Maynilad Water Encounter

This job-hunting day seemed to be the most tiring of all that I had encountered. Well, physically, it was just ok but mentally, it was really straining.

The story goes like this..I was surprised yesterday when I received a text from the Maynilad Water. The HR invited me to come to their office and take the exam / interview. At first, I did not expect that my application would be given attention that sooner because it was like only the day before I received the text when I passed my resume at the UST Job Fair. It was also the least company that I thought would respond to my application since the engineering post that I was applying for requires mostly mechanical or chemical engineering graduates with license. But I didn't bother to ask those proctors in the job fair if they also hire ECE in that post and when they said yes, I just handed over my resume and registered.

The place to go is at the building of Maynilad in Balara, Quezon City. I have not gone to this place before so I was a bit clueless how to be there. Well, not really the whole area there because I had once gone there like a few years ago when I went to the campus of UP Diliman but I had no idea where the building of Maynilad is. All I knew then was that I had to be in Katipunan then ride another jeepney going there. Luckily, Marc and Christian were also texted which I wasn't surprised to know because we were together during the job fair so we planned to meet in Katipunan.

My whole day was spent in the building of Maynilad. I was there before the call time of 8:30am. The series of tests then followed.

First, a paper of 5-item essay-type questions was handed. The questions were just a simple getting-to-know-you type; regarding your views of this situation, something about your goals in life and more of opinion-based answers that just need a bit of wit to respond.

Then, an almost 100-item completing-the-phrase-type of test. The thing is, one must complete the broken sentence with the first idea that comes to mind regarding the phrase. I did find it funny because some phrases were trying to pry more on the personal matters of the examinee but I did answer them naturally. I don't know if this activity would help the HR to determine one's personality or they're just nosing around into someone's private life.

Finally, for the personality exam, an almost 200-item knowing-your-dominant-trait-type of test. Ha! When I was answering that test, I was like thinking do I really need to finish them all?! The questions were easy because it is a very opinionated set of questions but the thought of accomplishing a 200-item test made me a bit sleepy and tired at the middle of it.

But before most of the examinees have finished the last type of personality exam, the proctors decided to give us another set of exams and let us continue with that very long personality test after we had our break. Yep! It's indeed a whole day screening examination!

That time around, the series of tests handed one-after-the-other were all time pressured. Abstract Reasoning, Numeric Ability, English Language Proficiency, Speed and Accuracy, Mechanical Reasoning, Spatial Visualization Ability and finally the dreaded and very mental straining Reading Comprehension which includes drawing of conclusion, deduction, and others that I don't remember what to call but definitely a torture in the mind.

At the end of it all, I realized.. they were testing the IQ and EQ of the applicants. The position must be really that good..well, I guess.. But if they do expect only the best candidates to fill up the position then the tests must be really that relevant and I obviously didn't put my best foot forward but I'll see..

After the exams, it was then when the proctors let us fill out their application form. Those who finished their tasks ahead of the time allotted were queued in for the screening interview. Not all were interviewed, including me, because it was almost 4pm and the interviewer told us that he had to attend a meeting and expect a call from them next week. Then that was it. I thought it was the end of another tiresome job hunting day.