more aware when telling people the job
title given to this role was “Pig Relief
Specialist”.
2: It seems my
certificate confirming my attendance on the
course “On-Farm Collection and Processing of
Semen” doesn’t carry the weight I had
anticipated. I’ve even tried to explain that
it was purely voyeuristic too, but that only made
things worse. Perhaps it’s just because my
name is spelt incorrectly on the certificate?
3: My main
specialism was in artificial insemination, so I
told them that I used to get sows pregnant and
that, as a consequence, I have lost count of how
many new lives I have brought into this world.
Their reaction to this was certainly not as I had
hoped, but I just don’t know how else to
explain it. To avoid any similar reactions in
future, I tend to keep this to myself and avoid
harping on about it too much.
4: It beggars
belief, but I now know that my daily walk through
each paddock amongst the pigs to check their
health does not count as experience of
‘stakeholder management’.
5: When asked
about my ability to work un-supervised, I thought
a great example would be when I fed the pigs each
morning. This involved filling a special trailer
with their feed (pig nuts) and then operating the
trailer so that it blew the correct amount into
each paddock. So “I accurately shot pig nuts
every morning to maintain appropriate livestock
weight”.
Needless to
say, I got the job.
|
